Customer research call guide

Churn Interviews: Recruit Plan and Guide

What the data already tells us

• The cancel form inflates "Too expensive." It is pre-selected, so we can't tell real price objections from people clicking through. Most cancellers left it on that answer.
• Most cancellers had stopped cooking before they left. Many cooked 0–2 recipes in their last four weeks and skipped several deliveries. Their free text points to fit, not price: "kept piling up in the fridge," "too much food for two," "didn't have time to cook." The comparison stat agrees: 81% of retained subscribers cooked 3+ recipes a week in month one, versus 34% of cancellers. That's a correlation, but it suggests a fourth hypothesis none of the execs named: the kit never became a habit.
• "Delivery problems" cancellers look different. Every one of them cooked 3+ recipes in their last four weeks, and several left within weeks 2–3. These are engaged customers we lost to an ops failure.
• Free text often contradicts the selected reason. For example, "Moving / travelling" sits next to "cheaper at the supermarket."

Six calls can't tell us how many people leave for each reason; the data does that. The calls are for understanding how people decide to leave, so we give each hypothesis a fair, clean case.

Who to recruit

Contact backups only if the primary doesn't respond within 48 hours. Assign the experienced interviewers to calls 1 and 2, where people most easily give a stock answer like "it was the price." New interviewers take 3–6 and shadow one call first if the schedule allows.

Interview guide (30 min)

Rules for interviewers (read before every call)

1. Ask about what happened, not opinions. Prefer "Tell me about the last box you got" to "Do you think the recipes are repetitive?"
2. Don't mention their cancel reason or our hypotheses until section 4. If you say "price" first, you'll hear "price."
3. Don't defend, explain, or offer anything. No discounts, no "actually you can skip weeks." If they ask, note it and say someone can follow up.
4. Allow silence. Count to five before your next question. The best answers come after the pause.
5. Use neutral probes: "Tell me more." "What happened next?" "Can you give me an example?" "Why was that?"
6. Follow their story, not the script. The script makes sure you cover everything; you don't need to ask it in order.
7. Write down exact quotes, especially words they use about money, time, food, and delivery.

1. Intro (2 min)

"Thanks for making time. I'm [name] from Sprig. We're trying to understand what Sprig was like to use, including the bad parts. There are no wrong answers, and I'm not here to win you back. Is it OK if I take notes or record?"

2. Their life with Sprig (8 min)

• "Take me back to when you signed up. What was going on? What were you hoping it would do for you?"
• "Walk me through a typical week with a box. When did it arrive? Who cooked? What happened to the food?"
• "How did that change over time?"
• Probe: "When did that start?" "What was different then?"

3. The decision to leave (10 min)

• "Tell me about the last few boxes before you cancelled."
• "When did you first think about stopping? What happened that day or week?"
• "Before cancelling, did you skip any weeks? What was going on then?"
• Probe for leftovers and waste: "What happened to meals you didn't cook?"
• "What did you do instead for meals? What does that cost and take?"
• "Was there one moment that tipped it, or did it build up?"

4. Checking the reasons (6 min)

Ask these only now. - "On the cancel form you chose [reason]. Is that how you'd describe it to a friend?" - If the reason was pre-selected, say: "That option was already ticked by default. Was it your actual reason?" - Ask about each of the following, one at a time, unless they've already covered it. Get a specific example for each. - "How did the price feel by the end? Compared to what?" - "How did you feel about the recipe choices?" - "Any issues with deliveries? What happened?" - "If you could change one thing, would you have stayed? What would it be?"

5. Wrap (4 min)

• "Is there anything I should have asked but didn't?"
• Thank them and explain any incentive.

After each call (15 min, same day)

Fill in the shared sheet with: - Their main reason, in their words. - When cooking dropped off: week, and the trigger. - Supporting quotes. - Whether the form reason matched their story.

After all six calls, I'll write up how each person's decision unfolded, mapped against the four hypotheses. I'll be clear that six interviews show how people decide, not how many decide each way. The write-up will also recommend changing the cancel form so no option is pre-selected; that one change will make the form data usable.

Aim and guardrails

Use six interviews to identify how cancellation happens, not vote on which executive is right. Explore price, repetition and delivery alongside an alternative: subscribers stop cooking the meals, food accumulates, and the subscription loses value.

The cancellation form is weak evidence: “Too expensive” is pre-selected, only one reason is allowed, and comments often suggest overlapping problems. The first-month cooking difference—81% of retained subscribers versus 34% of cancellers cooked at least three recipes weekly—is a useful lead, not proof that cooking prevents churn. Last-four-week cooking counts cannot establish first-month habits.

Recruit these six

Purposefully sample contrasting behaviors and mismatches between selected reasons and comments. Counts below are weeks subscribed / skips in last six weeks / recipes cooked in last four weeks.

Backups, in corresponding order: S-8096, S-8122, S-8209, S-8179, S-8259, S-8151. They preserve the main behavioral contrast, though comments differ.

Invite neutrally: “We’re learning about your experience using and stopping Sprig; this is not a sales call.” Book six 30-minute calls plus replacement availability. Do not screen for agreement with an executive theory. Confirm dates and household context; validate unusual counts rather than treating administrative data as ground truth.

Shared 30-minute interview guide

0–2 minutes: Introduction

“Thanks for joining. We want to understand what happened in your experience, including anything that worked or didn’t. There are no right answers, and we won’t try to persuade you to return. May we record for research notes? You can decline any question.”

2–6 minutes: Expectations and first month

• “What was happening in your life when you signed up?”
• “What did you hope Sprig would replace or make easier?”
• “Walk me through a typical week in your first month: receiving, choosing and cooking meals.”
• “What happened to meals you didn’t cook?”

Establish actual routine before asking whether it changed.

6–16 minutes: Reconstruct the cancellation timeline

• “Take me through your last few weeks with Sprig.”
• “When did you first consider stopping? What happened just before that?”
• “Tell me about the last box you received: what arrived, what you cooked, and what happened to the rest.”
• “Tell me about a week you skipped. What led to that?”
• “What happened on the day you cancelled? Why then rather than earlier?”

Probe for dates, examples, actions and consequences. Separate gradual dissatisfaction from the final trigger. Ask what they tried, including changes to orders, skipping or contacting support.

16–21 minutes: Replacement and trade-offs

• “How are you handling dinners now? Tell me about last week.”
• “What alternatives did you actually consider or use?”
• “What did those cost, and what did you get for that?”
• “What made cancelling preferable to continuing or skipping?”

Distinguish actual competitor switching from general perceptions of cheaper options.

21–27 minutes: Cover gaps, then reconcile the form

Only after the unprompted account: - Price: “How did the cost fit your budget? Did anything change?” - Recipes: “How did recipe choices change over time? Any specific examples?” - Delivery: “How did deliveries fit your plans? Describe any problem and what followed.” - Usage: “What made cooking the meals easier or harder?”

Then: “The form recorded [reason]. How well did that capture your situation? Were other reasons missing?” Clarify whether they actively chose it.

27–30 minutes: Close

Summarize the sequence and ask: “What have I misunderstood? What mattered most that we haven’t discussed?”

Support and synthesis

Run a rehearsal for both new interviewers; pair each with an experienced observer. Use silence and neutral probes—“What happened next?”—not “Was it too expensive?” Never defend Sprig.

Debrief immediately using one template: expectations, usage trajectory, incidents, underlying constraints, cancellation trigger, replacement, supporting quotes and uncertainty. Compare confirming and contradicting cases. Report plausible mechanisms and follow-up tests—not prevalence estimates or a causal verdict from six calls.

Recruit these six

Recruit all six, with the listed cancellation-form reason treated as a clue—not a confirmed cause. “Too expensive” was pre-selected, so it is especially unreliable as a standalone explanation. These interviews are for exploring different churn paths, not estimating how common each one is.

1. S-8004 — 11 weeks subscribed; five skips and no recipes cooked in the last four weeks; selected “Too expensive.” A low-engagement case to explore whether price was the trigger, or whether skipped deliveries and unused food came first.
2. S-8008 — 18 weeks; no skips and six recipes cooked; selected “Too expensive,” with “cheaper at the supermarket” in free text. An active subscriber whose account is more consistent with a price comparison worth probing.
3. S-8006 — 29 weeks; no skips and eight recipes cooked; selected “Too expensive,” but wrote “too much food for two.” Tests whether perceived cost may be tied to household fit or waste, even for a frequent cook.
4. S-8013 — 28 weeks; two skips and three recipes cooked; selected “Recipes got repetitive,” but wrote “didn’t have time to cook.” Explore how recipe experience, time, and skipped weeks related to one another.
5. S-8025 — 50 weeks; one skip and no recipes cooked; selected “Recipes got repetitive,” but wrote “too much food for two.” A long-tenure contrast to S-8013: investigate whether repetition was an experienced problem or a label for a broader mismatch.
6. S-8028 — three weeks; two skips and nine recipes cooked; selected “Delivery problems,” with “kept piling up in the fridge.” A distinct early-tenure, high-cooking case to investigate what happened with delivery and whether delivery was connected to the food backlog.

30-minute interview guide

Before the calls: Use the same guide for all six. Don’t tell participants which executive theory you’re testing. One PM moderates and the other takes notes; rotate roles so each new interviewer leads three calls. Record exact examples and the participant’s wording, not just interpretations. Don’t defend Sprig, pitch a save offer, or rush to fill silences.

0–2 min | Welcome > “Thanks for speaking with me. I’d like to understand your experience with Sprig and what led you to cancel. There are no right answers, and we’re not trying to persuade you to come back. Is it okay if I take notes?”

2–8 min | Let them tell the story > “Could you walk me through how Sprig fit into your routine, from when you joined through when you decided to cancel?”

Follow up neutrally: “What happened next?” “Can you give me a specific example?” “When did you first notice that?”

8–15 min | Reconstruct recent behavior > “Think about your last few weeks as a subscriber. What did a typical week look like?”

Ask what arrived, what they cooked, skipped, or didn’t use, and what was happening in their household or schedule. If relevant: “Can you tell me about the last delivery you remember?” Don’t assume a skip, delivery issue, or uneaten food had a particular cause.

15–23 min | Explore the cancellation decision > “When did cancelling first feel like the right choice? What was happening then?”

> “What were the main things that went into that decision?”

After the open account, ask about specifics that have come up naturally: price and alternatives; recipe choice or repetition; delivery timing or condition; cooking time; household size; food left over; and how often they skipped. Ask for concrete examples and how each factor affected the decision.

23–27 min | Check their form response > “The cancellation form shows [selected reason]. How well does that capture what was going on for you? Was anything more important?”

If they selected “Too expensive,” note that it was pre-selected; don’t treat the selection as confirmation. Ask what they compared Sprig with and what “expensive” meant in practice, without suggesting an answer.

27–30 min | Close > “If one thing had been different, might you have made a different choice—or was cancelling still the right decision?” > “What haven’t I asked that would help me understand?”

Thank them. After each call, the PMs should separately note the apparent trigger, contributing factors, and unresolved questions before comparing notes.