Customer research call guide

Churn interviews: recruiting plan and guide

What the data says (and doesn't)

Across 300 cancellations last quarter:

• The price number is inflated. "Too expensive" is pre-selected, so we can't tell deliberate choices from people who clicked Next. Treat it as a hypothesis to test, not a finding.
• Free text points away from all three exec theories. Where people wrote something, the recurring themes were over-supply ("too much food for two," "kept piling up in the fridge") and time ("didn't have time to cook"). Neither is in the exec hypotheses.
• Delivery cancellers were engaged. All 29 cooked at least 3 recipes in the last 4 weeks, and many cooked 8 or more. Late deliveries may be hurting people who want to cook.
• The retention benchmark isn't testable here. The 34% figure is first-month cooking. The export only has the last 4 weeks, so we can't compare the two. Early-tenure cancellers are the closest we can get, so we'll include one.

Who to recruit (6 calls)

Recruit from the list by reason, tenure, and cooking level so each call tests a different explanation. Keep 2 backups for each slot.

Backups: for slot 5, S-8153 (2 wks tenure, 8 recipes, delivery). For slot 6, S-8055 (Other, 5 skips, "too much food for two").

Interview guide (30 minutes)

Rules for all interviewers - Don't mention the cancel form's default or any exec theory. - Don't ask leading questions ("Was it the price?"). Ask what happened, then probe. - Let silences run. Don't fill them with suggestions. - Ask for specific examples: "Tell me about the last time…" - Don't defend Sprig or argue with the subscriber.

1. Opening (2 min) "Thanks for making time. We're trying to understand what happened with your subscription so we can improve it. There are no right or wrong answers, and nothing you say will affect your account. Is it okay if I take notes and record for accuracy?"

2. Their Sprig story (8 min) - "Take me back to when you first signed up. What did you hope Sprig would be for you?" - "How did a typical week go once the boxes started arriving?" - "What was happening in your life when you decided to cancel?" - "Walk me through the moment you decided. What happened first?"

3. The cancel form (4 min) - "On the cancel screen, you chose a reason. Can you walk me through how you picked it?" - If they say "too expensive": "What made that the best fit? Was there anything else you considered?" - If they chose something else: "What made that the closest match?" - "Was there a reason you wanted to share that the options didn't capture?"

4. Cooking and the box (6 min) - "In your first month, how many of the recipes did you actually cook?" - "What got in the way of cooking the others?" - "What happened to ingredients you didn't use? Walk me through a recent week." - "How did the portion sizes work for you?" - "How did the recipes feel after a few weeks?"

5. Price, delivery, and alternatives (5 min) - "How did the cost compare to what you'd spend otherwise?" - "You mentioned [free text, if any]. Tell me more about that." - "Have you had any issues with deliveries? What happened, and how did it affect your week?" - "Did you pause or skip boxes before cancelling? What was going on then?"

6. Counterfactual (3 min) - "If Sprig had changed one thing, would you have stayed? What would it have been?" - "What would have had to be different for you to skip only for a month instead of cancelling?"

7. Close (2 min) "Is there anything I didn't ask that you think we should know?" Thank them and confirm how the findings will be used.

Notes for the two new interviewers

• Pair each new interviewer with an experienced one for the first call, with the experienced person leading.
• Practise the "walk me through" and silence-holding moves beforehand. Most of the signal comes from follow-up probes.
• If a subscriber gets upset, acknowledge it briefly, offer to end early, and move to the close.
• Write down direct quotes, not summaries, especially about the cancel form and the portions.

After the calls

Code each interview against the three exec theories and two emerging themes (over-supply, time to cook). Report what each subscriber did and said, not just their stated reason. Flag any case where the stated reason and the story don't match, since that's the pre-selection problem showing up.

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.