Ep 167: The Simple Secret to Stopping Churn That Most Membership Owners Miss
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The Simple Secret to Stopping Churn That Most Membership Owners Miss
“How do I improve engagement?”
“Why do my members cancel?”
I hear these questions all the time from membership owners who are working hard to create value but are still struggling with retention. And my first response is always the same:
“What are your members telling you?”
Most of the time, I get silence.
The truth is, many membership owners are so focused on creating content, delivering value, and making announcements that they forget to do something incredibly important—listen to their members.
They assume they know what their members want. They make changes based on their own ideas or based on what their competitors are doing. But they aren’t actually gathering insights from the people paying them every month.
And when you’re making decisions without feedback, you’re just guessing. And guessing leads to churn.
So today, I want to talk about the secret to keeping members longer—feedback loops. Not just an annual survey. Not just a cancellation form. But ongoing feedback loops built into your member journey map so you always know what’s working, what’s not, and what your members actually need.
Want to map out your member journey and start collecting the right feedback at the right time? Grab my free Membership Retention Roadmap to get started: retainguide.com.
The Mistake Most Membership Owners Make
I can’t tell you how many times a client has come to me frustrated about engagement or retention, and when I ask them what their members are saying, they either:
Don’t have any data because they haven’t been collecting feedback.
Ran a survey once and barely got responses.
Only ask for feedback when someone cancels—which, by the way, is way too late.
Without feedback, you’re making decisions in the dark. You might be:
Creating content or events that members don’t actually want.
Adding features or deliverables that don’t solve real problems.
Missing the biggest reasons why members leave.
Marketing with the wrong messaging because you don’t know what members value most.
When you don’t have feedback loops, you’re constantly working harder instead of working smarter.
The 5 Questions You Need to Answer Before Collecting Feedback
Before you start asking for feedback, you need to get clear on five things:
1. Why are you collecting this feedback?
Are you trying to improve engagement, onboarding, renewals, or community participation?
If you don’t know why you’re collecting feedback, you won’t know how to use it.
2. Who do you need feedback from?
Most membership owners only listen to their loudest members—the ones who are either super engaged or super frustrated.
The most useful feedback comes from members who are a perfect fit but aren’t fully engaged yet.
3. What questions do you need to ask?
Are you asking about their experience, their progress, their obstacles, or their expectations?
Are your questions clear and specific enough to get useful responses?
4. When should you collect feedback?
Are you waiting until a member is about to cancel to ask them why?
Or are you building feedback loops into your member journey at key moments?
5. How will you collect and analyze it?
Are you using surveys, polls, one-on-one conversations, community discussions, or live calls?
Once you collect the feedback, who is reviewing it? How will you use it to make decisions?
If you don’t answer these five questions first, you’ll either collect random, unusable data or get no responses at all.
3 Types of Feedback Loops Every Membership Needs
1. Time-Based Feedback (Scheduled Check-Ins)
These are feedback surveys or prompts that happen at set points in a member’s journey.
During onboarding: “What was most helpful? Anything unclear?”
30 days before renewal: “What’s been most valuable? What do you want to see next?”
After completing a milestone: “What worked well? What could be improved?”
3-6 months in: A deeper dive into their overall experience so far.
These proactive check-ins help you spot and fix issues before members even think about canceling.
2. Trigger-Based Feedback (Action-Based Surveys & Prompts)
These are feedback requests that happen based on what members are doing inside your membership.
After attending a live call: “What did you love? What would make it better?”
After engaging in the community for the first time: A simple check-in question.
After using a key feature of your program: “How was your experience? Was anything confusing?”
The key here is timing. If you ask for feedback right after an experience, members are much more likely to respond with insights you can actually use.
3. Community Listening & Open Feedback Channels
Not all feedback has to come from formal surveys. Some of the best insights come from simply paying attention inside your community.
What topics keep coming up?
What are members asking for over and over?
Do you have a space where members can submit ideas or share feedback casually?
If you start listening, you’ll realize your members have been telling you what they need all along.
What NOT to Do When Collecting Feedback
Only collecting feedback when members cancel—most won’t even fill out the survey, and by then, it’s too late.
Letting feedback sit in a folder—if you ask, you need a plan to use it.
Making big changes based on a few loud voices—not every opinion reflects what’s best for your membership.
Over-surveying without action—if you keep asking but never implement, members stop responding.
Your best insights come from trends, not just individual comments.
Final Thoughts
If you want to stop guessing and start making decisions based on real member data, you need strong feedback loops built into your member journey.
And that’s exactly what we do inside Retain—my high-level consulting program for established memberships.
We don’t just talk about retention strategies. We map out your entire member journey, set up feedback loops, and create a plan for keeping members longer.
If you’re ready to build a membership that grows without constantly chasing new members, apply for Retain now. joinretain.com
If you’re just getting started with mapping your member journey, grab my free Membership Retention Roadmap here:
retainguide.com
Your members already have the answers. Are you listening?
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