People come and go and so do customers. An order cancellation email is your likelihood to depart a constructive impression and maybe win some customers over. Even if every thing fails, you’ll nonetheless have the option to obtain precise suggestions on why they cancel and what you are able to do to forestall it.
Listen: each enterprise will finally have to undergo a cancellation course of, although customers would possibly appear to be loyal followers who’d by no means stop your services or products. Instead, they might have discovered a greater deal, not achieved the anticipated outcomes, or just now not want your service. But, right here at EmailOctopus, we all know that cancellations usually are not all the time a farewell. You nonetheless have the ultimate phrase and even the prospect to flip issues round.
In this information, we’ll discover completely different examples and best practices for buyer cancellation email responses. Forget the “see ya” autoresponders who price you customers and wreck your total picture as a model. Instead, seize your alternatives and scale back your churn charges with the correct cancellation confirmations. So let’s get down to enterprise!
What is an order cancellation email?
I’m positive you realize by now that onboarding a brand new buyer is far more costly than sustaining an present one. But, you would possibly surprise, are you able to legally cancel a purchase order order? And the reply is sure; your purchasers can cancel their order or stop your service anytime.
Although some companies merely let customers go, there are nonetheless best practices to assist you maintain their hand simply earlier than they exit the room. Cancellation affirmation emails are triggered by customers’ refusal to proceed with their orders and take a look at to deliver them again. Order cancellation email templates would possibly serve completely different functions, however their main objectives are to:
- Mend relationships
- Re-engage customers
- Boost retention
- Reduce churn charges
- Drive site visitors to the web site
This is an important step within the person’s lifecycle and the aftertaste of your service.
5 examples of profitable order cancellation emails
Customers cancel their orders for a lot of completely different causes, reminiscent of excessive prices, poor help, usability points, and so forth. Your job as an email marketer is to uncover the foundation of the issue and maybe provide incentives to maintain them on board. Here are a couple of examples of how to reply to a cancellation email:
1. Create a transparent path again to your providers
Perhaps customers cancelled their subscription accidentally or want to return to your providers sooner or later. By sending them a “your order has been cancelled” email with a transparent reactivation name to motion, you make it straightforward for them to spot your model of their inbox conversations.
For instance, Disney+ makes use of a brief email with a easy “Restart your subscription” button, letting customers know that their subscription has been cancelled and providing them the prospect to resume it. They additionally let customers know up till after they have entry to the service since they cancelled inside the billing interval. Minimal and on-level!

2. Offer an incentive to maintain them onboard
A small low cost by no means harm anybody. When all hope is misplaced, you continue to get the prospect to give churned customers a purpose to return to your providers. So based mostly on their preferences and desires, you may provide them a deal mixed with a referral program. Even in the event that they’re not curious about resuming, their associates may be. This means, you kill two birds with one stone.
Take a take a look at this cancellation affirmation by Calm. They provide 50% off a lifetime membership legitimate for a particular time interval. This means, customers can entry the content material library with out restrictions whereas the model will get to maintain them on board. Win-win!

3. Remind customers what they’re lacking out on
Sometimes all it takes is to lose one thing to admire it. Well, let’s simply say that it doesn’t have to go that far when it comes to your providers. For instance, an order cancellation email that lists the perks a buyer is giving up on is a superb win-again technique to assist them rethink their resolution.
For occasion, JustFab managed to squeeze in a brief but concise email itemizing all their customers’ privileges, reminiscent of free shipping, unique member reductions, and straightforward returns. Then, with a CTA inviting customers to browse their newest store arrivals, they lure them again into their merchandise. They even embody a brief message for these reconsidering their VIP subscription cancellation, describing the steps to reactivate it. Ten out of ten if you happen to ask us!

4. Give them a free trial
Ιt takes a crane to construct a crane. Sometimes the wiser factor you are able to do is give your customers a free style of the entire menu. Who doesn’t like free stuff? Offering your churned customers a free trial of your product will purchase you a while whereas they rethink their resolution. This means, they’ll get full entry to your premium providers in addition to a clearer picture of your superior options.
Take a take a look at Avocode’s order cancellation email template that comes with a 30-day free trial together with social proof to help customers’ resolution-making course of. Going so far as explaining the distinction between a free and a paid model will solely pace up customers’ returns.

5. Add worth
It’s by no means too late to add worth to your customers’ lives. Perhaps your merchandise usually are not an excellent match for his or her wants, however that doesn’t imply they need to cease partaking along with your model. Instead, provide related content material with no strings connected and see what occurs when churned customers realise that you simply care about their issues above all.
For instance, the snack firm Graze does a wonderful job linking again to their newest weblog posts with current recipes. They spend no time weeping on a misplaced buyer, however they instantly focus their efforts on getting them again with the standard work that transformed them initially. Their gentle and completely happy message retains the order cancellation email in a constructive tone.

Order cancellation email best practices
Now that you’ve some concepts on what to embody in an order cancellation email to customers, be sure you use the next ideas to make your messaging extra environment friendly:
1. Keep your messages brief and candy
No want for the additional fluff in your order cancellation emails. Keep your subject lines straightforward and your textual content between 4 to 5 sentences. As a common rule of thumb, proactivity, optimism, and respect in the direction of your customers’ time are extremely appreciated.
2. Don’t assume the worst of cancelled orders
Again, cancellation will not be the tip of the world, and most companies undergo the method at one level or one other. That’s why your cancellation affirmation emails ought to have a tone of clarification, not defeat. Because likelihood is, this isn’t farewell, as you continue to get an opportunity to deliver customers again.
3. Say greater than a “goodbye”
Many “your order has been cancelled” emails deal with saying “sorry” or “goodbye” as an alternative of informing purchasers of the particular cancellation course of and the subsequent steps. Don’t fall into that lure. Always ensure that your emails:
- Thank customers for his or her enterprise
- Confirm the cancellation
- Reassure them that your door is all the time open for them and the way to get again
- Offer incentives, or ask for customers’ suggestions by means of surveys
4. Show customers you actually care
Although cancellation emails needs to be brief, there’s no want for them to be chilly. Focus on utilizing empathetic language and all the time add a private contact that exhibits care and personalisation. It’ll be appreciated. Moreover, strive to be as useful as doable, including invaluable hyperlinks and providing options and incentives wherever you may. The aim is to assist customers see that you simply’re an ally.
5. Figure out why they cancel within the first place
The backside line of order cancellation emails is determining why customers churned within the first place. Perhaps they didn’t obtain the services or products they had been promised. Or possibly the prices exceeded their finances. Whatever the case, monitoring the explanations behind cancellations empowers you to scale back your churn and preserve customers sooner or later.
6. Follow-up VIP customers personally
The essential aim of order cancellation emails is operating them on autopilot. However, personalisation is a should when it comes to VIP or excessive-spending customers. That’s as a result of they’re price extra to your enterprise than common customers, and, subsequently, they need to be handled accordingly.
7. Send cancellation affirmation emails from a private account
Personal accounts seize readers’ consideration and make the method of providing incentives or asking for suggestions a bit extra personalised. So, as an alternative of choosing a generic message by way of a enterprise email tackle, make your emails stand out in a refined but vital means.
Enhance your order cancellation emails
Cancellations occur, and they are often irritating. However, the way you reply to them will make or break a deal. With order cancellation emails, you continue to have legitimate playing cards within the sport, and if finished proper, they will maintain customers hooked in the long term.
Use EmailOctopus to create automated cancellation workflows as your final alternative to work together with customers. Even if their resolution to depart is ultimate, you continue to would possibly have the option to get their suggestions and improve your providers.