💥 “80% OFF for a year if you stay!” 💥

💥 “80% OFF for a year if you stay!” 💥

That’s the offer I just got when canceling my plan with a well-known SaaS platform.

Sounds generous? Let’s break down why it’s actually a massive failure in customer success.

I hadn’t used the platform in 3 months. No check-ins, no signals from their side—just recurring bills and generic newsletters.

Here’s the roadmap:

• Signed up ~18 months ago

• Value started fading ~6-7 months ago

• Began exploring alternatives ~4 months ago

• Usage dropped to zero in the last 3 months

I was on a Professional Plan, two tiers above the base one—and still, no one noticed or acted.

At scale, even usage, one of the few KPIs companies track, is often missed.

But it’s worse than that:
They could’ve flagged me as a disengaged customer 8–10 months ago.
They could’ve re-engaged with real value.
Instead… I got a last-minute “please don’t go” discount. No personalized outreach. No attempt to understand why I was leaving. Just a Hail Mary discount.

Result?
Another churned customer.
Another advocate-turned-detractor.
Revenue lost—not just from me, but from the referrals I’ll never give.

👉 This is why I keep saying: Businesses are leaving money on the table.
This happens every single day, across industries.

The good news?
There are better ways.

Some of us are working on agentic AI technologies that don’t replace existing systems—but connect them, making everything smarter.

With these tools, I would’ve been identified as at-risk long ago. An intelligent agent could’ve reached out, with a human looped in when it mattered.

Retention isn’t about last-minute offers.
It’s about early, intelligent engagement.

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