How Do I Let Subscribers Skip, Pause or Change Their Order Without Emailing Me?
Let subscribers make the change in chat, through your subscription app. AeroChat verifies the subscriber, then skips the next delivery, moves the next charge date, swaps the product or changes the quantity through your subscription app’s public API, such as Recharge. When someone asks to cancel, it offers a skip or a later date first, and cancels with the reason recorded if they still want to go. It works on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, web chat and email.
Why subscription changes clog the inbox
Small subscription sellers on the Shopify Community, often with a few dozen to a hundred subscribers, describe the same frustrations. Subscribers email to skip a month, push a delivery back or swap a flavor, because they can’t find the customer portal or don’t want to log in. One merchant on Shopify’s native subscriptions app says canceling is a one-click exit, with no chance to offer a skip, a pause or a discount first.
Other threads add more work: renewals that fail and don’t create an order, orders created for a subscription that was already canceled, and recurring orders that switch to the cheapest courier. Every one of these brings a message from a subscriber who wants it sorted today.
The usual fixes and their limits
- The subscription app’s customer portal. Subscribers can skip, swap or cancel there. Many still email instead, because they don’t remember how to log in.
- A cancellation flow in the app. Some subscription apps let you show a save offer before canceling. It depends on the app and the plan you are on.
- Handle requests by email. Personal, and you can make a save offer yourself. Each change still means opening the app, finding the subscriber and making the edit.
How to handle it in chat with AeroChat
The subscriber messages you on any channel. AeroChat verifies them by email or phone against their subscription, then does what they ask through your subscription app’s API. With Recharge, that means skipping the upcoming charge, changing the next charge date, updating the product or quantity on the subscription, or canceling it with a reason. You write the save offer: for example, when someone asks to cancel, offer to skip the next delivery or move it a month first. If they still want to cancel, AeroChat cancels and records why, so you can see the reasons later.
Customer: I want to cancel my coffee subscription, I have too much at home. (example)
AeroChat: I can help. Your next delivery is on 18 November (example). Would you rather skip that one, or move it to December, and keep your subscription?
Customer: Oh, move it to December then.
AeroChat: Done. Your next delivery is now 18 December, and nothing will be charged until then. Anything else?
In Recharge: the subscription’s next charge date moves to 18 December. The subscription stays active.
Copy this into AeroChat
When a subscriber asks to change their subscription, follow these steps.
- Ask for the email or phone number on their subscription and verify it in Recharge before you change anything.
- Skip: skip their next charge and tell them the new next delivery date.
- Pause: move their next charge date to the date they choose, up to 3 months ahead (example).
- Swap or quantity: change the product or quantity on the subscription to an item from our subscription range, and confirm the new price per delivery.
- Cancel: first offer to skip the next delivery or move it by a month. If they still want to cancel, ask why, cancel the subscription with that reason, and confirm it.
Never cancel without the subscriber’s clear yes. If a renewal failed or they were charged after canceling, hand the conversation to our team with the details. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the pause limit, the save offer and the swap range to match your subscription before you paste it.
What to connect
- Your subscription app. Recharge connects through its public API with an API token you create in Recharge. Any other subscription app with a public API connects the same way, through a workflow you describe.
- Your Shopify store. Built in. Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store and connect your store, so AeroChat answers product questions and looks up subscription orders.
- Your subscription terms. Add them to AeroChat’s knowledge: how often you deliver, how far ahead subscribers can skip, and your cancellation terms.
Questions
Does this work with Shopify’s own subscriptions app?
The workflow needs a subscription app with a public API that AeroChat can call, such as Recharge. If you use another app, check that its API lets you skip, reschedule and cancel subscriptions.
Can I offer a save offer before canceling?
Yes. You write it into the recipe, for example a skip or a later date. AeroChat offers it once, and cancels if the subscriber still says yes to canceling.
Will I know why people cancel?
Yes. AeroChat asks for the reason and records it on the cancellation in your subscription app, and the full conversation stays in your AeroChat inbox.
What about failed renewals?
AeroChat hands those to your team with the subscriber’s details, because the fix usually needs someone to check the payment.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
Keep subscribers who only wanted a break
Install AeroChat, connect your subscription app, paste the recipe, and ask to skip a delivery on a test subscription.
7-day free trial.