Members Who Delete Pledges.. should get this option

I’ve had a bunch of members delete their pledges of late… most of them at higher tiers. Correct me if i’m wrong, but when they leave they do not get a pop up mentioning lowering to another cheaper tier? I think this would save at least some % of members from completely leaving the site. Just a thought…

Another thing is, I think the exit survey feels so informal. Perhaps it would be better, if it allowed the person deleting their pledge to send a direct comment to the creator, who is looking for feedback. I’d like to know more specific reasons for a deleted pledge than, “financial reasons”.

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@Here_Be_Barr EDITED RESPONSE BELOW

you’re right, we do not currently have this pop up message when patrons are deleting a pledge. But I agree with you that it could save patrons from leaving entirely! I’ll bookmark this suggestion and share with the greater team.

As for exit surveys, we keep them anonymous for the patrons privacy but I can share that you’re looking for more custom info for better feedback.

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. :slight_smile:

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Thanks

I love this idea! Definitely important to try and “save the sale” when there’s another option that might be a better fit for the patron.

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Unrelated: Oh hey! I love your videos, @Here_Be_Barr! I live in NYC too, right next to your new neighborhood!

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The feedback here re: exit surveys is such a strong point and I’d like to add to it. It pains me when I see an exit survey comment that misunderstands something - ie: the example given here that they can lower their pledge, or set a monthly maximum, or some other misunderstanding that can be easily clarified if we were able to contact them.

If having a patron’s email address provides so much information in PRM about their pledge history, except this optional feedback that they are giving anonymously, it feels almost like a disservice to not be able to right whatever wrong these patrons may feel if they express something like “I didnt get my rewards” or whatever concern that is actionable for the creator and their team to remedy. And by not being able to reach out, we may permanently destroy that relationship. This is all to say, with respect to anonymous exit surveys, it would be more than wise and helpful if these exiting patrons could opt in to be contacted by the creator, or at the very least, opt in to reveal their name or email, or give the creator the ability to message them in or outside patreon to thank them for the feedback and address their concerns.

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Thanks!

You can manage this by simply downloading the CSV each month and running some code to find the missing pledges the next month. That’s what I’ve done. It lets me contact anyone who leaves and offer assistance. I’ve saved a few patrons that way.

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yes, of course. that is indeed a great work around, thanks for sharing it here. with nearly 15,000 patrons we have a lot of work arounds for different functions (and reward fulfillment) and it would be a great service to have some of this stuff built into the backend to provide smoother experiences for both the patrons and the creator teams. the less work arounds we have to do to make the product work the way we want/need, the more time we have to cater to our communities!

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Evidence suggests that Patreon isn’t all that concerned with satisfying their actual customers - creators, but in trying to satisfy patrons who they think are their customers, but aren’t. If they provided us the tools, we could do a FAR better job of addressing the needs of our patrons, who likely have unique needs per creator.

Excellent idea

or the option to click to share their feedback with the creator

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This might be worth mentioning. I have few enough patrons that when a single patron leaves and there is a single exit survey for the date that single patron left…

Just sayin’: I kinda know who filled that exit survey.

You should allow patrons to choose to make their exit surveys anonymous or not. I have had many regular patrons tell me that they thought they were communicating specific things to me in their exit surveys and were shocked when I told them they were anonymous and I had no idea who was leaving the exit survey and they were a bit upset.

Like when someone has to leave temporarily and they want to let the creator know they will be back and it was due to no fault of them, in my experience they usually want to let you know who they are. That specific conversation has happened multiple times for me actually, and the followup explanation that the exit survey was anonymous to them being shocked it didn’t let me know.

Also, since we have a member list and we can see exact who leaves every month pretty trivially if we look at when people stopped paying and when the feedback came in, anonymizing this feedback is actually inadequate for actual anonymization (we can easy figure out who left and what feedback they left). I’m not sure if patreon is doing it to protect the people dropping their pledges, but if that’s the reason, it’s extremely inadequate for that purpose.

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@Here_Be_Barr I stand corrected from my original response! I brought your feedback to the team, and they informed me that we do in fact have a pop up message prompting patrons to edit their tier, instead of deleting entirely. See a screenshot example here:

Terribly sorry for my mistake! I personally hadn’t seen the message before and wasn’t aware. But I hope this helps provide some ease :slight_smile:

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I have same problem
But they deleted pledge . After take my download able content

She promises me to give me $50 patron after i make 2 audio she request. But after that she deleted pledge.

What must i do why she so cruel i give what she want and she do that to me.
:sob::sob::sob:

Sorry for my bad English language.

Hi there, thanks for sharing your thoughts on exit surveys. While the intention (as some here have mentioned) is to allow patrons to be more candid with their thoughts, I hear you that feedback is often more helpful when you know who it’s coming from. I’m going to catalog this for the team to reference as we make improvements to ways creators can connect with and receive feedback from patrons.