We all know about Myers-Briggs and the Big Five personality tests. Answer a few questions, and suddenly you're an "INTJ" or a "high-conscientiousness extravert." While these insights might help your team dynamics, there's another personality framework that keeps customer success folks up at night: The Involuntary Churned User Types.

According to Stripe’s State of Subscriptions report, involuntary churn can represent up to 30% of total customer churn for subscription businesses. Understanding these archetypes isn't just entertaining – it's crucial for building better retention strategies. Let's meet our cast of characters!

1. The "Actually Voluntarily Churned" User

Churn Likelihood: High Signature Move: The Silent Goodbye

This user has mentally moved on from your service but forgot to tell their credit card about the breakup. When the card expires, they treat your dunning emails like calendar invites to virtual team-building exercises – immediately archived. They're not trying to ghost you; they just haven't gotten around to that cancellation click.

2. The "Card Left the Building with Bob" User

Churn Likelihood: Medium Signature Move: The Corporate Vanishing Act

Picture this: Bob from Accounting, who signed up for your service, just left to start his artisanal coffee consulting business. Unfortunately, he took his company card knowledge with him, leaving your subscription in a state of corporate limbo. Somewhere, there's a new Bob wondering why the finance team keeps forwarding them strange emails about a service they've never heard of.

3. The "Seasonal Subscriber" User

Churn Likelihood: High Signature Move: The Predictable Pause

Like migratory birds or playoff beards, these users have a natural rhythm. They need your tax software in April, your retail analytics during holidays, or your video conferencing tool during conference season. Their churn isn't a goodbye; it's a "see you next season!"

4. The "New Card, Who Dis?" User

Churn Likelihood: Medium Signature Move: The Innocent Upgrade

Totally loves your service but just got a shiny new metal card with better rewards. Now all their subscriptions are playing hide and seek. They'll update their card eventually – right after they finish updating it on their streaming services, gym membership, and that meditation app they forgot they had.

5. The "False Fraud Flag" User

Churn Likelihood: Medium Signature Move: The Innocent Bystander

With fraud-based declines up 41% according to recent data from Recurly, these users are caught in their bank's zealous fraud detection nets. Their regular subscription suddenly gets flagged as suspicious – not because anything's wrong, but because banking algorithms are getting more sensitive. They're not trying to cancel; they're just collateral damage in the war against actual fraud.

Ironically, the very systems designed to protect them are now protecting them from... paying for things they actually want.

6. The "Time Zone Traveler" User

Churn Likelihood: Low Signature Move: The International Payment Shuffle

Working remotely across three continents, their card sometimes declines because they're purchasing breakfast in Tokyo while their card expects them to be having dinner in New York. Their payment attempts read like a travel blog.

7. The "Temporary Card Tango" User

Churn Likelihood: Medium Signature Move: The Virtual Card Variety

They're security-conscious and use virtual cards for online purchases. Great for security, challenging for subscriptions – especially when those cards have short expiration windows. They're trying to protect themselves, even if it means occasionally protecting themselves from their own subscriptions.

8. The "Banking Adventure" User

Churn Likelihood: Medium Signature Move: The Institution Switch

They just switched banks for that sweet sign-up bonus, and now they're in that awkward phase of having two sets of cards but not remembering which one is linked to what. Like trying to remember which streaming service has that show you want to watch, but with higher stakes.

The Silver Lining

The beauty of understanding these personality types is that each presents unique opportunities for improvement. Whether it's implementing smart retry logic, expanding payment method options, or simply improving communication, knowing your churned users helps build better retention strategies.

Remember: behind every failed payment is a user who probably wants to keep using your service – they just need the right path to do so. And sometimes, that path might involve a gentle reminder that their card is about to expire, or that Bob from Accounting isn't coming back (he's really happy with his coffee consulting gig, by the way).

Want to reduce involuntary churn? Start by understanding these personalities. And get in touch with us!