Do churned users actually know why they left, or are they just giving us polite excuses?

Whenever a customer cancels their subscription, our automated exit survey spits out the same reason: Too expensive or Just don't need it right now. For a long time, we took those answers at face value and tried discounting our plans.

It wasn't until a few former users casually admitted on Twitter (after we built a friendly rapport) that the real reason was a lack of a specific integration that we understood the truth. The price wasn't the issue; the missing utility was.

It made me realize that standard churn surveys rarely capture the real psychological barrier to staying.