The Challenge
Shotdeck is the largest collection of fully searchable high-definition movie images in the world. Their users range from film students to the Russo brothers, directors of Avengers: Endgame. Shotdeck's growth has been rapid. And churn was starting to become a problem.
Even with rising usage and thriving creative community, ShotDeck faced a familiar SaaS reality. Their cancellation flow had become a black box. They had no reliable way to capture cancellation insights, leaving them blind to the real patterns driving churn. Billing operations were growing heavier as their subscriber base expanded, consuming valuable team bandwidth. And despite their product's creative impact, they lacked the retention tools needed to intervene when subscribers were at risk of leaving.
Our cancellation flow was basically a black box. We couldn't see why people were leaving or what was actually happening inside the flow.
The Solution
Churnkey quickly became the backbone of ShotDeck's retention efforts. What had felt like a black box finally turned into something visible and workable: structured Cancel Flow surveys, clearer insight into user segments, and automated Payment Recovery that filled in the gaps left by Stripe's basic retries. With the data all in one place, the team could understand churn patterns more confidently while reducing the manual billing work that had been growing with their subscriber base.
Churnkey also gave ShotDeck retention tools they had not been able to run before. Adaptive Offers made it possible to present timely options such as discounts, pauses, and even the occasional switch from monthly to annual at the point of cancellation without needing developer involvement each time. And when questions came up, getting help was straightforward whether through quick support or the AI chatbot. Overall, ShotDeck moved from managing churn reactively to having a more organized and reliable retention system.
What really helped was finally seeing why people were churning. Realizing that less than 1% were leaving for competitors, and that most cancellations came from budget or usage reasons gave us clarity. Those are things we can actually work on.
The Results
Churnkey helped ShotDeck turn their retention operations into something far more predictable and efficient. They began seeing clear patterns in user behavior that had never surfaced before, making it easier to understand which subscribers needed attention and why.
Billing issues that once lingered were resolved automatically, freeing the team to focus on product and growth instead of operational firefighting. ShotDeck also started recovering revenue in ways they had never unlocked, most notably when users who intended to leave ended up choosing higher-value plans. And throughout the entire process, the speed and clarity of Churnkey's support gave their team the confidence to try new experiments, refine flows quickly, and evolve their retention strategy with far less friction.
We had users go to cancel their monthly plan and end up switching to annual instead. That was a tremendous win we never could've done before
About ShotDeck
Founded in 2014 by Lawrence Sher, ASC, ShotDeck serves as a visual bible for filmmakers and creatives. It offers a searchable, high-quality collection of cinematic images that are meticulously tagged and curated to help teams translate ideas into visual storytelling across pitch, prep, and production.
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