3 ms·

Your Cancellation Process is Bullshit and it Hurts Your Company Image

7 points by gortok 12y ago

Glyptodon 12y ago
Practices like this were a significant part of why I left a previous employer (they had me make a cancellation progress progressively more complex while monitoring the effect of each progressive increase in complexity on the number of cancelations and chargebacks). That plus a couple other issues made me feel like a scumbag and within a few months I was working elsewhere. Treating people badly doesn't just hurt company image, it hurts company culture and ability to retain good employees.
lazyant 12y ago
there should be a law that you should be able to cancel in the same way and convenience that you can sign up
Someone1234 12y ago
This is a huge pet peeve of mine. However it seems hugely common with American companies in particular and everyone just seems to accept it as the norm. Here's the thing that a lot of MBAs cannot wrap their head around: If you make it harder to cancel you make it MUCH Less likely I'll ever come back once I do. Let that sink in for a second. You've not only put a roadblock between your clients and them leaving you, but you have also put a roadblock between your clients and repeat business. To give two positive examples Amazon's Audible and Netflix, they both make it extremely trivial to both start and stop a subscription, so if I wish to take breaks I can, at no "cost." Therefore they both get a lot of short term repeat business (e.g. 1 month here, 1 month there) that they otherwise wouldn't. However as a counter example LogMeIn has a "call us to cancel" and therefore if I need something for just 1 month I'll find another solution that might be less ideal (e.g. VNC) but is less of a hassle to me in general. The only company that can really get away with this are those with lock-in (e.g. Microsoft's XBox Live subscriptions, Cable companies, et al). I don't really understand how gyms are able to get away with it as I'd imagine repeat business is important, but I guess they have enough potential clients to make it work.

7 points by gortok 12y ago

Practices like this were a significant part of why I left a previous employer (they had me make a cancellation progress progressively more complex while monitoring the effect of each progressive increase in complexity on the number of cancelations and chargebacks). That plus a couple other issues made me feel like a scumbag and within a few months I was working elsewhere. Treating people badly doesn't just hurt company image, it hurts company culture and ability to retain good employees.

lazyant 12y ago

there should be a law that you should be able to cancel in the same way and convenience that you can sign up

Someone1234 12y ago

This is a huge pet peeve of mine. However it seems hugely common with American companies in particular and everyone just seems to accept it as the norm. Here's the thing that a lot of MBAs cannot wrap their head around: If you make it harder to cancel you make it MUCH Less likely I'll ever come back once I do. Let that sink in for a second. You've not only put a roadblock between your clients and them leaving you, but you have also put a roadblock between your clients and repeat business. To give two positive examples Amazon's Audible and Netflix, they both make it extremely trivial to both start and stop a subscription, so if I wish to take breaks I can, at no "cost." Therefore they both get a lot of short term repeat business (e.g. 1 month here, 1 month there) that they otherwise wouldn't. However as a counter example LogMeIn has a "call us to cancel" and therefore if I need something for just 1 month I'll find another solution that might be less ideal (e.g. VNC) but is less of a hassle to me in general. The only company that can really get away with this are those with lock-in (e.g. Microsoft's XBox Live subscriptions, Cable companies, et al). I don't really understand how gyms are able to get away with it as I'd imagine repeat business is important, but I guess they have enough potential clients to make it work.