Don't hold users hostage, facilitate their exit

https://chagency.co.uk/blog/increasing-user-retention/dont-take-your-customers-hostages-facilitate-their-exit/

by chdaniel • 7 years ago

173 114 7 years ago

chagency.co.uk

zach43• 7 years ago

This is definitely a nice sentiment, and i have encountered push-back at work for wanting to provide users with good exit experiences. The analogy to shipping labels is apt, and i also like to think that keeping users hostage / locked-in to your ecosystem will lead to worse consequences in the future for your product.

I wanted to provide one bit of close critique on a small part of the post:

And look, I’m no social justice warrior (or so I hope) to go and bash people on the internet for whatever they’ve done wrongfully.

yikes. General suggestion for technical bloggers: please don't make vague references to internet culture wars (even in passing) in your posts unless they are central to your thesis.

This kind of stuff is at best distracting, and at worst can cause major misunderstandings. For me it engenders a certain kind of distrust: is the author trying to purposefully rile me or anyone else in their audience? It feels quite unprofessional as a whole.

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

Hi Zach,

Thx for the comment. Maybe we have to go through an unpleasant experience once to understand what you’ve resonated with from the article and what I wrote. Or maybe multiple times. Who knows

Regarding the quote, what I meant was that I’m no social justice warrior to go on and leave 1-star reviews to that company because they didn’t cancel my subscription.

It’s just that I’d rather build more, instead of spending time to destroy what someone else did. Or, I’ve heard stories of people buying thousands of negative reviews, thus destroying reputations

I write as I’d be speaking and I use a lot of relaxed language. Sometimes it sets people off because it’s not professional and I understand, but the core of value is there (or at least I’m trying to make it so).

Thx for your comment! Any parts that stood out for you besides this one?

CommieBobDole3• 7 years ago

That's not really what "social justice warrior" means - generally speaking, it's a term used by people on the political right to describe (and generally disparage) people on the political left who talk a lot about identity politics, etc.

It's a politically loaded term that, regardless of your position on the subject, looks a little bit odd in an article about user offboarding.

Townley• 7 years ago

I think GP's point was that "social justice warrior" is a loaded term with a political agenda behind it, and that using it detracts from your overall point (both in the article, and in your explanation for using it in the above comment)

fipple• 7 years ago

The term “social justice warrior” doesn’t refer in modern parlance to people who leave bad reviews for SaaS products. It’s a term referring to a particular conflict in American culture/politics and just detracts from any point you’re trying to make.

chillfox2• 7 years ago

I suggest being careful about using the "social justice warrior" label, it does not seem to have settled on a solid definition yet.

So far I have almost exclusively seen it used to attack women in computer games. This is the first time I have seen it used to refer to people 1-staring reviews.

TeMPOraL2• 7 years ago

Since other commenters are not getting through to you, let me put it differently: by using this particular term, you've just taken a side in an ongoing sociopolitical conflict. This conflict is kind of huge on the Internet these days, so a good chunk of your audience knows about it, whether through participating or hiding from collateral damage. Unless you want to participate in this turmoil, you should never do that.

Real-world analogy: imagine you're a a businessman in a real-world place that has suddenly gone to war for some reason. Even though the shootouts and shellings are happening elsewhere, you probably don't want to wear what happens to be insignia or flag or the holy symbol of one of the sides. Not only would that risk one side shooting you for misappropriation, and the other for being an enemy symphatizer, your customers would probably not want to be anywhere near to you, lest they get shot by association. Doesn't matter that the symbol is just a cross, or just a bird. What matters is that there are two sides willing to beat other people up over it.

Or, put yet another way: you're poking a dragon. Don't. Especially if you're not getting anything out if it.

mikekchar• 7 years ago

And yet another slight different angle, in case it helps :-) Sometimes you feel strongly about a topic and so when you write about something that tangentially refers to it, it is very tempting to express that reference. Unfortunately, if you feel strongly about it there's a good chance that others also feel strongly in the opposite direction. The result is that you distract those people from the main reason you wrote the text.

Or in other words, you get on the front page of HN and the first 20 or 30 posts are talking about social justice warriors and not how to provide good exit experiences for users :-)

In a different, but similar way it's easy to miss your readers when talking about technical subjects. For example, if you have a very deep insight into a technical matter, it's often difficult to understand why your readers don't understand what you are talking about. The trick to good writing is to approach your reader on their terms and invite them in. If you can explain something in terms that they relate to, then suddenly they can understand it, whereas before they couldn't. It's easy to think that the reader is uneducated and that's why they didn't understand. However, it is the purpose of the writing to educate the reader.

In the same way, you might think that the reader should not get distracted by an offhand comment. It might be easy to fault the reader for not being able to see it in the context that you see it. However, just like the uneducated reader that can't understand a technical topic, you can't expect your reader to understand your context without a considerable amount of effort to set the stage. As it is not the main topic of your thesis, it becomes a bridge too far for the reader and they miss your point entirely.

fxfan• 7 years ago

Look you are definitely responding to keyboard warriors who have nothing but finding negativity wherever they can.

Don't worry about them. Your statement was fine- you seem annoyed by a certain class of people and its fair for you to name them in your own blog.

MultusSalus• 7 years ago

It stuck out to me too as something which didn’t really add anything to the content, and certainly seemed to entail some culture war signalling. Maybe something like keyboard warrior would have been more suitable.

ams6110• 7 years ago

See also: Any cable/internet service. Just try to go onto the Comcast website and close your account, or even move to a lower tier of service.

They will happily let you add new services to your account, but to remove or cancel anything? You need to call or visit a service center.

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

That's exactly what I'm advocating against! I do see this happening every time in dying industries: when they know it as well (they do, trust me), it so happens that they're clinging onto every single penny they can do. And I understand why.

mcny• 7 years ago

For what is worth, I recently told Verizon FiOS I'm moving out of the country and they let me cancel without any hesitation. They'll sneakily try to send me one more months bill from what I've read online but other than that it is pretty straight forward.

smsm42• 7 years ago

Comcast though in most places is in monopolistic or oligopolistic stance - it's either the only way to have decent internet, or one of the two/three which are equally bad on service. Thus, no incentive to do better.

codazoda• 7 years ago

I recently signed up for a service. It's a service I wanted to try and might return to, but I found some alternatives I also wanted to try, some of them free.

The cancellation was so difficult; pick up the phone and wait on hold a while, that I will never go back. Even though I might want the service again, I lost faith in the company.

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

Exactly my point. Had that as well and it's such a pain to spend that amount of time, it leads to distrust. Thx for the example

ianai3• 7 years ago

The current monthly recurring charges thing and making it difficult to cancel is similar to the hard, six hour-plus your purchase of a car at a dealership. If I had to go through that with, say, a grocery store or even a restaurant I’d never go back to either. The only thing that makes the hard sale remotely feasible for a car retailer is the infrequency of purchasing a car.

TheSpiceIsLife3• 7 years ago

I wonder about this.

I've never bought a car from a used car yard or new car dealership, so I can't talk from experience.

In Australia, residential real estate sales contract have a mandatory 28 day minimum cooling off period. I don't know anything about commercial real estate, so can't comment on that.

In a way it makes some sense that the other large purchase(s) in life should have a somewhat protracted sales experience. If you could walk in to a car sales yard and just buy a car chip and pin style, I suspect things could go downhill quite rapidly.

I haven't really thought this through very much, so I'm wide open to head different perspectives.

mikeash4• 7 years ago

I ordered my last two cars online. The more recent one was delivered to my house. I spent a few minutes signing paperwork and we were done. There’s no reason the experience has to be anything more than that.

ianai3• 7 years ago

The car purchase I referred is deeply confrontational. They want to force you to buy a car at the worst possible terms.

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

hopefully we'll be turning away from models like these. I believe deep down that "nature finds its way" (so to speak) for disruptors to change that.

that's what's the loveliest thing about the internet - for a shitton of things, the cost of entry is 0 now

kylnew• 7 years ago

If nothing else, please ask your customers why they are leaving/cancelling. It makes me feel like a company doesn’t care and won’t get better if they don’t ask leaving customers why.

toast0• 7 years ago

Make it clearly optional though. I'm not spending 30 minutes (or whatever) answering your questions when I already hate you.

TeMPOraL2• 7 years ago

Yup. Make it an extra step after confirming my account is closed.

I probably don't hate you, but if you make this as an interruption to me cancelling, I very well just might.

Also, I think having just a free-form text box is best. The text of options in the radio list of reasons tells a lot about the mindset of the company. Quite often, not the nicest things.

ndnxhs• 7 years ago

I usually take that time to fill the comments box with a huge list of all the ongoing bugs, all the missing features and things that have annoyed me.

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

you're a good person. I myself don't do it either, unless they've helped me a lot and I feel like giving back. but yeah, just like someone else pointed out, if I hate you, no way i'm writing it

reificator2• 7 years ago

I tend to think exactly the opposite. When I try to cancel I want to see a page that lets me cancel, not a survey to ask why I'm cancelling. It feels like a last ditch effort from a clingy, depressive/low-self-esteem lover.

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

That kind of survey's without a doubt annoying. Another thing I advocate for is getting 1-on-1 with the customer (as a CEO/Founder). If I'd get a direct email from that person that has a chance of not being pre-written (sometimes you can't tell, gotta give benefit of doubt), then hell yes I'll tell you what it is that got me out. Even if I hate you.

Caring is important, even if you're caring about your business in the grand scheme of things

corobo• 7 years ago

In your opinion would be be alright to meet in the middle? A sort of no-frills cancel process with a survey/question after the cancel's gone through?

That way your cancel's done and dusted but with the option to feedback if you fancy it

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

Another thing I stand for — getting in touch with users. But actually getting in touch, like "hey, here's my number. tell me what is it that you didn't like and I'll listen"

empath752• 7 years ago

if you make it a pain for me to cancel, I will never sign up for your service again.

Someone1234• 7 years ago

Retentions is part of a short-term-thinking culture that has become pervasive among US businesses.

You use dark patterns/make it hard to cancel that might help you this quarter but ultimately you're dragging your business's reputation through the mud. Once those customers leave they aren't likely to return ever.

What's interesting is that businesses KNOW THIS, it isn't some secret voodoo, they know aggressive retention strategies result in long term dissatisfaction. But the way upper tier compensation is structured many executives can ride the short bump to bonuses, then get the gold parachute out the door as things implode.

In essence bosses are current incentivized to burn long term viability for short term bumps, and this is just one of many side-effects.

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

When companies spend time to make it hard for you to unsubscribe it's hell. Like those people you may have seen in your life who are living through hell — but it's a certain level of hell that can't be achieved without their effort.

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

the point of the article in a sentence. thank u!

CapitalistCartr• 7 years ago

My rule of bosses, girlfriends, companies, etc. is: You learn what they are really like when you leave. That's when they show what's buried deep.

Full disclosure: I'm married two years now.

beachy• 7 years ago

I don't know how to interpret your second sentence. Are you planning to get divorced to make sure she/he's right for you?

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

Thought the same, never articulated the thought. When I choose something as trivial as a barber or some other day-to-day service, I look at this— do they answer to complaints on Google Maps reviews?

I don't mind them making mistakes — everyone does. Will they blame it on me without even listening or will there be a mature human being with whom I can talk?

Zanni• 7 years ago

Barriers to exit are barriers to entry.

If you make it hard for me to leave, I'm less likely to come back. If you make it hard for me to leave, I won't recommend you to my friends. If I hear that you make it hard for me to leave, I'm less likely to sign up in teh first place.

noneeeed2• 7 years ago

Pretty much this. In the past I've signed up to NowTV (UK streaming service) solely to get Game of Thrones for about two months of the year. They make it really easy to stop and start your packages. If it was hard to leave I'm not sure I'd sign up and would be more inclined to consider "alternative avenues"...

The ironic example of an organisation that made it hard for me to leave was Which?, which is similar to Consumer Reports I think. It's a self declared "champion of consumer rights" etc. I signed up when we were buying a load of appliances for a new kitchen. I had to google how to cancel my subscription and involved sending an email to the right address and eventually someone would get round to it. Ridiculously hypocritical.

tolien2• 7 years ago

Possible it’s changed since you cancelled but when I signed up last month the email address (which@which.co.uk) was printed in the jacket around the first magazine they sent. When I emailed to cancel I got a response literally within minutes (at 0044 — guessing its outsourced) confirming that they’d got my request and would process it.

Surprisingly painless, given their website says you need to phone [1].

1: https://www.which.co.uk/help/our-policies-and-standards/1973...

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

Speaking of GOT, I know for sure I'd love it to death given I've been through LOTR some years ago but I'm so afraid it'll get me addicted and I won't do shit until I'm done with the 6-7 seasons (idk how many there are)

Thx for the example. Surely we can learn from it. But as I mentioned above, I do see the value in it for those who do it in a dying industry. Obviously value for them, not for the end consumer — I naturally don't stand up for doing that given what I written in the article. It's as if they're trying to cling to every last penny they could get in the short-term because there's no more long-term

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

Got you. When I choose something as trivial as a barber or some other day-to-day service, I look at this— do they answer to complaints on Google Maps reviews?

I don't mind them making mistakes — everyone does. Will they blame it on me without even listening or will there be a mature human being with whom I can talk?

Vanderson2• 7 years ago

Late 90s/early 00s, there were companies that I bumped into that would lock a site's data and resources up so a customer couldn't leave.

Because of this, one of the first features I build in my CMS was a full export function. All your templates, all your data and all your files.

Why? Because when you put money, time and effort into building a site you want your clients to feel good about this decision in every way. I don't want people to even _feel_ trapped, even if they aren't.

Trapping people breeds animosity, I don't see how it could ever help. But I am not sure that providing an RMA with every purchase is even needed if you can get them one easily enough if they ask. Maybe I missed something in this article?

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

But this is it about the RMA — why have them ask instead of facilitating it? They'd ask, it takes some minutes online, then they send it digitally — takes a working day or two.

Here's what I think it's been going through their mind. Probably (idk, I'm not the owner of Asos or another big retailer) they wanted to avoid the situation in which someone says "fuck it, it wasn't that expensive anyways, I'd rather keep/donate the clothes rather than return them" - and then never shop again

As opposed to "okay, returning takes 30 minutes less because I have the return labels" which, in turn, can mean more business. Because the relationship is trying to be built

Vanderson2• 7 years ago

I am certainly not going to defend a situation I am unfamiliar with.

My thought was simply that through the years of online shopping I have never seen a return label in a package that I can recall, but getting an RMA has rarely been an issue. (we are careful where we shop though)

If these guys are making RMA's hard that is totally different.

Edit: I may be confusing RMA (a request) with an actual "shipping label".

jaabe• 7 years ago

Exit strategies have become an important architecturual requirements when we buy systems. I know this article is pointed at consumers, and the comparison to buying clothes is excellent, but it’s actuallly a big thing in modern enterprise as well.

We buy systems we know are going to die. Sometimes they even die because the supplier build something completely new, but mostly it happens when we go to the competition. In either case we still need to be able to migrate our data and business logic seamlessly, and the companies who can’t show us an exit-strategy up front, putting it to contract 4-5 years before we need it, are much less likely to get our business.

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

I know this article is pointed at consumers, and the comparison to buying clothes is excellent, but it’s actuallly a big thing in modern enterprise as well.

That's what I say in some other written pieces of mine — even if it's B2B, it's still people behind it when deals are closed and hands are shaken.

In either case we still need to be able to migrate our data and business logic seamlessly

In a sense it's about honour. Think samurais.

If the company you're doing business with helps you even when you move away from them, they're indirectly saying they respect an unspoken code of honour, which leads to

putting it to contract 4-5 years before we need it, are much less likely to get our business.

getting your trust. thx for the comment!

rlayton2• 7 years ago

I cancelled Basecamp today, because it didn't fit with my workflow, and the whole thing was easy. So much so, I would probably be using it again in the future (I work mostly by myself, need a "master todo list" and with many different teams, Basecamp doesn't fit this working style, but nothing I've tried does). I'll recommend Basecamp to larger teams, and part of that is the exit.

Here's what Basecamp did:

* on their monthly receipt email, they have a link directly to the cancel option.

* They remind you to get your data on the way out, and give a link, right there, to go get it

* They give you your data

* They cancel straight away, and ask if it's ok to survey you (optional).

After reading the book It doesn't have to be crazy at work (https://basecamp.com/books/calm ) I understood the mentality perfectly. I wish them all the best for their product.

bachmeier• 7 years ago

Had the same experience with Basecamp, except after cancelling, circumstances changed and now we're paying customers. It's not common to encounter a company these days that thinks the customer experience is more important than the quarterly revenue numbers.

Todoist is another such company. I tried their premium plan a while back and it wasn't what I was looking for. It was remarkably easy to cancel. Work changed, and I didn't hesitate to buy a subscription.

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

I'll check todoist as well — thx for mentioning it! Hopefully yeah, it will become the standard to facilitate even the churn process

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

I like what Basecamp are about and the way they've sculpted their brand — voice, feeling, visuals etc.

I wish them all the best for their product.

That's their win. And actually your whole post in itself. Wouldnt' be surprised if someone else starts buying their service thanks to a comment like this one or you mentioning it to a friend.

Thx for the example!

gbersac• 7 years ago

You might be an exception. If you leave a service, you probably will never return. It might still be more profitable to just make sure the customer stay as long as possible by creating barriers to leaving.

ok_coo• 7 years ago

I understand business people having this kind of mentality, but don't they realize that it can create resentment?

I've gone out of my way to cancel (and permanently ignore) certain services in the past when I discovered how difficult it was to cancel (and port my data).

jellicle• 7 years ago

But for the rest of my life, if someone asks me about X, I'll remember the experience and give my opinions about it.

And our remembrance of a thing is heavily weighted by the last or most recent part of the experience.

Businesses will go to any lengths to get a good review on Yelp or whatever, but are happy to permanently contaminate the experiences of every single one of their experienced customers by making it really hard and painful to leave. This is crazy.

joekrill• 7 years ago

But that's so short-sighted. There are other things to consider. Word of mouth is powerful, and if you make it difficult people are going to remember that and tell their peers/friends/coworkers/whoever. And what's going to happen if you decide to pivot, create another product, or add additional value? If you made it so difficult the first time around why would I give it a second chance?

michaelt• 7 years ago

People leave services then return to them later all the time.

I've lived one place and needed an internet connection, moved in with someone so I didn't need an internet connection, moved again and I needed a connection again.

I've used Trello, closed my account in preference for Jira, then later in a different job with different needs used Trello again.

Hell, for a lot of products I'd say that former customers - who have a proven need for the thing the product does, and a proven willingness to pay for a product that does it - are probably the single demographic most likely to be future customers.

JackPoach• 7 years ago

Wow, it's 2019 and there are people still using Basecamp...

gautamnarula• 7 years ago

They also talk about this philosophy in their earlier book Getting Real (which I highly recommend, one of the best product books I've read): respect your customers by making it easy for them to cancel and take their data with them and avoid the dark patterns so many companies use with cancellation.

tb303• 7 years ago

This is all fine and good when someone's writing words about it on the internet, but anyone in this discussion who has built / is building a product knows that you're constantly triaging. And when you are triaging, the last thing you are going to prioritize is spending eng resources on a great experience for cancellation. I see some comments here with things like "if it's hard for me to cancel, I'll likely never X again." Well, the stats show you're not going to anyway even if we made it seamless.

masklinn• 7 years ago

While that is true, it seems many companies spend eng resources specifically to create a shitty cancellation experience. It's not just that they could make it better with some effort, it's that they had to work hard to make it that bad.

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

it's true. it's easy to talk theory and harder to put it in practice. but then again, I wrote the article having in mind a conversation between me and the tech company that has a healthy amount of captured value (i.e. profits, in direct speech) — they can afford to devote resources on the long tail of profitability

but just like the other answer to your comment, it's more about when companies spend time to make it hard. Like those people you may have seen in your life who are living through hell — but it's a certain level of hell that can't be achieved without their effort.

what's your industry, if you feel like sharing? competitive, by chance?

snorremd• 7 years ago

Now that we have the GDPR law I would almost think a clear exit experience would be necessary to truly comply with the law as well. An EU user should be able to request her user to be deleted together with her data. At this point you might as well make it a nice button on your service's profile administration page.

imustbeevil• 7 years ago

I recently tried going through my saved passwords in chrome and closing down accounts I don't really want anymore.

The overwhelming majority of sites that have some kind of information about me do not have options to close accounts directly through the website. I was under the impression it was illegal to prevent someone from closing an account / hold data indefinitely, so I have to assume there's some way to call in or email to have this done, but any additional outreach just feels like giving them more information about myself and I'd rather just ghost.

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

it might be illegal but since there's no such thing as an internet police, who can be there to check every single website. In the grand scheme of things, I do believe that nature does its own thing and eventually these businesses will be cleared away

sascha_sl• 7 years ago

Why would you seriously use the term "social justice warrior" in an article...

OJFord2• 7 years ago

FYI I can't load your site without third-party JS... unless I also 'ad' block `mauer-narrator-preloader` (which seems not to be an ad, but just a spinning circle)...

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

oh damn, thank you. what browser are you using? I'll see what can be done

OJFord2• 7 years ago

Firefox

mcv• 7 years ago

In the aftermath of the killing of Google+, I've been thinking that if I ever started a social network, one of my main advertising features would be that you would always be able to get all of your information out, and set up shop elsewhere. Ideally, the code base would be open source, so they can just deploy their own server, upload their data, and continue like nothing changed.

Of course the real lock-in with social networks is the connections with other people there, which is why everybody is staying on Facebook despite its universally agreed awfulness. To fight that, you need something like Hubzilla's nomadic identity.

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

Thanks for the comm. Surely yeah, packaging the data for the end consumer is aligned with the idea of the post

hopler• 7 years ago

Are the existing open source social networks not enough?

xg15• 7 years ago

Here we can read: A thread full of thought-out responses and arguments why an option to close your account is necessary - on a platform that doesn't allow you to close your account.

chdaniel30• 7 years ago

hahaha, just created mine yesterday and I didn't know that. I don't think it's as bad when all they require of you is account name and password (so no data to be sold, presumably) and it's free — I do get the "irony" though

0xcde4c3db2• 7 years ago

I think the recommended method of "closing" an HN account is to change the password to a long random string that you don't record anywhere. If you want more than that, it likely opens up a possibility of abuse.

bassman9000• 7 years ago

Anyone on why Spotify doesn't allow you to export playlists?

owens99• 7 years ago

Seeing the OP relentlessly defend his use of the word SJW in this thread is the most entertaining thing I've read today. I have to applaud all the commenters who tried to do the right thing and explain to him his mistake. Yet the guy can't take a hint!

fastbmk• 7 years ago

FastBMK also allows you to export/import all of you data :)

http://fastbmk.com/

Don't hold users hostage, facilitate their exit

Related Stories