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Easy Out = Easy In
I've blogged about this before, but it's pretty clear to me that one of the best ways to attract and keep customers is to make it easy for them to stop being customers.
Randall Stross has a good column in the sunday business section of the NY Times about the AOL customer service recording that went up on a blog . He ends it with this observation about doing business with Netflix versus AOL:
When I took a look to see whether Netflix offered a way for a customer to cancel membership swiftly while online, I discovered that it provides a procedure — a click on a link, a click on a checkmark box, and one more click to complete — that would take no more than two seconds. No exit interviews, no last-ditch offers while I'm held captive on the phone. Seeing how Netflix would be so protective of my time were I to leave makes me all the more unlikely to do so.
Exactly.
Comments (6) | Posted July 2, 2006 in Venture Capital and Technology
Comments
Exactly. I've just proposed (on my blog) that anyone who allows easy online signups should allow easy online cancellations. Too many firms use this tactic to goose revenues at the expense of customer frustration. This practice should be condemmed and punished with bad press and negative reviews, and I think the last resort (legislation) should be considered. Taking money when someone wants to quit and prevented from reasonably doing so is a form of theft.
Posted by: Craig Danuloff | Jul 2, 2006 12:57:37 PM
Amen.
Posted by: Jason | Jul 2, 2006 2:07:30 PM
I want to name and shame my mobile phone (cell phone) company here in the UK - Vodafone. You cannot cancel an account on line, you cannot cancel an account on the phone, you cannot cancel an account in one of their myriad shops. The only way you can cancel an account is by writing them a letter printed out on paper, signed and posted to them. You know - despite the fact that they have a security system to let you do almost anything on the phone with them, they don't want to let you cancel. Shameful.
Posted by: ivan | Jul 2, 2006 2:47:21 PM
I used to use Netflix, but we just don't watch movies enough to make the service worth it to us.
I still recommend them to friends, and I am still a shareholder, since they are so easy to use in all aspects of their business.
Posted by: Tom Fakes | Jul 2, 2006 10:21:41 PM
I see the nice comments here about easy sign out process. Though, this does not hold for more complicated products. Such as someone doing purchase, leaving a site in between or cancelling transaction should be recorded with some kind of input (at least on random basis)so u know why u r losing the sale.
Posted by: Kedar | Jul 3, 2006 4:59:37 PM
that's a nice little anecdote, but it has nothing to do with reality for most of AOL customers, and AOL knows this, of course. AOL is in the business of making money, taking 'beginner' money, in particular. AOL specifically put in these procedures to continue ripping their customers long after their customers wanted out. Cell companies do the same thing, only they're not quite as criminal about it. AOL knows they can afford a couple of hundred thousand complaints a year to the FTC and others, because they own the politicians they need to own, and most people give up trying to stop donating money to AOL once AOL makes it near impossible for them to do so.
Also, when AOL people first sign-up, they're not thinking about how they're going to get offline - and how AOL is never going to let them get offline - they're thinking about porn and whatever else is driving them to get online in the first place. People are just excited about those free first 76,000,000 hours (that must be used within the first month).
It makes great business sense for AOL. Shoot, even people who claim to care about how easy it is to get off AOL need to think about where that benefit falls in the cost/benefit analysis when comparing services. Is it even a top 10 factor?
I hooked my mom up to AOL several times over the years and always had an impossible time canceling. But we always went back for more - there were no other options.
I still think there's a great business opportunity out there for a company that wants to build a portal that beginners can actually use. Think AOL without the ISP nonsense. Build a nice metaphor interface like Magic Cap or something - boom - hot stuff.
Posted by: Peter | Jul 3, 2006 6:14:58 PM
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