The worst marketing strategy? Making your customers scale Mount Everest just to cancel their subscription.
Trying to fatigue and frustrate someone into staying isn’t good for any relationship.
I’ve been there–no cancellation button, no contact number, and no chat option. It was a game of email ping-pong and being ghosted on and off until I finally managed to cancel.
Did it frustrate and slow me down in canceling? Absolutely. But was it likely to make me return as a customer? Not a chance.
And worse yet, that experience didn’t just cost the company a future return customer – it cost them my positive word-of-mouth and impacted their brand impression too.
So here’s a thought: Let’s flip this around. Let’s make it EASY for customers to cancel.
Because a customer who leaves on good terms is more likely to return, reconvert, and to share positive experiences even if they decided your product wasn’t the right fit.
A positive cancellation moment doesn’t have to be an end. It can be an opportunity—to understand customer needs better, and possibly, to recapture some revenue by offering a discount to stay or a lower-priced package as an alternative.
Stay or not, a positive and smooth experience can turn even a canceling customer into a brand ambassador.