You Want To What? Cancel?

By Rosanne D'Ausilio, Ph.D.

 

 

I recently read about (and maybe some of you have also had personal experience with) AOL’s (News - Alert) corporate customer retention policy. Did you know they actually have a Retention Manual that says (and I’m paraphrasing) that every member calling in to cancel their account is a hot lead? So go for it!

 

Now I’m not arguing the point that existing customers are your best opportunity to up sell, cross sell and/or turn them into a satisfied customer.

 

However, if you have ever tried to cancel an AOL account, you may have had the experience of someone at AOL arguing with you for three or four minutes not allowing you to cancel. The frustration, upset, and waste of time, is totally unnecessary.

 

My opinion is very clear. If someone wants to cancel, let them. Even help them through the process. Give them the best customer service you can. If they want to go, you don’t want them to stay. You want to keep your focus on the people who do stay.

 

However, it would certainly be very useful to know ‘why’ someone is canceling — feedback is always important. How do you find out? Ask the customer. It may be something you can correct, and in turn, they might change their mind and not cancel. But give them the space to choose. Don’t jam people.

 

Again when someone is clear they want to cancel, let them. It helps to separate the wheat from the chaff. If customers are not satisfied, they won’t buy more and more importantly, they’ll tell more people than you want to know.

 

While I hate to see anyone unsubscribe from my list, if they’re not happy, I’m not happy. To me it’s all about relationship strategy and the goal, of course, is win/win/win (the customer, you, the company.)

 

Dr. D’Ausilio is author of Wake Up Your Call Center: Humanize Your Interaction Hub, hot off the press and in its 4th edition, Customer Service and the Human Experience (co-authored with Dr. Jon Anton) and Lay Your Cards on the Table: 52 Ways to Stack Your Personal Deck (with a 32-card deck of cards), all available at www.human-technologies.com.

For a free ‘tips’ newsletter on How to Kick Your Customer Service Up A Notch visit http://www.HumanTechTips.com.