Retaining Subscribers Who Want to Cancel

No matter how integral customer retention efforts are to your company’s policy, even the most successful companies will still experience churn rates of 20 percent or more. While it’s not possible to change every customer’s mind, the huge cost disparity between retention and acquisition makes it important for a business with a recurring model to craft a cost-effective strategy that’s ready to go when a customer wants to cancel immediately.

Adjust the Sales Philosophy

When it comes to a customer who is so dissatisfied that they are calling or writing to cancel immediately, the worst thing a business can do is re-pitch its “new customer” sales routine. After all, the promises and promotions made there are already known to the customer, and they’ve clearly found them lacking. When a dissatisfied customer feels that they’re being treated like somebody who hasn’t even subscribed yet, they’re likely to feel personally insulted and will only double down on their desire to cancel.

Instead, it’s time to pivot the sales philosophy into one that accurately targets the customer’s profile, provides guarantees for future service, and leaves the door open for full retention even if they remain uncertain.

Make it Personal

In order to sell the customer on retaining their subscription, a company needs to be able to accurately identify the trigger points that will persuade them to stay. To this end, a business should already have data available that allows them to place a customer into one of several broad categories, with associated language and strategies pre-planned for customer reps and customer communications.

For example, conservative, cost-conscious customers are more likely to respond to words like, “discount,” “small fee,” and “free.” Service-oriented customers, on the other hand, want to hear words like “personal,” “guaranteed,” and “customized.”

Provide Guarantees

Once a customer has been personally categorized, a business needs to provide guarantees that it will do better at meeting those personalized needs. The goal here should be to make each customer feel that they’ve been lifted out of the general pool of consumers and are now receiving individualized service. The most effective way to do so is to assign a single customer representative to work with the subscriber, as they’ll then become the personal face of the company. This allows them to build a real company-to-client relationship that’s harder for the customer to ascribe negative feelings to.

Keep the Door Open

In many cases, a subscriber will remain determined to cancel even after steps are taken, and in that case a company should never hesitate to take action that leaves the door open for retention in the future. This will likely require offering a deeply discounted product, and may even require a period of free service. Since the costs of acquiring a new customer are so much higher than retaining current subscribers, even that free offering remains the best choice for the bottom line.

Once the subscriber agrees to delay their cancellation, the business should then use that open door to reinforce its personalized commitments and rebuild the relationship to complete the retention process.

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