How Cancelled Subscriptions Affect Your Business
No one wants their customers to cancel a subscription. You have put in so much work in getting the customer in the first place and much more work in keeping them happy. You may feel bad when you get a notification that a subscriber has canceled their subscription.
Whether you like it or not, this type of notification will come but how you react is what matters. Your success depends on how you handle each cancellation and prevent more people from canceling their subscriptions.
What to do when you get a notification for canceling a subscription?
People will cancel their subscription for several reasons. This does not mean that your service is bad or that you are doing something wrong. Put yourself in their shoes and think of what made them sign up in the first place. Then make an attempt to convince them to stay back by showing them the same benefit that made them subscribed at first. Or you can offer them additional benefits than what made them join. This will show that you care and may help you retain a customer that is about to go.
One of the reasons why it is important to make sure that your customers do not cancel their subscriptions is because it is less expensive to retain customers than to acquire new ones. You can offer customers a discount on their subscription instead of canceling their subscription. They are likely going to take advantage of the offer and decide to stay. And where it is possible, you can even decide to give them 1–2 months free subscription as an incentive to continue subscribing.
Everybody wants to be heard so give your customers the opportunity to tell you what is on their mind and the reason they may have cancelled. Offer support to your customers and make it easy for them to contact you. You can add your contact information and even ask someone who wants to cancel their subscription to contact you for an opportunity to address their issue before they make the final decision. Most people will contact you and you can use the opportunity to convince them to stay. After all, they signed up for your service in the first place, so there must have been interest in the product.
It is important to allow customers to know that they can cancel their subscription at any time. Although this is not what you want them to do, it gives them the idea that you are transparent and that they are in control. It’s simply good customer service. If they decide to cancel their subscription, the next page they will see can highlight the benefits of your services and remind them what they will miss if they cancel their subscription. There is a good chance they are going to change their mind when they remember that they are not going to get these benefits again. Even if they decide to cancel, this is an opportunity to make corrections and improvements on your product that may cause others to cancel as well.
No matter what you do, you will still have some customers that will cancel their subscription. Don’t fret as it’s a normal part of the business process. You should see this as an opportunity to grow. When a customer cancels their subscription, make use of the opportunity to find out what made them want to stop their subscription. It can be in the form of a questionnaire that accompanies the unsubscribe page or you can give them a call to understand what their needs are.
Customers canceling their subscriptions will ultimately happen in your business. You cannot avoid it but you can make the best decision out of it. You can know what products and services you need to improve on or change.
Have an interesting story of how you retained customers when they were about to cancel? Let us know! You can follow us on twitter at @monthlypro or reach our development team at info@monthlypro.com.
