Smart ways to seduce customers when they are leaving
Like any other relationship, the relationships between customers and the product come and go. Many great players know this fact very well so they try to give a better user experience even while customers are leaving. I would like to share several good references that seem to put very deep-thoughts about below user flows.
- Once a paid customer enters the service to unsubscribe, it is almost impossible to stop them to do it.
- If a customer didn’t subscribe after the trial period, it is much harder to make them subscribe or even use the free-trial itself.
Let’s see how big players deal with these problems!
Adobe Pro, “ We want to provide any other solution to keep you here”
It seems like there are too many steps to cancel the plan but it’s for good reasons.
At step 3, they provide 3 different offers to seduce leaving customers at the last minute. I think this is a very strategic approach in that every customer would have different reasons for canceling.
- If there’s any other plan that’s right for you. You can still have a chance to switch.
- If the reason for canceling is the price, we are open to talking about a custom deal with you.
- Having a problem with our product? We’re happy to provide technical help if you need it.
That’s why Adobe is offering 3 different offers that could satisfy more customers. I don’t know how much this design has been reduced the actual number of leaving customers. However, I dare assume that many customers could have just left without giving any feedback or asking help stopped at this step and provided a meaning customer’s real voice more.
And there’s one more thing surprising. It’s the free-trial end experience of Adobe.
- Even after the trial period is over, Adobe allows customers to use the service just for the day they enter. They give the last chance for customers to use it for the day even if the trial is over.
I like the urgency Adobe creates with the last chance 24-hour usage — psychological approach to creating fear of missing out.
Linkedin, “There is nothing to lose trying free-trial again. We’ll notify you 7 days before the trial ends to prevent you to waste money.”
After reading all this content, I had no hesitation to try out the free-trial because Linkedin would let me know about the upcoming payment.
- Linkedin really makes sure that they are going to charge you after a month and they’re going to notify users via email 7 days before the trial ends.
- A lot of other players don’t actually notify users anything before the trial ends and they just charge them. And many users would feel betrayal even it was their choice(at least I feel that way)
Many people would not be hesitant to subscribe to this free-trial and they’re going to pay for the next month if they’re truly happy with the trial period. I think this is a clever way to retain subscribers who are really satisfied and linger for a long time in their service.
Then how about Netflix? Actually, they’re very pretty cool about it.
You’re given two options. The first one is ‘Finish cancellation’ and the second one is another plan.
The reason why the cancellation and subscription process of Netflix is that simple is quite expectable. Millions of people come and go on Netflix monthly so they need to make this flow super easy and simple.
Considering the difference in the nature of each business and product, the strategic how we(as a product maker) retain customers would differ. Unless a subscription model doesn’t exist in this field, there will be many different creative approaches to keep people stay as long as possible. Then, as a product designer, our job is to create a feasible solution for our own product.
My one simple takeaway is this.
It’s all about thoughtful content experience and seamless interactions!!
Published on Medium: https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/smart-ways-to-seduce-customers-who-are-leaving-9ff37fa9474b