Easy To Cancel makes it Easier to Sign Up

Easy To Cancel makes it Easier to Sign Up(gettingmoreawesome.com)

75 points by hshah 14 years ago | 13 comments

shawndrost 14 years ago |

The Drost Axiom: Whenever you see a common practice that everyone hates, it's because IT'S A MONEY MACHINE BABY.

Corollary: Don't gum up my hacker news feed with blog posts championing the antidote that everyone loves, because they don't matter.

As to the actual content of the article: Netflix advertises their cancellation policy less than they advertise the fact that they accept all major credit cards. That sidebar is just a bunch of comforting words; a long-form sales blurb for people that want to read something while they teeter on the fence.

mmahemoff 14 years ago |

Reminds me of an old Joel Spolsky post about eliminating barriers to exit, not just entry. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000052.html

'Now suppose one brave ISP would make the following promise: "Try us. If you don't like us, we'll keep your email address functioning, and we'll forward your email for free to any other ISP. For life. Hop around from ISP to ISP as many times as you want, just let us know, and we'll be your permanent forwarding service."'

(Yes, there was a time when people actually tied their email to their ISP's domain.)

dhx 14 years ago |

Splitting long forms across multiple pages can be detrimental to usability.

As a user, I want to know what information is going to be requested of me prior to commencing completion of the forms. I don't want to reach the payment page after filling in countless other fields to discover that my preferred payment method won't be accepted or the shipping rates are unacceptable. Placing form fields on a single page means that the user doesn't have to hand over information at the risk of not receiving something in return.

Requesting an email address or password multiple times is frustrating too. Hacker News gets this right. To sign up, all a user has to do is type text into two fields, click a button and it's done - ready to use.

natrius 14 years ago | |

"As a user, I want to know what information is going to be requested of me prior to commencing completion of the forms."

What you want doesn't necessarily correlate with what will make a business the most money. I'd bet that significantly more people complete the forms when they're split, and people don't have a significant negative reaction to being "tricked" into a multi-step sign up process.

badclient 14 years ago |

I'll wait for more evidence that making it super duper clear that you can cancel significantly improves conversion.

Now this doesn't mean that cancellation may be a non-significant factor. I just think that it is more of a macro factor than a micro one that can be done right on just your own site and be expected to have an impact. If the last three sites the user signed up on had shitty cancellation, your text promising ease of cancelation is undoubtful to convince them. That doesn't mean you shouldn't have it; it does mean you should manage expectations in terms of it's influence on conversion rate.

brohee 14 years ago | |

Maybe it doesn't help first time convertion, but I can easily see how it can make it easier for a lost customer to return. A hard to cancel service means burning all bridges with leaving customers.

robryan 14 years ago |

I find even with fairly easy cancellation forms online there is usually to much stuff trying to get me to not cancel and trying to use subtle emotional messages to change my mind.

If I've come to this page generally it is probably too late to try and convince me not to cancel something.

Shenglong 14 years ago |

Simple and true. Difficult cancellation processes are really annoying. I recently cancelled two services, and even though I called them thanking them and opened a ticket, they still kept sending me expiration notices for over a month. Gosh.

MichaelApproved 14 years ago |

I feel the same way about email. If I know you're running your list through someone like Mail Chimp, I'm more likely to give you my email address, because I know how easy they make it to unsubscribe.

younata 14 years ago |

Isn't it also easier to implement if you don't force the customer to go through a rather long and annoying cancel form?

Win-win for the developer and the user, then.

sirclueless 14 years ago | |

Perhaps win-win for the customers and developers, but not so win-win for the investors.

Personal gyms practically make their living out of impossible-to-cancel memberships.

Some economist should do an analysis of how much money is spent on unwanted/unused subscription fees. I bet the answer would be interesting.

freejack 14 years ago | | |

Some economist should do an analysis of the long term prospects of a company that builds "screwing the customer" into their business model.

I'm consistently surprised at how many people think its okay to push the bounds of what's acceptable in this area. I've taken the view in my business that "no games" is the only way to build long term value and I receive feedback daily from my customers how refreshing our approach is.

It is definitely a win-win for everyone, including investors, when a business can build long-time value. I'd argue its the best type of win.

robryan 14 years ago | | |

I think a larger factor is gyms is people really liking the idea of working out all the time and while unable to commit to it they don't want to throw in the towel and quit the gym. Even if cancellation is just a phone call away plenty prefer to keep them.