Sometimes you have to let the user go
Clingy services create unhealthy relationships.
In design and business, we talk a lot about retention: How we can keep the customers? And preferably as long as possible?
I propose a considerably different approach: The best way to keep the customers is to make it easy for them to leave. Don’t cling, let them go.
However, there’s more to the story. The difficulty of unsubscribing may indicate other challenges in the organization, its culture, and values. This, in turn, relates to how the organization relates to its customers. Therefore, this is a story about relationships and trust.
The importance of control
Let’s start the story by taking a step back. I moved some time ago, and if you are anything like me, you would rather save that energy for something else. For a month, all evenings and weekends are spent organizing stuff, cleaning, and negotiating. There are so many things to keep in mind that I had to resort to a Kanban board. “Leisure times” starts to look an awful lot like project management.
Looking at my Move-Priorities Kanban board, I made a discovery. There are roughly two types of items: things I can control — finding boxes, packing, cleaning etc. — and things I can’t. The latter category included primarily interactions with different service providers regarding electricity, internet, insurance, and the like.
Emotionally, the two categories were considerably different. The first did require time and effort but caused no undue stress. Meanwhile, the latter led to anxiety. Why?
We worry much more about things we can’t control than those that we can.
If I now take a step back (which I perhaps couldn’t back then!) and put on my designer glasses, I learned quite a lot from my interactions with different service providers. Let’s compare two real-life scenarios and see how they played out.
With my internet service provider, I had to start by finding their name because — to be honest — I had completely forgotten it. Finding it from my web bank, I tried to login to their web portal only to find it requires the creation of a specific account even if I have no interest in using it more than once. After some back-forth with the passwords, I found the service provider is happy to sell me more services on the platform. But to terminate a contract, you need to contact their support; information I found by googling. They promise to answer within a few days to the ticket I created.
In short: it was a hassle.
Let’s contrast this to the experience with my insurance provider: I signed in to their portal through my bank and with two clicks, the contract was terminated. Simply brilliant.
I don’t think it’s hard to guess which one still has me as their customer.
Trust and retention
I emphasize that the differences between the two services go beyond usability and user experience. While it is important services are intuitive and easy to use, this is not our focus here. The focus is on the philosophy and mindset with which the service is created.
We should consider the ease of unsubscribing as one of the key indicators regarding organization’s customer-centricity. It is the tip of the iceberg that speaks on the values of the business behind the service.
To build on this line of thinking, I make three arguments:
- Ease of (un)subscribing improves your retention
- Retention is based on trust
- Difficulties in unsubscribing indicate deeper organizational challenges
1. Ease of (un)subscribing improves your retention
“I don’t remember how many times I have subscribed to Netflix. Every time I want to watch something, I pay 9€, and then directly unsubscribe. This way I get just what I want, when I want it. It’s so easy, you should try it.” my friend explained.
“When I wanted to get rid of my electricity provider, I had to call them. On the phone they did everything to keep me as their client. How frustrating!” It is no wonder this person chose another electricity provider after this call.
Looking at user needs, we sometimes think of them as fixed. Yet, in reality, our need for entertainment, different foods, and insurance doesn’t stay the same over time. It fluctuates with our lives over weeks, months, and years.
User-centric design means accommodating to users’ changing needs. Rather than being clingy, the service should develop a healthy self-esteem: “We are here when you need us.”
Let the user decide when it is the right time to leave the service — and make it easy for them to return when the time is right. This supports user’s sense of autonomy which is a fundamental human need.
2. Retention is based on trust
“Back in the day, I got a call that I had won a free introduction to a gym. When there, they signed me up to a contract that was a pain to get out of. I will never forget that.”
We are very sensitive to injustice. Often, we remember vividly the instances in which our trust has been abused. Myself, I still remember a painful taxi ride in India that ended-up being far more costly than expected.
Psychologically, negative experiences leave a stronger memory than positive experience and this phenomenon is called negativity bias. To avoid the negative experiences, we seek to avoid instances in which our trust could be breached.
In other words: we can be fooled once, but not twice. The customer is unlikely to return should they feel that their trust has been breached. Thus, fostering trust is the essence of every customer contact that occurs over time.
3. Difficulties in unsubscribing indicate organizational challenges
The opposite of customer-centricity is company-centricity. Unfortunately, many organizations unconsciously operate from this mindset. This indicates the company has turned excessively inward, losing its touch with its customers, and with its, its reason for existence.
The ease of unsubscribing can be one red flag indicating challenges in how organizations relate to their customers. Are customers someone who is being served — or taken advantage of?
There is a continuum where at the other end, the companies are truly acting from a service point-of-view (and getting paid to do so!) — and at the other end, there is a range of unethical practices that range from dark patterns in UX to coercion and misinformation.
Most organizations are in between the two extremes. It is important to notice the forces that drive the organization towards the unethical end. For instance, locally optimizing certain metrics such as retention may have an overall negative impact on the customer relationship.
Fostering trust
As we offer services, we slowly create a sense of trust between us and the user. This relationship should be based on the free will and autonomy of both parties. In this way, a relationship between organization and its customer resembles any other personal relationship.
How would you feel, if your spouse told you: you can never leave me? Most often, the impact of this statement wouldn’t encourage us to stay — but to leave.
On the contrary, when we are free to leave, we sometimes find that we are happy just where we are.
Lauri Lukka is a Helsinki-based designer, psychologist and podcaster working with user-centered design. He has previously written on taming complexity, being yourself at work, and on the importance of feedback.
Pictures: Walking by Hedi Benyounes; Trust by Joseph Chan, Dogs by Chewy
