Most marketing strategies focus on acquiring new customers, retaining existing ones, and winning back returners. But there’s an equally important yet overlooked topic: customer off-boarding mechanisms.
Consider these questions about your company:
What messages do customers receive when they stop purchasing or unsubscribe?
Is the off-boarding process specially designed and smooth?
Do exited customers still receive your messages? When and why?
How do you win customers back without disturbing them?
The mechanism tells about your company
I recently unsubscribed from some newsletters and noticed dramatically different experiences. Some required just one click, others demanded logging into forgotten accounts, filling lengthy surveys, or navigating deliberate obstacles.
The off-boarding mechanism tells a lot about your company.
Companies with straightforward off-boarding processes typically show:
Confidence: Willing to let customers go because they believe customers will return,
Human-friendliness: Understanding that no one likes clingy processes, and making decisions accordingly,
Clear cost awareness: Recognizing that bad experiences damage long-term reputation and referrals
Simply put, the smoother the process, the better my impression. I’m more likely to return or recommend such companies, while I’ll actively criticize difficult ones.
They come back because of good off-boarding
Like breakups, some exits are dramatic and bitter while others retain friendship. Good customer exits can at least achieve amicable separation where you’d still acknowledge each other—saving costs in customer relations and reputation management.
You can design retention mechanisms without hampering smooth off-boarding:
“We hate to see you go—how about quarterly updates instead?”
“Stay and receive 10 bonus points next month!”
The key is making retention effortless—customers shouldn’t need to fill forms, just close the unsubscribe page.
Cost-effective relationship
For subscription businesses especially, smooth exits are crucial. The costs of good off-boarding design, post-exit relationship maintenance, and return incentives are typically low with decent returns. It’s mainly about company culture and priorities.
Even with system constraints, companies should invest in proper off-boarding mechanisms. Comprehensive platforms like Substack offer “breakup letter templates” for automatic farewell messages, and you should use it proactively.
Facing picky customers like me, your good image is priceless.
After all, separations in life work the same way. Don’t they?
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