Customer Experience Never Ends

When developing our brand's customer experience program, we need to consider the customer's experience if they leave. Customer attrition is a natural part of business. Companies should view attrition as part of a larger customer lifecycle and ecosystem. Think through the continued value of a customer even after they have left. Planning a positive exit is good for the customer and good for business. Here are a couple of examples.

I recently attempted to cancel my Salesforce.com subscription because we are switching to HubSpot CRM. I had no problem with Salesforce.com service. HubSpot is simply a better fit for us right now. Unfortunately, the experience I had leaving Salesforce.com contrasts the smooth experience I had joining them.

First, I could not cancel or change my Salesforce.com subscription through account settings within their site or app. I used their chat service to get a phone number for billing. While I did reach someone without trouble, the billing representative couldn't help me. Instead, she said she would refer me to the correct person and abruptly hung up.

I received an email soon afterward informing me that my request could not be completed because I am under contract. It seems I needed to remember to contact them before my subscription renews - but not too long before - in order to cancel my service and prevent auto-renewal of the contract. For someone like me wearing many hats, setting reminders to cancel a future contract renewal is very inconvenient.

In contrast, I recently cancelled my subscription to a wine club at a local urban winery, Carruth Cellars. As with Salesforce.com, I had no problem with their service or products. The wine club is just not a good fit for us right now. And the winery's response...

It doesn't require large budgets or extraordinary effort to take care of your customers. It takes good planning and understanding the long value of positive customer experience - even those who are leaving. Every customer helps pave the way to a company's success. If we express gratitude even a leaving customer can continue to help the company grow.

How a customer is treated when they join is critical. How a customer is treated when they leave is also important. The customer lifecycle is more than in-and-out.

Someday I may join the wine club again.