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I think this is great customer service. At first glance it's annoying--if you're trying to cancel you just want to cancel. I'm sure this approach garners plenty of criticism; but then again, I'm sure they do retain a decent number of customers because of it. I know if I were the one who had tried to cancel my subscription, they would have had me at either change the delivery date or free shipping on my next order, and I probably wouldn't have ended up cancelling after all.

I think there's a fine line between being proactive and being pushy when using a customer-retention model like this one. If an association employed a technique like this, I'm sure there would be complaints about the process. But then again, considering that each person going through the several-step process to cancel his or her membership would have been a lost member anyway, would it be worth possibly annoying that all-but-lost member if it meant possibly getting another to reconsider? At the bare minimum it might spur some people to make a phone call to complain about the process, which would provide one last opportunity to try to resolve any problems and retain that member.

The bottom line is that it’s just a fact of life that people are going to complain; but it’s another that many people are appeased by apologies and sincere attempts to address their concerns. I’d say this is a clear example of nothing ventured, nothing gained and think associations should definitely consider implementing something like this.

This reminds me of what we do for renewals. They get paper invoices. Then they get email reminders. Then they get phone calls. But I added an extra email after we officially "dropped" them just asking why they let their membership lapse and what we could do to keep them. Every month I get at least 10% of those that dropped to renew, just with that one extra email from a different point of contact.

Good point. I find in the membership acquisition mailings that I do that the best responding lists are those of former members. So I would agree with your point. Far too many members leave an organization without being given adequate opportunities to renew or select other options that might be available to them. Thanks for sharing. Tony

What I like best about this is that the offers explored different value propositions to see what you might find attractive.

Too often renewals are just the same invoice over and over and over and over again. Browbeating me with the same info won't likely lead to a different response.

Great post, Scott. The bigger, unspoken lesson here is: Get a credit card number you can auto-bill. You don't get the opportunity to try this kind of stuff on anyone who pays by check or anyone who must resubmit his/her credit card info when it's time to renew.

I'm going to take a different position: I'd find 3x obnoxiously annoying. I'm left muttering to myself, "No, I don't want your stupid coffee," (not sure I'd say stupid) and that's not the last impression I want to leave in the head of a former customer.

One try is nice. Maybe have three options on the first try: "we understand, it's too much coffee. we can change your delivery schedule" as option number 1, "we really value you as a customer, see other ways we'll pander to you," and finally option 3: "you really just want to cancel the order, you have your reasons."

From my experience:

-- Matt's right, the little extra touch at the end is a great way to pick up more renewals.

-- I disagree with Jeffrey, in that we've learned that repetition, repetition, repetition is the key to increasing retention. Getting creative with renewal notices or changing the message has, when we've done it, had the opposite affect.

The biggest problem I see in most associations is that they don't send enough renewal notices, not that they send too many. We are overly sensitive to complaints (people say "don't send us so many notices" and we meekly say "okay").

An alarming number of people drop out of associations simply because they put off paying the bill, not because they actively wanted to drop out.

And that's the primary difference between Scott O's experience with the coffee service and most association memberships -- the coffee service required an active cancellation, whereas most association memberships have passive cancellation (don't pay the annual dues and your membership will eventually lapse). When we reach the point where most of us are charging credit cards in a regular, automatic way, then this cancellation advice will be more appropriate (though I agree with Scott B, three times is too much, it would put me off personally).

Are associations willing to make the same offers as the coffee company? Are you willing to give a discount to a non-renewed member to elicit a renewal? Will you discount an educational conference or a product?

What will happen when everybody finds out about the offers? Will they withhold renewal to get something extra?

Members are more committed to an association than they are to a product (even coffee). Find out why they didn't renew and use that information to increase the value of membership. (Sometimes being asked is all they really want).

Also realize that not everybody will renew - no matter what you offer. Go after those who want to be members and give them more value.

Didn't it make you angry that they kept discounting the value of their product? Why didn't they give you all those "savings" up front? Reading your story made me wonder how low they would eventually go.

I don't think associations should have to be of such low value to our members that we resort to such marketing tactics. It cheapens us in the eyes of our current, past, and prospective members.

I agree with Steve that offering the 50% discount smacks of desperation and I would never recommend that to any association unless you really believe that your dues are overpriced (and in which case you have more serious issues to address).

However, offering the knowledge that the schedule could be changed in response to a real concern -- "I can't drink that much coffee in a month" -- strikes me as a real and genuine way to try and solve a member's problems with his experience. It isn't really devaluing the product but telling the member something they may not have realized. Members belong to us for all sorts of different reasons, and want all sorts of different experiences. Trying to resolve the stated issue by gently reminding the member about something that may solve the problem is not a bad thing to do.

But again, the difficult part is figuring out how to use this concept in an environment where passive cancellation abounds. Perhaps there is a way to change a standard exit interview by setting it up like this (asking them to choose from certain frequent reasons for dropping and then reminding them of possible resolutions to the issue). Perhaps the member thinks you send too many emails so you remind them that there are different way to get info. Perhaps the member says they don't have time to attend events so you remind them of all the other ways that they can get education without going anywhere (assuming you offer it).

I'm just thinking off the top of my head, but I think Scott has offered a very simple but interesting example here that is worth thinking about. You won't get as many responses as you would in an environment where someone has to answer these questions in order to stop getting their credit card charged, but I don't think it would hurt to try.

Kevin hit it right on the head. I was not suggesting associations should discount their membership as I firmly believe membership has a value. What I was saying is that we should target our members appropriately and really focus on why they are doing what they are doing. In this case it would be not renewing their membership but what if it was deciding not to be a volunteer, or deciding not to attend a meeting. My point was that we need to figure out the right way to go about reaching our members so that we show them the value in what we are doing and also we may need to compromise when necessary or entice them in some way to get the behavior we want. I also wanted folks to realize that technology can help us do that so that everything is not done in a true one to one, time intensive fashion, although we want the member to feel like it is.