

Easy To Cancel makes it Easier to Sign Up - hshah
http://www.gettingmoreawesome.com/2011/10/26/easy-to-cancel/

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shawndrost
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.

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mmahemoff
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.)

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dhx
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
_"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.

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badclient
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
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.

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robryan
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.

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Shenglong
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.

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MichaelApproved
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.

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younata
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
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
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.

