Escaping AOL Redux: You Read It Here, First!

One month after we posted comments from a former AOL employee concerning the company's hardcore tactics for trying to talk members from canceling their accounts, the web site called "The Consumerist" has posted a copy of the AOL manual which teaches their "retention specialists" how to desperately cling to existing customers.  Check it out!

The Consumerist also provides their witty, scathing analysis of the the AOL manual, which is also a good read.

As a Customer Service consultant and an Angry Customer specialist, it amazes me sometimes on how little concern for the customer experience is shown by major corporations.  By the time the genius business strategists and the pointy-headed bean counters create their little plans, you would think that commerce was one big choreographed dance designed to put whatever is in your wallet into their coffers.

Don't get me wrong: I am all about trying to salvage existing accounts!  We all know that it costs 3 to 10 times more to cultivate a new customer than it is to service an existing one.  However, if the customer decides to leave, the business still needs to treat them as a customer, and provide the best possible customer experience.  If the customer is going to leave, better he should leave with a smile on his face, rather than a sour taste in his mouth. 

Instead of trying to trick the customer into staying, or wearing him down with countless questions, there are really only two questions that need to be asked:

1. Can you tell me about the problem that led you to want to cancel your account?

2. Is there anything we can do to remedy that situation, and keep you as a happy customer?

If the answer to number 2 is "no," then the best thing to do is gracefully cancel the account for the customer, and wish them well, and ask that, should the need arise in the future, they consider using your product / service again.  Pretty simple.  You can't win 'em all, so show some class when you lose one.  In the long run, it will reflect better on your organization.  Hello, AOL?  Are you listening?

    --- Chuck Dennis