How confident are you in yourself?
When people come to visit you and are ready to leave, are you confident enough in yourself that you don't feel the need to tie them down to your couch, bed or other large object? Probably. Hopefully.
Brand marketers, how confident are you in your product?
If it takes you more than a moment to answer this question, you have nothing; and you have nothing worth marketing. You see, in the modern world we have endless alternatives. Endless possibilities and choices. As a marketer, if your product is not good, no amount of branding or marketing can save you. You MUST love your product. You must love your product so much that, you are willing to let people go with ease--knowing that when they realize their is no better alternative, they will return.
Boingo Wireless is not confident in their product and has proven it by displaying a “worst practice” in internet marketing (and marketing at large, of course).
Boingo is not willing to let their customers go with ease. The apparently don’t feel confident that customers who have decided to weigh their options will go out into the world to find an alternative, only to come back because they miss the product that was, in fact, superior.
A customer is always a customer. At times a customer may become inactive, but great marketers know that ex-customers are easier to win back then acquiring new customers. Therefore, you should think of customers in three states; active and inactive. The third state is a customer yet to be acquired.
Attached is an email I got from Boingo Wireless. I was appalled when I was not able to cancel my account on their site. An account that I have no recollection signing up for (my gripe is not my account, I am sure I signed up for it). I do not have a need for the account at this time and wished to discontinue service for the time being. Rather than providing a simple cancellation process on site, I was asked to email. So I emailed. That did not work. Now I have to waste even more time calling.
I realize the irony here—I am upset about wasted time, yet I took even more time to write this post. Well, to me this is time well spent. Let’s hope it serves as a cautionary tale for marketers who feel “trapping” their customers is a good retention strategy.
By the way, do you see phone numbers listed below (read their email)?
And in case I was not clear, you CANNOT cancel your account on the site. For shame.
