If you are running a subscription billing model then you are going to encounter times when customers decide to end their subscriptions; it’s a fact of life. Having said that, it’s something that you want to try and avoid as much as possible as you have to maintain and increase subscription levels in order to achieve and increase profits, or even potentially to stay in business.

The most important thing to try and do is retain subscribers in the first place. If you still have people who want to end their subscription then you need to look at the best ways of winning back their loyalty.

What is the best way of retaining subscribers?

From the moment, someone starts subscribing to your service you need to consider your communications with them, in order to keep them engaged. This includes the obvious such as statements and billing but should also include details of how your service relates to them personally and what they can get from it. It’s also important to make sure your features and content are up to date. People are going to be tempted to go elsewhere if they can get a more current product.

What happens when subscriptions stop?

Taking action to retain subscribers is all well and good but what if people still want to leave? Let’s take a look at what you can do to re-engage them.

Try a retention offer

The most obvious way of trying to retain someone who wants to end their subscription with you is to offer them a retention offer. The content of this offer is up to you but it could be something like half priced subscriptions for a few months. Obviously, this is not guaranteed to work but it can be just the temptation that is needed; after all, we are all attracted by a good deal.

Keep marketing your product

Just because someone decides to cancel their subscription does not mean you cannot continue communication with them. It’s a good idea to segment your email list to include lapsed subscribers so that you can keep them up to date with any new services you have to offer, or attractive deals.

Do not make life difficult

The one thing you should never do, if someone wants to cancel their subscription, is to make it difficult for them to do so. This is not a good way of getting them to stay with you; in fact, it’s probably going to make them more determined to leave. It may also damage your reputation if they speak about your attitude to others.

No matter what you do there will always be people who want to cancel their subscription. You can never guarantee to be able to get them to change their minds, or to be able to win them back, but hopefully, we have given you some useful tips on how you can at least try.