Put the Customer First, Even When They Are Leaving You.

As we know, it’s all in the list. List building is so, so important for any online enterprise, as it gives you the opportunity to keep in touch with those ever so fleeting visitors to your site. A workable list building campaign will go out of its way to entice the visitor, offering an unbelievable deal, information not available anywhere else, which will be sent to the e-mail provided. Everything must be squeaky clean and give the subscriber the impression that they’re getting a super deal by agreeing to opt in to your list. The double opt in feature provided by industry leaders aWeber and Constant Contact gives subscribers an additional feeling of comfort, that they are dealing with an organization on the “up and up,” who will treat their e-mail contact details carefully.

We would like to think that the subscriber will stay with us ad infinitum, allowing us to gently and occasionally suggest that they buy our products and services, even as we keep providing them with great free information and deals. As we proceed with this relationship we must tread carefully, always being polite and considerate and never bombarding these folks with too much noise. As always, you’re putting the customer first and in this case, the customer to be, applying all the principles of first class customer service.

Every now and again a subscriber wants to leave you. Unless you have a super-duper, gigantic list of thousands, this is always a little disappointing, but you should always remember that first class customer service is important when you are saying goodbye, as well. You never know when this particular person may come back to visit or buy from you, or may recommend your services to others. The fact that they are unsubscribing is not necessarily a negative move, at all!

As mailing lists are best automated, including the unsubscribe feature, be very careful how you set this up. We have all come across nightmare systems and processes when trying to unsubscribe from the list. Be sure that your list is not one of those.

• Don’t ask them to input their e-mail address again. In other words the unsubscribe page should be directly linked to the subscriber’s e-mail record. There is no reason why this should not be the case. The unsubscriber will be annoyed if he or she is asked to enter the e-mail concerned again. This is especially true if the subscriber is using an automated, multiple account e-mail checker, such as Outlook. The individual e-mail account might not be immediately obvious.

• Always streamline the process. Never make the collection of a “reason for leaving” a part of the unsubscribe process.

• Label your button “unsubscribe” or “confirm your change.” It’s amazing how many of these systems make you just sit there and think for a second. Sometimes it almost appears as if you are signing up once again, or even signing up for something else.

• There really is no reason why a subscription cancellation should not be instantaneous. Don’t let your site be one of those culprits, claiming that it will take X number of days to remove you from the mailing list.

Its time to clean your act up!

Adam Toren