Thursday, April 24, 2008

Unsubscribe: You want to break up with me, you HAVE to tell me why

I often advise people to create a dialog as part of the unsubscribe process. Typically, the topics are
1. Frequency Reduction. Ask people if they really want to leave, or if they just want less mail.
2. Survey. Ask them why they are leaving, so that you can get better.

ProFlowers (not someone I've worked with) got it all wrong in my opinion.

I clicked the unsubscribe link. They presented a survey. I was busy, so I didn't feel like answering and just wanted to unsubscribe. But they wouldn't let me. It was early in the morning, and so it took me a while to figure out that unless I answered one of their questions I could never get off their list. It annoyed me and I'm sure it annoys others.

It would be interesting to have a legal perspective on whether this meets the letter of the law and the spirit of the law for CAN-SPAM.

1 comment:

Don Peppers said...

I once signed up for Vonage. As an Internet-only service, it was extremely easy to sign up for online — just a few clicks and I soon had my monthly account set up. But after a while I realized I just wasn’t getting the value I wanted from the service, so I went online to terminate it, but — guess what? You can subscribe to Vonage with a few clicks, but you can’t terminate your service online. Instead, you have to phone a customer service number that is apparently never answered. I'm very busy and I travel a lot, so I put my secretary on this and it took her another full month (at $30 per month) before she finally connected with the right person and found out how to terminate my service!!! I had to fax a written letter! In my letter I requested a refund, but I might as well have demanded to see Elvis.

- Don Peppers - www.1to1.com

This story and many others in the new book by Peppers and Rogers, Rules to Break and Laws to Follow, http://www.amazon.com/Rules-Break-Laws-Follow-Short-Termism/dp/0470227540