Please don’t judge me. Yes, I tried face yoga. I know some of you have tried goat yoga, and you didn’t see me pointing fingers! Did you know our faces and necks have 68 muscles? And like any muscle in our body, face muscles need to be exercised in order to maintain good tone. It would therefore stand to reason that face yoga would be beneficial. So, I gave it a try. And it worked. But the customer service behind my trial was a pain in the neck!
Real World Story: I’m all for speed and efficiency in running a business—but not when it sacrifices transparency. I signed up for face yoga and was excited about the classes. But then I was automatically charged a renewal without any advance notice.
I understand the profitability of automatically charging customers for recurring services. However, is it really a great idea for your business to do so without any notice, especially when you consider that 96% of customers won’t complain, with 91% simply walking away, never to return? And when you consider a small subscription fee multiplied by thousands of subscribers, that’s a good chunk of change, but at what cost to the future of your business?
And the language you use in the customer service of running your organization, well, it matters. It matters greatly. Let me explain.
When we apologize, we need to be sincere about it. Consider the message I received when I tried to cancel my subscription because of the automatic charge: “We apologize for any inconvenience caused to you.”
Well, to me, that sounds canned. It sounds like a brush off. It sounds insincere, and it makes me feel like I am a bother.
Now, consider the remaining message: “However, it was stated under the agreed upon terms and conditions that if you wanted to opt out of the recurring subscription you would have to notify us 24 hours prior to the expiration of your subscription and failure to do the same will result in your account being charged for another subscription term and as per our records you have signed up to a recurring subscription.”
Instantly, I was reminded of my younger years when a sibling ratted me out to my mother. “Uuuuuuuu, I saw what you did. I’m gonna tell mom!” The language in the message from the face yoga company was accusatory, which totally negated the initial attempt at apologizing to me.
Strategies that Turn it Around:
- When you apologize, use specific language: Instead of a vague, canned apology, I would have been more reassured with a message like: “We are very sorry for automatically charging you without first notifying you of the pending charge.” Such language would have left me feeling understood.
- When you explain a process, don’t accuse your customers: When I was explained why I was charged automatically, I would have preferred a message like: “While our subscriptions are renewed automatically, I can see we have much room for improving our messaging, so customers know when they will be charged again. I will bring this to the attention of our management team. Thank you for your insightful input.”
- Put customers first, profits second. We’re all in business to make money. I am not against this concept whatsoever. And I’m sure the founders of the face yoga company were once passionate about what they did. They wanted to provide a great service to people. That was the initial aim, I’m sure. But when profits get in the way, your passion will eventually suffer because of it.
Remember: Customers don’t mind paying for great services. But customers will feel discouraged and eventually leave if and when they feel a company is taking advantage of them.
How does your organization handle recurring charges and does it leave your customers with a pain in the neck?