{"id":43357,"date":"2018-01-03T04:48:53","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T11:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taterboy.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/offboarding-the-way-to-say-goodbye-to-your-users\/"},"modified":"2018-01-03T04:48:53","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T11:48:53","slug":"offboarding-the-way-to-say-goodbye-to-your-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taterboy.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/offboarding-the-way-to-say-goodbye-to-your-users\/","title":{"rendered":"Offboarding \u2014 The Way to Say Goodbye to Your Users"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Dmitri Popov<\/a> on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I bet you\u2019ve read a lot about onboarding process and its importance for a good user experience. There are numerous articles and best practices how to properly onboard users to convert them into loyal customers.<\/p>\n

But finishing relations with your users is also as important as starting them. It\u2019s hard to think about parting with your users as you\u2019ve put so many efforts to attract them and they are so important for the business. And even this unpleasant situation is a good chance to provide an awesome user experience.<\/p>\n

Bad offboarding is bad for\u00a0business<\/h3>\n

Sometimes people stop using your product and it\u2019s a natural process. They may have different reasons to do it?\u2014?new competitive product, bad experience or lack of interest. It\u2019s a hard situation for business but it happens regularly.<\/p>\n

Good news?\u2014?even after losing your users you can still have them as ambassadors who can share a positive experience about your service among their friends and colleagues.<\/p>\n

Some companies still believe that keeping their users at any price is good for business. They use dark patterns, guilt-tripping to make it hard to stop membership or delete an account. But there is one thing?\u2014?if a user decided to stop using the service they\u2019d always find the way to do it. A bad user offboarding experience can damage your business reputation and break user\u2019s trust in your\u00a0brand.<\/p>\n

A pleasant offboarding experience leaves a positive impression on your users, they may come back later to resume using your product or recommend it to\u00a0others.<\/p>\n

Types of user offboarding<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Pause or deactivate account<\/h4>\n

Pausing or deactivating an account means that the user can no longer use the service or can use a limited list of features, and doesn\u2019t need to pay for a subscription. When you pause your account on MailChimp, the service ends the current billing cycle and suspends sending\u00a0feature.<\/p>\n

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MailChimp offers you to pause or delete\u00a0account<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cancel subscription<\/h4>\n

Most preferred type of business as you don\u2019t lose the user permanently. They just stop using your service for a while. Make sure that the user can restart their membership anytime while saving their preferences as Netflix does\u00a0it.<\/p>\n

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Membership cancellation on\u00a0Netflix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Delete account<\/h4>\n

Sometimes users might want to delete their account, as they won\u2019t return in the future and they\u2019d like to have all their data\u00a0deleted.<\/p>\n

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Some companies combine two methods?\u2014?deactivate the account and permanently delete it. When you want to delete your Twitter account, it deactivates for 30 days (you can restore your account during this period) and permanently deletes it after this\u00a0period.<\/p>\n

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Best practices<\/h3>\n

Empathize<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Empathy can help you to design a great offboarding process. User stories and journey mapping help you to improve this process and find best solutions for\u00a0it.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t hide the delete account\u00a0option<\/h4>\n

It could be tempting to hide this link\/button or make it barely visible to retain users. But remember the price for it?\u2014?bad reputation, low loyalty and brand mistrust. Show the users that you respect them and their choice and give them the freedom to operate with their\u00a0account.<\/p>\n

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Twitter shows the deactivate link right on the Settings\u00a0page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Show benefits of membership<\/h4>\n

There are reasons customers close their accounts. Show them reasons to continue membership, show what they can loose after deleting the account. LinkedIn shows you that you\u2019ll lose your connections, endorsements, and recommendations if you decide to close an\u00a0account.<\/p>\n

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LinkedIn shows you what you\u2019d lose if you delete your\u00a0account<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prevent sudden account\u00a0deletion<\/h4>\n

Clearly state that account deletion is an irreversible process. Use confirmation to prevent customers from sudden deletion of an account?\u2014?enter password or confirmation word.<\/p>\n

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MailChimp uses confirmation before account\u00a0deletion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ask for\u00a0feedback<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Offboarding is a good occasion to improve user experience. Use a short survey to ask your users why they decided to go and how to improve this situation. LinkedIn does it in a good way?\u2014?they ask for reasons users are closing the account and provide solutions for\u00a0them.<\/p>\n

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LinkedIn shows solutions in the\u00a0survey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Offer pause and delete account\u00a0options<\/h4>\n

Offer your users the option to pause the service alongside with deleting the account. In this situation, user\u2019s data will remain saved and there is a better chance of them to come back in the\u00a0future.<\/p>\n

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End it on positive\u00a0note<\/h4>\n

Be kind to your users. Wish them well, thanks to them for the membership and show them that you are always ready to continue the collaboration.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s both important how you meet new users and how you say goodbye to them. Offboarding is a good chance to improve users experience, empower your brand and reputation.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/medium.com\/media\/96d08ab34921bdd17986cb5c0396842f\/href<\/a><\/p>\n

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Offboarding \u2014 The Way to Say Goodbye to Your Users<\/a> was originally published in UX Planet<\/a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Dmitri Popov on\u00a0Unsplash I bet you\u2019ve read a lot about onboarding process and its importance for a good user experience. There are numerous articles and best practices how to properly onboard users to convert them into loyal customers. But finishing relations with your users is also as important as starting them. It\u2019s hard… Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":43358,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-info"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t