Less than a month ago, Callie bought a book.
Unbeknownst to her, that simple act would be the start of the single worst buyer experience she’s ever encountered, as she found herself subscribed to a membership she never signed up for, with no clear way out.
In the interests of seeing how far the rabbit hole of terrible business practices went, she decided to see it through…
Join us on this rather unusual episode of The Membership Guys Podcast as we take a step by step tour through how NOT to run a membership (or any other business, for that matter!)
Episode Summary:
- Why tricking people into joining your membership is a seriously dumb strategy! (And could land you in serious trouble)
- Ignoring support emails and deleting comments from your community will hurt your rep and cost you customers
- Trying to hold members hostage and making it impossible to cancel doesn’t work
- Why seeing people who lack integrity and use bad practices motivate us to be better
Key Quotes:
“I can literally only cancel if I book a call with a ‘coach’. But there are no call slots available for the next four months, so I need to remain a member for at least four months before I will be even given a call to cancel?!“
“It’s fair to say that this is not a case of some systems pr processes going wrong. It’s not that one or two things they’re doing are a little questionable, or maybe they’ve picked up some bad habits. Right from day one, every single part of this has stank.”
“Don’t be that guy. Don’t trick people into joining your membership. It’s like picking somebody’s pocket as you invite them into your home. They’re in your home. You are there. At some point, they’re going to realize that their wallet has gone and they’re gonna realize that they had it before they came to your house and you’re the only other person here.”
Enjoyed this episode? Check these out…
- Dealing With the Ugly Side of Running a Membership Website
- 3 Reasons Not to Take Member Retention for Granted
- How to Deal With Member Cancellations
- 11 Bad Habits That Could Be Hurting Your Membership
By the way…
After further frustrating email exchanges, the membership ended up being fully cancelled and there have been no additional charges. The book still has not arrived…
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