Managing Club Memberships Online

Most winery Web sites allow people to sign up for their wine club.

But really, your wine club members should be able to manage *all* the aspects of their club membership online, including cancelling it.

(I can hear wine club managers pulling their hair out - bear with me.)

First of all, do the self-test.  If you had a subscription (to anything, not just a wine club), wouldn't you like to be able to cancel it online?  The same applies to your wine club members.

And if people *really* want to cancel, are you creating a good (possibly final) impression by making it harder for them to do so?  Obviously, you want to understand why they're cancelling, and provide a better alternative (for them, not just you) if at all possible.  If you really wanted to make it hard for someone to leave your wine club, why not just hide your phone number and e-mail address and be done with it?

Usually, when someone wants to cancel by phone, you'll offer them alternatives, such as suspending the account for one or more shipments.  The same applies online: club members should be offered the chance to temporarily suspend their membership (with a definite date when that suspension will become a cancellation).

The copy for that offer should promote suspension as an option, as opposed to simply offering it.  Suspension should be an attractive alternative, not just one of two possible actions.

When you do your regular club mailing, members who are suspended should get a reminder of what they are missing, with links to "reactivate now" and "manage membership" (like "cancel" but less obvious).

And obviously, as the suspension period comes to an end, you want to let them know that cancellation is imminent (and possibly incent them not to let it happen).

If they have previously tried to cancel, suspended their membership, and now want to cancel (while in the suspended state), their membership should be cancelled without further ado.  They've made their choice.

Regardless, whenever someone cancels, you should always ask for a reason, to better understand what's going on "out there." Provide radio buttons for common reasons to make it easy for people to provide an answer, along with an "other" selection with a fill-in box.  You might consider sending a "We still like you" note by snail mail immediately following a cancellation with an offer that can be redeemed if they rejoin the club.

You may want to do a once-a-year mailing to those who left for a reason other than "I don't like your wine," again to try and return them to the fold.  If you think that these efforts to recapture a former member are too much work, just consider the ongoing revenue stream that a loyal club member represents.

Of course, it helps if your club memberships, at every level, deliver real value to members.

(this discussion all started with this form to let people suspend shipments while away from home)

What do you do when a wine club member wants to cancel?  Can they do it online?  Why do people typically leave your wine club?  Leave a comment!

Comments

[Jon Bjork]

Excellent points! Wineries that offer SUPERB customer service keep club members much longer.

Here's another suggestion that we're offering with on of my clients: give the customer the option to tailor-make their shipments. In other words, let them exclude individual wines from your product line, include others and mess with quantities.

From an operations point of view, this is a nightmare, and I even cringed when I first thought of it. But isn't a wine club mostly about building a core group of your best customers that receive wine on a regular basis?

We've found that most customers stay with the standard and reds-only offerings anyway. If we found a group of customers polarizing toward a particular combination of products, we'd probably just make that another club option: the "Eclectic club" or something like that.

[Steve Richards]

Hi Mike,

Excellent post!

We have seen some wine clubs take some hits in the recent years due to the 'hard selling' tactics involved. I've even seen articles comparing these tactics to time share sales.

From a consumer's point of view, the ability to out of wine clubs easily would be a sign of great customer service. Customers must appreciate the ability to cancel without having to go through a lot of hassle. You wouldn't want the process to be something like calling your credit card company (a sure invite to a hard sell).