When your customers reach out to your outsourced call center in the Philippines and express the desire to cancel their subscription from your services, should you exhaust all possible ways to salvage their trust or should you just give up and let them leave effortlessly? Is it right to train your customer service representatives to try their hardest to hold customers back when they re about to bid farewell?

How you treat your customers from their first interaction with your brand up until the moment they decide to leave can go a long way in building your reputation. Making it hard for them to cancel their subscription when they have fully decided to do so won t do you any good.

Why it’s okay to let go

A major principle that you should follow when ensuring customer retention is that customers must always feel free to make their own choices when deciding to disengage from your brand. They must be able to stop receiving your service at their own convenience or whenever they feel that it s no longer benefiting them. They should not beg nor be required to talk to several agents and supervisors before their cancellation requests get approved.

When you allow your customers to cut off ties with you on a friendly note while guaranteeing that you will welcome them back should they change their minds, you are not blocking the possibility of the customers knocking at your door once again. You are not totally eliminating the chances of a future transaction with them. The last memory that they will have of you is one that is marked with humility and willingness to improve for the better.

In other words, if customers want to leave you because of dissatisfaction, the last thing you want to do is make them hate you more. First impressions last, but so do your last moments with your upset customers. If your representatives are being mandated to win customers no matter what happens, you are making the last moments of interaction between you and your customers truly unpleasant.

How to approach dissatisfied customers

The guidelines and protocols you require your customer service representatives to follow must be sensitive to this customer retention principle. They can still give alternative solutions as an initial salvaging attempt, but if customers stick with their exit plan even after doing so, they have to let them go.

Aggression works in several cases that involve sales and marketing. In crucial customer experiences, such as service cancellation calls, you need to be more strategic on how you should approach people. You definitely do not want to be another much-publicized and viral case of a brand with poor customer service.

Customer service is all about striking a balance between being wise in creating rules and stepping back when necessary just to please your valued customers. Allowing customers to end their relationship with you may hurt a little, but in the long run, accepting the fact that some people won t stay for good and making sure that you learn from your mistakes can help you in many more ways.