Positive offboarding UX: Turning goodbyes into lasting memories

Hey, Mats here from Apex Pro Studio! Today, I want to dive into an often overlooked aspect of customer experience: offboarding. Whether you’re canceling a subscription or ending a partnership, this moment offers a unique opportunity to leave a lasting, positive impression. Let’s explore how a well-crafted UX can turn farewells into memorable moments—and maybe even bring your customers back in the future.

Offboarding Doesn’t Have to Be Bitter

We’ve all been there: deciding to cancel a service. Maybe you’ve outgrown it, or finances are tight, but that doesn’t mean your experience has to end on a negative note. Spotify does this brilliantly. When I canceled my subscription, they surprised me with a playlist titled, “If you leave us now you’ll take away the biggest part of us.” This kind of personal and creative approach ensures you leave with a good feeling. And that’s crucial, because according to a study by PwC, 32% of customers would leave a brand they love after just one bad experience. However, if you can make that final interaction positive, you significantly increase the chances of them returning.

Keep Offboarding UX Simple and Clear

There’s nothing more frustrating than a complicated cancellation process. We’ve all encountered a product or service where canceling felt like a quest—yes, Adobe Creative Cloud, I’m looking at you (check out this amazing case by Growth Design). How hard can it be to find that ‘cancel’ button? Ensure that customers don’t have to dig through a maze to exit. A well-designed UX makes it easy and painless to say goodbye, leaving customers with a positive final impression. This isn’t just about being courteous—it can also protect your reputation. According to HubSpot, businesses lose $75 billion annually due to poor customer service, and a confusing cancellation process can certainly contribute to that.

Steve Krug’s book Don’t Make Me Think might be a bit dated—it was first published in 2000—but its core principles remain as relevant as ever. As Krug advises: “Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left.” This highlights the importance of simplicity and clarity, a lesson that still applies to designing cancellation processes today.

Add Value During Offboarding

Saying goodbye doesn’t have to be a cold, transactional farewell. Companies like Dropbox excel at this by sending customers a helpful guide on how to migrate their files to other platforms when they cancel. This kind of gesture shows that you respect your customer’s decision while still offering a positive parting gift. Want to go a step further? Consider offering a comeback deal or discount that can be redeemed later. According to research by Forbes, 45% of customers who experience a positive offboarding return to the same service or product within a year.

Consistent Customer Experience: Onboarding and Offboarding

Offboarding is important, but let’s not forget that a strong customer experience begins with onboarding. There’s nothing more frustrating than starting with a new tool and having no idea how to use it. According to Userpilot, effective onboarding increases the likelihood of customer retention by up to 60%. Nir Eyal’s book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products offers deep insights into creating products that keep customers engaged from the first use. As Eyal puts it: “The more users invest time and effort into a product or service, the more likely they are to use it again.” A solid onboarding process helps users feel at home quickly, personalize their experience, and build a connection with your product. But that’s a topic for another day—let’s focus on wrapping up the customer journey neatly.

Improve Your Offboarding UX with Feedback

Offboarding isn’t just about saying goodbye; it’s also an opportunity to gather valuable insights that can improve your product or service. The feedback you receive from departing customers, along with data and support tickets, can serve as inspiration for continuous improvement. This isn’t a one-time task but an ongoing process—ideally, something you should be doing every month or two. There’s little point in running churn surveys if you don’t address the most pressing concerns they reveal.

However, be mindful of how you collect feedback during the offboarding process. Forcing customers to fill out a feedback form before they can cancel might only add to their frustration. This approach should only be used if your product is still in its early stages and you genuinely need direct feedback, or if the feedback interaction is seamlessly integrated into the cancellation process, such as offering options to pause the cancellation. Always ensure that giving feedback is quick and straightforward, so it doesn’t burden your customers unnecessarily.

To truly understand why customers leave and how to improve their experiences, I recommend reading Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why.” This book helps you delve into the deeper motivations of your customers—not just what they do, but why they do it. Incorporating these insights into your product development ensures your brand continues to evolve, and future offboarding moments become less frequent as your product better aligns with the real needs of your customers.

The End Is a New Beginning

Offboarding doesn’t have to mean the end of the relationship—it can be the start of a new phase. By creating a positive UX during the farewell, you leave the door open for future collaboration. Customers will remember your brand as one that shows care and attention, even at the end, increasing the likelihood that they’ll return. Salesforce found that 89% of customers are likely to switch to a competitor after a negative experience, but a positive conclusion can significantly lower those numbers. If you’re looking to optimize every phase of the customer journey, I highly recommend Service Design: From Insight to Implementation. This book offers profound insights into enhancing every aspect of customer experience, including offboarding. As the authors say: “Service design is about making the invisible visible, about ensuring that every part of the service works together seamlessly.”

Time to Improve Your Offboarding!

A positive offboarding UX is a powerful tool for turning goodbyes into lasting memories. Want to know how you can implement this in your brand strategy? Schedule a free consultation and discover how I can help you take your offboarding to the next level.