At the recent ACE Subscription Summit in London, Louise Ioannou, Publisher of National Geographic Kids, and I took to the stage to share our hot take – that new cancellation laws aren’t a threat, they’re an opportunity. In fact, simple unsubscription is a necessary foundation for building trust, improving CX, and ultimately turning your pool of ex-subscribers into your biggest future growth opportunity.
> National Geographic Kids made cancelling easy and its top referrer flipped from paid media to friends and family. Trustpilot went from 3.9 to 4.7 and customer satisfaction reached 95% > The old numbers had looked fine. Retention rates were healthy while complaints piled up, the CX team was demoralised and Trustpilot was falling. That is what a save rate hides > Three changes did it: a warning email 30 days before renewal, self-serve cancellation at account level with no call or email required, and a 14-day cooling-off period on every renewal > Making the exit clean made the return easy. A two-week pre-expiry win-back campaign converts at 41% with a 58% open rate, against roughly 8% in normal win-back periods > Pushing people to manage their own accounts cut payment failures by 51%, and 67% of consumers say they would buy subscriptions more readily if they believed they could cancel easily
Hot Take: New cancellation laws aren’t a threat; they’re an opportunity.
For years, the cancellation journey for many subscription publishers has been characterized by “dark patterns”—hidden buttons, forced phone calls, and confusing interfaces. The goal was simple: frustrate the user just enough to keep them paying for another month.
However, as the Audiencers’ community knows, this approach is short-sighted and actively damages the long-term relationship with the customer. Now, with tightening regulations like France’s “3-click rule” and the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Act, publishers are being forced to simplify. But what if this regulatory push is exactly what the subscription industry needs to unlock its next phase of sustainable growth?
National Geographic Kids and its commitment to radical transparency is a great example in practice, showing that making it easy to leave is the most effective way to encourage a subscriber to come back.
