Vision:
A verifiably easy cancel button as a selling point for subscription products.
Why Now:
Consumer frustration over the difficulty of canceling subscription products has reached a boiling point, prompting DOJ involvement. DOJ sues Adobe over cancellation process
Problem:
Companies have increasingly shifted to subscription-based revenue models. In a fair market economy, this would ideally align the incentives between the producer, motivated to continue improving and providing value, and the consumer, paying a smaller entry fee to use the product and continuing to pay as they find value in it.
However, in practice, unscrupulous companies exploit customers' tendency to initiate a free trial and forget to cancel. Worse, some companies make it easy to sign up but difficult to cancel, assuming that many will continue paying to avoid the hassle of a convoluted cancellation process. Companies that engage in these practices (e.g., Wall Street Journal, Comcast) spoil the market for others, leading to subscription fatigue among consumers. By simplifying the cancellation process, more people will be willing to try new startups, creating a healthier startup ecosystem.
Solution:
Similar to verified reviews from Trustpilot or the Better Business Bureau logo to convey trust, the 'Easy Cancel' logo indicates that canceling the service at any time will be even easier than signing up for it.
This service enables partner banks and fintech apps to cancel subscriptions and forget customer payment information on their behalf with a single click, potentially using a 2FA identity verification or a simple 'Are you sure?' button. Imagine being able to see your subscriptions on your preferred app, decide you no longer need one, and cancel it effortlessly.
Eventually, consumer behavior will shift to only trusting companies, services, political campaigns, and non-profits that have this logo, making it a significant part of the purchasing decision, much like free shipping or fair trade have become.
Open Protocol Business Model:
Banks, subscription companies, and subscription management companies pay a nominal fee for API access. The service should remain a critical part of the open internet without an additional profit motive. Additional revenue could come from API access to a database of how easy it is to cancel every popular service online.
For-profit companies and open-source projects could be built on this open protocol.
Examples:
Create a fintech platform with a great UI for subscription management.
Partner with major banks and fintech apps to integrate Easy Cancel functionality, allowing users to manage subscriptions from their preferred financial tools.
Additionally build out:
Comprehensive API documentation, SDKs for popular programming languages, and plug-and-play modules for common e-commerce platforms to facilitate easy adoption by businesses of all sizes.
Multi-factor authentication for cancellations to ensure security while maintaining simplicity, including biometric verification or time-limited codes sent via SMS or email.
Ethical Churn Reduction:
Companies can pay to have churn reduction features alongside the one-button cancel. The one-button verified cancel is always available (hence the logo), but customers can also be redirected to the company's website to choose a different plan or cancel completely at any time. Displaying the 'Easy Cancel' logo is only possible if the API is implemented in the relevant portion of the codebase.
Regulatory - How It Becomes Ubiquitous:
Once the technology exists to allow easy cancellations, governments could mandate that similar technology be available to consumers in their jurisdictions. (California already has something similar in place). Companies will no longer be able to claim that enabling such a simple cancellation process is too burdensome. Currently, companies employ various 'dark patterns' to thwart cancellations, like requiring calls to understaffed customer service departments.
i.e. Wall Street Journal forcing you to call to cancel, despite being able to sign up easily online. Walgreens uses a picture instead of an unsubscribe button to prevent automated unsubscribe crawlers from working.
AGI Future:
AI has proven to be extremely persuasive and already exhibits superior social skills and capacity to manipulate. As AI systems become superhuman in earning and retaining customers, defensive technologies need to keep pace. A verifiably easy cancellation process reduces the mental friction for purchasing new services, allowing startups to reach customers at lower acquisition costs and forcing big tech companies to compete on product features and value rather than the depth of their switching cost moats. This is especially important if you hand over purchasing and cancellation decisions to your personalized AI.
Growth Strategy:
Create and publish an open database of how easy it is to cancel every popular service online. Name and shame the worst offenders. Personalized AIs can crawl this database before making recommendations. This content will drive consumer interest in the product and demand from businesses aiming to improve their reputations.
Offer a freemium model for early adopters or small businesses to try the service without initial cost, fostering initial growth and user feedback.
Partner with consumer advocacy organizations to promote the 'Easy Cancel' initiative and leverage their reach and credibility.
Future Product Roadmap:
True Price: Verifiably accurate upfront pricing. The 'True Price' logo ensures no additional fees or taxes will be added on top.
Offer businesses access to anonymized data on industry cancellation trends, helping them benchmark performance and improve retention strategies.
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