Audible.com has a very mature customer acquisition and retention strategy.  I originally signed up for Audible after they sponsored of one of my favorite podcasts, This American Life.  Audible was offering a free audio book, just to try the service.  I decided to try it.

Little did I know that I was entering the Hotel California of software subscription services.  I'm not upset with them -- it's more that I'm in awe of their ability to keep me as a customer for a year longer than I expected.

The reality is that Audible is expensive -- around $15/month to be able to purchase one audio book per month.  After using up my free month, and then paying for two additional months, I realized I wasn't going to use it enough to justify the cost since I'd only listened to one audio book in a three-month span, and I went to cancel it.

Audible then offered me a deal:  Just $5 for me to keep my existing credits for the next year.  Since I had two audio books I hadn't read, I took the bait.  But I never used those credits so when the renewal came up, I knew I really wanted to cancel.

Here's what the process was like when I just tried to cancel the account:

First, I had to find the "cancel membership" button.  It was buried in the "switch membership" section, below the other options:

Next, Audible asked me to select a reason for canceling.  And while they were at it, they gave me a number of title suggestions I might like enough to keep me from canceling:

As I soldiered on, Audible sweetened the deal:  A free audio book if I kept my membership active at just $9.95/month:

When I still elected to continue canceling, Audible suggested I speak to their customer service reps before I decide that I wanted to cancel for sure:

And finally, even though I'd elected to cancel my account, Audible kept it active just in case I changed my mind:

Now that is one heck of a cancellation process!

Is there anything Audible could have done to keep me as a customer?  If they hadn't expired my two audiobook credits, and given me another year at $5 to use them, I would've stayed... reluctantly.