In today's business communication climate, because of time management and privacy concerns (including ORM), the ability to opt out is perhaps more important than opting in.  This is especially true of social networking sites, which by nature should be highly user focused.

Therefore I was annoyed to learn today, after months of trying to close my account through phone calls, emails, and website form submissions – which all went unanswered – that the businesspeople-focused social networking site Spoke actually has a pay wall on closing your account!

According to this post on Spoke's general forum, in which "woozoom" registered the same complaint I did, "If you are not a paying customer, you cannot cancel your subscription."

I'm sure Spoke is saving money by not performing this function, but it is certainly not customer focused.  And I don't think it's ultimately the best practice for their long-term financial success, since restricting free users in this way basically ensures that they will never convert to paid users – and, worse, that many of them will, ironically, use other social networks to tell their families, friends, and colleagues to avoid Spoke.

I am doing that with this blog post, in fact.

Admittedly, this doesn't directly relate to workplace team building or employee engagement.  Yet, it's something to think about for your staff who perform a customer service function.  You may not run your own social network, but you can apply the same principle to your phone, email, and snail mail contact lists.

In brief, make it just as easy, if not easier, to opt out than to opt in.  Invest to do this for non-paying contacts and you will see returns through a top-tier customer service reputation from your contacts that convert to paid customers.

Related: I noted above that my attempts to contact Spoke went unanswered. I wrote last year that I think every inquiry deserves a response, even if it's just an automated one.