Yes, I'm Leaving; Treat me Well for Your Own Sake

Evernote, my note taking app, sent me an email the other day. In the email, they let me know that their price was increasing by almost 100%. They muttered (if email’s can mutter) something about offering better and more robust service. However, the listed improvements seemed minimal, even if they mentioned that they would be integrating AI.

(On a side note, any company that is supposed to be technologically advanced now claims it is integrating AI. Not sure it is helping the service, but it is AI and it is cutting age.)

As I was not happy with Evernote anyway--it has a long response time and does not let you write notes directly with your stylus--I decided to close it and migrate to another program. Using AI--ChatGPT--I researched how to export notes from Evernote and import them to another provider. Long story short, all the advice was out of date and no longer worked.

You cannot call Evernote; they will not provide a number, so I emailed the help line. After three days, I received a response which informed me that the app does not have the capabilities, only the desktop version. And you can export notes, but not import them anywhere. They made leaving the service as hard as possible.

I tried to move to the free version hoping it would save my notes. After answering all sorts of bot generated questions about why I was leaving, the bot offered me my current package of Evernote for 60% of the increased price--just about what I am currently paying. Reluctantly, I agreed to ensure I kept access to my old notes.

Evernote treated its customer, at least this customer, about as poorly as I could imagine. They cranked prices, they had sketchy customer support, they made leaving opaque, and then once I got through that entire maze, they yelled, “Just kidding!” No price increase at all.

The bad flavor in my mouth will linger for a long time and next year, after I have a year’s worth of notes on another platform, I will leave Evernote.

All of us in business must remember we are here to serve our clients and customers. Job one should be to make their job easier even if they are moving to another company. If Evernote made it easy to leave, I might have returned if the product improved. Now they have no opportunity. Plus I am writing a negative review of the product which may influence my vast readership (if 50 is vast) not to use Evernote.

When I was running a school, we would try to offer support to families who had to leave us. Though we lost that family’s tuition, we earned their goodwill. Often, if circumstances changed, they would return. And just as often, they would recommend other families to us.

It is worth supporting your customer leaving your service or product just as enthusiastically as when they are joining it.