Sell your memberships online with confidence

For many self-care businesses and clients, memberships are a win-win: Members get access to the services they want with exclusive perks and savings, while businesses turn one-time visitors into loyal regulars. But memberships introduce new complexities, too. These extra wrinkles can make it challenging to present, manage, and enforce the terms necessary to protect your business.

On top of that, new federal guidelines are imposing extra expectations on how businesses handle the cancellation of subscriptions — and noncompliance comes with the potential for financial penalties. But don’t worry! If your self-care business runs its memberships with Boulevard, you’ll have a head start on ensuring compliance as you protect your business from wrongful disputes and unwarranted early cancellations.

Want to know more about how Boulevard has your back in the new click-to-cancel era of memberships? Keep reading.

What is click-to-cancel?

"Click-to-cancel" is an update to the FTC’s existing Negative Option Rule. It sets guidelines for how U.S. businesses must clearly communicate and manage subscriptions, memberships, and other recurring charges that customers must actively cancel after signing up.

The rule was amended in October to ensure that consumers know exactly what they’re signing up for when they start a subscription. The updated rule, which goes into full effect in May, also notes that “there always has to be a way to cancel that’s as quick and easy as it was to sign up.”

The FTC says mounting consumer complaints about subscriptions that are unclear or difficult to end made these changes necessary. Think about that gym membership you began online but had to send a handwritten letter via certified mail to cancel. It’s that kind of frustrating experience the FTC wants to eliminate.

That said, the click-to-cancel rule isn’t about giving people an early out from the membership agreements they signed. Instead, it’s about enforcing transparency. The new rule’s purpose is to make it as easy as possible for both businesses and consumers to understand and uphold the terms they agreed upon. Our latest product updates do the same.

How Boulevard is making it easy to stay compliant and protect your membership revenue 

Starting this April, Boulevard customers can prepare for click-to-cancel by updating their memberships with new safeguards that offer more transparency into the cancellation terms the client agreed to and help enforce those same terms in a compliant manner. With the new click-to-cancel setting enabled, clients will be able to request membership cancellations right from their client portal (the same place where they can check their service history and manage upcoming appointments).

New enhancements to the membership builder help you feel even more confident in your offerings. Membership agreements are now integrated into the checkout process, which means you can ensure clients understand their terms upfront before enrolling in a membership online. You can even require in-person acknowledgment for membership agreements if you’re using Boulevard Duo. For explicit visibility into the cancellation terms, you can set client cancellation settings to surface those separately in the client portal. 

If a member goes to cancel their membership but hasn’t met the terms they agreed to — for instance, if it’s only been a month since they signed up but they agreed to a minimum commitment of three — the cancellation will go into scheduled status and take effect according to the terms of the agreement. If they have met the terms, the membership will be canceled automatically. Either way, your team can see the change in membership status and reach out to get the member back on board with a pause or special incentive.

Once the new click-to-cancel regulations go into effect in May, your business will be in a great place to keep offering compliant memberships online. That means more transparency, less uncertainty, fewer disputes, and more protections.

Keep memberships moving

We know your memberships are one of your most important revenue streams. But we also know they’re a lot more than a source of cash. They represent a commitment to the excellent relationship between you and your clients. No FTC ruling will change that relationship, and with these new features in place, Boulevard’s a better place than ever to offer memberships that bring the self-care love for everyone involved.