Unsubscribe and Resubscribe difficult for older people

[FirstChurchMadison]

I want to express that it is quite challenging for older people to understand the unsubscribe and resubscribe process. I am unsatisfied with the options for them to resubscribe. Most of my contacts are senior citizens. Many of them are quite technically literate for their age. But still, it is easy for anyone to accidentally hit the unsubscribe button. When this happens in my contact community, these folks come to me for help. They ask me to add them back into my newsletter list. I haven't personally used the resubscribe link, but I have heard from enough people who I know to be tech savvy, that they tried to use the link and it didn't work - they re-confirmed the unsubscribe when they were trying to resubscribe. So they accidentally hit it once, then they asked me to add them back in, CC sent them a link which I initiated, and the contact is STILL not subscribed. This person is now quite frustrated. I'm left trying to explain and justify the CC system. At its worst with this problem, I forward each email to the poor subscriber from my own email account because they are finding the process so difficult to understand. Is there anything you can do to simplify? When an accidental unsubscribe comes from a younger person, it is sorted out quickly. But I really feel sympathy for my older people who are trying so hard to get newsletters and don't understand why they can't.

[Frankie_P]

Hi @FirstChurchMadison

Thanks for sharing this feedback with us! While we're always open to ways we can better our user's experience, we do want to point out the unsubscribe process was designed in this way to allow users to not subscribe contacts who legitimately wish to unsubscribe. With that said, was contact still not subscribed after the re-subscribe button clicked in the email received? Did they receive the email? What about the process is not working? Any further details you can share with us is helpful information for us to track.

[FirstChurchMadison]

I completely understand the reason for your policies around this, and I would never try to grab a contact back who had unsubscribed. Every time I've done this process, was initiated by an email from one of my contacts who did not realize they had unsubscribed, and asked me to add them back in. It happens a few times a year, and the process is so frustrating for them and for me. This is not the first time I've had this problem with one of my older subscribers. But in this case, the person is a retired former co-worker whom I know well, and who is computer literate. I initiated the re-subscribe link at his request. It was so easy to unsubscribe that he did not realize he had done it! When he received the re-subscribe email, he wrote back to me to say that he got it and clicked all the buttons, so it seemed like the problem was solved. But when I checked on his status in CC, whatever he had done when he received the re-subscribe link just confirmed the unsubscribe. In the past, people who went through this exact process were not as well known to me, and I figured they were just screwing up the instructions. But when it happened again with this particular contact, it made me feel that your system is unclear and inadequate for the community I serve.

[Frankie_P]

Hi @FirstChurchMadison

Thanks for following up with these details. We have taken a look at your account and can see you were able to speak with our support about this as well. If you run into any further issues with re-subscribing a contact we ask that you please email us at social_support(at)constantcontact(dot)com with your username, a reference to this post, the email address of your contact, and a copy of this contact's consent to be re-subscribed.