I hate SiriusXM Radio.

You know, they’re the satellite radio people in your car.

They provide lots of channels of music, talk, etc. They actually have a pretty good service.

Unfortunately, they make it really hard to leave. They do everything in their power to trap you into keeping an account with them and paying the monthly bill.

It’s funny, I actually like listening to their stations.

I just hate them because I feel trapped.

Right now, I’m in the middle of canceling an account for a car I sold. They present barrier after barrier that makes it hard to cancel.

Why don’t they just have a big button on the website, right in the middle, that says “CANCEL”?

We know why. They don’t have that button because they’re afraid we’ll cancel. They don’t want us to leave.

The impact of their approach is that I constantly want to cancel simply because they make it so hard.

Somehow, their approach has the exact opposite of the intended effect—for me, anyway.

Relationship of this latest rant to the practice of law?

Many of us make it difficult for our clients to leave.

• We charge them big retainers that leave them without the funds to hire an alternative.
• We charge fixed, nonrefundable fees in some jurisdictions.
• We charge them for a copy of their file, making it expensive to leave.
• We use our persuasive skills to cajole them into staying.
• We explain that switching attorneys is expensive and requires duplicating the effort to bring someone up to speed.
• We delay returning their calls when we know they want to fire us.
• Sometimes we have nonrefundable retainers or signing bonuses.
• We’re slow to send the refund when we finally agree to pay it.
• We even look out for one another by reinforcing the idea that leaving your current attorney and coming to us might be a bad idea.

What’s the net impact of our collective behavior? Do they want to stay, or do we make them feel trapped and want to leave?

Trapping them doesn’t work. They certainly leave us when they’re ready to go. We all get calls from prospective clients seeking to switch lawyers.

Why do we trap them? Why do we make it difficult to leave? Are we doing it for us or for them? What’s the point?

What if we made it easy to leave? What if we put a big “cancel” button right on the homepage of our client portal?

What if we told them we’d have their file ready to go in 20 minutes and that we’d be happy to transmit it electronically? What if we immediately had a refund check waiting at the reception desk? What if we made it super, super easy to leave?

Would they leave? Or would they be more likely to stay?

I’m not sure how our clients would react, but I’m sure I’d hate my satellite radio people less. I’d trust them more; I’d be less suspicious of their motives. I’d be less certain that they’re trying to screw me.

What would happen if we made it easy to leave?