There is a big reason people have such a hard time giving up smoking. Not just because of the chemical dependency, but because they have invested so much into their habit and they’ve been told since they were young that quitters never win. So they associate “quitting” with negative feelings even though they a quitting a bad habit.

People hate giving up. So make sure your users know that if they stop using your product or service that they are giving something up. When you’re able to, give them progress bars to let them visualize what they have done and how much further they have to go to complete a certain task. When users stop using your product or service, send them an email reminding them what they are missing out on by being gone. If possible, show them another progress bar in the email.

You want to remind your users to not give up, and remind them that they are making great progress even if they have barely used your product or service. You want to support them and help them associate positive feelings with your product or service.

If you’d like to see great examples of this, checkout Treehouse and create an account under a free trial. You’ll see within a day how they utilize closure through their user interface and through their emails.