You spend so much time and money to acquire a customer…and then they stop buying, even though they have a need or future need. Whether you sell a regularly consumed product such as vitamins, or randomly purchased product like pond supplies, or long term products or services like mortgages, here are some specific tips for turning lost customers, clients or patients into more profit.
Urgency: It is critical to reach out to lost or inactive customers immediately and ask them why they stopped doing business with you. Often simply following up with a lost customer and reconnecting with them results in the past customer doing business with you again.
Note: Even if that past customer does not choose to do business with you again, you’ll gain valuable insights by reconnecting about ways to improve your level of customer service to assist you in reducing your customer attrition rate.
Track information of customers you have lost or inactive customers so you can proactively follow up with them in the future. This data can also be used to track your customer attrition rate and provide key metrics on how you are doing in reducing attrition rate.
Even a small incremental reduction in your customer attrition rate can significantly impact profits.
Regularly contact lost customers and give them a reason for doing business with you again. This can include a “Compelling Incentive” or inducement to give you another opportunity.
Work on rekindling that lost customer relationship with periodic ongoing communications. This is a long distance run, not a sprint. You won’t always win back a lost customer on the first attempt but by providing ongoing valuable information and showing you care, you will win back customers who are no longer doing business with you.
Use multiple communication mediums to reach back to lost customers such as email, direct mail and phone calls. By varying your strategy, you are more likely to reengage the person you are communicating with.
“Communicate intelligently” based on the past purchase patterns of the lost customer. For example, if you have a retail store and notice a customer bought gifts from you during the holiday season, your message might say something like, “We noticed last year you bought several gifts from us to celebrate the holiday season. We just received a new line of (what they bought before) and wanted to invite you in to see them. As a simple thank you for stopping by we’ll give you a 15% discount on your purchase. Just bring this email with you at checkout.”
Start today to claim profits from lost customers.
