Customer retention is a common business challenge, and sometimes, it doesn’t turn out the way we hope. If you find yourself in a situation where you have lost customers, don’t panic. Instead, focus on taking strategic action. In many cases, it’s possible to bring customers back and even increase how much they spend with you through a well-executed winback campaign.
What Is a Winback Campaign?
A winback campaign is a series of targeted outreach strategies a company can utilize with customers who have stopped engaging with their brand or making purchases. The good news is research indicates that these campaigns can be very effective. Approximately a quarter of previous customers will return after a winback campaign. Winback sales cycles are 70 percent shorter than the sales cycles required to gain new customers, making them a very good business investment.1
Start by Understanding Why Customers Leave
A good first step to any winback campaign is to analyze why customers have left in the first place. While some reasons—like a geographical move or a change in personal circumstances—may be out of your control, others could point to fixable oversights. Perhaps there was a lapse in customer service or the consumer found a better price elsewhere. In fact, 75 percent of consumers say they’ll return after a mistake if it’s handled well,2 so if you’re willing to change or admit the error, the customer may be open to coming back. But that second chance only happens with proactive outreach.
To uncover these insights, turn to the data you have collected on a customer through their previous purchases or online behavior. Another option is to simply ask the customer through a feedback survey or personalized outreach. Even if you are not successful in regaining that particular customer, understanding their experience may help your company prevent future losses. This is an excellent opportunity to identify potential business missteps like poor communication timing or ignoring customer channel preferences, all reasons a customer may cite for switching providers.
Build an Omnichannel Outreach Plan
Once you have some insights into what went wrong for the consumer, plan an outreach strategy that addresses the issue and demonstrates your commitment to customer centricity. An omnichannel approach is very important here, as the customer may not be proactively looking for information on your brand or signing into their account. Consider a mix of channels that includes online as well as offline tactics, such as email, paid advertisements, social media, push notifications and text messages. It is also important to vary the message the customer is receiving through this outreach. Consider product offers, discounts for signing up again or simply a note that says they are missed. Hopefully one of these approaches will open the door for communication and winning back the customer.
Time It Right for Maximum Impact
Finally, it is important to consider the best timing for your outreach campaigns. For instance, is your product or service one that a customer is likely to use year-round? Or, is it something more seasonal, such as a lawncare service or December holiday offering? Timing your outreach around when your customer is making a purchasing decision can significantly improve your chances of re-engagement.
Winback campaigns require thoughtful planning and effort, but the payoff is real. Almost half of reactivated customers will actually spend more than they did during their first time with your company!1
With a wide variety of innovative digital and print solutions, Matrix is well-suited to help you design and execute effective winback campaigns. Our comprehensive, integrated e-solutions improve your business efficiencies while enabling precision and timely, data-driven insights. These tools can help you reconnect with previous customers while also identifying potential loopholes that could cause future customer churn.
Don’t lose hope if you have lost a few customers. Instead, take the opportunity to execute well-planned winback campaigns and see how many of those customers you can bring back.
Contact us today to get started.
