How to Win Back your Lost Customers

How to Win Back Lost Customers? In a B2B environment, it is estimated that companies lose on average 15 to 20% of their customer base each year. Much effort is now being devoted to transforming new incoming leads. However, setting up a strategy to win back the most profitable lost customers is also a decisive issue: to achieve economies of scale by leveraging existing customer base, albeit diminished.

How to Win Back Lost Customers

On the other hand, the dynamic that aims to take a critical step back on its offer as well as the holding of a relationship with its customer is also a source of innovation and continuous improvement. Here are a few techniques that will allow you to better control your Win-back strategy.

More than identifying: “Isolate” the problem

To begin with, the causes of loss of a client can be many. Really understanding why a customer has gone to the competition is a difficult task. Are these causes inherent in your product or relationship where then personal motivations related to the decision maker (s)? The argument of price or dissatisfaction related to the product or service often obscures a much more subjective reality: 60% of customer departures are generally related to relational causes. One of the first steps in your recon quest will be to put in place a “funnel” analysis of the likely causes of this breakdown. Start from the objective causes and then refine your analysis taking into account the relational components. The finer the analysis,

Metrics … for more responsiveness

In addition, a win back strategy involves not letting too much time pass before reactivating a lost customer. The digital transformation of the commercial function now allows – thanks to well-defined CRM software – to increase its responsiveness and anticipate the departure of customers. Define the metrics that can best identify customer disengagement: (elapsed time and opening rate of your emails, recurrence of telephone exchanges, and change of interlocutor or movements in the decision chain). Schedule alerts to be notified as soon as possible of these changes.

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Reassess your assets before repositioning yourself

Then, once you decide to dereference yourself to your lost clients, few of them are ready to reconsider their position at your first demonstrations. This is why it is necessary to prepare well for its strategy of win back. Few companies take the time to put in place a systematic end-of-mission report. The idea is to create a complete panorama of the lost customer relationship. You will then be able to determine if it is both feasible and profitable to reconquer this customer. Do not hesitate to ask for a maximum of feedback from your client. Combine them with your own evaluation data of your customer relationship over time. Then ask yourself the following questions:

• How has the situation evolved since the end of the relationship? Are there any new products? A new approach in terms of service?
• What have contributed to customer satisfaction to date? What commitments would he be willing to grant?
• What mistakes were made? How have they been repaired under other circumstances?
• What was the basis of this client’s trust and loyalty? What levers are there to regain it, and by what channels?

Create new scenarios for your lost clients

Finally, you have to build a tailor-made offer that can make the information capital gathered through the techniques mentioned in the previous steps. A good strategy of win back will lead you to construct several customized scenarios that highlight:

• Your (main) good reason to return to this client – make it obvious.
• Your new markers of trust and satisfaction. (Make them unpublished).
• The tone, messages and channels of communication you are going to set up.
• Your offer, positioned to admit mistakes you made in the past.
• The challenge is to make this offer exclusive, even if it focuses on the most profitable part of your product or service.

Let us take the example of a company that installs industrial heating systems. It was dereference due to the lack of adaptability of its products to the new ergonomics of the factories of its customer and seeks to regain it. A scenario could lead him to concentrate his offer of win back on a maintenance contract (often more profitable) that is exclusive and more competitive, capitalizing on his past experience in maintenance at this customer. And you? Share your experience; tell us about your strengths in order to re-engage your lost clients. What levers have been the most decisive? How do you manage to anticipate a client’s departure?