Win Back Your Lost Customers by Following These Tips

Do not give up on the customer if you lose them. It is much easier for a business to retain a customer than find a new one. Rejection is difficult to deal with, how customer relationship management (CRM) is crucial for any thriving business.

Be honest with yourself and your team when a customer is lost. This is known as a micro-level response as a customer relationship manager. Next, figure out why they have left. Maybe there is something you need to change. This is known as a macro-level response as a customer relationship manager.

This article outlines steps for you to win back a customer that you lost.

Keep a record of customers you have lost

It is vital to know what customers left your business. This is the starting point for customer relationship management in terms of lost customers. Once you have a record of who has left and why, you need to segment them.

Make two categories to place the customers into. Harry Kooter, a customer relationship manager with Draft Beyond and Research Papers UK, explains, “the first category is for disadopters. These are customers that have altogether given up on your product or business. The second category is for customers who left your company or product for a competitor. It is essential to split up these customers into the proper category.

Apologize respectfully and professionally

When you build your CRM strategy, it should have a team that is in charge of reaching out to customers. Individually, this team will reach out to customers that have left your business. When they reach out, they need to do a couple of things. The team needs to figure out and understand why the customer left and apologize for any wrongdoing. Then it is time to try and win the customer back.

It is crucial they way you apologize and try to win back the customer. This is a tricky thing because you do not want to be insincere or sound like you want to up-sell your project. Your team needs to sound genuinely sorry and want to make amends. Here is a process for how your organization can apologize professionally and respectfully:

  • Start with the apology. It can start with, “On behalf of (name of company), I want to apologize for the service you received when you shopped with us on (date.)”
  • Let the customer talk about their experience. Listen closely. They want to be heard and respected.
  • Make sure to record everything that has been said.
  • This is where you offer support. Your customer is in pain, and you need to care for them.
  • Now extend an offer to the customer. It should be an offer that entices the customer to come back to your business, but also not seem like a gimmick.

Understand why the customer left

Your CRM team in charge of communicating with the lost customer needs to bring what they recorded to the manager. You will be compiling data and identifying trends that may be affecting your business. There might be a procedure or product that is turning your customers away. Therefore, your team needs to figure out why the customer left.

Do your best to eliminate these trends. This reasoning is palpable as your bottom-line is hurting because of it. Also, if you can retain the lost customer, they will be expecting that the same issue does that happen again. You do not want to put all the effort into winning the customer back to have them walk out the door again because of the same issue.

Treat the customer like gold

After winning the customer back, your relationship will be on thin ice. You know they are capable of walking away from your business. Treat them well. Gabby Martinez, a CRM expert from Writinity and Last Minute Writing, says, “make sure your CRM has a database with these customers that you lost but were able to win back. Your employees need to know to give extra care to them.”

It is vital to set up your CRM strategy to deal with lost customers. Follow this guide to create the best possibility that these customers will come back to your business. Remember, it costs a lot less to retain customers than attract customers.