“With the right message and approach, 50% of your inactive customer base will re-engage and continue doing business with your company” –Focus USA.
It amazes me how often I speak to groups of business owners who express complete surprise when I mention customer reactivation as part of my Chain Reactions Marketing System™. They somehow never seem to think of including past clients or patients in any of their lead generation or customer retention marketing strategies.
For many it seems that a past customer - one who has become dissatisfied or dormant - is not a viable prospect for future sales… when the fact is, nothing could be farther from reality.
And why wouldn’t you want to at least try to re-engage and reactivate a past customer, client or patient? After all, getting a new customer is five or six times more expensive than reactivating an old one… so re-engaging and rekindling a previous customer relationship is certainly one of the lowest cost marketing strategies you can use to increase revenues and profits.
For example, suppose you’re a personal fitness coach who helped a client lose 30 pounds 18 months ago. Wouldn’t it make sense to contact that past client to see if they’ve regained the weight and could use your help losing it again?
It amazes me the number of businesses (especially coaches and consultants) that seem to think that once they’ve completed an engagement there’s no further opportunity to be found with that client. They seem to believe that they’ve taught the client everything they need to know… or solved the problem the client was looking to solve so there’s no need to stay in further contact. But isn’t there always another problem that could be solved for the same client?
Or what about the B2B client who stopped doing business with you because the decision maker decided your product or customer service wasn’t meeting their needs? Isn’t it possible that over time things have changed? Is it possible the decision maker has moved on to another company or discovered they aren’t satisfied with their new supplier either?
How would you know if you haven’t stayed in contact?
Making the First Move.
Instead of trying to really understand why a prior customer is no longer responding, many businesses assume that the customer is the problem in the relationship. The dynamics are similar to that of a person who refuses to talk to another person unless the other person reaches out first. You need to be looking at your past customers and committing to making the first move in re-establishing a relationship that is valuable to both sides.
So what’s the best way to put life back into a stale or strained customer relationship?
I for one believe reaching out by telephone during the year-end holiday season is one of the best ways to rekindle relationships.
Just calling up to say hello and wishing your past customers well during any special time of year is a great way to stay personally connected… and the year-end holidays with the beginning of a new year is certainly one of the best times to do so.
Even if you only make contact with the client’s voice-mail, making that first move will show them you’re thinking about them and that you cared enough about them to make the personal call.
So pick up the telephone and let your past customers know that you still remember them. A little bit of personal attention and care can go a long way towards bringing past customers back to life.
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About the Author
John Weisenberger CCP, is an author, speaker and certified business coach who “walks the talk” when it comes to lead generation. He is the creator of the Chain Reactions Marketing System™ that transforms average, commoditized, businesses into preeminent market leaders that attract and retain more customers so they can make more money!
To learn how you can grow your business faster using Chain Reactions Marketing, you can find out more at www.ChainReactionsMarketing.com
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