What To Do With Your Customers Who Don’t Come Back

“Customer service is the experience we deliver to our customer. It’s the promise we keep to the customer. It’s how we follow through for the customer. It’s how we make them feel when they do business with us.” – Shep Hyken

Can you guess what the top four reasons are that customers don’t return to a business? (hint: price isn’t one of them).

Reason #4 Bad service

Reason #3 Bad product

Reason #2 They found someone else

And Reason #1 is … They FORGOT!

That’s right, the number one reason people don’t return to your business is because you just weren’t top of mind when it was time for them to purchase again. 

Are you shocked that price doesn’t even feature in the top four reasons? 

Most of us automatically think that if customers don’t return it must have been because we were too expensive, when actually it’s just because we didn’t do a great job with our marketing by reminding them that we’re here. 

The great news is that it can be easily fixed!

Here are two key questions to help you with this:

1. In your business how often do you want customers to buy from you again?

2. When do you consider a customer to be lost?

If own a real estate brokerage, you might want repeat business from your buyers or sellers every five years.  If you own a grocery store chain, then typically you’d expect customers to return every seven days. 

Answer these questions for your business and then set up a lost customer sequence to trigger as soon as they don’t return. The most effective is a 3-step multi-media campaign that’s highly personalized.

A distant second is the same via email campaign (but anything is better than nothing).

An Example Of A Lost Customer Sequence That Averaged A Whooping 67% Response Rate

Let me walk you through a real example so you can see the power of this marketing strategy in action.

One of our private clients used to own eight medical clinics on the east coast (they got a dream offer and were bought out two years ago which is how I can share this example with you). The medical clinics specialized in aesthetics - botox, medical spa services and cosmetic surgery procedures.

A procedure like getting botox happens pretty regularly - usually once every two to three months before the effects wear off. So for our client, if a botox patient didn’t show up for four months, then they could officially be categorized as “lost”.

In creating their campaign, we actually brought this date forward to three months because we wanted to make sure our clients’ botox patients were thinking of returning right at the critical time of needing an appointment. We didn’t want them to get side tracked (you might want to do the same for your business).

Here’s what their Lost Customer sequence looked like:

Step 1 Text Message
Nintey days from their last botox appointment each patient received an automated text message - that didn’t look automated (side note - why oh why do so many businesses do such a crummy job of using text messaging that makes it obvious it’s 100% automated). This text message looked like a personal message written from the nurse practitioner to the patient (one of the reasons it was so effective).

Here’s what the text message said:

“Hi [first name], how’s your day going? It’s been 3 months since your last botox appointment - do you want me to make an appointment for you?”

Pretty simple right? The goal is to engage the client in a conversation and get some kind of response.

If the client doesn't reply to that within 48 hours, they get added to step 2


Step 2 Email (from same nurse)

“Hi Jane, did you get the text I sent you on Tuesday? Did you want me to book another botox appointment for you (can you believe it’s already been three months?)

Step 3 Oversized Postcard

If there’s no response to the email within five days, this triggered a postcard with a picture like this on it and the headline:

OH NO JANE!!!!
Did We Do Something Wrong?

The average response of this lost customer campaign was a whooping 67%. The industry average is 3%.

Why do you think this campaign was so effective? Have you ever received one like it?

Here’s the secret to getting your customers back: unless you specifically invite your lost customers to return to you, most won’t because they’re too embarrassed!  You need to warmly invite them back. 

Remember that a customer who’s already done business with you is at least five times easier for you to sell to than a new customer. 

So make every customer count! Woo the lost sheep back with a special offer and a deadline. Make them feel they’ve been greatly missed and welcome them back to the fold with open arms!

And, if they don’t respond to the first campaign, schedule another in 3 months with a different offer!