The Customer Lifecycle
One of those unavoidable things about being in business is the customer/client lifecycle. In a perfect world, this cycle would be ongoing for each of your clients without any significant interruption. But one of the difficulties with running a business is figuring out what to do when the cycle is broken.While we hope that your clients will continue to be your clients for life, here at Signature Coins, we’ve got some ideas on what to do to gain a client’s business back in the event that they stray.
Why A Customer Might Leave
With retaining customers being a focus for every business owner, the reasons why a client might leave have been well documented. Some of the reasons are outside of your control. Sometimes clients experience budget changes that prohibit them from making use of your services any longer. Or perhaps the reasons could be geographic or logistic in nature with the client moving and needing to seek services elsewhere.Other times, however, the client’s departure will be for reasons well within the scope of your control. If a client feels like they can find a better value elsewhere, or if they have a poor customer service experience, they might leave.
An outlook that will lead to a customer leaving every time is if they don’t feel appreciated. It's important to never take a client's business for granted, especially if they're a long time repeat customer. Those perceptions are things you have control over in an effort to retain a client’s business.
One of the more under-explored elements behind a client leaving is a perceived lack of innovation on the part of the company. Perhaps a client isn’t leaving because they truly believe a competitor can offer them better value, but because the competitor simply has a more innovative way of delivering the services the client needs.
If a lack of innovation led to a customer straying, then it stands to reason that an innovative strategy is needed to get them back.
Why Re-Engaging a Client Is Worth It
It might be easy to write off an inactive client as a lost cause. In the customer lifecycle, a lot of time and hard work goes into getting a client to decide to choose you in the first place. The hope is always that a lot less effort would be needed in preventing the client from leaving. But in reality, it’s a lot easier to lose someone’s business than it is to gain it in the first place.Along those lines, the main reason why it makes sense to dedicate so much time and energy to re-engage a client is because it’s much easier (and more cost-effective) to sell to an established customer than it is to gain a new one. In fact, your business is 60% - 70% more likely to make a sale to an existing customer, but there’s only a 5% - 20% chance of landing a sale to a new customer. Also, marketing efforts dedicated to re-engaging inactive clients can be three to 10 times less expensive than efforts geared towards earning new customers.
So, if the client has already slipped into inactivity, what are some of the things you can do to re-engage them?
1) Reach Out Sincerely
The first and simplest thing you can attempt to get a client to come back is send them an email. All of the popular email marketing platforms make it easy to create segments of customers and send out targeted emails to those segments. When you choose to go with email marketing as a step in re-engagement, keep in mind that the email needs to be as personal as possible; template emails will not get the job done.In the email you send, try to include the client’s name so they know you’re addressing them directly, and make references to their previous purchases and interactions with you. Part of why it’s so beneficial to market to existing customers is because you already have so much information about them. You know what your client needs and purchased in the past; why wouldn’t you leverage that information to regain their business?
Of course, your client, like everyone else, gets multiple emails and offers a day. One of the problems with this kind of marketing is how easy it is to get lost in the shuffle (or caught by a spam filter).
2) Snail Mail
In our digital world, concepts like snail mail often get left behind. When was the last time you received something in the mail that you didn’t consider to be junk? But it’s because of this exact disparity that physical mail can be such a boon to your re-engagement efforts. In a sea of junk mail, the personal touch of getting something specific stands out. In fact, customers are 600% more likely to respond to direct mail marketing efforts than they are to all digital media marketing efforts combined.The same rules apply to a direct mail marketing campaign as those that are found in an email marketing effort. The missive should be just as personal and specific to the customer receiving it. A lot of companies enacting this effort elect to go with a postcard or a personal letter to the client. However, dimensional mail (something delivered in a small box or something that isn’t like a regular letter) has an even higher response rate than regular mail.
With all of this information in mind, what’s the best option for maximizing your re-engagement marketing efforts?
3) Send the Client a Company Challenge Coin
A corporate coin from Signature Coins is the perfect way to hit all of the criteria for a successful re-engagement marketing campaign.The coin itself is unique and more personal than any email or postcard. An inactive client might expect to get an email with a special offer on it, but they aren’t expecting a personal gift to arrive in the mail.
Because the company challenge coins are totally customizable, you’ll be able to make them as specific to the customer as you want. Engraving something unique to the client on the coin face, or even on the coin edge, is the perfect way to show the client they’re missed and you value their business while also drawing attention to your company. Even if you don’t choose to use art specific to the client on one side of the coin, including a personal letter with the gift will go a long way towards showing the client they are valued.
If at anytime in their experience your client had concerns about your company’s level of innovation or appreciation, surely thinking outside of the box and sending them a company challenge coin would put those concerns to rest.
The ultimate goal of re-engagement marketing is to regain your client’s business, but the manner in which you’re attempting to do that is by showing the client that they’re special to you. Sending a customer a personal letter and a gift is the best way to show them just how much they mean. Partnering with Signature Coins in your re-engagement efforts is a sure way to succeed.
