How to win back previous clients

Implementing a customer win-back strategy can be a cost-effective exercise, as conversion rates have the potential to be comparatively high. This is because when one of your clients moves to a competitor - depending on what the reason is for why they left you - they can often find that the grass isn’t any greener.

It’s also motivating to learn that recruiting a new customer can cost 'between five and 25 times more' than retaining an existing one¹. So, here’s some guidance that should help your customer win-back strategy:

• Set your objective and define your target audience. Identifying and understanding more about who the clients are that you want to win back and why, will help you determine where to focus your efforts.
  
  
• Part one of your plan – create an ongoing retention strategy to minimise your annual churn rate. This could include running a customer satisfaction survey programme, to help you understand what customers like (and don’t like) about the service you provide. Look to identify any issues before they turn into lost business. If you need help here, we’ve a handy survey template on Broker Create to get you started.
  
  
• Part 2 of your plan – develop your comprehensive win-back strategy to target those who have now left the business. Highlight the particular benefits they’ll gain from returning.

Winning back lost customers clearly requires an investment in time and budget, but when you consider the resources needed to attract a corresponding number of new customers, it can make real financial sense.

^{1 The Harvard Business Review}