People who stop being regular customers

[jane p]

I thought this might make an interesting discussion.

How to deal with people who may have been regular customers in business then stop and you dont know why but just assume they are going somewhere else?

Do you chase them up and ask and possibly embarrass them and maybe you?

Do you let them go and think their loss, plenty more potential customers so to speak?

How much should you care about customers? Do they want you to chase them up either?

Interested to see your replies.

Thanks.

[Pab]

I think this is a very good question. People are always chasing new business and forgetting about current/previous customers.

I guess it all depends on your relationship with the customer. One of our customers uses us every few days for something, and as a result we have a great relationship. I'd have no problems calling them up and having a chat if things went quiet, but I probably wouldn't for a customer who used us only once or twice in the past.

[jane p]

Thanks. Anyone else?

[J-Wholesale]

It depends on your business. If you have an eCommerce business, or a database of some sort listing each sale, then you should be able to pull out a list of repeat customers who haven't bought in 2 or 3 months.

You could then offer them a discount voucher on their next order (valid for x many weeks). Time limits work well with discounts, especially short time limits like 2 weeks, as it forces people to take notice then and there, rather than put it off and forget about it.

If you even manage to pull back a small number of 'lost' customers, it would be well worth it.

[Beachcomber]

I'll usually drop a promo mailer / offer to customers who have not been back within a set period of time. I used to do subscription email newsletters to keep customers up to date and maintian customer awareness but didn't find these very effective personally.

[muppetdave]

I think all of those comments are very valid, but as mentioned, it depends really on what you're selling. If it's bigger-ticket, but it is something that could be bought repeatedly, or indeed as a service, then one question should be why have the sales dropped off?

At the end of the day, it depends on that relationship you hold.

[SusanP]

You might be wrong in your assumption that they are going somewhere else; they might have personal problems, financial problems, health problems, they may have been buying for someone else eg they may have bought burgers but now the kids have left home.

I taught evening classes for many years and didn't like students dropping out (partly because it meant the college might close my class). If they'd been absent for a couple of weeks I'd ring them. At first I didn't like doing it - I assumed it must have something to do with me, and was afraid they'd tell me I was useless - but it was always because of another reason eg they'd lost their regular babysitter, they'd been ill, then felt embarrassed about coming back in case they held up the rest of the class, they'd got a new job, they were frightened of losing their current job so were working longer hours etc. Now, I know that most of that isn't relevant to your business, but I think it shows that we tend to fear that we have done something wrong when we haven't. The point is that all my students appreciated the call and my concern.

Can you contact these former customers saying "Hi, we haven't heard from you for a while and hope things are going well". An excuse for contacting them could be telling them of a new product or service you've got. By coincidence, I got an email earlier today from a boutique where I used to shop fairly regularly, but then I started working at home and no longer needed to buy new business suits regularly. This is how the email starts:
"Hello,
We haven’t seen you for absolutely ages. We’ve changed; we’re sure you’ve changed; and styles have shifted a lot in the past year or two. So we’d like to invite you back in to see us to update your look with a free consultation.

Since you last came in to Wardrobe, there’s been a lot going on. Not only have we continued to discover some of the hottest new designers in Italy such as Aquilano Rimondi, Mantu, and Santoni, we’ve also launched the exclusive Sfera collection."

The email then goes on to say what's fashionable this season, gives a few fashion tips, and then finally offers a 20% discount to me if I contact them before 20 June".

[directmarketingadvice]

I agree with Susan.

I wrote a letter for a printer a few years ago that was to customers that'd stopped using their services.

It was very humble and took a "if there was something we did, or if there was work we did that wasn't up to scratch, let us make it right" tone.

Showed they valued the customer enough to notice they were gone and to be willing to fix any possible failings to get them back.

Worked really well.

If people are interested, I might be able to find the letter on a CD somewhere.

Steve

[bigGUK]

Yes you have got to ring them to find out what the reason is. It could be a competitor the contact has left etc.

[garyk]

Yep many businesses fail to do this and with modern accounting systems it is quite straight-forward to do. If you analyse your customers buying intervals you will get an average number of days between purchase (latency) so you could actually setup processes to monitor this and communicate with them once this period has passed.