For a month straight, a customer went to your restaurant, his favorite, for breakfast. Then one day he was curious about a different restaurant, with a different menu, and never returned to old habits.
After being away from you establishment for a while, he hears a ping from his mobile device. You wrote a note to say you missed him, and let him know of new offerings on the menu. In addition to being invited back, there was a bonus incentive – a free espresso. This brings back memories of your delicious beverages and adds the special feelings of being truly wanted and appreciated.
You’ve just introduced “The Customer Re-Engagement Strategy.™” This is a series of communications in marketing that allow you to reach out to your existing clients, customers, and patients when they’ve become disengaged. Re-engagement strategy helps your clients recognize that you haven’t heard from them, or seen them in a while, and you are concerned.
The Keys to Re-Engagement
The re-engagement illustrated above can be broken down to several simple parts. Here are a few, augmented by the wisdom of marketing expert Jay Abraham:
1. Recognize, appreciate, and thank your customers for past patronage. Let them know they’re important enough to you that you noticed their absence.
2. Express genuine concern for their absence. This is key, because they may be pessimistically waiting for you to sell them something. Instead, you are no longer a business, but a person reaching out to them. This cannot be stressed enough: Keep your focus on concern for them, not concern for your profit margin. They don’t care about the latter.
3. Ask if you inadvertently did something wrong to offend or upset them.
4. Remind them of why they chose to do business with you in the first place (perhaps this is your unique selling proposition or the largest result they hoped to achieve with you).
5. Give a time-limited offer exclusively for preferred customers as a token of appreciation for past business with you.
How and Why
How the strategy is deployed and magnified: The power of three is a trigger.
The “Rule of Three Technique™” refers to the particular number of times you should communicate with your client. Whether it’s three emails or three direct mail pieces, you want to make every effort to get your message across without it appearing like a marketing template. Further results can be obtained with a follow-up phone call.
For example, you might send out two emails about a new, problem-solving app your company is releasing, and then follow those two emails with a third, promising a discount. The idea of the app has had time to set in, and the discount offer is the trigger to take action.
The reason why you should do it: there is a cost of doing business.
The cost associated with reengaging a client is significantly less than the cost of acquiring a new client. For example, you don’t have the marketing/advertising expense or the cost of time it takes to educate him about the benefits of working with you. To reengage an existing client, it’s as easy as three e-mails, direct mail pieces, or calls.
When the “The Customer Re-Engagement Strategy™” works, it works. Some companies have seen beyond even a 100% increase in profitability after implementing these ideas. If you deliver a great product or service, the majority of clients stop doing business with you because something totally unrelated came up or their situation changed. You just need to reengage them.
Making It Work
It is incredibly important to keep good records so you know the last time your client did business with you, when he should be coming back, and at what point he can be considered disengaged. If you’re a business owner who sells a product, you would offer your client an incentive to purchase. If you’re a business owner who provides a service, you would offer an incentive to schedule an appointment. If you determine that a customer was dissatisfied, rather than being defensive, do whatever it takes to make it right. Ignoring your existing customers is part of the reason they become disengaged in the first place – show them you care.
Whether you have a database of past clients or you’re looking for a new marketing technique to keep your current customers engaged, you can always implement “The Customer Re-Engagement Strategy™.” Creating an incentive, contacting your client directly three times, and making your client feel special are all keys to winning your client back – and making sure he stays.
Charles Gaudet created his first multi-million dollar organization at 24 years old. He is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of the widely acclaimed “Predictable Profits Entrepreneurial Growth System, ” His often controversial marketing insight is responsible for the rapid and accelerated growth of countless small businesses around the world earning him the title of “The Entrepreneur’s Marketing Champion” by both his private clients and his VIP Insiders’ Club Members.
