Losing business? We’ll teach you how to make customer winback a priority
Giving customers good experiences is a lot of work, but winning back lost customers is an art form. It takes a special type of humility, genuineness, and smart business sense to admit mistakes and make it up to the customer. That shows dedication and love for your work. If you do it right, you’ll master customer winback and gain the admiration of future prospects.
Aim to give the best service possible, but prepare for worst-case scenarios
If you want to make customer winback a priority for your company, you have to be prepared to meet these issues. Preparation is everything because you have to act fast. Speed is of the essence when it comes to fixing a mistake. If you let the issue go ignored for even more than a day, it won’t be fresh on the customer’s mind anymore. They’ve had their moment of frustration, wrote a scathing review, and now they’ve moved on to something else. If you email them, they may just delete it or ignore it.
The point is to respond as soon as possible and while the issue is hot.
A fast response is your best bet to catching that person’s attention. The best way to do that is to have a system in place that makes it easy to follow-up. Every unhappy customer is a mark against your reputation as a company. What matters is that you’re putting in the effort to make up for it and over deliver. That’s how customer winback really works.
Monitor all the channels your customers make reviews or talk about your company, especially online. Seek out reviews and feedback for every customer’s recent experience with your company. This helps to identify a problem before the customer decides to write a review. That saves you a lot of grief in the long run and shows serious initiative from your company to ensure customer satisfaction. Once again, speed is very important.
Approach negative reviews with caution and genuine care
Remember that you are working within a public sphere when responding to a customer’s review. People can see what you say, how you say it, and if you show a genuine interest in fixing the issue. Don’t take this moment lightly. Here’s a quick overview on how to craft an effective response to a negative review.
- Introduce yourself as a higher up. People like to see that their concerns get past middle management.
- Keep your tone light. Apologize, but don’t overdo it. Keep the focus on identifying the problem, admitting where you (the company) went wrong, and how you can fix it.
- Refer back to the review and hit on each point that was made by the customer. Show that you’re trying to understand the problem so you can fix it.
- Take the conversation into private mode. Don’t leave yourself open to having a dialogue in front of everyone. That may be uncomfortable for both you and the unhappy customer. Offer to speak over the phone or through email.
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If you want to win back lost customers, continually engage them at every point in the sale. That’s our specialty. Schedule a demo with us, and we’ll show you how to turn leads into customers with less work!
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Confirm the main issues with the customer, offer a solution, and deliver within 24 hours
Once again, time is of the essence. You want to under-promise and over-deliver in a short time frame. Take the conversation into private mode and figure out exactly what the main issues are. If you can identify those problems in the review and come up with a solution that works, you’ll save yourself and the customer time from talking about them more.
What you want is a confirmation from the customer in question. Confirm that you understand the core of his bad experience and then offer a solution. Once you receive the “O.K.”, work to make the fix happen in 24 hours or less. Also, take that solution and add something more to it. Over-deliver every time with customer winback efforts. You want to “wow” them.
Follow-up with a personal touch and offer a small gift of appreciation
You’ve reached out to the customer. You’ve promptly over-delivered a solution to their problems. Now you have to drive it home with a personal touch of appreciation for your valued customer. Give them something to hang up on the refrigerator and say, “These guys are amazing.”
One of the best ways to add a personal touch: a hand-written note from the owner of the company (or the higher-up who dealt with the customer). It’s a powerful statement. It doesn’t have to be long—the shorter, the better. All it needs to say is “Thank you for your patience. We hope to continue a healthy relationship in the future.” It’s simple and effective.
As a gift, try to think what that person would appreciate. If nothing comes up or you’re in a time crunch, get your team members together for a photograph. Have everyone hold up a sign with the customer’s name and a big, heartfelt thank you.
On a final note: don’t undermine your customer winback by asking a favor of the customer
Many companies make the fatal mistake of asking the customer to remove or re-write their bad review. After all the hard work you put into winning that customer’s trust again, the last thing you want to do is look like a faker. Don’t ask for a re-review. Here’s the truth: if you did a wonderful job and followed the steps above, your customer will feel compelled to change the review on her own. If not, that’s on you. The review is there to stay. Don’t try to convince your customer to sweep it under the rug. You’ll lose their trust all over again.
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If you want to win back lost customers, continually engage them at every point in the sale. That’s our specialty. Schedule a demo with us, and we’ll show you how to turn leads into customers with less work!
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Do you have any customer winback tips that have worked particularly well for you? Let us know in the comments!