5 Steps to Re-Engage Lost or Angry Customers Using Email Jessica Lunk The best customer is a loyal customer. But unless your entire customer base consists of your mom and dad, 100% customer loyalty is an illusion. In other words, you will always lose customers. The question is, what are you going to do about it? The first step is to learn and improve; and (obviously) don’t give many reasons for your customers to lapse. The second thing is to re-engage. Not many businesses do it successfully (or do it at all), but it’s a great way to boost your revenue. If someone had enough trust in you to invest in you at one point, they’re more likely to buy from you again. The good news is, it’s usually fairly simple to re-engage lost customers. Often, all it takes is a couple of well-crafted emails. Here are a few examples. #1 Let Them Know You’ve Noticed They’re Gone Let your customer know you know who they are and you’ve noticed they’re gone. Send them an email and personalize it. For example, remind them why they signed up. Use their name. The point here is, show them you value them as individuals, not just as another number in your books. Sometimes, people unsubscribe or abandon their accounts by mistake. Make sure to offer them a way to get back. Obviously, this should be an automated email and not one that you should be sending manually to every single unengaged customer. #2 Offer Them an Incentive If you want them back, give them a reason to come back. Incentives are the easiest way to do so. If someone has already made a decision to put trust in you, there is an existing relationship. You can offer a freebie, a coupon, or a discount. But make sure you do it the right way. That is, apply the same principles as with any other offer. #3 Show That You Care Ask them where you screwed up and how you can improve. Offer something to make up for it. People respect brands that care about improvement and they give them a second chance. This isn’t just about winning lost customers back. It’s about continually improving (and keeping your reputation intact). You need to find out what makes your customers lapse, so you can fix bugs or improve your offers. Getting feedback is super important. You can gather it in many ways, like sending a feedback form, emailing out a survey or simply by reaching out and asking in a personal manner. #4 Introduce New Features Whenever you’ve made an improvement or introduced a new feature or a product, inform your lost customers. If you’re an ecommerce company selling many products, make sure you personalize the email and any offers inside. Nobody likes to be spammed by irrelevant emails. The good news is, since you’ve already done business in the past, you should be able to obtain data about your past customer choices and preferences. You can use that to win them back. However, sometimes just making progress and showing your company is doing well makes you more attractive. So, it doesn’t just have to be a new feature or an offer. If you have some great news, like winning an award or making a major advancement, use it to your advantage. #5 Remind Them What They Get This is a good tactic for inactive customers. Simply pitch them again. Send them a reminder about what it was that made them sign up in the first place. The product or service you’re offering was the main reason they signed up. Sometimes people are just busy and they forget. Or maybe budgets change and they haven’t heard from you in awhile. In a condensed market, if you’re out of sight, out of mind. Remind them what they’re missing out on.