Customer Win Back Program

Every business will lose some customers. The challenge is  to win  back those lost customers which can take a lot of money and hard work, but this will increase the customer base. Most companies do not have a customer win back program, but a company should have one, as it can help retain customers. Now the customer win back program does assume that you have a way of capturing customer information, so that a phone call can be done.


Not all companies are well suited to customer databases, such as a fast food restaurant, but most businesses can  and should have a customer database to capture customer information. This database  will allow you  to keep track as to when you are losing customers, and put those lost customers in a list form so that you can contact them with the win back program. Aside from  emails and letters,  I will focus on the people aspect of the win back program. 


You will need to have a team of highly trained customer service professionals to call these customers back and try to win them back as customers. The staff will need a fair bit of training before they call these customers back and attempt to win them back as customers. When training the customer win back team, it will be important to teach some sales skills to show staff how to convince customers to come back to the company.


The training will need to begin with proper questioning skills being taught, such as open ended and probing questions, to learn the real reason why the company lost the customer. These questions will also get the customer talking,  which allows them to reveal valuable information about why they are no longer a customer.  Now when the customer does begin to talk,  this is where strong listening skills need to be practiced. This needs to be emphasized as this will be needed to allow the customer to vent any anger about the company and gives staff time to show they really do care. Once the customer gives us the reason why they left, the staff need to work on that issue so that it can be resolved and then win the customer back.


There also needs to be a good win back  promotion to offer the customer as a  thank you, for giving the company another try.  Once the customer has decided to become a customer again,  followup with the customer to ensure they are still happy with the company. Once the customer is retained, the company can now use exceptional customer service to keep this customer smiling, so they never lose this customer.