Remember Me

We are a multi-cultural organization and one of the great joys October/November brings is celebrating Dia De Los Muertos. The day of the dead is a way to remember loved ones no longer with us and acknowledge their contributions to our life. This celebration made us wonder if companies should recognize and reward customers who have come and gone (the dreaded churned). After some thought our position is yes, here’s why:

1. There’s a golden opportunity to win them back. Research done by Kumar, Bhagwat, and Zhang recommend organizations invest in win-back efforts due to the previously expressed need and familiarity with your brand, as well as milestones in technology that make effective programs more scalable. Leveraging email marketing, company relationships (ex: Sales Executive, Customer Success Manager, etc.), and discount offers are all tactics you can deploy to engage prior customers with a meaningful message.

2. You can really differentiate from it. If studies by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company reveal increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95% why not build a program to go after every churned dollar effectively? Review and triage your churn data. Look closely for those were forced to leave for whatever reason. Start with that segment and build from your lessons learned as you reach out to your other lost groups. Achieving here means you’re winning at the game of commanding the full customer-lifecycle.

3. It’s a company motivation opportunity. Celebrating those lost opens the door to the question “why did we lose them in the first place” and the subsequent “how are we doing in assuring we don’t lose accounts like that again”? Part of your overall win-back strategy is to bring visibility and action to mitigating the reasons the customers churned in the first place. Use this as an opportunity to remind your customer-centered organization that we value all customers and are continuously learning and reinvesting in strategies to assure the longest and most viable relationship we can have with them.

Remembering churned customers is not only a good thing, it’s essential to the ongoing growth and development of your customer-centric culture. Reviewing your lost accounts opens the door to implementing actions to mitigate future retention risk, opportunities to recover lost revenues, and build a complete customer-lifecycle program. Successfully implementing these strategies will mean fewer tears and more cheers your next Dia De Los Muertos.