Winning Back Lost Customers

The numbers tell us that you’ve got a 60 to 70 percent chance of selling to an existing customer compared to a 5 to 20 percent chance of selling to a prospect. That makes the need for customer retention marketing indisputable, and yet, even with customer retention strategies in place, what if your customers still slip through your grasp?

The numbers say “all it not lost; try again” – because you’re actually twice as likely to sell to a “lost customer” as you are to a prospect. And here are four tactics for bringing them back into the fold:

“Come Back” Postcards – Send an offer geared to customers in your database that you haven’t heard from in a while. Basically tell them you’re sorry to have lost touch and that, with this special offer, you are sincere about wanting to reconnect. Even a handful of responses can make the mailing well worthwhile.

“Come Back” Email – Assuming they’re not so inactive you don’t have their email address, sending an email to a targeted inactive group with a specific offer is another viable tactic. But make sure your subject line is really strong to entice them to open your email. Directing the email by name to an individual, noting previous history with your company, is even better.  

Handwritten Note – Or try a little one-upmanship with your own penmanship. A handwritten note to customers you haven’t heard from in a while could be very impressive indeed.

Phone Call – After you’ve corresponded via mail/email, and alerted them that you “will be calling soon,” a phone call follow-up could be just the thing that’s needed to bring your customer back on board. Keep it brief. Remind them of the strong offer. Ask if they have any questions. And offer to schedule an appointment. 

There’s a Hole in the Bucket

Some of you may remember the ridiculous song by this title. It involves holes, buckets, and some poor lady named “Liza” who is dealing with the lazy, unmotivated and repetitive Henry, who may in fact be a current member of Congress. This song got stuck in my head and wouldn’t leave. I nearly resorted to power tools.

I do this often with songs, and wonder who else shares my sickness. For the past few weeks, it’s been Jackson Browne’s Here Come Those Tear Again. Before that it was Chris Isaac’s Wicked Game. Before that, Foo Fighters’ Times Like These. At least my inner DJ hasn’t chosen anything from Alvin and the Chipmunks or Lady – and I use that term loosely – Gaga.

Yet “There’s a Hole in the Bucket” showed up just after reading Dr. Frederick Reicheld’s latest piece on “…the most crippling problem with small business growth in America”.  The appalling numbers he shows affect home service contractors more than all but ONE other business category. 

Dangers in the Marketing Arena 

I hear a lot of so-called marketing “experts” advising contractors on all sorts of schemes. Any of these sound familiar?

•  “Buying” their way up the SEO ladder to achieve great Google rankings… that lead to a dead website. Great. Now you’ve spent a pile for traffic that CAN’T convert. Then I hear of
• “Mega posting” on FaceBook that are deviously disguised payback for “posting farms” that just exchange likes for the sake of falsely running up your audience/follower count. As long as you like disinterested strangers on your FB page, that’s great. Then you have the
• Fake video farms which “names” videos that have nothing to do with you and posts them on YouTube en masse. Also great for site traffic that has way more interest in spamming you to death than buying HVAC. And two old classics are re-emerging…
• The “targeted email” lists (do NOT do this; end of warning) and the
• “Mass postal mailing” to dead addresses with no accountability. So they promise you a “10k piece mailing for just $2,000!” which miraculously only goes to about 2500 or so, with no results, darn the luck.

Basically – and perhaps you’ve heard it before – there’s no free lunch. The money wasted chasing the lead-generation phantoms leaves contractors tired, frustrated, spent. That money could’ve gone toward something far more valuable. Proven.

I mean a “tried, tested, and proven winner” year in and year out. But many contractors COMPLETELY overlook this method because they’re out chasing ghosts, using their credit card as a flashlight.

After we looked at the numbers from “The Loyalty Effect” and researched our top-tier contractors (more than $7million in residential at 10%+ net profit) we found a common element that we too had overlooked. I could’ve kicked my own rear, but instead - -

We made a 2-Part video about it. The “Hidden Path to a Contractor Fortune” shows you the hole in the bucket. Big time. I mean, it’s leaking AS YOU READ THIS. And that ain’t water you hear: it’s cash.

This video GOES LIVE on March 11^th. We opened up about 350 seats for this, so I’d register soon. (No charge.) If you DO NOT get in, don’t worry, you’ll go on a waiting list ‘til the next airing.

When you watch these videos, I think you’ll see something toward the end of Video 1 that NO ONE has ever shown you. I was more than a little surprised.

Tell your friends. This is going to be fun, and big. Plus, once it airs maybe I can get that stupid song out of my head!

Adams Hudson