Step 5: prevention

Anne M. Schüller, Marketing Consulting, Munich

Systematic customer recovery always pursues two objectives: reactivation and prevention. The primary goal is to win back a maximum of profitable lost customers. In addition, the knowledge gained should be used to largely avoid future customer losses. Further goals in customer recovery management can be defined as follows:

– The customer turnover should be contained permanently.
– High new acquisition costs to replace lost customers should be avoided.
– The image as a customer-focused company should be consolidated.
– Negative word of mouth should be averted.
– The deficiencies on which the migration is based should be remedied and the resulting error costs reduced in future.
– The range of services is to be improved and made more customer-friendly.
– A good basis for the “second loyalty” of profitable customers should be laid.
The following ten tips will help you achieve all of these goals.

Five tips to avoid losing customers

1. Some companies are so busy with the acquisition of new customers that existing customers often have the feeling that they are only ‘second class’. However: your regular customers are your most important customers. These – and not the new customers – get the best offers, special prices, vouchers, exclusive items and privileges.
2. Customers often lack the important emotional attention. So show acceptance, recognition, appreciation and respect. Thank you expressly, personally and honestly for every purchase respectively. for every transaction. Insert a “thank you” more often. And start congratulations for customer loyalty.
3. Very important: do not impose anything on the customer. Rather, let him decide for himself who can contact him how often and in what way. Update all customer-relevant information in your database continuously and add emotional details to it successively.

You can read this article further in our trade journal Innovation und Technik issue 3/2020.

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