The Email Sequence That Wins Back Clients Who Disappeared
They didn't leave because of price.
Most business owners believe that clients stop showing up because of price.
I’ve fallen into this thinking trap many, many times. I just assume that another practitioner undercut me on price, or the client no longer saw value in my offering.
So in many cases, we offer discounts to win back clients. But this devalues our services, and trains customers to wait for that discount.
The research on why customers stop doing business with us tells a very different story. Here are the actual reasons, ranked from most commonly cited reason to least:
They forgot.
They found somebody else (due to their marketing).
Bad product.
Bad service.
They moved away.
Price.
Huh, look at that. Price is dead last. In these studies, “they forgot” is #1, and usually by a significant margin.
Think about it. They know they need an oil change, but they also need to pull more overtime at work because life has gotten more expensive. They know they need a massage, but it’s soccer season for the kids. The pain relief they got from acupuncture was great, but a family member passed away and they’re lost in the bureaucracy of being an executor.
The reality is that everybody lives a busy life. Stuff creeps in. And the pain relief kinda slips away into a distant memory, and they just…. live with it.
Ground yourself in this reality: Of the six reasons surveyed, which one is within your control?
If they moved out of reasonable driving distance to your business, that’s beyond your control. Discounting is just a race to the bottom (and let’s face it, we have bills to pay, too!). They found another provider they really connected with — well, we can’t break real human connections.
But that whole getting busy and forgetting thing? Yeah, we can fix that.
One other thing worth mentioning before we get into the pragmatic to-do thing: A past client is the third easiest person to generate new business from. An active client is obviously first, and new referrals are second. But a past client that likes you and just sorta drifted away is third. It’s a waste of marketing dollars and time to chase random strangers before attempting lost client reactivation.
🎯 Go!s
Build your lost customer list today:
Pull everyone from your CRM, scheduling, or payment system who bought from you but hasn’t returned within their normal repurchase window. Don’t have a CRM system? I built Kokoro for you. It’s free. (Or TaxCRM for the majority of readers that are in the tax resolution space. No, I haven’t forgot where I come from.)
Normal window: 30 days (restaurant, private chef - hi, Elisa!), 90 days (auto repair/retail), 6–12 months (professional services - hi, tax pros! hi Jill!).
That list is your highest-ROI marketing project this month.
Didn’t catch that? This list is your highest-ROI marketing project this month.
Read it again: That list is your highest-ROI marketing project this month. !!!.
Don’t fold them into a general newsletter. They need their own sequence.
Seriously. Go. Do the thing. Mosey along, now. Pull that list. Yes, I’m serious, go do the thing. Need help? Need clarification? Post a comment, I’ll respond personally.
Dude. Stop reading. Go make that list. Go!