Winback
Going back to the ones who already went.
For half these trades the lapsed customer is not the customer. A builder loses architects, not homeowners. An electrician loses a portfolio over one Tuesday nobody answered. A roofer already knows which roofs are due, because they were on them four years ago.
The most likely customer you have is one who already left
Every trade business has a group it never markets to: the people who used to use them and stopped. Not the ones who complained — those are rare. The ones who simply drifted, because a job finished, nothing brought them back, and by the time they needed somebody again they had forgotten the name.
They are the cheapest work available. They already know what you charge, they already know where you are, and they have already decided you were acceptable. The only thing that went wrong was contact.
Most trades assume they left for a reason. Usually the reason is that nobody rang. Which makes this the one marketing activity where the message can be completely honest and still work: it has been a while, this is what we do now, here is what your property is probably due.
What we actually do
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Work out who has actually gone quiet.
Not everybody who has not called — the ones whose pattern has broken. That is a different list.
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Find out why, where it is worth knowing.
A commercial account that thinned out over six months usually did so for a reason you can fix.
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Give the contact a reason to exist.
A due date, a change, something genuinely useful. “We miss you” is not a reason.
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Handle the commercial ones by hand.
A lapsed contract is worth a call, not an email, and it is worth knowing who replaced you.
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Set an alarm on the ones still here.
The valuable version of this service is noticing at six weeks rather than winning them back at six months.
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Measure what came back.
Recovered work, by value, so it stops being a feeling.
For half these trades the lapsed customer is not who you think
A builder does not lose homeowners, they lose architects and specifiers who send repeat work. A roofer already knows exactly which roofs are due, because they were on them four years ago. An electrician can lose an entire portfolio over one Tuesday nobody answered.
The trade pages below identify whose absence actually costs you, trade by trade.
The first ninety days
- Weeks 1–4
The dormant list built from real job records and sorted by what it is worth, not by how long it has been.
- Weeks 5–8
The commercial accounts approached personally, and the domestic ones by a message with a real reason attached.
- Weeks 9–12
A lapse alert running, so the next one is noticed in weeks rather than found in a year.
What good looks like
- You can list the accounts that have gone quiet, by value
- Somebody has actually asked the big ones why
- Dormant customers get contact with a reason, not a newsletter
- An account going quiet is flagged in weeks
- Recovered work is a number in your reporting
Questions we get asked
Isn’t it awkward after this long? Less than people expect. Most customers do not remember leaving, because they did not decide to.
What if they left unhappy? Then you find out, which is worth knowing on its own. A specific apology and a fair offer recovers more of them than most trades believe.
How far back is worth going? As far as the work has a natural cycle. For some trades that is two years, for a roofer it can be ten.
Does it work for commercial? Best of all, because the accounts are identifiable, the value is large and the reason is usually recoverable.
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