The win-back email nobody should have sent

A friend forwarded me an email last month from a pizza shop she likes. The subject line was "We miss you! Here's 30% off." She had ordered from them four days earlier. She had ordered from them, by her count, about forty times that year.

She was not offended. She was amused, and a little confused. Then she used the coupon, and the shop gave thirty percent off to one of its best customers for no reason at all.

This happens constantly. Automated win-back campaigns are one of the most useful things a shop can set up, and also one of the easiest to get wrong.

How it goes wrong

Most of the bad win-backs I see come from a few simple mistakes.

• The data is wrong. Orders placed through one channel, like a marketplace or the phone, are not connected to the customer's email address. The system thinks they have stopped ordering when they have just changed how they order.
• The clock is wrong. A single fixed rule, such as sixty days without an order, is applied to everyone. Infrequent customers get "we miss you" messages when nothing has changed.
• The discount is wrong. Every lapsed customer gets the same big offer, whether they drifted off slowly or left angry after a bad experience.
• Nothing stops it. The customer orders again, but the sequence carries on and sends them two more "come back" messages.

Fix the data first

Before tuning anything else, make sure you know who has actually stopped ordering. Join up orders from every channel you can. If a customer's orders can only be partly tracked, be careful about treating silence as a sign they have left.

Use each customer's own rhythm

Base the timing on each customer's own normal gap between orders rather than a single rule for everyone. Someone who orders weekly and has missed a month is a real concern. Someone who orders four times a year and has not ordered in two months probably is not.

Treat angry customers differently

If someone left after a complaint, a refund or a remade order, a discount email with a cheerful subject line is the wrong response. They need an apology from a person, ideally the owner or a manager, and a real reason to try again. It is a different message for a different situation.

Always have an exit

The moment a customer orders again, every win-back message to them should stop. It sounds obvious. A surprising number of systems get it wrong.

Done carefully, win-backs bring people back who were genuinely drifting away. Done carelessly, they mostly hand discounts to loyal customers and annoy everyone else.