I understand how frustrating it can be to lose a customer. Even though it may appear to be a defeat, it does not have to be the end of the road. Keep your cool.

Customer churn is a significant challenge for business today. Losing a customer is a setback. We need to examine it to improve our business practices. Here, we'll explore strategies for winning lost customers.

The True Cost of Customer Churn

Losing customers will significantly affect your bottom line. Acquiring new customers to replace them is costly, so tackling customer churn is vital for maintaining profitability.

Building a Customer Recovery Strategy

Implement these proven tactics to regain lost customers:

Communication

Effective communication is the first step in recovering lost customers. If you can communicate with them, you can offer solutions or compensation, demonstrating your dedication to their satisfaction. It's also important to request feedback to understand their reasons for leaving. Sometimes, these reasons may be beyond your control, but showing that you value their business can make a difference.

When communicating with lost customers, consider their motivations. They might have left because of a negative experience or because they found a better deal elsewhere. Understanding these reasons can help you tailor your approach.

Taking responsibility for any mistakes is key. Even if you weren't directly at fault, showing that you're committed to improving their experience can help rebuild trust. This proactive approach not only helps in winning back customers but also enhances your overall customer service.

Leveraging Your POS System

While effective communication forms the foundation of customer recovery, implementing systematic tracking through a loyalty program enables proactive customer retention. A loyalty program allows you to measure and track customer loss, identify patterns, and maintain a solid relationship by regularly following up. Many POS systems, including ours, offer a built-in retail CRM to help you manage customer interactions and loyalty programs without additional costs.

Learning from Customer Loss

Studying the reasons behind your customer churn is a vital exercise. We must be open and honest here. Did the customer leave 1) A negative experience with you 2) Conditions have changed, e.g., because they moved to a different area; 3) They found a better deal elsewhere. Use this information to improve the customer experience and make the necessary adjustments to avoid similar issues in the future.

Proven Strategies for Customer Retention

Customer retention strategies are vital for maintaining a loyal customer base. Here are some key steps to focus on:

• Follow Up with Lost Customers: Regular communication shows that you value their business.
• Provide Solutions or Compensation: Offer incentives to encourage them to return.
• Take Responsibility for Mistakes: Show commitment to improving their experience.
• Gather feedback: Understand the root cause of customer churn to make informed changes.

Conclusion

Losing a customer hurts. Regaining lost customers often requires a direct approach. Remember, customer retention is more cost effective than acquisition, and recovering lost customers can turn them into brand advocates.

Would you be ready to transform your customer retention strategy? Access these powerful features in your POS Software today; you have a free CRM, so why not use it?

Why do some businesses consistently outperform their competitors? The answer is often more straightforward than you think. 

Most sales are recurring or predictable; you can take advantage of this with triggers (free email). Here are some real-world examples of my POS software CRM Users' cases for their loyalty programs. 

1. Birthday email marketing

Do we all do something for our birthdays? Sending a special offer on a customer's birthday is one of the best ways to boost sales. People want to treat themselves, and I am sure you want them to treat themselves from your shop.

2. Reminder email campaigns

Sold a magazine? Great! Set a trigger for when the next issue hits the shelves to notify your customer when it arrives, and you are more likely to see them back in your shop.

3. Pet Owner

Did they buy dog food? They'll need more; it is just a matter of time! Set your CRM trigger based on the average time to use the product.

4. The Annual Service Reminder

Have you just quoted for a lawnmower service? Set a trigger for next year even if you do not get the job, as they will need a new service. Maybe you will get it the next time?

5. Customer segmentation by ethnicity

Say your customer is French, and Bastille Day is coming up; suggest a few books on France.

Your Customer Journey Events in CRM are not just buzzwords but the cornerstone of modern, effective marketing. These strategic touchpoints throughout a customer's interaction with your brand can distinguish between a one-time buyer and a lifelong buyer.

Here, we will discuss the concept, explore its practical applications, and show why implementing this approach could be the best decision for your business.

What Are Customer Journey Triggers (events)?

Customer journey triggers are specific events or milestones in a customer's life or purchasing history that create perfect opportunities for engagement. 

Customer data insights 

1. Free Targeted Marketing: Email marketing based on these triggers costs you nothing but can yield significant returns.
2. Rich Customer Data: As you build your loyalty program, you'll gather valuable insights.
3. Boosted Sales: Relevant promotions mean more purchases.
4. Customer satisfaction: Timely reminders show you care.
5. Stronger Relationships: Lifecycle marketing keeps customers coming back.

The Harsh Truth

If you're not using customer journey triggers, you're losing customers to retailers who are. It's that simple.

How to Get Started

1. Implement a Loyalty Program: This is your foundation for gathering data.
2. Identify Key Triggers: Look at your products and think about natural follow-ups.
3. Set Up Automated Emails: Use your POS software's CRM to schedule these trigger-based communications.
4. Monitor and Adjust: Keep an eye on what works and refine your approach.

Actual Results from my clients

Here are some results I got when I analysed some of my clients' information

A Personal Touch Goes a Long Way

Remember, these triggers aren't just about sales. They're about showing your customers you understand their needs. 

Lifecycle marketing

Customer journey triggers are easy to set up, free to use, and powerful. By tapping into your customers' natural lifecycles, you increase your chance of making a sale.

Dive into your POS software's CRM today and set up those triggers. Give it a go.

Traditional loyalty programs based solely on points have hit a plateau. This has been the subject of a webinar I attended, and I have read several articles about it. The problem is that almost every business now in Australia is doing it, so the problem is that a business program is now competing with so many companies that it is struggling to make its program noticed. 

For some businesses, points work brilliantly, and we have no reason to believe that a traditional program of buying eleven cards/coffee and the 12th is free would not work well in the future. 

However, many businesses need differentiation, which is why many loyalty programs are moving into personalisation! Its called CRM.

"Mass marketing is dead. Personalization is the new frontier for loyalty programs." 

Now, I am worried about this in my client base:

The Challenges of Personalization for Smaller Retailers

Many of my clients are not huge and will face the following problems.

• Limited Data: Unlike large corporations, they might not have vast troves of customer behaviour data.
• Experts: Access to sophisticated consultants is lacking; they are often too busy to attend the many conferences that discuss this to get ideas.
• Scale: It's tough to match the "wow" factor of rewards programs offered by big brands with extensive resources.
• Time: Large brands are willing to run at a loss for ages to establish their program.

Overcoming the Obstacles: Practical Solutions

We have what we have; we can only play the hand we have, so we need actionable strategies for small retailers to personalise their loyalty programs:

• Focus on Key Data: Your POS System collects the most valuable data points, e.g. purchase frequency and spending habits.
• Simple Personalization: Often simple ideas work well, e.g. birthday discounts and email alerts for new products based on previous purchases; if a parent buys back-to-school products from you, what is wrong next year sending the parent an email that you have back-to-school products?
• Local: Emphasize the genuine connection you have with the local community.
• Local SEO: Make sure you appear in the local Google search high up.
• The Human Touch: Enhance personalisation with handwritten thank you notes on your packing.

Affordable Tech to Boost Your Program

• Your POS as a CRM: Your Point-of-Sale systems include built-in customer relationship management tools that allow you to track data, send targeted promotions, and build customer profiles.
• Social Media Power: Please interact directly with your customers on social platforms such as Facebook (consider it free advertising).
• Email Marketing: Use email newsletters to tell people you exist. Let me know if you do not know how to do this, and I will point you through it.

Additional Tips:

• Be Adaptable: Don't be afraid to experiment and refine your rewards program based on what works for you.
• Are you an expert in something you sell?: If so why not run a short course? 

Conclusion

"Personalization is the heart of every successful business. Treat every customer as a unique individual, not a number."

Personalisation doesn't require breaking the bank or having massive amounts of data. You can start with meaningful steps and gradually build on them. Remember, genuine connection is the ultimate competitive edge! Take the first step, experiment with personalisation, and watch your loyal customer base grow.

Many retailers use CRM; our clients have a great one for free.

Although I have not seen any of our clients report any significant customer churn. I have checked our CRM, I can find little sign there yet the figures now coming out from other suppliers of CRM are saying that companies have noticed that "customers are leaving at extraordinary rates." We all expected this as the COVID crisis was a prolonged crisis. This was long enough to change the public's habits. With the reopening, people are now coming out. As the old patterns are just memories, we are now looking at something new. We are trying new shops, restaurants, doing new things, etc.

Meeting the danger

This customer relationship emergency needs to be met with a return to nuts and bolts. We need to review our customer relationship. The problem is not that people's needs have changed, but they are now exploring.

I would also suggest you look into your CRM system.

There is a "Great Reassessment" across society.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are being implemented by everyone now. 

You can install one, too, as your Software has a CRM inbuilt. This gives you the tools to build thoughtful relationships. It is harder to get new customers than to develop current ones. This is what CRM helps you to do.  We give you the means to know your customers better without the need for extra and costly CRM software.

Your business's best CRM solution is your POS software, as it knows your customers, stock and sales.  So it can often deal automatically to better market to your existing customers and so improve customer value. Also, it targets your audience to provide you with customised marketing campaigns. That makes your front-end sales efforts go further. You will also get access to detailed reports about how much sales and profit are coming in on any campaign.

A POS software CRM system offers you the features that your business needs to expand.

We are confident that we are giving you our users, the best CRM for your business free. So I was pleased that salesforce who are the number one in this filed invited us to attend their conference on their CRMs yesterday. I checked them out.

Click here if you wish to see some of the talks here.

One talk I do recommend that you listen to is this one by Mathew Sweezey [link removed]" He spoke well. His message was that everything is changing. A *NEW* normal is forming. People that you have never had a chance before to turn into customers are coming into your shop. Goods that you never sold, you can sell now. It's all changing. Everything has taken a new turn. There is no going back.

Some of the other talks were good too. Some of these guest speakers were very experienced retailers. They saw a CRM as a must for them. Included were retailers of all sizes who sold many different products.

Okay, what did I get out of it?

Modern retailers use CRM to track their sales process so they know what worked.

Do they want a CRM to sell more to each of their customers?

They want a CRM to tell them what is *NOT* working.

Your system has a CRM; why not try and use it? At the very least, you will get a feel of how they work.

When you talk to retail managers of large retail companies, what is interesting is that they consider their CRM more critical than the Point of Sale Software. One of the first questions they will ask does it talk to Salesforce or IMS. We go YES as we have more integration than anyone I think. only then they are interested in talking to us.

These people feel I think correctly that relationships are the heart of any business, and this is their top priority. This is why we provide a CRM module free in our software.  

Ask yourself this, does not every sale that is done in your shop represents a relationship. The more control you have, the more bits of information you have on the sale e.g. the customer’s name, the items they bought, how they brought it etc. the better. Bluntly these people do not care much about one of their shops in XYZ or the one in ABC, what they care about is the customer. They are spending big with loyalty programs which cost them about 1% to 2% of sales, to get this information. 

Think back when you were much smaller, you probably knew almost every person that you did business with their names, maybe family members, etc.  Do you think that this information helped your business?

Once your business starts to get over fifty customers, it starts to get impossible to do this with a paper note.  There is too much information. Now what you will find is the information you require is scattered over many different places e.g. filing cabinets, computers, handwritten notes, someone memory, etc. and you soon lose track. Now you start to look impersonal.

Where did you put all the personal information about your customers – like birthdays, names of children and avid interests? In what file did you keep all the service issues and complaints? In which spreadsheet did you track customer responses from your marketing campaigns?

This is where customer relationship management (CRM) software comes into play.

It automates many tasks. The CRM does not forget birthdays, it does not forget that the customer is starting to run out of the perfume, dog food, photocopy paper, etc. and it knows peoples names. It puts all the information in one place, which gives you better relationships by helping you to understand your customer and the customer’s history and experience with your business.

I suggest trying our CRM module to try to get your business to grow.

If you feel after a while you want a bigger package, at least you will know more about what you need, and there is no problem with us going to something like Salesforce.

Large companies for years have been integrating their CRM (Customer relationship management) into their point of sale software. Today with coronavirus its more important than ever, so we are pleased to announce that we have added and extended our CRM facility in our software.

You will find this new CRM section in our reporting menu here.  

I urge you to go through this section. You can find some details on it here to start you off

Consider the genuine benefits for CRM your business, enjoy!