How to Win Back Churned Customers for Your Print Business

Nobody likes churn, but it’s an inevitable part of running a business. Churn occurs in every industry and printing is no exception, but churn is not a reason to give up on a client. We’ll be giving you five tips for bringing back churned customers for your print business, because it’s easier getting orders from an existing customer than a new prospect—even if that customer appears to have churned.

5 Tips for bringing back churned customers for your print business

1. Identify the right churned customers to target

First, you need to define what a churned customer is. Churned customers are by definition customers who stop using your products or services within a certain time frame. Some people think of them as “ex-customers”; however, the way you determine who a churned customer is for your business depends on several factors.

Instead of just counting the days customers have not ordered, here’s a good formula from Optimove.

Time Since Last Activity is how many days since your client last placed an order. Activity Frequency is on average how many days go by before the client places an order. Plug in the numbers to calculate the Churn Factor. If the Churn Factor is more than 1, it means the client is taking longer than usual. If the number is 3.5, it means they’re taking three times as long as usual to place their next order. They’re more likely to have churned.

This formula provides more accurate information for when you want to understand which customers are churning. It uses the customer’s average activity as a benchmark instead of a static benchmark for everybody.

Next, you need to identify which one of these churned customers is worth bringing back

Look at their previous history and ask some of the following questions to determine which customers are worth bringing back:

• How much revenue did they generate for you?
• What was their order frequency?
• How much did they engage with your campaigns?
• Did they bring in any referrals?
• Did they have a lot of complaints?

You can’t win back everyone, so use your resources wisely on the best customers.

2. Understand why they churned

Communicate with customers to ask them for feedback. We recommend asking them in a personalized way like a phone call or an email that uses their name (as opposed to, say, a generic survey). Ask both open and close ended questions and show that you value their feedback.

With this feedback, even if you can’t bring them back, at least you’ll know what not to do, so that you can minimize churn in the future. And if they’re not willing to provide any feedback, maybe they’re not suitable for bringing back after all.

Business2Community provides some common reasons for churn that you will likely encounter:

• Your service has not provided sufficient value
• Your customer needs to reduce costs
• Your solution is no longer needed
• Your customer changed key personnel
• Cheaper or trendier alternatives become available

They also note something very important: it’s about what the customer perceives, not about what you’re actually doing. So maybe you’ve provided valuable printing services to a customer and it’s helping him a lot, but if he doesn’t perceive it, he might end up churning. 

3. Identify and work on key areas for improvement

Your customers’ reasons are likely vague or broad (e.g. you didn’t have what they wanted) but you can break big problems down into more specific areas for improvement (e.g. introducing apparel printing to your selection). Then, create a step-by-step plan for improvement.

Example:

Step 1: Price an order on SinaLite for printed apparel.

Step 2: If the results are good, start offering this product on my website.

Step 3: Announce this new product through email to my churned customers.

Step 4: Reevaluate after 2 months.

4. Tell your customers what you did to solve the issue

Communicate how you met their needs and why (e.g. “You spoke. We listened. Custom printed apparel is now here!”). Use the channel of communication that your churned customers are most likely to use, but also try using different channels of communication such as the following:

• Email
• Website
• Social Media
• Direct Mail
• Phone
• Face-to-Face
• Signage

5. Provide incentives if necessary

Sometimes you need to give before you can take. Offer something to your churned clients for their return (you can do this in tandem with your other solutions, like your new product launch). This inventive can be a discount but doesn’t have to be. Other ways to provide value include free educational resources, a feeling of community, or an invitation to a special event. You may also want to use FOMO (fear of losing out) by introducing some limited time offers or running a flash sale. Try your best to make it surprising, fun, appreciative, unique, and personalized.

Churn isn’t the end

Churn is an opportunity for you to learn how you can improve your business, and a closed door isn’t always a closed door. Maybe your clients are just waiting for your business to do something special. Be wise about when to keep trying and when to give up, but one thing’s for sure: you’ll never know until you try.