Keywords
Citation
Dietz, J. (2002), "Customer Winback: How to Recapture Lost Customers and Keep Them Loyal", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 74-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2002.19.1.74.1
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Just when you thought you’d read all there was to read about customer satisfaction, along comes a book that goes further than cradle to grave – it tells us how to bring customers back from the dead! Customer Winback is a valuable “how‐to”manual for the use of any business. The book tells the reader how to:
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decide what kind of customers you want;
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keep them;
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win them back when they defect to competitors (and why wooing them back is worth trying);
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decide if you want certain customers in the first place; and
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keep your employees loyal too (and why that is important)!
Griffin and Lowenstein give the reader numerous specific strategies and tools for winning back lost customers, saving customers on the brink of defection, and making your company defection‐proof. Though it seems at times that there are a lot of lists, one finishes this book with the feeling that it can act as a “repair” manual for each and every customer issue. Each of the ten chapters offers specific and useful tips that can be put into action now.
Part one: how to win back lost customers
The premise of the book is attacked with:
(1) Why customer win‐back is critical to your success
“Lost customers are not all the same and it is a mistake to assume they are all a lost cause (p. 15).” This chapter is important in setting the stage as well as setting straight some myths about lost customers.
(2) Managing the big three: acquisition, retention, and win‐back
“There is absolutely no substitute for attracting high potential customers and keeping them happy” (p. 24). This chapter discusses the six customer groups: prospects, new customers, retained customers, at‐risk customers, and lost and regained customers. It demonstrates calculations to analyze customer worth and their lifetime value.
(3) Winning back a lost customer
Although this is the key to why you would read this book, it properly positions winning back customers in the context of researching their needs, creating a plan to reinstate trust, and refining your win‐back program.
(4) How to save a customer on the brink of defection
Amazingly, 60 percent of sales and marketing managers in the authors’ research had no system or process for identifying customers who are at high risk for defection. This chapter tells you what signals matter and that “90% of customers don’t complain, they just go away” (p. 114).
(5) Mobilizing and managing a win‐back team
Being proactive is the order of the day here, and the authors outline processes that help you control the outcome.
Part two: making your company defection proof
(6) When you think your customer is safe from defection
By explaining why customers do not complain (too busy, fear retaliation, do not believe the company will do anything about it, etc.), Griffin and Lowenstein point out the very important difference between satisfaction and loyalty. Pay close attention to this chapter.
(7) Building a customer information system that drives loyalty
The important information on data collection here is useful to everyone.
(8) Targeting prospects with strong loyalty potential
The authors point out that “no company can serve more than five segments well” (p. 213) and provide a blueprint for attracting the best prospects and staff to match the company’s strengths. They caution the reader to “avoid the Casanova complex.”
(9) Leveraging the power of customer‐focused teams
Here is where some valuable examples (IBM, Baptist Hospital, Kaiser) point out the continued value of corporations which support collaborative, customer‐focused teamwork.
(10) How to build a fiercely loyal staff
The story of Malden Mills and how Aaron Feurstein kept all 1,400 employees on the payroll after fire devastated his Lawrence, Massachusetts textile mill is a fitting one to demonstrate how employee loyalty and customer loyalty are inseparable parts of the customer retention equation.
Each chapter summarizes the points succinctly in a method that allows the reader to digest the material for long‐term memory. For instance, at the end of chapter 4, “How to save a customer from the brink of defection,” the tips include “putting together a save plan is essential to win back those thinking of discontinuing business” and “proposing a solution and working with the customer often leads to a rescued relationship”(p. 121). These end‐of‐chapter bullets are part of what make this book so useful as a manual for improving customer retention.
The authors use real examples and lots of them. But, in addition to the usual Amazon.com, Southwest Airlines and IBM, they tell the reader how Granite Rock keeps its customers through an unusual method of letting them deduct for what the company has not earned! Little things like this helped Granite Rock win the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The book is chock full of these types of examples for all sizes of companies.
In the volatile world of on‐line starts and stops, Griffin and Lowenstein have added important tips for the special niches that on‐line businesses fill. They explain how high expectations, unpredictable experiences, and easy exit can make this group difficult to capture.
Their concise advice, such as “no company can serve more than five target groups well” (p. 213), makes academic as well as practical common sense.
Who should read this book? At the risk of suggesting“this book is for everyone,” I believe this book is only right for people who have, had, or hope to have customers. It is one of the most comprehensive books on getting, keeping and getting back customers this reader has encountered. This book is also excellent for entrepreneurs because it points to mistakes that entrepreneurs make and might help future business owners avoid costly errors. For those who teach marketing or management, the book offers many good examples to use as classroom resources.
People who buy this book will keep it and refer to it often. It is the kind of book that anyone in the area of marketing should have on his or her bookshelf.