Dormant customers or inactive customers are former customers who no longer react to your sales and marketing requests and as a result no longer buy anything from you.
Customers become dormant for a myriad of reasons, such as:
- Bad customer service
- Poor quality goods or services that don’t meet the needs of the customer and/or not as described at time of purchase
- Thinking they no longer have a need for what you’re selling
- Have found a competitor that provides better pricing and/or service
Identifying dormant customers
In order to categorize a customer as dormant you must begin by identifying who they are and find out how long they’ve been inactive. Depending on the product or service your business is providing, the frequency and customer lifecycle can vary a great deal. The sales team must define what the term “dormant customer" means in your line of business. For example, you may class your customer dormant after six months of no interactions. There’s no right or wrong answer here. However, the sales team should utilize the data in the CRM to determine this. There are many analytics and reports to consider when informing your company’s definition of “dormant customer.” Reviewing the customers buying history, including frequency and recency is a good place to start.
The importance of CRM when determining dormant customers
A CRM’s job is to store and intelligently manage customer data, it increases the number of leads and helps the sales and marketing function of your business to find new customers faster too. However, it’s main goal is to manage existing customers and enhance the level of service provided. A CRM helps sales and marketing to strategize when determining dormant customers. By reviewing buying history data and drilling down frequency, and recentness the team can best define how they will recapture the inactive customer and hopefully get a response. To learn more about tried-and-true tactics that garner a response jump to our 6 top tips for reengaging dormant customers.
Why reengagement matters
The likelihood of selling to an existing customer is 60-70 percent, while the probability of selling to new customers is 5-20 percent, according to Small Business Trends. That is why reengaging the inactive customer makes more sense. They’ve already done business with your organization; you just need to figure out a way to help them become active again and reengage with your products or services.
Here are our 6 top tips for reengaging dormant customers:
- Start with an email – using an email retargeting strategy allows you to utilize retargeting cookies to set off ads on the web pages the customer visits, you can create and break down lists to get super specific with the customer you’re trying to reengage.
- Reach out personally – don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and ask for the face-to-face meeting or plan a Zoom session to be cognizant of both their time and yours.
- Try connecting through social media – When appropriate or applicable, you could utilize the help of social media to share a testimony from the dormant customer and tag them for visibility and engagement purposes. If it makes sense, send a direct message (DM) to their accounts asking what new products or services they’d like to see from your business. Why not go with a coupon for a limited time offer even?!
- Share something new or exciting – Reach out with the news of a new product or service you’re getting ready to launch. Perhaps this was a service or product the dormant customer wished you had but it was in development, and you previously couldn’t disclose.
- Implement programs for dormant and current clients – Customer loyalty initiatives or programs are an excellent way to reintroduce your product or service. Giving exclusive access to such programs will get the customer excited and turn into repeated business.
- Be creative in your communications – Share video content in your communications or think about doing a PR drop if it makes sense. Work with marketing to let the dormant customer know you’re still in business. Finding a way to grab their attention will set you apart from the rest!
Why customer retention matters most
Customer retention can be a challenge, but it should be the end goal for any business. It costs your business more to acquire new customers versus retaining the ones it currently serves. Lowering your customer churn rate is one of the best ways to stay profitable as a business and investing in the right CRM plays a pivotal role in this practice.
When you arm the sales and marketing function of your business with the right tools, partner, and training you’re giving your business a chance to build customer loyalty and retain a sustainable level of business; preventing your database from getting clogged up with dormant customers.
If you want to learn more about how CRM can take your business to the next level get in touch and request a demo. ApostleTech’s team of professionals has more than a decade of experience in implementation and has helped businesses in many industries, primarily homebuilding and construction, to realize the benefits of CRM and maintaining an active and up-to-date database of customers.
