As companies continue to adapt their strategies in response to COVID-19, they shouldn’t forget about an important factor keeping customers coming back: brand trust. A recent study by Eldeman found that 60% of consumers are turning to brands that they can trust. This is why brand trust should be a central component of a customer win-back strategy. Trust comes from building an emotional connection with customers, and a customer win-back strategy shouldn’t ignore that connection. Before COVID-19, a customer win-back strategy might have focused more on how to gain back the most customers. With pandemic- and recession-induced constraints, however, marketers need a method that is less time-consuming and resource-intensive.

A customer win-back strategy is a type of marketing plan created to reduce customer churn and increase customer loyalty. A company shouldn’t focus on gaining back all customers as this is unrealistic and causes them to lose money. To increase customer acquisition and prevent revenue loss, marketers should focus on customers who have engaged with their brand in the past and have had a great customer experience. How can marketers find these customers? A successful customer win-back strategy relies on data acquired from customer analytics. With customer analytics, marketers can identify which customers their campaign should reach. After they have determined which customers they want to win back, then marketers should work with other teams to tweak their products or services to meet customer expectations and concentrate on creating new messaging to re-establish brand trust.

Let’s dive into how marketers can use customer data to create a successful customer win-back strategy.

Marketers shouldn’t put their energy into winning back all of their customers. They should determine which customers have engaged with their brand in the past and are most valuable to their business. Location intelligence allows marketers to understand which customers have made repeat visits to their stores before COVID-19 and who continues to visit stores after they have reopened. This data points to customers who continue to engage with the brand. When location intelligence is paired with customer data in a customer relationship management (CRM) or customer data platform (CDP) system, then marketers can connect their customers offline and real-world interactions with their brand.

After marketers have determined which customers they want to win back, they will need to gather customer feedback and data related to products or services. Which products are the most important to these customers? Which services do they engage with the most? Find out where those customers have run into issues during their customer experience. At this point, marketers can combine sales, feedback, and customer data to see which products or services the business should invest in improving.

It’s important to also look at what the competition is doing with their products or services. What other brands are these customers visiting? Location intelligence provides marketers with insights into what brands their customers engage with frequently. Find out what those brands have done to keep customer retention up. Why do customers love those brands? Competitive data will assist marketers in determining how to iterate on their products or services. It is possible that marketers will have to work with the product team to create a new product or service to win back customers. However, it is best to first try to iterate on products or services that customers already love. 

Once marketers have discovered their target audience and which products or services will win them back, they can create targeted campaign messaging. It is vital to think carefully about word choice for this messaging, remembering to be empathetic to what customers are going through. Their routines have changed so their interests and preferences might as well. They might have discovered a new hobby or are working on learning about a new topic. Marketers should tie this in with product messaging while making sure that it is relevant and timely. Location intelligence is a great tool for marketers to use to see how consumer behavior trends are changing over a period of time. By incorporating consumer trends relevant to their customers within customer win-back strategy’s messaging, marketers are able to create messaging which resonates with their customers.

Lastly, a good customer win-back strategy should reconsider messaging channels. Since most customers’ routines have changed due to COVID-19, they might not be going to the same channels they used to before. Therefore, marketers should revisit what channels their customers are using the most. For example, with the increase in curbside pickup through mobile apps, a restaurant might discover that their customers are ordering more on their smartphones than on their laptops. In this case, marketers would want to focus on reaching their customers via their smartphones. Location-informed audiences allow marketers to reach their customers where they spend most of their time – on their mobile phone. These customers will then feel informed about recent changes in products or services. This increases brand trust and prevents customers from losing their confidence in a brand.

Continuing to build brand awareness and trust is a high priority for marketers in today’s new economy. A customer win-back strategy allows marketers to be able to increase customer retention and loyalty. Winning back your customers can be a challenge, but it becomes less of one with location intelligence.