How You Can Identify at Risk Customers for Your Business

When your company has at risk customers, it means that you are in danger of losing them to the competition. They may start going to another company for some of their needs, start buying less and less with you, and become less receptive to your marketing efforts. One of the keys to the long term success of your business is holding on to as many of your current customers as possible, because it is much more expensive to find new ones.

You need to be able identify which of your customers are at risk and then proactively try to prevent them from leaving. The question is, how can you know who those at risk customers are?

Look at the key metrics

Key metrics refer to numbers and analytics that give you insights into your business and how well it is performing in different areas. The most important key metric for customers at risk is purchase frequency.

Purchase frequency tracks the number of times a customer buys products or services from a company within a given period. Looking at this key metric matters, because if you notice it's dropping off, it may indicate that the customer is purchasing from one of your competitors instead of you. In other words, if the intervals between purchases is becoming longer than usual, assuming the customer still needs the product or service you offer, it must mean that they are getting it somewhere else.

If purchase frequency is decreasing for a customer, your sales team should reach out to them as quickly as possible. They have to ask them about their needs, offer to fulfill those needs, and see if there have been any issues with their interactions at your company. The problem is, more often than not, the majority of people will not tell you proactively if your business isn’t serving them adequately, or if you're falling short in some way.

Understanding customer purchase frequency and other key metrics can give you insights into whether something is wrong or if you have at risk customers.

How to keep at risk customers from leaving you

Once you determine which customers have a decreasing purchase frequency, the next step is to do something about it and prevent those at risk customers from leaving you for the competition. The best way to accomplish that is through customer satisfaction surveys conducted by a third party. These surveys will tell you exactly what customers think about your products, your processes, and your business overall. They’ll help you identify the issues that at risk customers are having, so you can solve them before they leave you.

Your customers' responses will reveal areas that need improvement. Whenever a survey score is low or you receive a negative response, you can be made aware of it, find out the details, and fix it. Unhappy customers very much appreciate being called, and by conducting the surveys and taking steps to fix the problems they’re having, you show them that you care.

Implement Winsby’s customer satisfaction surveys

The clients that implement Winsby surveys see an increase in customer retention of between 20% and 30% and higher purchase frequency. There are several reasons that these surveys are so effective:

• Surveys are conducted over the phone - Winsby uses phone surveys because they can reach a customer on every third call. When they talk to someone and ask if they will take the survey, 97% agree to take it. Plus, if anything is unclear in the questions or responses, the caller can ask for details.
• Using a third party works better - As a third party, your customers will be much more candid with Winsby than they will be with one of your own employees. The reason for this difference is that many people are too polite to say negative things about an organization to a member of that organization.
• Highly effective scripts - Winsby has a lot of experience writing survey scripts that actually work and prompt useful responses. They will work with you to determine what’s most important to include, write the script, and have you review and approve it.

If you want to understand purchase frequency, recognize at risk customers, and boost your retention, contact our team today!