customer reactivation

the revenue sleeping in your ERP. B2B dormant customer reactivation, by phone

The customers you already have are your goldmine. We read your data, find who has stopped buying and bring them back with a call made by a person, measuring the return.

Let’s talk How it works

What a dormant customer is in B2B.

It is a customer who has bought from you for some time and at a certain point stopped, without cancelling anything and without telling you why. It is not a customer lost for good: it is a customer who has gone past their usual buying rhythm and whom nobody has called back yet.

The threshold changes with the buying cycle. A customer who reorders every month is dormant after two or three months of silence. One who buys once a year, whether a contract, a service visit or a seasonal supply, becomes dormant when they go a few months past their usual window. Customers who buy goods that last for years should be judged on their replacement cycle. The right thresholds are not decided at a desk: they are read in your sales history.

the customer base

how to read your ERP.

The starting point is an export from your ERP or invoicing software: customer, date, amount, product. The last two or three years are enough, and more is better.

In that data each customer is looked at from three angles: how long since they last bought, how often they used to buy, how much they were worth. Cross these and three groups emerge. Active customers, who should not be disturbed. Customers in their return window, who are about to come back and should be guided at the right moment. Customers who have stopped beyond their threshold, who are the heart of reactivation.

Among the customers who have stopped, we start with those who were worth the most and those who bought most regularly. That way the first hours on the phone go where a return is most likely.

why the phone

customers who stopped buying stopped reading.

A customer who no longer buys usually no longer opens your emails or looks at your promotions either. One more newsletter ends up where the previous ones went.

A call made by a person does something an email cannot do: it asks a question and listens to the answer. The customer says why they stopped, and that reason is worth as much as the sale. Sometimes it is enough to fix a problem that was left open; sometimes the customer was simply waiting for someone to get in touch.

how we work

four steps. a measured return.

  1. 01

    Reading the history

    From your ERP export we work out your customers’ return cycles, the thresholds beyond which a customer has stopped, and the value of each one.

  2. 02

    List and priorities

    We build the list of customers who have stopped and of those in their return window, in order of value. We agree with you who should not be called.

  3. 03

    Script and calls

    We write the script in your words, for a customer who already knows you. Our operators call in your name and come back with an order, an appointment with your sales rep or a scheduled call back.

  4. 04

    Outcomes and reports

    Every customer called is closed with a written outcome and the reason they left. Every week you see who has come back and what they are worth, and you know whether the campaign is paying off.

a real case

eleven years of receipts, one year of return.

established optical centre in northern Italy

The client had more than eleven years of sales history and a large customer base that nobody had ever really read.

We measured return cycles by age group and by store, found the months in which customers came back and those in which they drifted away, and isolated those who had left during the covid years and never returned. Then we called back the lost customers and those in their return window, tracking every reactivation.

In the first year the return on investment was 1046%, measured only on lost customers who came back, without acquiring a single new customer.

the reasons

why customers stop buying.

In reactivation campaigns the same reasons come up every time: a price perceived as too high, a service or delivery problem left unanswered, a change of contact person at the company, a sales rep who stopped visiting, a competitor who got in touch at the right moment. Some customers have closed down or changed business, and that too is useful to know so you can clean up your records.

Collected one by one, these reasons build a picture that usually nobody has: they tell you where you are losing customers and what to change so that it does not happen again.

what we need from you

not much, but not nothing.

We need three things. The first is your sales export, even a rough one: we will tidy it up. The second is half an hour with someone who knows your customers, so we understand what you really sell, which customers are worth the most and which should be left alone. The third is someone to respond when a call opens an order or a negotiation: a customer who comes back needs to be served straight away.

We take care of the rest: analysis, lists, script, calls, outcomes and reports.

when it is not worth it

we tell you up front.

If customers stopped because of a problem that is still there, such as late deliveries or a product that does not work, calling them back achieves little until the problem is solved. If your sales history covers only a few months, there is not yet enough data to tell who has really stopped. In these cases the campaign would cost you more than it returns, and we prefer to say so from the start.

When, on the other hand, there is a customer base with a few years of history and a service that works, reactivation is often the sales activity that pays off most, because it starts from people who have already chosen you once.

who calls

a person, not an automated voice.

One hundred per cent human, zero automation. Your customers speak to an operator who listens, asks the right questions and understands when it is time to make an offer and when it is time to fix a problem.

data and privacy

your customers, your data.

The campaign works only on data that your company already holds. ALIS processes it as data processor, appointed by you and for the purpose of the campaign.

Before starting, we check with you and your privacy consultant which customers can be called back and on what basis, and we exclude anyone who should not be called. Every request not to be contacted again is recorded and respected.

questions

what we are asked most often.

What do you say to a lost customer to win them back?

First, you listen. The call opens with a genuine question about how things went and why they stopped buying. A customer who feels heard tells you the real reason, and from there you can see whether there is an offer that makes sense or a problem to fix first. Stock phrases and blanket discounts work poorly: the customer notices.

How often should you call a dormant customer back?

It depends on their buying cycle. A customer who reorders every month should be called as soon as they miss two or three orders; one who buys once a year, when they go past their usual window. After the first call, the date of the next one is set according to the outcome, and it is kept.

How much does a reactivation campaign cost?

It depends on how many customers there are to work through and how many hours of calls are needed. That is why we start from an analysis of your customer base and a trial of five days: before you commit, you see the outcomes on your own lists.

Does winning back a customer cost less than acquiring a new one?

Almost always, yes, because the customer already knows you, their number is already in your ERP and there is no need to introduce yourselves from scratch. In the campaign we actually measure it: hours of calls on one side, returning customers and revenue on the other.

Who makes the calls?

Our own operators, in Reggio Emilia, with a script written together with you. They introduce themselves in your company’s name. No automated voice systems.

How soon can we start?

Once the data has been analysed and the script written, the first week is a trial: five days of real calls on your list. If the method does not work, you see it straight away.

let’s talk

how many customers have stopped buying?

Try us for five days: if the method does not work, you will see it straight away. We reply with an honest assessment, even when the answer is that we are not the right choice.