How to win back customers who stopped coming in

Regulars rarely announce that they have stopped coming. They change jobs, move a few streets away or try the place around the corner, and you notice months later, if you notice at all. A loyalty card changes that. The console knows which members haven’t earned a point in weeks, and the card on their phone gives you a way to say something to them.

This guide covers a simple win-back campaign for a small shop: deciding who counts as lapsed, finding those members, writing a message worth acting on, sending it, and checking whether it worked. The examples use Harbor Coffee, our demo café.

Decide what “lapsed” means for you

It depends on how often your customers normally visit. A café regular who hasn’t been in for 30 days has probably found another café. A salon client on a six-week cycle isn’t even late until day 45. A workable rule is two to three times your usual gap between visits: around 30 days for a café or bakery, 60 to 90 for a salon or barber. Don’t wait much longer than that, because the longer someone has been away, the less a message from you means.

Find them with a segment

In the console, open Segments and set three things under Define audience:

• Inactive for (days): 30. This matches members whose balance hasn’t changed in that time: no points or stamps added, and no reward redeemed.
• Wallet pass: In a wallet. A push notification can only reach a card that is still on a phone.
• Registered before: a date about a month ago. “Inactive” also matches members who have never earned anything, so without this, someone who joined last week would be told you miss them.

The live preview counts the matching members as you type. Save the segment under a name you will recognize, such as “Quiet for 30 days”. Segments are dynamic: who belongs is worked out again each time you open the list or send to it, so the same segment is ready next month, with next month’s quiet members in it.

One habit keeps it accurate: add the points or the stamp at every visit. A regular who pays without showing the card looks exactly like one who has left.

Give them a reason, not a reminder

“We miss you” on its own gives nobody a reason to change their Tuesday. A win-back message needs an offer, and a good one is:

• Small and specific. A free pastry with the next coffee beats “great deals in store”.
• Time-limited. “This week” or “by Sunday” turns someday into a plan.
• Easy to honor at the till. The customer shows the message and staff hand over the pastry, with nothing new to set up.
• Cheap enough to give to everyone who turns up, because some of them were about to come back anyway.

If the card counts toward a reward, remind them how close they are. Unfinished progress is a reason of its own.

Write the message

A push campaign has a title of up to 50 characters and a body of up to 178, and the lock screen shows them together, title first. Two keywords make it personal: {name} prints each member’s first name, and {remaining} prints how far they are from the reward, on a stamp card or on a points card with a reward target. Harbor Coffee’s message looks like this:

• Title: {name}, your next coffee comes with a pastry
• Body: You’re {remaining} points from a free coffee. Show this card by Sunday and the pastry is on us.

A member called Alex, with 290 points on a card that pays out at 300, reads: “Alex, your next coffee comes with a pastry: You’re 10 points from a free coffee. Show this card by Sunday and the pastry is on us.”

Keep it to one idea. Before you send, read it in the composer’s preview, which shows the lock screen, the banner and the pass.

Send it to the segment

Open Campaigns and work through the four steps:

1. Choose how to send. Pick Push notification, a lock-screen alert on Apple Wallet and Google Wallet.
2. Write your message. The title and body from above.
3. Choose who gets it. Pick your saved segment. The number beside it is how many members it holds right now.
4. Review & send. Send now asks you to confirm, because a sent campaign can’t be undone.

The message appears on the lock screen of each phone that holds the card. On an iPhone it also stays on the back of the card, under Latest update, so the customer can find it again at the counter.

Tell the team before you send. They need to know the offer, when it ends, and that the card still gets scanned as usual, so the visit and the points are recorded.

See whether it worked

• Who got it. The Sent & drafts tab lists the campaign with its recipients, and you can open the list of members who received it.
• Who came back. Open Segments again after a week or two. The count is worked out fresh each time, so members who came back and earned points have dropped out of it. Treat the fall as a rough signal, because members who have newly gone quiet join as others leave.
• Whether it lasts. Cohort retention on the Analytics page shows, month by month, how many members come back. Loyalty program metrics explains how to read it.
• What it cost. Keep a tally of the pastries at the till.

What a win-back message can’t do

• Reach a deleted card. A push only reaches a card that is still in a wallet. A customer who removed theirs can get it back from your sign-up page with their email address, unless you have switched that off, so their next visit is your chance.
• Fix why they left. If the same people drift away again, look at the reward itself. Loyalty card reward ideas covers how to set a goal people reach.
• Work every week. A card that nags gets deleted. Once a month is plenty for the same group.

Make it a monthly habit

The saved segment does most of the work. Once a month, open it, look at the count, write one fresh offer and send it. The segment keeps the Registered before date you gave it, so every few months save a new one with a later date. It is a small job for regulars you would otherwise never see again.

Getting started

If you don’t have a card yet, design one in the Stow Cards Pass Designer, free and without an account. How live pass updates work explains what customers see when a message arrives, and the digital loyalty cards and digital stamp cards pages cover the card itself.

Questions shop owners ask