No one is in a better position to tell you why you lost business than your former customers. They can give you very specific reasons why they left and a view of your business you can’t get anywhere else.
Benefits of exit interviews
The key benefits of getting feedback from defectors:
- Winning customers back. If you know why they left, you’ll know what it takes to win them back. If you have good information, you can bring back a good percentage of your defectors.
- Getting clues about how other customers are feeling. If you know what made your defectors leave, there’s a good chance some of your other customers are feeling the same way. Obtaining this info can help you fix what’s ailing existing customers and retain them.
Early warning system
Your former customers can also be an early warning system for what could become a problem with existing customers.
Whenever you lose a customer, ask him or her the following questions:
- What did they like about your product or service?
- What didn’t they like about your product or service?
- What is their reason for no longer doing business with you?
- What would’ve prevented them from leaving?
Win them back
After a customer leaves, it’s time to start fighting to win them back.
A good win-back program is a two-step affair:
- Search for clues to try to find out what went wrong. If you can’t come up with ideas, call your former customer and ask what you or the company did wrong. Then try to put together a special offer that addresses why the customer left in the first place.
- Research the customer’s present situation. Did the customer’s business change? If you understand what happened, you can create a better offer that will take advantage of those changes.
