Capture lapsed customers with a phone call

Sometimes the simplest tricks are the most effective.

Today I received a phone call from customer services at Riverford, a UK grocery delivery service I had been using for 9 months before cancelling my subscription. When you cancel they ask why you are leaving. For me it was a mix between being away from home and not using all the veg. There’s only so much kale I can eat!

So I got this phone call from a nice chap called Cliff. He could see I rated Riverford positivly when I left and wanted to know if I would be interested in coming back.

Nothing salesy. Just checking.

He explained that I didn’t need to order a whole veg box. I could have a bespoke order and be saved from excess veg. I could even get my milk and eggs included. Things I wasn’t sure about and hadn’t had time to look into.

He had some good tips that benefited me and his business. And it worked – I’ll order again.

Marketing can involve complex systems: drip marketing, social engagement campaigns, abandoned cart emails, Facebook promotions and the like. But there simple solutions that are often overlooked. The personal touch is often the most effective.

Picking up the phone and talking to your customers can be the most cost effective way to grow your sales. You’ll learn a lot about your customers, will build brand loyalty and likely capture lost sales or upsell.

It’s cost effective, simple and something you can do right now. It’s not the most glitzy technique, but it works.

About four years prior I had a phone call from Guy Watson, the self-styled ‘Veg Nerd’ who setup Riverford. I can’t remember the reason he rang. I’d sent a support query in and I got a call from the Boss to help fix the problem.

We ended up chatting about Magento and the challenges they were facing with their ecommerce system. But most of all I was left highly impressed that they cared about their customers that they reach out to make that personal connection.

It’s clear that this ethic has been instilled in the company and they will benefit from it. Quality customer services are the backbone of any ecommerce operation and a large part of that will be done via telephone. Nice work Riverford and looking forward to your muddy spuds again!

We’ve written a guide to taking phone orders in WooCommerce without getting orders assigned to your admin account.