Letters to Lure Back Clients
By Dr. Andrew S. Linick,Ph.D. The
Copyologist®
What turns clients off?
How often have you said to yourself, why has the number of repeat sales gone down for the sixth straight month? I wonder what's happened." The reason probably is the Smiths and the Browns and the Ragusas and the Jones have gone elsewhere for their needs.
Andrew Linick, Ph.D. is an expert at writing & designing persuasive sales letters to lure ‘em back. He presents some of examples here in the second of three articles on this overlooked subject.
The fact that a client/customer (for brevity let’s say customer) has stopped doing business with you does not necessarily mean that your customer cannot be induced to buy again. A small percentage of these ‘lost sheep’ may even wander back on their own initiative. But a far greater percentage needs just a little encouragement—perhaps only the question, “We’ve missed you; where have you been?” It takes only a postage stamp, a professionally written sales letter, and a little time to ask that question. The payoff in revived business makes the effort worth many times the cost of hiring an experienced direct response advertising copywriter.
You’ll be surprised at how easily you can get some of those lost customers back.
We haven’t thought of any way to prove this, but some sales analysts maintain that a company spends 20 times as much to land a new customer as to regain an old one. If that seems a bit large, at least it must be conceded that the cost of getting back the old customer is considerably less than searching for a replacement.
A new fish is merely a stranger to the agency. She knows nothing of uncompromising quality of your products, services and/or opportunities. She may have been buying a long time from a competitor and has no reason for wanting to buy elsewhere. It takes hard, intensive effort to get her first sale.
Now the old client knows all about your company, possibly its worldwide capabilities, high quality products and convenient services. Three-fourths of your usual sales pitch is unnecessary in his case. What remains may involve adjusting a complaint, or simply giving him the attention that was lacking when he drifted away.
You have already seen from the client survey (see October '03 newsletter) of a hundred lost clients that more than two-thirds of them had no real reason for leaving. The ease with which they left suggests the ease with which they can be brought back.
Of course, the inactive buyer likes to be noticed and probably will never return if you or your company remains aloof. Not to be asked to buy again is damaging to one’s ego. Why should a customer go back to a place/site where s/he has not been missed?
But suppose you were the inactive client/customer. How would you react to this letter from the company you did business with in the past?
Dear Mr. Browne:
Back in the early days of this company, I learned a very valuable lesson.
In those days we depended more on footwork—and less on headwork!
Well, here’s what happened.
One day I was traveling through the territory with one of our men and we called on an old-time client who had suddenly stopped buying. After exchanging the usual greeting I asked him why we weren’t receiving any more of his business. Here’s his reply:
“There’s really no reason at all. I just happened to give my business to another company who had been calling on me for a long time—a nice lady and I wanted to give her a break!
“You folks have never made any effort to resell me, so I concluded you no longer were interested in my business. Never even got a letter from you asking why I quit and so I’ve been going along with this other company.”
Well, we ARE interested in your business.
And to prove it, we’re writing to ask you why we haven’t been selling to you. We don’t want to make the same mistake we made years ago. We want you to know that your account is really valued and that we’d like to keep it. If there’s anything we can do to restore our relationship, we’d appreciate it a lot if you would let us know.
Will you? Thanks!
Sincerely yours
That letter was used with considerable success by one of my clients in Chicago. The approach is simple—”We appreciate your business...why have you stopped buying?”
The story made the letter longer but it was a good one and helped to convey my client’s sentiments. Here are three quite short contacts of the same sort:
Used by Hotel Fontenelle, Omaha
Dear Dr. Linick:
Do you realize that it has been all of six months since you and Hotel Fontenelle got together?
We enjoyed having you with us. When will you be back? We miss you.
Watchfully yours,
Used by an outside sales rep in Florida
Dear Mrs. Tomkins:
Just a short note to let you know that we have missed your coming in-or ordering online- for your cosmetics.
Anything wrong? If so, tell us, because you know we want to please you in every way possible.
Won’t you come in? Or better still, phone—the number is 800- 555-5555. Thank you.
(No complimentary close)
Used by wholesaler, St. Louis
Dear Mr. Roberts:
Can you spare me two minutes? One minute to read this—and one minute to say:
“We haven’t bought any of your services because............................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................................
Please fill in your answer and return this sheet to us in the enclosed stamped envelope.
This won’t obligate you in the least and we’ll surely thank you for your two minutes—and your courtesy.
Yours in anticipation,
The light, humorous touch can help you get the inactive client/customer back in the fold again. Such a letter certainly would be read and go a long way toward re-establishing a favorable image.
Some sales letters simply express appreciation of past business and say the customer has been missed. Some ask casually what is wrong. Some assume a grievance and lavishly promise to make things right.
These differences bring out the question of just how far the letter to ‘lost sheep’ should go. Here are a few general guidelines:
How to recover lost sheep
1. Tell your customer past business was appreciated. If the fact was not mentioned when she was buying, perhaps there should be some form of mild apology for the oversight.
2. Tell her how much she has been missed. Don’t say you noticed her absence while “going over the records.” No one is really missed if the fact is called to attention by a record. She wants to be missed as an individual—not as a name on the books.
3. Tell her you want to serve her again. That’s better than asking her to buy again.
4. Tell her you are keenly interested in knowing why she stopped buying. Merely asking that question is not an assumption of dissatisfaction; it might be for some other purely normal reason.
5. Tell her about anything new and beneficial in service or product—things that have happened since she stopped buying. Or mention some other inducement that might be interesting, such as a free gift, coupon or discount on her next order—a gift you want her to write or call for; or any special thing you can do for her which would be fair to other customers.
6. Ask if something happened to displease her and express how eager you are to make things right.
Please note: if you run an Internet business, with a few positive changes, similar letters can be mailed and emailed to your “lost sheep”.
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There are exceptions to all rules. A sales letter which handles the possibility of complaint in a very casual and adroit way is one I wrote for a company in Ohio. It demonstrates what has been mentioned so often in my articles—it isn’t so much what you say, as how you say it.
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Dear former client/customer:
Have you heard the saying, “Old friends are like the ticking of a
clock”? You get so used to hearing the tick that you rarely notice it
until it stops.
We get used to doing business with Old Customers, too—so much
so, that now and then we assume that everything is running along
smoothly and we sometimes fail to express our appreciation as often
as we should.
And then—suddenly the clock stops and we find that an Old
Customer has stopped buying.
That’s the position in which we find ourselves with you—you / your company stopped buying from us.
We are wondering if you would tell us frankly just what the
trouble has been—whether there is something we did not do that we should have done, and whether there is anything we can do NOW to
get you back on our list of regular clients/customers. If there is, we surely want to do it.
If there is anything wrong with the works of our clock, let us see
what is out of kilter. Mistakes will happen at times, of course, and if
one has occurred in your case, we hope you will tell us about it. We
think we can fix it up the very day we receive your reply.
Like any successful company, our progress is largely dependent on satisfied clients. That’s why we want you satisfied and that’s why we earnestly request you to fill in the attached postage-free business reply card.
Let’s see if we can get the old clock to ticking again.
Sincerely,
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Dr. Andrew Linick—The Copyologist® specializes in writing winning sales letters and direct response print ads for ad agencies, public relation firms, small to medium sized businesses, corporations and entrepreneurs covering bus. to. bus., consumer, industrial and hi-tech industries. He conducts in-house seminars/workshops and is a keynote speaker at major industry functions throughout the year. For further information contact: Linick International, Linick Building, PO Box 102-F, Middle Island, NY 11953-0102. Voice: 631.924.3888 email: cca4dmcopy@att.net .
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How to Minimize Legal Liability In Your Online Business
© 2000 Elena Fawkner
Have you ever had the edifying experience of receiving
an unjustified spam complaint from a complete nutter? I did,
just this week. It seems to be an unfortunate fact of life for
those of use who run an online business.
The whole experience got me thinking just how vulnerable
those of us running online businesses are to those
individuals whose sole purpose in life seems to be to attempt
to destroy other people's livelihoods. Their ability to wield such
power is, of course, only facilitated by the lack of natural
justice that seems to apply in the online world. Where else
could you be tried and convicted of a crime without even
knowing your accuser or being given the opportunity to
present your side of the case?
Now, there's not much you can do to protect yourself from
the crazies in this world if they decide to target you. But you
CAN minimize the areas of liability you are necessarily
exposed to in your online (or offline) business. This article
discusses a few of those areas and ways you can minimize
your legal liability.
Spam
Also known as "unsolicited commercial email", spam is
simply a fact of internet life. Do yourself a favor. Accept it
as such and move on. Life is too short to try and move an
immovable force.
Now, having said that, let me say this. DON'T SPAM
ANYONE. EVER. Period. It's no way to do business, it
doesn't work and it will only cause you and your business
untold grief.
If you want to mass mail your offer, the only effective way
is to cultivate your own opt-in mailing list or to purchase
advertising to someone else's. Starting a newsletter is one
way of building your own list; inviting your site visitors to
leave their email address when they visit is another.
Alternatively, you can buy advertising in someone else's
newsletter or purchase an exclusive mailing (a newsletter
publisher sends your ad to his or her subscribers in a
separate mailing containing nothing but your ad).
Be VERY wary of purchasing the so-called opt-in mailing
lists that you will see on offer from time to time. Fertile
ground for scam artists, the modus operandi typically
starts with an advertisement enticing you to send your
message to 100,000 people, all of whom are just waiting
with bated breath to receive your offer. All you have to
do is pay the owner of the list for access to the email
addresses. Because each of these 100,000 have
"voluntarily" joined the list (hence the term "opt-in"), no-one
can accuse you of spamming. That's the theory.
In truth, of course, there's nothing even remotely "opt in"
about these lists and you will expose yourself to serious
problems if you mail to many of the addresses in these lists.
After all, would you make YOUR email address available to
someone for the sole purpose of receiving advertising
material? I doubt it. So why would 100,000 other people do it?
If you do decide to develop your own mailing list, either
via your newsletter or capturing the email addresses of your
site visitors, keep a record of each subscriber's subscription
email or form so that, if necessary, you can prove that the
person signed up for your newsletter or voluntarily provided
their email address at your site so you could contact them
in the future. This will go a long way to short-circuiting
misguided spamming allegations.
Disclaimers
If you provide information at your site, protect yourself
from the consequences of a visitor suffering some sort of
damage as a result of using the information you have
provided. The way to do this is with a disclaimer of
liability.
A disclaimer of liability in this context makes it clear to the
site visitor (or newsletter subscriber) that although the
information you are making available is provided in good
faith and you believe it to be correct in all respects, you
accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions
contained (or not, as the case may be) in the information.
Further, by availing him or herself of the information you are
making available, the site visitor assumes all risk associated
with the use or misuse of that information.
The effect of such a disclaimer is that if you are sued for
negligence, in addition to any other defences that may be
open to you, you will be able to invoke the defence of
assumption of risk. In other words, your site visitor assumed
all risk associated with the use or misuse of the information
you have provided.
In order to be effective, a disclaimer must be prominently
displayed at your site so that the site visitor may reasonably
be expected to have been aware of it. It will be of absolutely
no effect if the existence of a disclaimer can only be
discovered in the fine print way down the bottom of the page.
For an example of a simple, prominently displayed disclaimer,
visit the AHBBO home page at http://www.ahbbo.com and
click on "Legal Notice". (In keeping with the present subject
matter, if you decide to copy this wording (which you may),
you assume all risk that the wording may prove to be
ineffective. ;-) If you want more certainty as to the
effectiveness of your disclaimer, consult your attorney.)
The same principles apply for those of you publishing
newsletters.
Insurance
If available, take out public liability insurance to cover
yourself against claims for negligence.
Defamation
Do not publish anywhere on the internet (or anywhere
else for that matter) material that is defamatory of another
person or business. The laws of defamation are not
uniform throughout the world or even within countries in
many cases so it is not possible to be overly specific about
the do's and don'ts here. As a general guide, though, material
will be defamatory if it impugns a person's character and/or
reputation and is untrue. A good rule of thumb is "if in doubt,
leave it out".
These are just a select few obvious ways of minimizing
legal liability in your online business. It hopefully goes without
saying that as a matter of course you conduct your business
with the utmost integrity and ethical considerations. This is
the greatest protection your business can possibly have. But
sometimes, with all the best intentions, things can still go
wrong. We are, after all, only human. But by continuing your
good business practices and implementing some or all of
the suggestions in this article, you will go a long way to
protecting your livelihood from avoidable disaster.
Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ... practical ideas, resources and strategies for your home-based or online business. AHBBO
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