Customer Winback: How to Recapture Lost Customers--And Keep Them Loyal (Perfect Paperback)

~ (Author), Michael W. Lowenstein (Author) "By any standards, Toni Neal was a high-value customer that any credit-card company would want to keep..." (more)
Key Phrases: new prospect file, wondrous entanglement, second lifetime value, Cellular One, Big Three, Product Company (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Winning back lost customers is the marketing equivalent of finding hidden treasure. Griffin and Lowenstein provide an excellent treasure map." (Dr. Leonard L. Berry, distinguished professor of marketing, Texas A&M University, and author of Discovering the Soul of Service)

"Customer WinBack deals with one of the most overlooked dimensions of managing customer loyalty-earning it back. I've personally seen the power a focused win-back effort can achieve, and business leaders would be well-advised to follow Griffin and Lowenstein's formulas to regain lost revenue." (Jeanne Lombardo, general manager, Worldwide Satisfaction & Loyalty, Microsoft Corporation)

"Griffin and Lowenstein know that in order to win back lost customers you must know why they left. Customer WinBack provides sound examples that illustrate ways to recapture lost customers that can be applied to any business." (Stephen P. Campbell, director of franchise marketing, Sprint)

Review

"Winning back lost customers is the marketing equivalent of finding hidden treasure. Griffin and Lowenstein provide an excellent treasure map".— Dr. Leonard L. Berry, distinguished professor of marketing, Texas A&M University and author, Discovering the Soul of Service

"Customer Winback deals with one of the most overlooked dimensions of managing customer loyalty earning it back. I've personally seen the power a focused win back effort can achieve, and business leaders would be well-advised to follow Griffin and Lowenstein's formulas to regain lost revenue."—Jeanne Lombardo, General Manager, Worldwide Satisfaction & Loyalty, Microsoft Corporation

"Griffin and Lowenstein know that in order to win back lost customers you must know why they left. Customer Winback provides sound examples that illustrate ways to recapture lost customers that can be applied to any business."—Stephen P. Campbell, Director of Franchise Marketing, Sprint

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (February 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787946672
• ISBN-13: 978-0787946678
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #513,247 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHY Is Obvious: Do You Know WHAT to Do and HOW to Do It?, April 27, 2001

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is one the very few recently published books which focus almost entirely on recapturing lost customers. For more than 20 years while providing consulting services to a wide range of organizations, I have been frequently asked to help to improve business development. These situations have convinced me that, measured in terms of total cost (hours as well as dollars), the greatest ROI in business development is generated from two sources: former customers and current customers. (My own estimate is that the total cost of adding a new customer is 5-8 times greater than the total cost of keeping a current customer.) Almost none of the organizations with which I have been associated already had a comprehensive plan in place to recapture customers. (Does yours?) Obviously, I think this book will be of greatest value in two separate but related areas: keeping the customers you now have, and, recapturing those whom you've lost. "Now is the time to put in place specific strategies and tools for winning back customers, saving customers on the brink of defection, and making your company defective proof."

Their material is organized as follows. Part One (Chapters 1-5) examine why customer win-back is critical to an organization's success, how to manage "The Big Three" (Acquisition, Retention, and Win-Back), specifically, how to win back a lost customer or a customer on the brink of defection, and finally, how to mobilize and manage a "Win-Back Team." Then in Part Two (Chapters 6-10), they shift their attention explain why no customer is ever truly safe from defection and what the implications of that fact are, how to build a Customer Information System which drives loyalty, how to target prospects with strong loyalty potential, how to leverage the power of customer-focused teams, and finally, how to build a fiercely loyal staff. The authors then provide excellent appendices. One is "The Customer Loyalty Compass: A Proven Process for Finding Customer Value. The other is "Estimation of Second Lifetime Value (SLTV) Investment and Profitability." Insofar as the subject of customer recapture is concerned, there seems to be very little that the authors do not cover.

Let's say you have read the book and are ready to proceed. Now what? The authors suggest a series of specific steps which are summarized in Figure 10.1 ( "Getting Started") on page 281 in the hardbound edition which I possess. This section includes five "essential loyalty tools" which will help to make your organization "defection-proof." I hope that this brief commentary has succeeded in indicating what this book offers. Given the fact that your competitors may also read it, I urge you to proceed in a timely manner. Competition for customers (in every industry and market segment) is already ferocious and is certain to become moreso in weeks and months ahead.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important book in the field of loyalty, April 19, 2001

By	Gary Kopacek "garykopacek" (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews

Customer Winback, authored by loyalty experts Griffin and Lowenstein, is an important new book in the field of customer loyalty. Published in 2001, Customer Winback is packed with information, examples and practical advice about how to improve sales and profits by re-acquiring lost customers.

Customer re-acquisition is an area that has not been well explored before this book. Most companies don't even track lost customers, much less try to win them back. Yet, as the authors point out, your chances of converting a lost customer are usually much better than your chances of converting a new prospect. This simple fact is a good economic justification for developing a winback program.

How do you win them back? The authors don't offer a magic solution. Instead they provide a business process you can use long term, which is of course much better than a silver bullet. It starts with learning why you lost them in the first place, and then deciding who you want to win back. The authors provide some useful tools for approaching each winback situation. One I like is "Second Lifetime Value" which is sort of a reincarnation of the lifetime value concept.

In the USA, the timing of this book (Spring, 2001) couldn't be better. When the economy is shaky, companies want to do everything they can to keep their customers, or win them back.

Chapters:

1- Why Customer Win-Back is Critical to Your Success

2- Managing the Big Three: Acquisition, Retention and Win-Back

3- Winning back a Lost Customer

4- How to Save a Customer on the Brink of Defection

5- Mobilizing and Managing a Win-Back Team

6- When You Think Your Customer is Safe from Defection

7- Building a Customer Information System that Drives Loyalty

8- Targeting Prospects with Strong Loyalty Potential

9- Leveraging the Power of Customer-Focused Teams

10- How to Build a Fiercely Loyal Staff

Gary Kopacek, CEO, Mill City Marketing

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Customer Winback, November 16, 2001

By	Janis Dietz (Upland, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book deals with the often neglected area of bringing customers back once you have lost them. Griffin and Lowenstein give the reader numerouse specific strategies and tools for winning back lost customers, saving customer before they defect and "making your company defection-proof."

As I have stated in my review for "The Journal of Consumer Marketing",each chapter summarizes the points succinctly in a method that allows the reader to digest the material for long-term memory.

This book is right for people who have,had, or hope to have customers. It is one of the most comprehensive books on getting,keeping and getting back customers that I have encountered. It is for people who teach marketing and for people who do marketing.