Keeping customers coming back
Most customers do not leave. They simply do not get round to booking again, and eventually go somewhere they walked past.
That is a more hopeful problem than it sounds, because it is rarely about dissatisfaction. It is about timing, memory and how easy you made it to come back.
The gap you can actually influence
For most appointment businesses there is a natural rhythm: six weeks, three months, twice a year, whatever the work implies. Customers who fall out of that rhythm tend not to return to it on their own.
The moment worth attention is not the year after they stop. It is the few weeks after they were due and did not book.
Rebook while they are still with you
The easiest booking you will ever take is the one made by someone standing in front of you who is pleased with what you just did. Asking then, once, without pressure, is worth more than months of later reminders.
Not everyone will know their diary. That is fine. Ask, and let the answer be no.
Follow up like a person, not a campaign
The difference is whether the message could only have been sent to that customer. A note that refers to what they had, how long ago, and what usually comes next reads as attention. A cheerful round-robin to everyone on the list reads as marketing, and gets treated accordingly.
- Timed to their own history, not to the first of the month.
- Specific about what they had and what would normally follow.
- Easy to act on immediately, with a couple of real times.
- Easy to ignore without it becoming awkward, and never sent twice.
Remember what you already know
Nothing signals value faster than not having to explain yourself again. What they had, who they saw, what worked, what they asked you not to do, what they declined last time.
A returning customer who is treated as a stranger has been given a reason to consider elsewhere. A returning customer who is remembered has been given a reason to stay, and it cost nothing but a record kept properly.
Do not confuse loyalty with discounting
Discounts recruit people who came for the discount. Being remembered, answered quickly and looked after recruits people who came for you.
If you do reward regulars, prefer the things that are hard for a competitor to copy: priority on a busy week, the practitioner they like, a bit of flexibility when they need it.
- Know the natural return rhythm for your main work, and watch the weeks just after it.
- Ask for the next booking while they are still with you, once.
- Time follow-up to the individual customer, not to a monthly send.
- Keep a record good enough that a returning customer never explains themselves twice.
- Reward regulars with access and flexibility rather than price.
When a past customer gets in touch to come back, Nandi offers times from your availability and books them in. Deciding whether and when to contact past customers stays with you.