As a business owner, you know that at risk customers are vital to your success. But what do you do when everyone is at risk? Here are some tips to keep your at risk customers during a crisis.

It’s no secret that businesses large and small have been struggling since the outbreak of COVID-19. With so many people out of work or working from home, discretionary spending has decreased across the board. This has put immense pressure on businesses, especially those who were already struggling before the pandemic hit.

For business owners, this can be a daunting time. How do you retain your most valuable asset – your customer base – when everyone is feeling the pinch?

At Risk Customers: Who Are They and How to Mitigate the Risk of Default

At-risk customers are those who have a higher chance of defaulting on a loan or becoming delinquent on payments. Lenders use a variety of factors to identify at-risk customers, including credit history, employment history, and current financial situation.

By identifying at-risk customers early, lenders can take steps to mitigate the risk of default and protect their investments.

We’ll examine why customers may churn, or abandon their subscriptions, and what you can do about it.

By the end of this post, you will have a better idea of how to determine whether your customers aren’t getting enough value from your product.

At-risk customers are those who are considering switching to another product. Let’s talk about how we can improve or communicate with these customers the value of our products.

Many business owners aim to reduce churn, but targeting the wrong customers is a waste of time and money.

To get the most out of your investment in reducing customer turnover, it’s important to identify which customers are most worth keeping.

This means taking the time to learn about what causes customers to churn, and also identifying which customers are most likely to do so. This way, you can reach out to them before they actually churn.

How to Identify Your At-Risk Customers

Before you can reach out to your at-risk customers, you first need to identify who they are.

To find your high-risk customers, start by looking at your customer service issues. You’ll want to look for patterns in the problems customers are having. Are there any common issues? You can also contact your clients and ask them for feedback.

Review your renewals data and investigate your customer experience for those who didn’t renew. You can also look at customer interactions and behaviors at key milestone points. Finally, you can turn your complaint data into an opportunity to listen to those customers who haven’t complained yet.

Now that you have identified your at-risk customers, it’s time to develop strategies to prevent them from leaving.

5 Tips on How to Understand At-Risk Customers

While you can’t prevent your customers from leaving, you can learn how to minimize your chances of losing them in the future.

1. Find Out Why a Customer Left

Everyone remembers those customers that have left your company for a competitor.

Have a way to collect and share customer stories.

Don’t be afraid to have difficult conversations. Embrace them!

There are certain times in your customer’s life when they are most likely to need your product. These times can be tied back to specific events, such as moving to a new house or changing jobs.

Interviews with your customers can help you discover these key moments when they may need your services.

When analyzing customer feedback, be sure to look for any trend lines that may indicate why customers are renewing their product, canceling, or leaving after a certain amount of time. This can help you figure out which of your customers are potentially at risk of leaving you.

2. Set Up Alerts

If one of your customer’s identifiers is that they have only been using your product or service for 6 months, then contacting them before that 6-month mark is incredibly important.

At certain points during the customer’s lifecycle, reach out and ask if they need any assistance. Don’t just offer them webinars or training that only focus on your product. This will help ensure that customers are getting the most out of your product and prevent any potential issues down the line.

3. Know the Ideal Customer Journey

Be familiar with it, and look for ways to support and reinforce it.

Your most loyal customers are probably the ones who use your service the most.

If you know your ideal customer’s journey, then you’ll be able to spot when customers stray from that path and rely on other brands.

Some products like savings accounts at banks do not require much engagement.

Proactively reach out to customers who aren’t getting much communication from you.

Some clients will be more interested in learning about financial education, while others will be motivated by playing games.

Attention and intent are the keys to building strong customer relationships. However, even with the best intentions, neglecting your customers can lead to them feeling neglected.

4. Don’t Be Afraid of the Exit Interview

“You win some, you lose some” is the term that many businesses will use to rationalize why they can’t keep high-risk clients.

The very best companies don’t ignore this, instead, they treat it with the utmost seriousness.

When customers leave, it’s important to ask them why they’re leaving and who they think served them better. Knowing why a customer left can help you improve your business and better target your ideal customers.

Use the information you gather from analyzing your metrics to improve your sales strategy.

By conducting an exit survey or interview, you can gain a ton of valuable insight into what your customers are looking for in an ideal customer journey. Don’t underestimate the power of just listening here. This feedback can help you understand what changes need to be made to create a better experience for your employees.

5. Former Customers Are Not Your Enemies

Organizations often make the mistake of treating customers who left as new prospects. This can mean that they continue to receive marketing messages as if nothing had happened.

Even after many years of being a loyal customer, a customer who decides to leave your business might get an email offering a “sign-up” deal for new customers.

Or a sales letter that explains how great your service is, which your customer doesn’t agree with now that they’re gone.

It can be annoying to loyal customers who feel like strangers when they receive promotions or special offers. We have to do better at treating them like valued customers.

Call these former customers with a friendly greeting. They already know you, so be friendly, but professional.

It’s important to keep in touch with your at-risk customers, even after they’ve left the organization.

A software vendor sent out an email to previous customers who had previously signed up for a specific service once it was released.

Rather than making an overt offer, they instead sent a personal letter from the product designer sharing their success with the ex-customer.

It resulted in many former customers who were previously neglected by that brand reaching out to them.

How to Handle Customers At Risk of Churn?

The ultimate goal is to make your customers stay.

The best way to prevent customer churn is to identify the right customers and target them from the very beginning.

This means providing them with a service that meets their needs and continually tracking their behavior for signs that they may be unhappy. By doing this, you can stay ahead of any potential problems and keep them using your product.

Which At-Risk Customers Are Worth Saving?

No matter how hard you try, you can’t keep all your clients. Churn is a fact of life.

There are some customers who you simply can’t afford to lose. You can take steps to try and save these valuable clients by learning their patterns and behaviors. This helps you focus on the right people.

With Profitwell Metrics, you can identify which customers are at risk for churning. That way, you can target those customers with special offers and incentives to keep them around.

Additionally, segmenting your metrics will let you know what areas need improvement.

If you’re looking to improve your customer retention rate, ProfitWell Retain is worth considering. With their world-class subscription expertise and constantly evolving algorithms, they can help you automatically win back customers that you might otherwise lose.

How to Save At-Risk Customers

Always tell your customer why they should stick with you. This depends on the reason for them leaving, but remind them of your value.

Customers who feel like they aren’t receiving any value from your service can be helped by providing them with resources that help them get more out of the product.

If you want to keep your customers from churning, you need to fix any bugs in your product that might be pushing them away.

If a user hasn’t used your app in a while, it’s important to reach out to them. Try to find out why they’re no longer using your product, and what you can do to get them back.

How to Increase Customer Loyalty

Providing your customers with the right tools to succeed from the very start of their journey with you is a great way to build loyalty.

Providing customers with quick, easily accessible help resources, such as online documentation, is a great way to increase loyalty. Likewise, providing stellar customer service from your team will keep them coming back for more.

Do You Have a Strategy Around At-Risk Customers?

When a client leaves, it’s important to understand why they left. Set up an alert to notify you when this happens. By knowing your ideal client’s journey, you can prevent this from happening. Don’t be afraid of the exit interview. Treat these clients as friends and find out why they’re leaving.

You don’t have to try all of these at once. Try one at a time.

Then, add more as you can.

At-risk clients are an important chance to understand the reason why they may be thinking about departing. This advice may be used to enhance the product/service, and maintain potential consumers from going.

What you learn can help you keep at-risk customers, as well as future customers like them, from leaving.

How to Retain At-Risk Customers When Everyone is At Risk

The ongoing pandemic is creating stress for your prospects and customers, just as it’s causing you some concern.

Your customers need to hear from a leader with a clear and practical plan for what lies ahead.

The current health crisis is unprecedented, but we have all faced the challenge of how to keep at-risk customers before, even if there are more of them than usual at the moment.

The best practices for doing so still apply, but they should be presented with an emphasis on the need to prepare for the future and for an alternative means of getting there.

Your delivery needs to be clear, concise, and certain.

Conclusion

If you’re a business owner, then you know that at risk customers are vital to your success. But what do you do when everyone is at risk? Learn to spot churn quickly by identifying at-risk customers. Ultimately, once you know the needs of your customer, you can proactively help them to prevent churn and create a better customer experience.