Customer winback

What is a customer winback?

Customer winback refers to the strategies and efforts businesses use to re-engage and reactivate former customers who have stopped purchasing, unsubscribed, or become inactive over time. The goal is to bring these lost customers back and rebuild their loyalty.

Why is customer winback important?

Winning back previous customers is often more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. These customers are already familiar with your brand, they just need a compelling reason to return. A solid winback strategy can improve retention, reduce churn, and increase customer lifetime value (LTV).

Customer winback strategies

Here are some effective customer winback strategies:

• Personalized winback emails help remind customers of what they’re missing and offer tailored incentives.
• Provide time-sensitive offers or discounts to encourage re-engagement.
• Ask why they left and what you can improve, then act on that feedback.
• Use SMS, push notifications, or remarketing ads to reconnect.
• Easy account and subscription management
• Show them what’s changed since they left like new features, benefits, etc.

Example of customer winback in action

A customer cancels their skincare subscription. One week later, they receive an email with a 20% discount and a note about a new product added to the lineup. They re-subscribe, that’s a successful customer winback.

Driftcharge Tip

Timing is key. Don’t wait too long to reach out after a cancellation or inactivity. The sooner you re-engage, the higher the chance of winning them back.

Ganesh Pawar

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Ganesh Pawar is the founder of Driftcharge, a subscription management app designed to help Shopify merchants streamline and scale their subscription businesses. With a deep focus on solving real-world pain points—like legacy account page support, flexible subscription options, and advanced analytics—Ganesh is passionate about building tools that drive growth and retention.