Customer Attrition

Customer attrition is the slow loss of past customers who would happily hire you again, but do not hear from you and eventually forget or find someone else. Repeat and referral work is often the most profitable work a trade business does.

• A customer from three years ago hires someone else for a repair.
• Seasonal maintenance customers are not reminded.
• Past customer details are scattered across phones and paper.

• No organised customer list.
• No reason or rhythm to stay in touch.
• All attention goes to new jobs.

• Few customers come back unprompted.
• You cannot easily pull a list of past customers.
• Referrals happen by luck, not by design.

• More money spent finding new customers.
• Lost repeat and maintenance revenue.
• Fewer referrals from happy customers.

1. Could you send a message to all past customers today?
2. Do customers get reminders for seasonal or routine work?
3. How often do you ask satisfied customers for referrals?

Consider how many past customers have not hired you in a year or more, what a typical job is worth, and what small share might return if reminded.

This is illustrative only. Every business is different; use your own numbers.

• Build one clean list of past customers with basic job history.
• Send helpful, seasonal reminders rather than sales blasts.
• Make asking for reviews and referrals a routine step at job completion.

Brian can help organise customer records and plan a respectful reactivation approach, with consent, that fits your type of work.

• Business Leak Finder: see whether this leak shows up in your answers.
• Customer Reactivation Opportunity: put a rough figure on it.
• Strengthen Customer Relationships: solution options, costs and trade-offs.

If this sounds familiar, Brian can look at how it shows up in your business and suggest practical next steps. No obligation.