What do you say to someone who has gone quiet?
Three letters for lapsed buyers that ask what they are making, not what they will buy.
What does this flow do?
Win-back is where most stores reach for their biggest coupon. We reach for a question instead: what are you making?
It turns a sales email into a conversation, and the replies are often the best thing in our inbox.
When does it start?
About three months after someone’s last order. Our daily job tells Bento who has reached that point.
How does it run, step by step?
- Our daily job sends Bento the customers who haven’t ordered in about three months.
- If a restock check-in is running for them, win-back waits a day and tries again.
- The first letter asks what they are making these days, with picks for their medium.
- About ten days later, a note on what tends to run out first.
- A last check-in a couple of weeks after that. VIPs get a more personal version throughout.
- An order at any point ends it.
What happens before every send?
Every email in every flow passes the same quiet check first. Is the customer still in this flow? Have they bought since it started? Have we emailed them in the last couple of days? If any answer says wait, the flow waits a day and asks again, rather than piling another email on top.
After the send, the flow marks a short cooldown, so the next flow that wants this person knows to give them a breather.
How do you build this on your platform?
These are the events the flow needs, and where each one comes from on your store.
Order placed Works out of the box
Bento’s Shopify app sends purchases with order value and items.
A daily “due” event Needs a small recipe
Bento’s date trigger never fired for us, so a small daily job sends the due events.
Order placed Works out of the box
Bento’s plugin sends $OrderPlaced, but only when an order reaches completed.
A daily “due” event Needs a small recipe
The same small daily job, reading last order dates.
Order placed Works out of the box
Our open-source plugin sends $purchase with items, categories and totals.
A daily “due” event Needs a small recipe
We run a tiny scheduled worker that sends these every morning.
How does it connect to the other flows?
- It gives way to replenishment.
- If it doesn’t work, the customer is marked so win-back never repeats, and Sunset can follow much later.
What does one of the emails say?
It has been a little while. I would love to know what you are working on.
If you have moved on to a new medium, reply and tell us. We will send you a few things worth trying.
Kshitij, Art Lounge
An excerpt. The full emails change with each customer’s order and medium.
Questions people ask about this flow?
When should you send a win-back email?
Later than the restock moment and well before giving up. For us that is about three months after the last order, timed against how our customers actually reorder.
Should win-back emails include a discount?
Ours don’t. We ask what they are making and help them find the next thing. A discount teaches people that going quiet pays.
What happens if win-back doesn’t work?
The customer is marked so the flow never repeats for them. Much later, if they also stop opening emails, Sunset asks once whether to keep writing.