I'm the Head of Customer Experience at BattlBox and for the past few years, John Roman (our CEO) and I have been trying to create a successful win-back campaign for past BattlBox customers. We determined that the best way to do this was to create a "Warm Call" program that we could use to reach out to old customers to see if we could entice them to return to BattlBox. However, this was not easy and had a lot of frustrations and false starts overall; let's dive in and discuss in more detail what did and didn’t work for us.
For a long time, we just could not make it work. One of the biggest challenges was finding a consistent agent for phone sales. It was very difficult to find an agent that wanted to work, put in the dials, make amazing sales, and not just stay with us for a short term. We tried using Indeed to find an agent willing to make calls, but we were unable to get someone who could put in the time needed. Overall, we went through 4-5 agents this way and the process became truly frustrating.
Eventually, we found an agent via a third-party hiring service who perfectly fit what we were looking for. Moreover, the team learned that the initial deals they offered were not aggressive enough. Free items like small med kits/binoculars or smaller discounts such as only free shipping were not enough to entice potential customers. It was only when they became very aggressive with their offers that we saw the program take off.
One of the biggest factors that contributed to the program's success was finding a successful offer. We did go on to create an amazing offer, however it took lots of unsuccessful offers first. We came to understand that these types of offerings would be the catalyst that launched the program into a major success. We began to see very positive results fairly early on in the program and this further compounded each month With more consistent win-backs by our phone sales agent our phone sales agent easily getting 50+ wins a month.
One of our best months to date is February of 2023. Our phone agent made over 2,500 calls, spoke to more than 600 customers, and was able to get 69 win-backs, making this the first month that the initial comeback renewal hit profitability.
While the initial renewal is not hugely profitable, multiple renewals of customers staying with the program is very profitable. With initial comeback success of over $60,000 and lifetime subscription value of $160,000 the program has yielded almost $70,000 in profit since it began in mid 2022.
The phone sales program is a story of testing and learning from mistakes. Such as not pressing the deal hard from the start and moving away from a marketing style offering into an aggressive offer that was very hard to turn down. . Despite several false starts, minimal success, and going through many agents, We were able to come up with the right formula that led to the program's success. Finding the right offer, teaming this into a warm call approach with a solid phone agent is the leading factor in the solid success of this program. The lesson here is that success does not come easy, but with the right approach, the right people, and persistence, it can be achieved.
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