"Many times, potential repeat customers are lost not through inferior products or services but through inattention." John Hall, writing in Forbes
A repeat customer is anyone who buys from you at least twice. Everything below works for a shop or a local business, and you can start this week with a spreadsheet and a phone.
Go after the second sale first
The second sale is the hard one. Smile.io makes loyalty software, and it looked at the online stores that use it. Here's how many customers came back for another order:
- After one order, about 27 out of 100.
- After two orders, about 49 out of 100.
- After three orders, about 62 out of 100.
So the more times someone has bought, the more likely they are to buy again. A salon's numbers will look different from an online store's, but the idea is the same. Someone who has come back once has already decided you're OK. They don't have to decide again.
Here's why it's worth the trouble. Say you have 400 past customers and your average sale is $80. If 40 of them buy one more time, that's $3,200, and you didn't buy a single ad to get it. Try it with your own numbers.
Make the first time easy to repeat
People come back when the first time went the way you said it would. Big gestures can wait. Start with these:
- Do what you said. If you said Tuesday, show up on Tuesday. If your site says three days, ship in three days. Promise a date you know you can beat.
- Fix problems fast. Skip the forms and the back and forth. Say sorry, say what you'll do, then do it the same day.
- Write down one thing about them. "Allergic to lavender." "Daughter starts college in the fall." Bring it up next time. People remember being remembered.
- Leave your name behind. Put a sticker with your number on the furnace you just fixed. Put a card in the box that says how to reorder. In two years, they won't have to search for you and find someone else.
- Make buying again take one step. Send a link that fills the cart with the same order. Offer a booking page. Answer the phone.
Here's how a fixed problem can sound:
Hi Sam, I'm sorry your order came late. That's on us. A new one ships today, and you can keep the first one.
Get a way to reach them
You can't ask people back if you don't know who they are. Online stores get this at checkout. Local businesses often lose it, especially with walk-ins and cash jobs.
Start a list today with four columns: name, phone or email, what they bought, and the date. Fill it in from your invoices, bookings and order history. Then ask every new customer at the end of the sale:
Want me to text you when it's time for your next one? It'll just be the reminder.
Note who says yes, and only text those people.
If you're on Shopify, your list already exists. Go to Analytics, then Reports. Click the Category filter and choose Customers. Open One-time customers. That's everyone who has bought exactly once, with their email, their order date and whether they agreed to marketing. Those are the people you're trying to bring back.
If you send sales emails in the US, the law says each one needs your postal address and a clear way to stop getting your emails. Check that your email tool adds both.
Find out when they're ready
A reminder that lands too early gets ignored. One that lands too late arrives after they've bought from someone else. So work out your come-back time. That's the number of days between a customer's first purchase and their second.
Take 20 customers who have bought twice. Count the days between their two purchases. Put the numbers in order and pick the one in the middle. On Shopify, the Returning customers report shows each person's first order date, latest order date and number of orders. Use the people with exactly two orders.
No repeat buyers yet? Guess from real life. A 30-day bottle runs out in 30 days. A haircut grows out in about six weeks. Check your guess once you have real dates.
What you do next depends on what you sell:
| What you sell | When they're ready | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Things that run out: coffee, vitamins, pet food, skincare | About a week before it runs out | Send a reminder with a link to the same order |
| Regular visits: hair, nails, dental, car service | At the same gap each time | Book the next visit before they leave |
| Yearly jobs: roof cleaning, furnace checks, gutters, taxes | About a month before the season | Add them to your calendar the day you finish the job |
| Things people browse: clothes, gifts, home goods | When something new fits their last order, or before a gift date | Show two or three things that go with what they bought |
| Big one-offs: a new roof, a kitchen, a wedding | Maybe never for the same thing | Offer the next related job and ask who else they know |
Booking before they leave is the cheapest one on that table. They're standing right there, and they're happy. All you have to say is "Same time in six weeks? I can put you down for Thursday the 12th."
The last row needs a word. If you replace a roof once in 20 years, you won't sell that person another roof any time soon. You can still sell the gutter cleaning, the yearly check and the look after a big storm. Those small jobs keep your number on the fridge. They're also the right people to start a referral program with, because someone with a new roof may have a neighbor staring at an old one.
Three messages to copy
In most small businesses, the plan is to contact past customers as soon as things calm down. Things have been about to calm down since 2019. So write these once and stop waiting for a quiet week.
1. A few days after the sale. Ask how it went and sell nothing. You'll catch problems early, and they'll know a real person is on the other end.
Hi Dana, it's Luis from Clearview Windows. How do the windows look after this week's rain? If we missed a spot, reply here and I'll come back and fix it.
2. Just before their come-back time. Do the thinking for them. Name a date, so all they have to do is say yes.
Hi Dana, it's almost a year since we did your windows. I'm booking the spring round now. Want me to put you down for the week of April 6?
If you sell something that runs out, it's even shorter:
Hi Dana, your coffee should be getting low about now. Here's a link to the same order.
3. When something new fits what they bought. Send it only to the people it suits. Everyone's inbox is full of news that has nothing to do with them.
Hi Dana, you bought the walnut desk last spring. We just got a shelf in the same wood. Here's a picture.
Start by sending these by hand to 20 customers. You'll quickly see which words people answer. Then set them up in whatever you already use, whether that's an email tool, booking software or a calendar reminder.
If someone has been gone far longer than their come-back time, change your tone. At that point you're trying to win back customers, so ask what happened before you offer anything.
Go easy on discounts and points
Coupons do bring people back. The trouble is what they teach. Give someone 20% off every time and they'll learn to wait for the next one.
Try thank-yous that don't cut your price: a first look at new stock, a small free add-on, or first pick of dates in your busy season. Save discounts for times you can explain, like filling a slow Tuesday.
Rewards suit businesses people visit often, like a café, a car wash or a nail salon. If people buy from you once a year, points take forever to add up and they'll forget they have them. Good reminders will do more for you. Real customer loyalty comes from the first-time list above. A reward only helps with people who already like you.
If you do run a stamp card, give people a head start. Researchers Joseph Nunes and Xavier Drèze found that a goal with 10 steps and 2 already done gets finished more often and more quickly than a goal with 8 steps and none done. The work is the same. It just feels like they've already begun. So print 10 boxes and stamp the first 2.
Help people buy the right thing the first time
A wrong first purchase rarely turns into a second one. If someone picked the wrong size, shade or plan, they'll remember you badly even when the product is fine. So repeat business starts before the first sale, when someone is still deciding.
In person, you do this without thinking. You ask a question and point them to the right thing. On a website, usually nobody asks. That's what we built Possible to do, and since it's our own product, take this with a pinch of salt. Possible is an AI built on real sales psychology. It asks each visitor the right question at the right moment, remembers the answers and guides them to a sale, sign-up or booking. It's free to start, and here's more on our AI sales assistant for online stores. If your customers don't have much to choose between, do the rest of this list first.
Check that it's working
You only need one number. Count the customers who bought from you in the last 12 months. Then count how many of them bought at least twice. Divide the second number by the first and multiply by 100.
If 300 people bought and 60 of them bought twice, then 20 out of every 100 came back. Write that down and check it every three months. If you do yearly jobs, look at the last 24 months so people have time to return.
Try to beat your own number. A coffee shop and a roofer can't compare notes on this one.
Your first week
- Today: Start your list, or open your One-time customers report.
- Tomorrow: Work out your come-back time and find your row in the table.
- Day 3: Write the three messages in your own words.
- Day 4: Send the second message by hand to the 20 customers closest to their come-back time. Only text people who said yes to texts. Email the rest.
- Day 5: Start asking every new customer if you can remind them. Book the next visit if you can.
- Days 6 and 7: Print your stickers or box cards. Answer everyone who replied, and write down what they told you.
Questions about repeat customers
What is a repeat customer?
A repeat customer is someone who has bought from you at least twice. It doesn't matter if the gap was a week or three years.
How do you get repeat customers?
Make the first sale go the way you promised, keep a way to reach people, and message them just before they're likely to buy again. A date or a one-tap link makes saying yes easy.
How do you increase repeat customers?
Work on the second sale first, because that's the hardest one to win. Message people who have bought once, at the right time for what you sell. Then check how many came back every three months.
What is it called when you have repeat customers?
It's usually called repeat business. The work of keeping customers is called customer retention, and when people choose you on purpose over and over, that's customer loyalty.
What's another word for repeat customer?
Returning customer, repeat buyer and regular all mean the same thing in everyday use. "Regular" is the one your customers would use.
What's the difference between repeat and recurring customers?
A repeat customer chooses to buy again each time. A recurring customer is on a schedule, like a subscription or a monthly service plan, and pays without deciding each time. If what you sell gets used up, offering a schedule can turn the first kind into the second.
Why do repeat customers matter so much?
You've already paid to win them, and they already trust you. Selling to them can cost you one message. Selling to a stranger usually costs you ads and a lot more convincing.
What's a good repeat customer rate?
It depends on what you sell, because a coffee shop should see people return far more often than a roofer. If you run an online store, Smile.io's figure gives you a rough idea: about 27 out of 100 customers come back after one order. Your best target is your own number from three months ago.
Should I offer a discount to get customers back?
Use one rarely. A reminder at the right moment costs you almost nothing and doesn't teach people to wait for a sale. Save the discount for someone who has been gone a long time, or for filling a slow day.