Automated win‑back reminders that bring lapsed café customers back

Below is a step‑by‑step walkthrough of setting up a win‑back reminder flow, illustrated with a realistic example for a fictional café called Brixton Brew Co.

1. Log into the Ferbz dashboard and select the Automation tab from the left‑hand navigation pane.

2. Click Create New Automation. In the “Goal” field type:
   win back anyone who hasn't ordered in 30 days.

3. Ferbz’s AI instantly drafts a three‑step journey:

   • Wait – 30 days after the last order.
   • Message 1 – “Hi {{first_name}}, we’ve missed you at Brixton Brew Co. Here’s a 10 % off voucher for your next latte.”
   • Branch – If the customer clicks the voucher link, send Message 2 (“Great! Your voucher is ready – show this code at the counter”). If they don’t click, send Message 3 (“Just a reminder – the offer expires in 48 hours”).

4. Review the draft on the visual canvas. You can edit any text, replace the placeholder with your own branding, or add an extra waiting period. For Brixton Brew Co., the owner adds a fourth step: a Message 4 that asks for feedback after the order is placed.

5. Save the automation and give it a clear name, e.g., “30‑Day Win‑Back – Brixton Brew”.

6. Link the automation to the order trigger: Go to the Billing tab, open Settings, and ensure “Start automation on order completion” is toggled on. This tells Ferbz to evaluate win‑back eligibility each time an order is closed.

7. Import the existing customer list (if not already in the system). From the Customers tab, click Import CSV, map the columns (first name, phone, email, last order date) and finish the import. Brixton Brew Co. uploads a list of 1,842 regulars.

8. Check the Reminders board: Switch to the Reminders tab. You’ll see three columns – Scheduled, Sent, and Failed. At this point the board is empty because no customers have yet hit the 30‑day threshold.

9. Let the system run. On day 31, Ferbz automatically enrols any customer whose last order was on day 0. For example, “Emily Clarke” placed her last order on 12 April. On 12 May, the automation triggers:

   • The Wait step completes, moving Emily’s record to the Scheduled column.
   • Ferbz sends Message 1 via the WhatsApp Business API. The status instantly changes to Sent and, once delivered, to Read on the Reminders board.

10. Monitor outcomes. Two days later Emily clicks the voucher link. The automation’s branch logic detects the click and automatically pushes Message 2. The Reminders board records this as a “branch‑triggered” event, and the customer profile now shows a “Voucher redeemed” tag.

11. Analyse the results. After a month of running the flow, go to Reports → Automation Performance. Filter by the “30‑Day Win‑Back – Brixton” automation. The report shows:

    • 124 customers triggered the flow.
    • 68 % opened the first message, 42 % clicked the voucher, and 31 placed a new order within 7 days.
    • Additional revenue of £1,842 (net of VAT) was recorded from the re‑engaged orders.

12. Adjust and re‑budget. If the credit consumption was higher than expected, top up the wallet from the Billing → Wallet page. Each WhatsApp message cost 0.75 credits, each broadcast 0.60 credits, and each receipt generation 0.10 credits.

13. Optional broadcast. If Brixton Brew wants to promote a seasonal pumpkin‑spice latte to the same lapsed group, they can switch to the Broadcasts tab, filter customers whose last order was > 30 days, compose a one‑off message, schedule it for 09:00 GMT, and watch the delivery stats appear on the same Reminders board.

By following these steps, a café owner moves from a manual spreadsheet of “who hasn’t been here lately?” to a fully automated, auditable win‑back system that runs 24 hours a day, every day.

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Independent cafés in the United Kingdom rely on a core base of regulars who visit daily for coffee, snacks, or a quick lunch. When a regular stops coming, the loss is often invisible until the cash register shows a dip. Before Ferbz, owners would need to:

• Export sales data, cross‑reference with a handwritten or Excel list, and manually draft WhatsApp messages.
• Spend 2–3 hours each week typing individual messages, then another hour chasing undelivered texts.
• Guess at the effectiveness of each outreach because there is no central log of sent, delivered, or read statuses.

With Ferbz’s win‑back reminders, the same owner can automate the entire cycle in under 30 minutes of set‑up time. In the Brixton Brew Co. example, the initial configuration took 22 minutes. After that, the system automatically identified 124 lapsed customers, sent personalised messages, and recorded every interaction without any manual effort.

The quantitative impact is clear:

• Time saved – 2.8 hours per week (≈ 7 hours per month) that would otherwise be spent on manual outreach.
• Revenue recovered – £1,842 in the first month, which represents 4.2 % of Brixton Brew’s total monthly turnover of £43,800.
• Higher conversion – 31 % of contacted customers placed a new order, compared with an industry‑average re‑engagement rate of roughly 12 % for ad‑hoc SMS campaigns.

Because every reminder is logged on the Reminders board and linked to the customer’s profile, owners can instantly spot a failed send (perhaps due to an outdated phone number) and re‑queue the message, eliminating silent drop‑offs. The built‑in reporting also lets owners calculate the exact return on each credit spent, making budgeting for retention transparent and predictable.

Overall, the win‑back reminder capability turns a reactive, labour‑intensive process into a proactive, data‑driven system that protects the café’s most valuable asset – its regular customers.

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Setting up automated win‑back reminders takes minutes, not days. Log in to the Ferbz dashboard, create your first “30‑Day Win‑Back” automation, and watch the system re‑engage lapsed regulars while you focus on brewing great coffee.

Start your free trial now at https://dashboard.ferbz.com/ and explore the full suite of tools designed for UK cafés and quick‑service shops. If you need help, email us at support@ferbz.com – our team is ready to guide you through the setup and answer any questions.