Win-back flow
Definition
Automation aimed at customers who have lapsed or been lost. Usually the cheapest revenue in the building, because a recovered customer arrives without a second acquisition cost.
How it works
It goes unbuilt because a lapsed customer belongs to nobody: sales carries new deals and support carries active accounts, so the people who paid you and went quiet sit in nobody’s queue. In most new engagements it is the first automation I build. The trigger is a dormancy threshold derived from your own repurchase interval: if the median customer reorders every four months, dormancy starts after four. Split the audience: customers who left for a reason, visible in a cancellation note or a support history, get a message that names it, or none at all; customers who merely drifted get a reminder and a reason to return. And give the flow an exit: a purchase or a reply ends it, and after a set number of ignored sends it retires the contact to a suppression list.
What to watch for
Put the flow’s trigger beside your median time between orders; a big gap in either direction means it fires at the wrong people. Check what the flow reads before it sends: with no look at support history or cancellation reason, the customer who left angry gets the same cheerful offer as the one who drifted. Open the send history of one long-lapsed contact and count the touches; the same message landing on the same address for years is a flow with no exit.
The question you ask
“When does this flow stop sending to someone who never responds?”