A good customer who went quiet
A roofing contractor used to come in three or four times a week. Tiles, battens, membrane, lead, fixings. At some point he started buying only fixings and the odd emergency item. Then he stopped coming. Nobody noticed for months, until the rep went through a sales report and asked what had happened. By then he had an account elsewhere, got used to their counter staff and wasn't coming back.
The reason, when the rep finally asked, was a single bad delivery and a price that was not reviewed.
Why drift goes unnoticed
Branches see the customers in front of them. A customer who stops coming is, by definition, not in front of anyone.
- Sales reports show totals, which hide one account's decline among others' growth.
- Seasonal patterns make a quiet month look normal.
- Customers drop product groups before they drop the account, and nobody looks at mix.
- Reps cover many accounts and review them only occasionally.
- Complaints are handled at the counter and not recorded, so the reason is lost.
What quiet losses cost
A lapsed trade account is revenue that doesn't come back easily, because the customer has formed habits elsewhere. Winning a new account costs more effort than keeping one. And the reason the customer left, if never found, will cause the next one to leave too.
The loss is also spread across a merchant's figures in a way that hides it. Total branch sales can grow while several good accounts quietly shrink, because a few large jobs cover the gap. By the time the large jobs finish, the smaller regular customers who would have smoothed the year are gone.
Alerts built from buying patterns
- Sales history is read from your merchant system for each account: visit frequency, spend and the product groups bought, compared with that account's own pattern and season.
- Changes that matter are flagged: fewer visits, lower spend, a product group dropped, or no purchases for longer than usual.
- Each week, reps and branch managers get a short list of their accounts showing change, with what changed and the recent history.
- Recent events are shown alongside: failed deliveries, credit holds, disputes and returns, which often explain the drop.
- The person who calls logs the reason in a couple of taps, and a monthly summary shows the reasons across the business.
| Signal | What it may mean |
|---|---|
| Fewer visits, same spend | Consolidating trips, probably fine |
| Product group dropped | Buying that line elsewhere |
| Spend down after a dispute | Service issue to address |
| Only emergency items | Main buying moved to a rival |
| No visits beyond usual gap | Worth a call now |
How the sales team works afterwards
Reps call customers who are drifting while the relationship can still be repaired, with the likely reason in front of them. Branch managers see which customers are slipping and why. The reasons, added up, tell you whether the problem is price, service, range or delivery, and where to fix it.
Is this happening to your accounts?
- You find out a customer has gone months after they stopped buying.
- Nobody watches product mix by account.
- Reps review accounts only when they have time.
- Reasons for lost customers are rarely recorded.
- Service problems are handled at the counter and forgotten.