# Customer Retention

### Why you should use it

{% hint style="success" %}
Target customers who have bought consumables or products that have a limited shelf life. Fill up your sales funnel by creating messaging rules that reach customers at the perfect time.
{% endhint %}

**Drive repeat business**

Trigger emails that encourage customers to come back to your store and buy again. Customer retention workflows are perfect for subscriptio&#x6E;**-**&#x62;ased businesses or merchants who sell consumables. Create rules for any interval. We’ll then schedule the message to send in the future based upon the criteria you’ve set.

* Create automated win-back emails – 30, 60, 90 days, etc.
* If a customer purchases again, your workflow automatically restarts
* Re-engage your best customers with incentives

### How to get started

1. Login to your[ account](https://app.vextras.com/)
2. Click the **Add New** in the bottom left corner
3. Select **Add Message**
4. Select **Automatic**
5. Select **Marketing**
6. Choose **Customer Retention**
7. In step one, toggle desired settings
8. In step two, add the name, email and subject customers will see when the message arrives
9. Select a starter template to use, or add content using the email editor
10. In step three, confirm settings and activate

### **Dashboard overview**

The overview dashboard will show all-time historical stats for the workflow, no matter if rules have been deleted.

* Messages pending – count for pending e-mails that are scheduled to be sent
* Messages sent – count for sent messages
* Opens – number of times messages have been opened
* Clicks – number of times messages have been clicked
* Conversions – number of conversions resulting from this type of workflow
* Revenue – total sales attributed to this type of workflow
* Activity chart – weekly view of sent messages

### **Settings**

* Workflow name – the “friendly name” for your workflow, customers will not see this
* Action – Has not purchased (default)
* Sending filter – send to all subscribers (default)
* Products – Identify any or all SKU’s that will trigger a rule
* Send – send immediately or after time frame to trigger if a product isn’t purchased e.g. 30 days, 60 days, etc. Please note, the message will not trigger until an order is completed or shipped.

Advanced

* Order Count Is - Trigger a message if a customer has an order count according to the selected count.
* Limit Products Visible - By default, all products that were purchased are shown in the email message; if you would like to set a maximum number of products to be displayed, enable this option.
* Price Trigger - When enabled, trigger messages based on if an order is greater than or less than a specific price level.
* Product Filter - If you require certain products to be in a cart before a rule is triggered, add the product codes in the text area. If you have a product filter set and a general abandoned cart rule configured, the most specific rule will fire when there is a match.
* Blacklist - Enter individual email(s) or domains that you would like to prevent this workflow rule from sending to. For domain blocks, use asterisks before the domain name e.g. `**@domain.com`.
* Usage Limits - When activated, this setting will limit the number of emails that are sent to a customer email address. This feature does not impact other messaging workflows of its type and is only specific to the rule being created.

### **Logs**

The logs area of this workflow will display log events between specific date ranges.

* Pending – shows messages that validated based on rule criteria and are scheduled to be sent
* Sent – shows information about messages that have been sent as a result of meeting rule criteria
* Conversions – displays relevant conversions as a result of a workflow message triggering
* Blocked - listing of email addresses that did not qualify for defined rule criteria.

### **More information**

* Messages will send when an order is completed or shipped.
* If a product is purchased in a specified time frame, the rule will restart again.
* It is not necessary to have an SKU present in the product filter a “blanket” rule can be created.
* Rules are based on a customer’s email address. If a customer places orders anonymously or as a registered account the rule will validate accordingly.

**Compatibility**

* All shopping carts are supported by this messaging workflow.
