Exact Email “Follow Up” When Clients Opt-off Your Email List

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opt out opt in email button

opt out opt in email button“Following Up” when someone opts out of your email list is a part of keeping your appointment book filled, and your peeps happy.

Many practitioners are afraid to ‘follow up” due to fear of being too pushy, having clients or referral partners feel you’re ‘stalking’ them, or just not wanting to hear the feedback from the other end of the phone or email.

Are you afraid to follow up?
Do you think you’re bothering people?

If you feel your follow-up is bothering the person, it may be because you’re doing it wrong…

Look below where I share 2 of my EXACT emails that go out to clients when they decide to ‘Opt-off” my email list.

But first, just to be clear, when you follow-up (correctly and effectively) you’re actually strengthening your relationship, and, if you follow up right, it can result in many positive outcomes!

In many of my programs, I talk a lot about why it’s such a big mistake if you don’t follow up. And, I teach how to follow up in a non-obnoxious way.

(I covered “Following Up” in my Teleseminar, “5 Big Mistakes Practitioners Make” – you can still access the recording to hear it for yourself, by going to this link to gain free access… it’s super chock-full-o-juicy-goodness!)

Follow-Up Case #1:
They opt out of receiving email.

At our wellness center, we send bulk email through an email service, and it used to hurt my heart when someone would opt out and choose to NOT receive my email anymore.

(Why-oh-why could they possibly not want to hear from me? Was it something I said? Something I did?… yikes!)

But, as a marketer, I also knew there were many reasons all of us ‘opt out’ at various times…

So, instead of being sad, or getting angry, or squirming without knowing the REAL reason, a few years ago, I started sending them each a personal, hand-written email, just checking if they still wanted to receive our postal mail.

(If they have moved out of the City, why waste postage and printing on them?)

It also opened the door for them to give me any feedback if something did go wrong on their last visit to us.

Look below–
you’ll see the bottom half of this email is the exact email I sent to a Mike, a past client.

And, you’ll see Mike’s response at the top. He was not bothered. In fact, I’ll guess if he ever comes back to visit, he likely will call us. AND, if he ever needs a gift certificate, we’re still on his list, because we followed up. He won’t be receiving what ‘could’ be considered junk mail, if our mailings got forwarded to him in his new city.

Realize: By following up, instead of bothering him, we actually provided Mike better customer service!

Follow-up-email-mike

 

I’m also including a second email I sent, and received on the same day, to show you it is pretty consistent in how your clients will respond to you.

See the email I sent to Brian:

I invite you to use my email, copy it word-for-word if you like, and send it off when your clients opt off your email list.

We’re sensitive people, and it hurts to think someone doesn’t ‘love us’ any more…

Follow-up-email-Brian

I believe you will see sending email like this not only builds good-will, but will help you clean out your mailing lists, AND understand why they ‘left you’.

Look for another post on Following-Up in different practice-building scenarios. (coming soon.)

(Here is the link again to hear my Teleseminar, “5 Big Mistakes Practitioners Make That Keeps Their Appointment Book Empty” –  Click this link to gain free access… it’s super chock-full-o-juicy-goodness!)

 

Now, it’s YOUR turn:
Let us know below:
(a) Do you send follow up email to your clients?
(b) If so, what do you write in the email?
(c) How do your clients respond to you?

About the Author Irene Diamond

Business mentor, Educator and Inspirer to Clinic Owners & Solo Practitioners. Love to hear from you ~ Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

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  • Paula Kemp says:

    I have never followed up on a person unsubscribing, I always worry that if they don’t want to hear from in the first place, they wouldn’t want to hear again with another email.

    I have just received an email to unsubscribe, so will try it out and see what happens!

    Thank you

  • Elmira Loftin says:

    This post is right on time. I had a client unsubscribe this week. Now I know what to do in order to followup. Thank you for always providing practical advice that I can use instantly.

  • Are there programs to help weed out bad emails? I have to call people which is tiresome with over 1300 on my mail list or more – any automated solutions?

    • yes Robin,
      If you have a list automated it will make your life so much simpler.

      Free options like Mailchimp.com, and there are affordable paid services like Aweber.com, ConstantContact.com just to name a few.

      They will have reports you can look at that will tell you if it is a bad email, a full mailbox, and all sorts of other stats.

      (That is how I get our opt-outs) when the client opts out, our service sends us a report with who was added and who was removed.)

      I just send the email show above to the people who have been in to see us in the last year.

      (Some people stay on our list for years and then opt off, so if it has been a long time since we’ve seen them, I just remove them without contacting them again.)

      Hope that helps!

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