Call lapsed customers with a reason to come back
Pick the customers who stopped ordering, give the agent news worth a call, and run it as a paced campaign to a Shopify or Klaviyo segment.
- Lapsed customersPast their usual reorder time
- News worth a callA restock, a new version, a refill
- Paced campaign callsInside the daily window you set
- Asks why they stoppedThen a link by text after a yes
- Orders against holdoutYou compare after one reorder cycle
The short answer
Winback calls suit customers who used to order regularly and stopped, when you have something new to tell them: a restock, a new version, a refill that's due. In Loop Voice you run them as a campaign to a Shopify or Klaviyo segment, with a calling window, a pace and a credit estimate before launch. We don't have winback results to publish: no store in the September 2026 benchmark ran a winback campaign, so measure your own with a holdout.
What a call sounds like
Loop Voice agent
Illustrative conversation
Agent
“Hi Sam, it's Alex, an AI assistant calling from [Store]. If you'd rather not get these calls, just say stop. The dark roast is back in the 2 lb bag, and we're telling past dark roast customers first. Want me to text you the link?”
Customer
“Oh, nice, I wondered where that went. Yes, send it.”
An illustration, not a recording. Real calls are in the call library.
A lapsed customer has had your emails for months and stopped opening them, and one more discount teaches them to wait for the next. A call can ask why they stopped and tell them about the one thing that might bring them back.
When it works, and when to skip it
Works well for
- Customers with two or more orders whose usual reorder time has passed.
- Products people reorder: coffee, supplements, pet food, skincare, refills.
- Stores with news worth a call: a restock, a new version, early access.
- Customers who agreed to calls. Lapsed lists are old lists, so re-check consent right before each campaign (calling rules).
Skip it for
- Customers still inside their normal buying cycle: email and text handle them for less.
- One-time buyers who came for a deep first-order discount.
- Anyone who asked not to be contacted, or whose last order ended in a complaint you haven't fixed.
Set it up in Loop Voice
Find the lapsed customers
Use Shopify's inactive customers, a Shopify segment by last order date or a Klaviyo segment. Loop Voice can also build a Shopify segment from a plain-English description.
Hold out a control group
Set aside a random 10 to 20% of the segment, with a customer tag in Shopify or a profile property in Klaviyo, and leave them out of the campaign.
Give the agent a reason to call
Load the news and the product details, and write the opening around the segment you picked, such as customers who bought the product that's back. Keep any code within what regular customers already get, and offer it only if price is the objection.
Schedule the campaign
Set the time zone, daily calling window and pace in calls per minute. Do-not-contact numbers are left out, you see a credit estimate before launch, and the campaign pauses if credits run out.
Compare after one reorder cycle
Compare orders in the called group with the holdout over the same days, then read the reasons customers gave for stopping.
Choices for a lapsed list
- Audience
- Filter on order count as well as last order date, for example "two or more orders and none in the last 60 days", so one-time buyers stay out, as the fit list advises. Klaviyo's consent flags don't reach Loop Voice, so a Klaviyo audience needs its consent condition written into the segment itself (calling rules).
- Holdout exclusion
- Tag the holdout first, then exclude the tag, or the Klaviyo profile property, in the segment's conditions. The reach estimate updates as you choose, so check that it drops by about the share you held out before you launch.
- Pace
- Nothing about a lapse is urgent, so set a low pace in calls per minute and let a big list run over several days. The reasons customers give land in each call's summary as the campaign runs, which leaves time to rewrite the opening after the first day instead of after the whole list has heard it.
- Frequency cap
- Turn the rule in the FAQ, once per lapse or twice if the first call reached voicemail, into a cap on the winback agent, for example 2 calls per quarter. Give winback its own agent, so its cap, its opening and its escalation path don't have to suit cart recovery as well.
- Stop and escalate rules
- Some lapsed customers left because an order went wrong. The built-in rules stop or escalate a call on negative sentiment and complex refunds, so point this agent's escalation path at a queue your team reads daily, and an old complaint reaches a person instead of a pitch.
- Text links
- Every link in a Loop Voice text carries utm_source=loop-voice, so Triple Whale and any tool that reads UTM tags can tell visits that came from your texts apart from other traffic, and the SMS log shows clicks next to each message's revenue. A click with no order points at the landing page or the price.
Who to call first
Rank lapsed customers by how regular they were. A customer who reordered every four weeks and hasn't ordered in ten is a clear case; a one-time buyer from two years ago usually isn't. Our winback blueprint shows how to find your own reorder interval from an order export and turn it into lapse bands.
Calls go to the customers worth a conversation: past their reorder window, with several orders and a reason a call can fix. Customers just past their usual date get email and text, which cost less and work fine as a nudge.
Set the window per product, not one number for everyone. Loop Voice's winback template is set for customers who haven't bought in 30 to 60 days, and our benchmark counts winback as no order in 90 days or more; a coffee subscriber and a mattress buyer lapse on very different clocks.
Give them a reason that isn't price
If waiting three months earns a better deal than ordering every month, your best customers learn to wait. Lead with something new: the product they liked is back, a new version is out, or a refill is due. Keep the discount for the customer who says price is why they stopped.
Restock news gives the call something new to say. CityMan USA, a streetwear store, uses its Loop Voice calls to "remind customer when we restock products," and on its calls, telling customers their size was running low converted better than a general follow-up (CityMan USA story).
Then ask why they stopped, and listen. The answers land in each call's summary, with objections, pain points and next steps, and they're often worth more than the orders, because they tell you what to fix.
What we can show, and what we can't
Loop Voice's monthly benchmark tracks winback as its own use case, and in September 2026 no store ran a winback campaign, so there's no winback answer rate or conversion to report. We publish only measured numbers, each with its sample size, so this page shows none.
For a rough sense of pickup, 15.9% of all shoppers called in September picked up at least once, often after several attempts, across abandoned checkout and post-purchase calls. Lapsed customers may pick up less often than someone who just left a checkout, so plan the campaign on your own first week of results.
Loop Voice matches orders to campaign calls by Shopify order number, which shows what the calls touched. The holdout shows what they added, because lapsed customers sometimes come back on their own.
Built for the questions between intent and action
Why they stopped
The agent asks, listens and records the reason in the call summary.
Customer context
Campaign calls start with what Loop Voice knows about the customer, including any cart and their local time.
One next step
A link texted after a yes: the product, the restock or the reorder.
Opt-outs on the spot
A customer who says "don't call me" goes on the do-not-contact list before the next step runs.
No winback numbers yet, so measure your own
No store in Loop Voice's September 2026 benchmark ran a winback campaign. Track these four numbers on your first one:
- Answer rate
- Customers who picked up at least once, out of everyone called.
- Orders against the holdout
- The share of called customers who ordered in the window, minus the share of the holdout who did.
- Reasons given
- Why customers say they stopped buying, counted from the call summaries.
- Opt-outs
- Customers who asked not to be called again. A high share means the segment or the reason to call needs work.
Source: Loop Voice Ecommerce Benchmark
Works with
Common questions
How long after the last order should a winback call go out?
Base it on each customer's own buying cycle, not one number for everyone. A customer who orders monthly is lapsed at two months; one who orders twice a year isn't. Loop Voice's template starts at 30 to 60 days without an order, and our winback blueprint shows how to set the window per product.
Should a winback call offer a discount?
Only when price is why they stopped, and only within what your regular customers already get. Lead with a restock, a new version or a reorder reminder; a bigger deal for lapsing teaches customers to wait.
Can I use my Klaviyo segments for winback calls?
Yes. A campaign can target any Shopify or Klaviyo segment, and do-not-contact numbers are left out automatically. Re-check consent right before each campaign, because lapsed lists are old lists (calling rules).
How many times should I call a lapsed customer?
Once per lapse, or twice if the first call reached voicemail, then let email and text carry it. Set a cap per customer by week, month, quarter, six months or year on each agent you use.
What do winback calls cost?
Credits are used only when someone answers: about 1.5 credits per answered conversation, with plans from $119 a month for 120 credits. A campaign shows its credit estimate before launch and pauses if credits run out.
Do winback calls need consent?
Treat them as marketing calls: get prior express written consent that names calls made with an AI voice. An SMS opt-in may not cover calls, so check the wording you collected. Our guide to calling rules explains what to check.
Read more before you set it up
- Win-Back and VIP Calls: Who to Call, What to Offer, What to SayReorder intervals, lapse bands, scripts and Shopify segment queries.Read
- How to Save Shopify Subscribers Before They CancelCheck-ins, save offers and same-day calls for subscriptions.Read
- Email vs SMS vs Calls for Abandoned Carts: How to Run All ThreeWhich channel does which job, and the break-even math for calls.Read
- Are Cart Recovery Calls Incremental? How to Run a HoldoutHow to size and read a holdout test.Read
- Loop Voice vs CallsyBoth run winback calls; compared on pricing and testing.Read
Keep the conversation moving
Ready to launch customer winback?
Setup takes under 10 minutes. No code, no headcount.