Learning from lost customers to win them back case study image 1

Case study:
Learning from lost customers to win them back

Yodel

Featured in this case study: Distribution & logistics, Quantitative, Hard to reach groups, Business to business (B2B), CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing), Lost account

The challenge

Yodel has operated a lost customer research programme for several years to determine:

Whether customer records need updating.
Whether the customer is truly lost.
Why customers have stopped trading with Yodel, including which alternative provider they chose and why.
How likely they are to use Yodel again.
Whether Yodel can re-establish contact using information gained from the research to attempt to win the customer back.

The approach

The numerical, measurable and objective outputs of quantitative research are critical to building robust data-driven insights. An essential research methodology for monitoring KPIs, from sales figures to satisfaction rates, we use an extensive range of quantitative techniques to deliver robust, scalable datasets for our clients to strengthen business resilience and support future growth.

From tightly structured, closed-question online surveys with thousands of participants, to highly targeted on-street questionnaires, we have the skills and resources to deliver the scale and depth of responses you need.

We craft bespoke quantitative solutions, selecting the best channels and routes of engagement to reach your audience, and often recommend a mixed-mode approach to maximise success. For example, adding targeted postal and self-completion ‘top-ups’ onto a predominantly online survey to ensure less digitally engaged cohorts, who may have limited internet access, are included in research outputs.

Our most frequently used quantitative services

Some of our most frequently used quantitative services include:

As a full-service market research agency with a dedicated Field and Data Services team, we have the scale to provide end-to-end solutions and the agility to deliver specific quantitative services to support specific business needs. For example, clients and research consultants who have their own datasets come to us for specialist support with processing, tabulation and reporting.

Whether you wish to engage a small, clearly defined group – such as 25 senior SME decision-makers in a particular field – or thousands of consumers across a single region or multiple global markets – we can deliver the insights you need.

To find out more about our quantitative research capabilities, and discuss how we could craft a tailored solution to meet the specific needs of your organisation, contact us today.

The results

The research consistently achieved a high response rate among hard-to-reach individuals, providing Yodel with detailed information on why customers had been lost.

Actionable insights were reported monthly, enabling Yodel to implement strategies to win back lost customers as efficiently as possible.

Learning from lost customers to win them back case study image 2

Client testimonial: Yodel

Distribution & logistics, Quantitative, Hard to reach groups, Business to business (B2B), CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing), Lost account

Explore our testimonials archive

Learning from lost customers to win them back case study image 3

Other areas you might find interesting...

Distribution & logistics sector shortcut image

Explore

Sector:
Distribution & logistics

Working in distribution and logistics means navigating a fast-moving world – quite literally. From shifting customer expectations to the constant pressure to deliver faster, cheaper, and greener, there’s a lot to stay on top of. That’s where market research comes in. At DJS Research, we help organisations to get a clearer picture of what’s really happening in their networks, their markets and with their customers across the UK and internationally. With over two decades of experience conducting research across this varied sector, we’ve built a deep understanding of the ever-evolving distribution and logistics landscape. From identifying the pain points in the handling and storage process that can have a negative impact on logistical flow to digging into the needs of commercial parcel clients, we know how to uncover the key insights that can drive better decision-making and improve efficiencies. As a full-service agency, we have the complete range of research methodologies and services at our disposal that enable us to build tailored solutions for all our clients. All research teams across DJS Research draw on wide a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches – everything from desk research and in-depth interviews to large-scale online, telephone or in-person surveys. Our researchers and fully trained interviewers are equally comfortable speaking to senior decision-makers, depot managers, drivers, frontline staff and members of the public. Wherever your audience sits along the journey, we can reach them Our researchers have the expertise to engage your customers and partners where and when you need to hear from them. We also have a team that specialises in employee engagement research should your insight needs be closer to home. We have conducted research across all stages of the distribution process, from product handling, initial movement and transportation, to storage and final delivery. Tailoring our solutions to suit your specific needs From conducting fieldwork at distribution centres to telephone interviews with key customers, we identify the most effective methods to obtain the actionable insights you need and craft bespoke research solutions that deliver. From service performance and customer experiences to pricing perceptions, operational challenges and future expectations, the range of challenges across this sector, and opportunities for market research to make a positive and tangible impact, are vast. Where insights are needed over a sustained period to build a picture of change and development over time, clients may require long-term tracking models and we have implemented numerous tracking projects within this sector. In one such example, we designed a tracking study that helped an international parcel carrier understand the drivers behind customer churn and how to reduce it. If you’re looking for clearer insights, stronger evidence and practical recommendations you can put to work straight away, we’d love to help you get there. To find out how we can deliver the research outputs that your business needs, contact our team today.

Explore our experience

Explore

Specialism:
Quantitative

The numerical, measurable and objective outputs of quantitative research are critical to building robust data-driven insights. An essential research methodology for monitoring KPIs, from sales figures to satisfaction rates, we use an extensive range of quantitative techniques to deliver robust, scalable datasets for our clients to strengthen business resilience and support future growth. From tightly structured, closed-question online surveys with thousands of participants, to highly targeted on-street questionnaires, we have the skills and resources to deliver the scale and depth of responses you need. We craft bespoke quantitative solutions, selecting the best channels and routes of engagement to reach your audience, and often recommend a mixed-mode approach to maximise success. For example, adding targeted postal and self-completion ‘top-ups’ onto a predominantly online survey to ensure less digitally engaged cohorts, who may have limited internet access, are included in research outputs. Some of our most frequently used quantitative services include: CATI (telephone interviewing). CAPI (in-person interviewing). Face-to-face interviewing. Online desk research. Postal and self-completion. Hall tests. Bespoke online panels. As a full-service market research agency with a dedicated Field and Data Services team, we have the scale to provide end-to-end solutions and the agility to deliver specific quantitative services to support specific business needs. For example, clients and research consultants who have their own datasets come to us for specialist support with processing, tabulation and reporting. Whether you wish to engage a small, clearly defined group – such as 25 senior SME decision-makers in a particular field – or thousands of consumers across a single region or multiple global markets – we can deliver the insights you need. To find out more about our quantitative research capabilities, and discuss how we could craft a tailored solution to meet the specific needs of your organisation, contact us today.

Explore our experience

Engaging hard to reach groups through market research specialism shortcut image

Explore

Specialism:
Engaging hard to reach groups through market research

We believe it’s our duty to deliver inclusive and accessible solutions which recognise the value and importance of all audiences, and all voices. Although some groups may be considered hard to reach based on personal circumstances, this can be due, in part, to limited sampling and poorly chosen methodologies which exclude and underserve these cohorts. At DJS Research, we focus on audience needs from the outset to deliver fully representative research. Our approach ensures no group is ever truly out of reach. The combined expertise of our in-house Field & Recruitment team and our highly experienced researchers means we have both the resource and the skills to identify and engage vital groups which can otherwise be under-represented or – worse still – overlooked. We connect with the audiences you wish to better understand and work with them to generate the authentic insight, and customer clarity, you seek. Through our time spent with individuals who are facing challenging circumstances and extreme hardship, we understand how complex and multilayered personal struggles can be. For example, individuals who are digitally disengaged may be more socially isolated, while others who are experiencing financial difficulties may be struggling with physical or mental health problems. We recognise that vulnerabilities come in many different forms and audience needs can be multifaceted. Engaging these audiences requires sensitivity, careful handling and bespoke planning – there’s never a one-size-fits-all approach… How we engage the audiences you struggle to reach By placing audiences at the centre of our projects from the start, we ensure their needs, and the needs of our clients, are met throughout the research process. Our tailored end-to-end solutions reach, and build trust with, under-represented audiences using the following principles and practices: Putting participants first: Recognising the needs of the individual based on their personal circumstances, ensuring they are handled sensitively and with the utmost respect. Agile recruitment: Using a blend of different approaches to engage groups who are deemed hard to reach. This includes our in-house online panel of consumers who are living with vulnerabilities, or facing personal adversities: Different Perspectives. Community links: Building authentic face-to-face links with community organisations to reach specific demographic and cultural groups through trusted people-led channels. Examples include specific ethnic minority groups, audiences with limited or no digital access and non-mobile users. Skilled interviewers: All our respondent-facing staff have been trained to conduct interviews with people in vulnerable circumstances. We have experience discussing the most sensitive topics with individuals who are facing the most difficult personal situations. These include patients (both adults and children) with life-limiting illnesses and their families, and people living in severe financial hardship. Protection and support: Our 'red flag' system means we can alert clients, or other appropriate organisations, immediately if we feel a respondent needs urgent help or might be at risk. Accessibility: We believe accessibility should be the rule for market research practices and not the exception. We design research that caters to the needs of our audience to maximise participation and ensure all respondents feel seen and understood. Working with organisations: We collaborate closely with associations who represent people in vulnerable circumstances, including charitable organisations, to optimise our understanding of these groups which further informs our approach. With the right approach that puts participant needs at the heart of your research, no audience should be truly hard to reach. Read more about our commitment to ensuring inclusivity and accessibility in all our market research projects. And to find out how we can engage the specific groups you wish to hear from, and deliver the clarity and insight you need, contact our team today.

Explore our experience

Business to business (B2B) specialism shortcut image

Explore

Specialism:
Business to business (B2B)

Disentangling decision-making in complex organisations, handling and coordinating multiple strands of detailed information and understanding technical products and services: these are just a few of the challenges that can accompany B2B market research, and our specialist researchers have been honing their skills in these areas for well over two decades. Confident navigating multiple, diverse markets – often simultaneously – our team has the knowledge and experience to deliver meaningful business to business insight for organisations of any size. Understanding the nuances of your field of operation, including market conditions and influences, is an essential part of our early research process. We work closely with our clients from the outset to define requirements and the needs of all stakeholders clearly. We supplement this important first phase with desk research where appropriate and draw on our own extensive experience across DJS Research. Experts at reaching the business and stakeholder audiences you need Audience sizes for B2B research projects tend to be low in number and harder to reach than consumers. Far from being a concern, survey volumes are often intentionally small-scale as the core priority is quality, not quantity, to engage the right people. Our teams identify exactly who it is that we need to reach, including the organisations we need to target and the individual roles we need to speak to. We can use contacts provided by our client (adhering to strict GDPR rules) or, most often, we will develop a target list ourselves using a range of techniques, building samples which fulfil specific project-led quotas. Participating in market research studies can be low on the priority list for many business audiences. Often with demanding responsibilities and mounting workloads, we recognise how important it is to engage business audiences respectfully and to ensure we make the best use of the little time they may have available. Our highly trained B2B interviewers use their skills to successfully get around gatekeepers (e.g. receptionists) and maintain the interest of business representatives for the length of time required. Blending new and traditional methods to drive innovation Despite its challenges, CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) is often the most cost-effective and appropriate method of achieving large and representative samples of business owners and senior managers. A telephone-first approach enables us to verify the business or organisation’s credentials and ensure we are speaking with the most appropriate individual within each, which will vary depending on the nature of the research. Since Covid-19 especially, we have found that ‘cold’ approaches (i.e. where there is no existing relationship) for research with B2B audiences are more and more challenging. In addition to our skilled interviewers, who effectively 'sell' the benefits of participating in an interview, we are increasingly experimenting with new recruitment channels. These new avenues have included exploring LinkedIn, to maximise response rates, and using synthetic data to investigate opportunities for enhanced insight in B2B. Bespoke sector-focused business solutions which deliver actionable insight Our B2B projects are conducted by a highly experienced team, who ensure all outputs are sector-focused, with director-level involvement throughout. Working with clients across many different industries and markets, within both the private and public sector, has given us a holistic understanding of B2B needs which enriches our solutions and maximises effectiveness. Examples of recent B2B surveys undertaken by DJS Research in this field have covered issues from technology and cyber security to business ownership models and employment practices. Our research often extends beyond the UK as many of our B2B research clients operate globally. The strength of our international offering means that, where necessary, we can employ a network of native partners to help us with on-the-ground fieldwork around the world. To find out more about our wealth of business to business experience, and discuss how we could deliver the actionable insight your organisation needs, contact us today.

Explore our experience

CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing) service shortcut image

Explore

Service:
CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing)

CATI is a widely used data collection method in market research, where trained interviewers conduct telephone surveys using specialist software to guide them through a pre-programmed questionnaire. The system includes features like skip logic, pre-coded answers, and real-time validation to ensure the collection of accurate, high-quality data. We conduct CATI fieldwork interviewing both consumers and businesses using Forsta’s advanced CATI platform. This state-of-the-art system enables our research teams to collect robust telephone data efficiently, with full control over survey routing, project management and field supervision. Whether it’s a large-scale public opinion study or a customer satisfaction tracker, CATI ensures consistency and data integrity throughout. Why use CATI and what are the advantages? CATI remains one of the most effective tools for conducting structured telephone interviews, particularly when targeting hard-to-reach audiences or complex sample quotas. It continues to be a valuable part of the DJS Research toolkit for a number of reasons: Real-time insights: Our CATI system allows researchers and clients to view responses live as they come in. This enables agile adjustments to fieldwork, improves response rates, and ensures better-informed decision-making throughout the project. Multi-channel integration: CATI can be seamlessly combined with other methodologies, such as online, face-to-face, or mobile research. We often use mixed mode approaches to give clients a holistic view of their data across multiple touchpoints. Scalable for large-scale projects: Our CATI setup supports thousands of concurrent interviews, across multiple interviewers. Whether you need a nationally representative survey or a high-volume customer satisfaction project, we can deliver results quickly and reliably. Centralised project management: With CATI, our project teams manage fieldwork from a single platform – streamlining scheduling, quota management, and interviewer coordination to ensure every project runs smoothly from start to finish. Increased efficiency: There are a number of automated features – like number dialling, call scheduling, and respondent tracking, which helps our team focus on what matters: gathering high-quality insights. This reduces turnaround time and improves cost-efficiency for our clients. Live monitoring and supervision: Our supervisors monitor interviews in real time or review recordings to ensure quality control. Interviewer performance data is also tracked throughout fieldwork, supporting coaching, accountability, and consistently high standards. Our CATI operations are underpinned by our team of experienced interviewers, dedicated supervisors, and cutting-edge technology – delivering accurate, actionable insights you can trust.

Explore our experience

Explore

Solution:
Lost account

According to Harvard Business Review, acquiring a new customer can cost five to 25 times more than keeping an existing customer. And we know that 100% retention isn’t possible. So what should you do when you lose an important account? Cut your losses and move on, or try to learn and improve? Lost account research is one answer to this question. It won’t bring those lost accounts back, but it can help you improve processes, remove pain points and better emphasise your USPs to current clients. All of which will help you drive retention, loyalty and customer satisfaction. Why is lost account research important? Replacing customers lost to 'churn' is expensive and time consuming. Lost account research helps minimise this burden on your business by identifying learnings from lost accounts to help you improve customer management long-term. Lost accounts are generally a more substantial concern in a business to business context, where revenue is generated by hundreds of businesses, rather than hundreds of thousands of individuals. However, the principles apply wherever customers subscribe or repeat-purchase. Lost account research is particularly challenging because respondents are by definition lapsed or disengaged, but we know it can be a worthwhile effort, and we can help you reap the rewards. Our approach to lost account research We start with your sector and context: We immerse ourselves in your work to ensure how your business is organised, how and when you interact with your customers. We draw on institutional knowledge to generate hypotheses, but we aren’t limited to what you already think you know. We provide reassurance to respondents: Lost account research is particularly challenging because respondents are by-definition lapsed or disengaged. As a well-established, employee-owned business, respondents can trust that we are independent from their former supplier and will act with honesty and impartiality. We establish our legitimacy and independence from our first interaction with respondents, to ensure we maximise participation and honest response. We offer engaging approaches: Our qualitative methods are moderated by skilled and experienced researchers, meaning they are easy and enjoyable for participants – we often get feedback to say how much they enjoyed taking part. We have an experienced business to business telephone team who deliver similarly enjoyable and efficient CATI surveys. And our online survey platform has extensive functionality to ensure that questionnaires are intuitive and engaging. We meet people where they are: Our goal is to understand the whole person, not just why they hit 'unsubscribe'. By exploring the context of these decisions, we gain a fuller picture of the decision-making process; but we also create a more relaxed and enjoyable interaction for the respondent. We aren’t pressuring your former customers to justify their decision to leave you, we’re ensuring you understand them so you can do better in the future. This low-pressure, people-focused approach generates better insight. Purposely delivered and mindfully executed We believe that your lost account research should be just as carefully crafted as your onboarding procedure or retention programmes. It should be consistent with the high-quality of service that you deliver, and it is crucial that the findings and implications are fed back and actioned to help you improve going forward. Our bespoke approach to research design, collaborative delivery model and commitment to experienced directors on every project means you can be confident that your lost account research will be constructive, impactful, and brand-aligned. To discuss how we can help you examine and understand your lost accounts, and generate the insights and key learnings you need to optimise and improve retention, contact us today.

Explore our experience

Explore our case studies archive

Market research case study: Learning from lost customers to win them back

Yodel

The challenge

The approach

The results

Other areas you might find interesting...

Sector: Distribution & logistics

Specialism: Quantitative

Specialism: Engaging hard to reach groups through market research

Specialism: Business to business (B2B)

Service: CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing)

Solution: Lost account

Case study: Learning from lost customers to win them back

Yodel

The challenge

The approach

The results

Client testimonial: Yodel

Distribution & logistics, Quantitative, Hard to reach groups, Business to business (B2B), CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing), Lost account

Other areas you might find interesting...

Sector: Distribution & logistics

Specialism: Quantitative

Specialism: Engaging hard to reach groups through market research

Specialism: Business to business (B2B)

Service: CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing)

Solution: Lost account

Market research case study:
Learning from lost customers to win them back

Sector:
Distribution & logistics

Specialism:
Quantitative

Specialism:
Engaging hard to reach groups through market research

Specialism:
Business to business (B2B)

Service:
CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing)

Solution:
Lost account

Case study:
Learning from lost customers to win them back

Sector:
Distribution & logistics

Specialism:
Quantitative

Specialism:
Engaging hard to reach groups through market research

Specialism:
Business to business (B2B)

Service:
CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing)

Solution:
Lost account