Win-back: relevance or silence, never a blast. After day 60 of silence nobody owns the dormant customer and almost nothing reaches them; this journey builds the missing win-back: entry by hand-off at day 60, the churn band setting who and how hard, every message anchored to a trip the customer actually takes, two touches then a genuine end, and a launch gate that has shrunk from a whole model to one sync payload extension.
After day 60, nobody owns the customer.
“Show me it's relevant to a trip I actually take, make coming back effortless, and if you can't do either, leave me alone.”
Why it happens Churn is an event, not a fade: a specific unresolved grievance, a feels-rigged conclusion, or price drift against remembered cheap upgrades. A generic miss-you message answers none of them, and the return door itself sometimes fails.
The behaviour we are driving Tap through to their own route with a live price and bid within 14 days; or walk back in unaided and be recognised. Either way a transaction closes the episode and hands the comeback to Journey 1.
| The moment | Phase 1, ships now | Phase 2, waits on engineering | Who builds it |
|---|---|---|---|
on the map: 1 · The route-anchored win-back The route-anchored win-back | braze push, email After day 60 of silence nobody owns the dormant customer and almost nothing reaches them. The first knock is banded, route-anchored and deep-linked: their usual route, a real from-price this week, only pay if you win. Recognition for power users (what they have saved),… | Nothing waits | Braze · Braze buildAnalytics · new model, computed traitDesign · words and mock |
on the map: 3 · The comparison anchor The comparison anchor | email, braze in-app message One concrete reason to look again: the walk-up fare on their route today against what their last upgrade cost. The comparison is substantiated at fire time; the word cheaper never appears. Then rest. | Nothing waits | Braze · Braze buildAnalytics · computed traitDesign · words and mock |
on the map: 2 · The welcome-back landing The welcome-back landing | braze in-app message A returner stops landing on the same generic cold start as everyone else: the card recognises the absence, restates the account is as they left it, and lands them on their route at a real price. The failing magic-link door is flagged as a… | Nothing waits | Braze · Braze buildDesign · words and mock |
on the map: 4 · The final attempt, then a genuine end The final attempt, then a genuine end | email, braze push One last try that says so: the best welcome-back deal, one time only, and after this we stop asking. Then the end is real: hard suppression, and the anniversary as the one remaining beat. | Nothing waits | Braze · Braze buildAnalytics · decision needed, new modelDesign · words and mock |
on the map: 5 · The anniversary message The anniversary message | email, braze push A year on, the one owned reminder of what they liked: the same trip, this year’s real prices, against the walk-up fare. One message a year, and the copy says that is the deal. | Nothing waits | Braze · Braze buildAnalytics · computed traitDesign · words and mock |
on the map: 2 · The welcome-back landing The live incentive card | The card’s job (an incentive at re-entry) overlaps the welcome-back landing and the final attempt; the record needs one owner and one offer story before the new build ships beside it. | Nothing waits | Braze · decision needed |
on the map: 1 · The route-anchored win-back The low propensity band | The weekly-blasted low band is now deliberately left alone: blanket contact of likely returners measured minus 11.8% in a holdout, and the low band is where that damage concentrates. | Nothing waits | Analytics |
on the map: 1 · The route-anchored win-back The organic returner | Every read in this journey must clear organic return, not silence; sending win-backs to people already back both wastes sends and poisons the read. | Nothing waits | Marketing · copy only |
| The email deep tail | The deep tail stops being emailed on stale consent: sender reputation is a shared resource and the tail costs more than it could ever return. | Nothing waits | Braze · decision needed |
The words are on the journey map above. A D number opens that row of the Engineering brief; the engineering board uses the same numbers. Live sends not named here continue unchanged.
| The question | Owner |
|---|---|
| The first knock waits for the next Friday-to-Sunday window after the day-60 hand-off. The trigger is behavioural (day 60 of the slip, handed over by Journey 8) but the send is held to a calendar window with no recorded rationale. Keep the window (a leisure planning slot), or send at the hand-off, or in the customer's own usual travel window where one is known? | Sheran, at Gate 1 |
| Rule the welcome-back owner: this journey fires and measures the card; the returning-customer home journey renders the surface. One owner, decided. | Blocks launch Sheran, at Gate 1 |
| Rule the £5 card’s disposition: fold into the welcome-back card’s offer state, narrow to the final attempt, or retire. | Blocks launch Sheran, at Gate 1 |
| Rule the final attempt’s offer depth and the high-band cut-off, with Finance, on Analytics sizing. | Sheran, at Gate 1 |
| Size and meter the one-time backfill wave per band, with the double-read holdout design. | Blocks launch Analytics: Ivi and Ben |
| Restate the 1.5% reactivation objective’s denominator, and reconcile the pool counts across sources (279,876 verified against the circulating figures). | Analytics: Ivi and Ben |
| The 24-month email deep-tail rule: confirm the working assumption (no engagement and no consent refresh in 24 months means no email). | Legal |
| # | The ask | Hand back | Start here |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The churn band and propensity score into the daily sync, on the standing pattern. The score is live in the warehouse; this one extension is the whole phase 2 gate. | The band in the sender, refresh cadence stated. | The Engineering brief’s plumbing band. |
| 2 | The route, from-price and anniversary traits, nightly, for this cohort. | The traits live, coverage stated. | The traits band on the Engineering brief. |
| 3 | Size the backfill waves and the double read: holdouts within bands (journey lift) and banded waves against a batch arm (targeting value), with the underpowered-band risk stated. | The wave plan and test design. | The measurement position on the Campaign brief. |
| 4 | Restate the 1.5% objective’s denominator and reconcile the pool counts across sources. | The restated objective and one pool number. | The hero figures on the Campaign brief. |
| 5 | Deliverable-reach counts per channel: consent is not reach (roughly 1.8x overstatement; warehouse push consent three months stale). | Reach ceilings per band and channel. | The suppressed rows on the Decisioning matrix. |
Every read must clear organic return: about 33,000 lapsed customers a month come back unaided and convert at new-customer rates.