Happy Returns Five simple steps to winning back customers who've strayed.

Well, I'll never do business with them again!"

How many of us have uttered those words? At one time or another, we've probably all felt that way about someone or some company. Truth is, many businesses experience customer attrition that seriously affects their profits and ability to grow. But much of this can be prevented or even corrected after the fact. How? By taking the time to do a little "post mortem" research and by developing a plan to go after those lost customers. Try following these five suggestions:

1.Develop a "Most Wanted" list. Before you can find out what caused customers to leave and how to win them back, you have to figure out who they are. Big customers are easy to keep track of, but countless smaller customers can slip away unnoticed if there's no system in place to snag the escapees. Some companies have computer printouts that highlight drastic drops in business from individual customers while others use notecards or tracking forms.