Past Client Re-Engagement
The easiest bookings in your business are sitting in your contact list right now. People who have already booked with you once are the warmest leads you will ever have — and most agents never call them back.
- Export and organise your past client list into a workable spreadsheet
- Segment contacts into three groups so you know who to contact first
- Use ready-made message templates for each group — personalised and warm
- Build a forward-looking trigger system so no client goes 12 months without hearing from you
Your best leads have already paid you once
Every business spends the majority of its marketing effort chasing new customers — while the most valuable potential customers it has are sitting untouched in a booking history spreadsheet. Past clients already know you, already trust you, and have already experienced your service. They don't need to be convinced from scratch.
Research consistently shows that selling to an existing customer is 5–7 times cheaper than acquiring a new one, and conversion rates from warm re-engagement are typically 20–40% compared to 1–3% for cold outreach. Yet most travel agents rely almost entirely on new enquiries and almost never systematically follow up with people who've already booked.
This course turns that around. In about an hour of setup, you'll have a system that ensures every past client hears from you at the right moment — and a process for every new client that makes this perpetual and automatic going forward.
Three groups — three different approaches
Not all past clients are equal. How you contact someone who returned 10 months ago is very different from how you approach someone who hasn't heard from you in three years. This course splits your list into three groups and gives you a specific approach — and a word-for-word message — for each one.
What you need
- Access to your booking history — from your booking system, CRM, email records, or a manual list
- Excel, Google Sheets, or any spreadsheet tool — free, already on your device
- Client contact details — email addresses and/or mobile numbers
- 30–60 minutes to build your initial list and send your first batch
Building your re-engagement system
Export your past client list
Pull every client contact from the last three years into a single spreadsheet. Sources to check:
- Your booking system — most have a client export function
- Your email inbox — search for booking confirmation threads
- Your WhatsApp — go through previous booking conversations
- Invoices, quotes, and any physical client records
Create a spreadsheet with these columns: First Name | Last Name | Email | Mobile | Destination | Return Date | Notes. Even a rough, imperfect list is far better than nothing. Start with whatever you have.
Sort by return date and assign each client to a group
Sort your spreadsheet by the Return Date column and add a Group column. Assign each client:
10–14 months ago
Prime re-engagement targets. Their trip anniversary is approaching. Contact these first — today.
15 months–2 years ago
Still warm. They liked you enough to book once. A forward-planning prompt works well here.
2+ years ago
Dormant contacts. Worth a low-effort reconnect — but don't invest as much time upfront.
Send your Group A messages — today
Use the message template below as your starting point. Always replace [Name] and [destination] with the real details — a message that mentions their actual trip converts at 3–4× the rate of a generic one.
"Hi [Name]! Can you believe it's almost been a year since your [destination] trip? I genuinely loved putting that one together for you. I've been keeping an eye on things and there are some absolutely gorgeous options coming up for [next season] — any chance for another adventure on the cards? I'd love to help plan the next one. [Your name]"
"Hi [Name] — hope you're well! [Next season] is starting to book up and I wanted to reach out to my favourite clients before availability tightens. Are you starting to think about next year's holiday yet? I've got some lovely options I think might suit you perfectly. Drop me a message if you fancy a chat! [Your name]"
"Hi [Name] — it's been a while! I was thinking about your [destination] trip the other day and wondered if you'd been back since. I'm helping quite a few clients plan their [year] holidays right now and thought of you — is travel on the cards? Would love to help again! [Your name]"
Send in batches of 10–15 per week
Don't try to contact your entire list in one sitting. Ten personalised, genuinely individual messages a week is far more effective — and manageable — than 100 copy-paste ones sent in a bulk blast.
Block 30 minutes every Monday morning to work through your re-engagement list. It becomes a habit, not a project. At 10–15 per week, you can work through 100 clients in under two months.
Track every contact and follow up once
Add four columns to your spreadsheet: Date Contacted | Response (Y/N) | Follow-up Sent | Outcome.
If someone doesn't respond after 7 days, send one gentle follow-up: "Just checking this didn't get buried — hope you're well! [Your name]". After two messages with no response, move on. You don't want to pester a client who has given you their business and their time.
Build your forward-looking trigger system
This is the step that turns re-engagement from a one-off exercise into a permanent, self-running system. For every new booking you take from today onwards:
- Add the client to your spreadsheet
- Set a calendar reminder at 10 months after their return date
- When the reminder fires, send a Group A message
That's it. With this in place, no past client ever goes 12 months without hearing from you — automatically, without you having to remember anything.
Add birthday and anniversary triggers where you have the data
If you know a client's birthday, a personal message on that day is more powerful than any promotional email: "Happy birthday [Name]! Hope you're celebrating in style — if you fancy treating yourself to a holiday this year, I'd love to help plan something special. [Your name] 🎂"
If you know their wedding anniversary or travel anniversary, the same principle applies. These messages are tiny in effort but enormous in impact — because they feel personal in a way that no OTA or booking website can ever replicate.
The simple maths that make this worth an hour of your time
If you have 100 past clients and just 5% book again as a result of your re-engagement outreach, that's 5 bookings from a few hours of personal messages. If the average booking value is £2,000, that's £10,000 in revenue from zero marketing spend. Even a 2% response rate on a list of 200 is 4 bookings — more than most paid campaigns generate at modest budgets.
Travelgenix tip
If you use Travelgenix's Travelify mid-office system, your booking history is already stored there — use it as your starting point for building your client list. Your account manager can help you export client contact records if you're unsure how to access them. Luna AI's automation features can also help you set up triggered follow-up tasks around return dates.
For more experienced marketers
Segment by holiday type, not just recency
Once your re-engagement process is running, add a column to your spreadsheet for holiday type — ski, honeymoon, family, luxury, cruise. When a relevant deal comes in, you can send a targeted message just to clients who've previously booked that type. A ski client getting a personalised message about a great Val d'Isère deal will convert at far higher rates than the same message sent to your general list. This segmentation costs you almost nothing to set up and has a compounding effect over time.
Use re-engagement as a referral trigger
When a past client does respond positively — whether they rebook or just reply warmly — that's the perfect moment to ask for a referral. Something like: "Really glad to hear from you! While I've got you — if you ever have friends or family who are thinking about a trip, I'd always love an introduction. No pressure at all, but it genuinely means a lot to a small business like mine." A warm, personal referral ask from a re-engaged client converts significantly better than a cold referral request sent to everyone.
Move your best clients onto all three channels
Your highest-value past clients — the ones who've booked multiple times or who spent well — should be on your email newsletter list, your WhatsApp broadcast list, and receive personal re-engagement messages. Three-channel clients are dramatically less likely to drift to a competitor because there's simply too much warm contact happening. Identify your top 20–30 clients and make sure they're covered across all channels. These are your most valuable relationships — treat them accordingly.
What kills re-engagement before it starts
- Sending a generic newsletter and calling it re-engagement — the templates work because they're personal. Generic emails don't convert at anywhere near the same rate
- Contacting people who asked not to hear from you — always honour opt-out requests and keep a record
- Leaving more than 14 months between contacts with active clients — the longer the gap, the harder the re-engagement
- Not personalising — a message that doesn't mention their actual destination feels like spam, not care
Your Monday morning 30-minute re-engagement habit
- Check your trigger calendar — who has a 10-month reminder this week? Send them a Group A message
- Check your tracking spreadsheet — any messages sent 7 days ago with no reply? Send one follow-up
- Work through 10 more contacts from your initial list if you haven't finished yet
- For any new bookings confirmed this week, add the client to your spreadsheet and set their 10-month trigger
- Note any birthdays or travel anniversaries coming up this month and schedule personal messages
What to expect and when
| When | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | First Group A messages sent. Expect a 15–30% response rate from warm recent clients. Some will convert to bookings within days. |
| Month 1 | Working through your full list. Most responsive group is A. Group B generates forward-planning conversations. Steady stream of warm inbound enquiries begins. |
| Month 2–3 | Initial list fully contacted. Trigger system now in place for all new bookings. Re-engagement becomes a steady background source of repeat business. |
| Month 4–6 | Past clients start thinking of you first when considering their next trip. Referrals increase as warm re-engagement conversations prompt word-of-mouth. |
| Ongoing | With the trigger system running, no past client ever goes 12 months without hearing from you. Repeat booking rate climbs steadily — compounding year on year. |
Lesson completion checklist
📄 Download the Course 05 Workbook
Client tracker spreadsheet template, all message templates, trigger calendar guide, and completion checklist.