The Repeat Revenue Roadmap
Growth from the customers you already have. See where customers drop off after their first order, what it's costing you, and get the plan to turn one-off customers into repeat customers.
If customers are buying once and not coming back, this is for you.
Customers are arriving. The workflows are live. The emails go out every week and the open rates look fine.
But the repeat rate won't shift. And with acquisition costs climbing, relying on new customers to hit the number gets more expensive every quarter.
You've got a leak. And nobody owns fixing it.
Retention sits somewhere between the founder, the marketing lead and whoever set up CRM, so it gets done in bursts. It's run as a set of sends, not as a revenue channel.
The Repeat Revenue Roadmap finds where customers are falling out of your business, and gives you the order to fix them in. So one-time customers become repeat customers, stay longer and spend more.
Instead of asking "Why don't they come back?", you'll know.
“Having support during a difficult sales period, help with forward planning to take pressure off me, technical help like finding different aps to help achieve what we needed, handholding (!) with the live events as these were great and I wouldn't have forced myself to do them without you.
I think the value I got out of it was wonderful for the price. And I also liked the fact that you gave me lots to do (even if I didn't have time for it all), because I think it is better to give too many ideas than to give too few.”
- Founder of @FancifulDoll
You know retention matters. The hard part is knowing where it's breaking.
I see this pattern again and again in established businesses.
The repeat rate is flat, and everyone has a theory: the workflows, the offer, the platform, a loyalty scheme.
But the real question sits underneath: where exactly are customers dropping off, and why?
- Is it a first-to-second-order problem?
- An onboarding problem, where new customers fall out of motion before they've formed a habit?
- A churn problem, where good customers lapse and nobody notices until they've gone?
- Or are customers only coming back when there's a discount on?
Each one needs a different fix. Get the diagnosis wrong and you can spend months polishing the wrong part of the journey.
That's why this Roadmap starts with your customers, not your campaigns.
The 4Rs of Customer Retention
Signature framework:
Every piece of retention work I do is built on the 4Rs. It's the framework I developed from what I've seen work, from a loyalty programme with millions of members to independent brands building retention from scratch.
The idea behind it is simple. Retention isn't one thing. It's four stages, and customers can drop out at any of them.
Return.
Getting a first-time customer to come back for a second order. For many businesses, this is where they lose the most customers.
Rhythm.
Turning repeat buying into a habit, so customers keep coming back without being chased.
Reward.
Giving loyal customers a reason to stay, and making sure that loyalty is earned, not bought with discounts.
Refer.
Turning happy customers into a source of new ones.
Most businesses put their effort into one or two of these, often with a discount, and leave the rest to chance.
The 4Rs sit at the heart of the Repeat Revenue Roadmap. I use them to look at all four stages of your business, so you can see which one is costing you most and fix that first.
What this Roadmap gives you
Think of it as going from "We're doing loads of CRM, but I couldn't tell you what it's doing for revenue" to "That's where the money's going, and that's what we fix first."
This Roadmap turns your retention data into decisions. So instead of going round in circles on:
Do we need a loyalty programme?
Should we discount to win lapsed customers back?
Is it our flows?
Do we need a new platform?
You'll know what matters now, what can wait, and what each priority is worth. Not opportunities flagged in the abstract. Specific changes, in a specific order, with a way to measure them.
You'll have a plan.
Results from past work
A few examples of what this kind of thinking has delivered, from independent brands to one of the UK's largest loyalty programmes.
Every business is different. These are examples of past work, shared to show how I think and what's possible, not a promise of the same numbers. Your Roadmap is built on your own data, so the opportunities it finds will be specific to you.
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320% more returning-customer revenue, in two months
The business: An independent fashion brand that relied on Instagram to find new customers. When the algorithm changed, that stopped working. They had a loyal customer base, but nothing in place to bring those customers back.
What I did: Shifted the focus from finding new people to looking after the people who already loved the brand. That meant VIP email journeys for past customers, invite-only events, and live sessions that brought existing customers back while attracting new ones.
The result: Revenue from returning customers grew by 320% within two months.
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58% open rates, zero unsubscribes
The business: My own service business.
What I did: Built an email programme on segmentation and consistency, so every subscriber gets content that's relevant to where they are, week after week.
The result: A 58% open rate across a multi-email sequence, with zero unsubscribes. That trust shows up in sales too, with individual sends converting at up to 5.8%. It's what happens when customers feel looked after rather than sold to.
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Loyalty at scale, with millions of members
The programme: One of the UK's largest retail loyalty schemes. The details are protected by a non-disclosure agreement, so I can't name it.
What I did: Co-managed brand activity across targeting, segmentation, workflows, physical mail, SMS and app.
Why it matters to you: You don't need millions of customers to use what works at that scale. The same principles, sized to your business, sit behind every Roadmap.
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From "our ads have stopped working" to a clear plan
The business: A niche, founder-led clothing brand. Ads that had worked the year before had stopped converting, and the founder was close to deciding paid advertising was dead.
What I did: I'd already helped them build a quiz that brought in around 500 email subscribers in its first two weeks. This time, I looked at the whole picture: email, ads and customer data together. Once people opened, the emails were performing well, with click rates around three times the Klaviyo benchmark. The real gap was that hundreds of quiz leads were never being nurtured into customers.
The result: A prioritised, benchmarked plan that turned "the ads are broken" into a nurture and retention problem the founder could act on, starting with the audience she already had.
‘I just wanted to say thank you so much for the wonderful insights in the business audit report. I'm still going through them all and actioning them, but it has all galvanised activity and it feels like I have a clear path forward. I'll definitely reach out with more questions around some of the aspects, but for now I'm just focusing on the marketing and website.’
- Founder, Coeur et Maman
What I'll review as part of the Roadmap
What I'll review as part of the Roadmap
Phase 1: Your customer economics
Your customer data already knows where people drop off. It just isn't being read.
Someone buys once, has a perfectly good experience...and doesn't come back. No complaint, no cancellation. They simply drift.
That rarely means the product isn't good.
It usually means nothing was built to bring them back at the right moment.
I'll take an export from your store, booking system or subscription platform and build your order-stage picture: who comes back, when, and where they stop.
That includes:
Repeat order rate, stage by stage: first to second order, second to third, third onwards
Time to reorder, compared with how often customers in your category usually buy
Month one to month four retention for each group of new customers
Returning-customer revenue: how much of your income comes from people who've bought before
Earned versus bought: how much repeat revenue comes in at full price, and how much needed a discount to happen
What a customer is worth, and how long it takes to earn back what you paid to win them
You'll receive:
- A map of where customers are leaking, with a priority next to each leak, so you can see which one matters most
- A clear diagnosis of whether your main problem is onboarding, drop-off, churn, programme economics or data, so you stop solving the wrong one
Phase 2: Your retention engine
Next, I'll look at everything that happens after the first order.
Because even with great data, customers don't come back just because you sent a win-back email with 15% off.
Retention works when it's built as a system, not a series of sends.
When every stage has a job.
When customers come back because they want to, not because they were bribed.
I'll review your retention engine against each of the 4Rs:
Return. Is there a real reason to come back for a second order, landing inside your customers' natural buying cycle?
Rhythm. Is repeat buying turning into a habit, and are you spotting customers at risk of lapsing before they go? For subscriptions and memberships, that includes failed payments, pausing and cancellation journeys.
Reward. What drives your customers' loyalty, what erodes it, and whether any programme, perks or VIP treatment are paying their way.
Refer. Whether happy customers are bringing you new ones, and what that's worth to you.
This helps identify:
Where CRM effort isn't turning into repeat revenue
Where opportunities are being missed, especially referral and the moments that make customers feel looked after
What you can pause without losing revenue
The few changes that will move lifetime value most
The goal isn't a bigger to-do list.
It's the right things in the right order, so retention becomes a commercial driver, not just a broadcast channel.
What you'll receive
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1. Your Repeat Revenue Roadmap
A clear, written plan showing where customers are dropping off, what each leak is worth, and what's stopping them coming back.
It includes a sequenced 90-day plan: the specific changes to make, in order, with a way to measure what's working. Something your leadership team can act on.
A working plan, not a report that sits in a shared drive.
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2. Two 1-hour strategy sessions
We'll go through the Roadmap together and make sure it fits your business, your margins and your team's capacity.
Bring whoever runs your CRM or email, so the plan lands with the people doing the work. It's your chance to ask "what does good look like for a business our size?"
You'll leave knowing exactly what to do next, and why.
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3. Seven days of follow-up support
The questions don't always come during the call. They pop up when you start building.
So after our sessions, you'll have seven days to ask questions and sense-check decisions by email, with quick, practical answers as you start taking action.
So the plan doesn't stall the first time someone asks "but what about...?"
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Optional: I lead the build with you
If you need the strategic layer and don't have it yet, the Roadmap becomes month one of my Fractional Head of Retention service. This is for you if you want ongoing support with your retention strategy and weekly performance updates.
Entirely your call. The Roadmap works on its own too.
Investment and next steps
The investment for The Repeat Revenue Roadmap is £1,497, or USD$1997.
That's a fraction of what a single month of an in-house retention manager costs, and you get senior strategy, an actionable plan and the support to start.
If you're ready to stop losing customers after their first order, and turn retention into a revenue channel you can plan around:
It's a quick form with a few questions, just so I can understand where you're at and make sure this is the right fit before we get started.
Have a question first?
You're more than welcome to email me at contact@vickiwallis.com and I'll come back to you.
Apply Now
Please tell us a bit about your brand and we’ll send you a calendar link with available call times.
Hi, I'm Vicki.
Plenty of new customers, but not enough of them coming back? I've seen it from both sides.
I've built multiple businesses of my own, and all of them taught me the same lesson: getting a customer is the expensive part. Keeping them is where the profit lives.
I've spent 20+ years in marketing, including co-managing brand activity within one of the UK's largest retail loyalty schemes, with millions of members, across targeting, segmentation, physical mail, SMS and app. I've also built retention from the ground up for independent brands, including one that grew returning-customer revenue by 320% in just 2 months.
Now I'm the retention lead for established businesses that need the strategic layer but can't yet justify the full-time hire.
I think in revenue and margin, not just sends. But equally importantly, I care about the part most retention work skips: the moments that make customers feel looked after, because that's what makes them stay.
I work with a small number of businesses at a time, so every Roadmap gets my full attention.
Let's grow your business from the customers you already have.
FAQs
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The Roadmap works best if:
You're an established business, not a new startup.
Customers can buy from you more than once: new products, repeat orders, rebookings, subscriptions or memberships
You have at least 3 months of customer and/or order data, even if it's messy
Nobody owns retention yet, or the person who does is stretched across everything else
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1. Apply now
Click here to apply and answer a few quick questions.
This helps me understand where your business is, what you're working towards, and whether the Roadmap is the right fit right now.
2. I'll invite you to chat (so you feel completely clear)
Once I've read your application, I'll invite you to a quick chat so you can ask any questions.
This can be by email or a call, whichever is easiest.
If you decide to go ahead, I'll send a contract and payment link.
3. You'll share your data and a short onboarding questionnaire
Next, I'll send a simple questionnaire and a short list of exports I need: usually orders and customers from your store or booking system, plus read-only access to your email platform.
No need to tidy anything up first. Messy data is normal, and reading it is my job.
4. I read your cohorts and create your Roadmap
I start with the numbers, so the diagnosis comes from your customers rather than guesswork. Then I review your retention engine across the 4Rs and pull it all together into your Repeat Revenue Roadmap.
This is where everything starts to click. You'll see where customers are leaking, what it's costing you, and what to fix first.
5. We go through the Roadmap together on two calls
You'll get 2 x 1-hour strategy sessions where we go through your Roadmap, talk decisions through, and make sure you and your team feel confident about what comes next.
6. You take action with support
After the sessions, you'll have 7 days of follow-up support via email, so you can ask questions as you start building and keep the momentum going.
And if you'd like me to lead the build, the Roadmap becomes month one of the Fractional Head of Retention service (optional additional extra).
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About 2 weeks from receiving your data to your first strategy session. The timeline depends on how quickly I get access to your exports, so I'll confirm a date when we start.
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Usually an export of orders and customers from your store, booking system or subscription platform, plus read-only access to your email platform. It doesn't need tidying up first. Messy data is normal, and reading it is my job.
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The Roadmap works whatever you use. I'm certifying in Klaviyo and have hands-on experience with ActiveCampaign, Kit and Circle, alongside Shopify, Squarespace, Teepee and subscription and booking tools. The diagnosis comes from your customer data, not from the platform.
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An audit checks your workflows, which this includes too, but The Roadmap is a lot more comprehensive than that. It starts with your customers: where they drop off, what each leak is worth, and which stage to fix first. Your workflows are one part of that picture, not the whole of it.
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The Roadmap is written so a small in-house team can deliver it. If you'd like me to lead the build, you can carry on into my Fractional Head of Retention service, a separate monthly retainer where the Roadmap counts as month one.
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Yes. The 4Rs apply to any business where customers can buy more than once, whether that's repeat orders, rebookings, renewals or memberships. For subscriptions, I also look at failed payments, pausing and cancellations.
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Yes. I run a service business myself, so I know from the inside how much depends on clients who rebook, renew and refer. Coaches, consultants and professional services firms like legal and finance all face the same question: what happens after the first piece of work? I'll look at where clients drift, and how to turn happy clients into a steady source of referrals.
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Yes. I'm a regular customer of these businesses myself: a nutritionist, a reformer Pilates studio, a gym, a spa and wellness retreats. I've had great experiences and frustrating ones, and I bring both to this work, along with my experience as a service provider. Whether you're a studio, an independent instructor or a wellness brand, I'll look at how new members settle in, when regulars start to drift, and how to spot them before they stop booking.
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Yes. I've run my own online brand and work with a lot of e-commerce businesses, including one where returning-customer revenue grew by 320% within 3 months of working together. For most online brands, the biggest leak sits between the first and second order. I'll look at that gap, how often customers in your category naturally reorder, and how much of your repeat revenue relies on discounts.
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Yes. I currently support a direct-to-consumer brand running a subscription model, so I'm close to the day-to-day reality of recurring orders, where every cancellation counts. As well as the 4Rs, I'll look at failed payments, skips and pauses, cancellation journeys, and which groups of subscribers stay longest, so you know where to focus.
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Yes. Memberships live or die on whether people feel part of something. Whether you run a community, a course library, a paid newsletter or a club, I'll look at how new members settle in during their first few weeks, which parts they use and which they ignore, the early signs someone's about to leave, and what makes members renew.
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Yes. You can pay in two equal instalments of £748.50 if that's easier.
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"Without Vicki - her patience, accuracy, extensive knowledge, being available and willing to help and all round can and will do attitude, it wouldn't have come together. I'm forever in your debt. And looking forward to working together again, and again.. thanks so much"
– Rosey, Founder of WeareNativ
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"Vicki was all I had hoped for and even better! Had a great call with her which was very efficient and focused on my needs. Her follow up notes were amazing. I would recommend"
- Camila, Founder of Lewina Swimwear