Blueberry Curbs Customer Churn & Boosts Business Growth

REGARDED as the UK’s leading education recruitment agency, our client provides more than 5,000 schools with first-class staff every academic year. Established in 1996, the organisation works within an education service group, helping legions of reputable teachers and classroom support staff find work in UK classrooms. With over 80 branches, our client is renowned for its rigorous vetting process, career-enhancing CPD Academy, and exceptional customer service. Their sector-specialist approach to school recruitment ensures a deep understanding and tailored solutions for schools.

WHAT THEY NEEDED

Our client was prioritising outreach to lapsed customers. They recognised the importance of managing customer churn and sought Blueberry’s expertise to help them restore balance. After identifying the reasons for customer dropout, our client was eager to also learn how to win back lapsed customers. As specialists in customer engagement, we designed a telemarketing campaign with a dual focus – providing insights behind churn while actively re-engaging lapsed and dormant customers. This collaborative effort identified future win-back opportunities, which were shared with the internal school partnership team to progress.

In addition, our client wanted to gauge schools’ interest in an intuitive online booking app they were producing. Developed in consultation with school headteachers and CEOs of Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs), the portal promised to revolutionise the company’s services and significantly improve its customer’s experience. Using Blueberry’s invaluable campaign insights, they planned to reevaluate their pricing structures, teaching provisions, booking systems, and work contracts.

WHAT WE DID

We started the campaign by refining and updating our clients inactive customer data. This process involved contacting individuals in schools to verify their current supply provision and process. To prioritise our outreach efforts, we prioritised the lapsed database based on previous engagement levels, including number of and frequency of past bookings. We discovered that some churn was due to key contacts moving on, making it crucial to update new contact details and reintroduce their services to the schools.

In other cases, new contacts had established relationships with different suppliers. Understanding this information enabled us to identify competing agencies, contract renewal periods, and restart the sales process by informing previous customers of our clients service offering.

We crafted an engaging, conversational call approach, using open-ended survey questions to encourage natural and meaningful dialogue as well as rated questions to capture more quantitative responses. This organic, unscripted style kept surveys engaging, reduced mid-survey dropouts, and allowed us to capture detailed feedback. By targeting key decision-makers and keeping questions purposeful and concise, we gained a deep understanding of schools’ needs and priorities.

Building on this approach, we developed a strategy to highlight aspects of the client’s offering that customers may not have been aware of. Our calls focused on communicating added value—re-engaging schools by showcasing product developments and service enhancements while simultaneously uncovering the underlying reasons for lapsing. This dual-purpose strategy deepened engagement and surfaced valuable insights for future campaigns.

Our calling activity highlighted schools within Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs), which we shared directly with the client’s internal team. Targeting these schools was crucial, as MATs often restrict schools to approved agencies. Securing one academy could therefore create a ripple effect, opening doors to others within the trust—so these opportunities were promptly and accurately identified and shared.

WHAT WE ACHIEVED

Blueberry’s insights were vital in enhancing our clients customer retention strategy.
We completed a substantial 380 survey responses, with 46 per cent of these responses leading to potential win-back opportunities, which were shared with our client as qualified referrals (177 referrals).

• 380 survey responses
• 78.03% survey response completion rate
• 177 win-back referrals shared
• 76% of respondents expressed their appetite in having a online booking app supporting the business case for app development

Thanks to the strategy deployed, Blueberry achieved a high speak-to rate – school leaders were receptive to learning about the new app and how it could support their future provision. The engagement approach was designed to be informative and non-intrusive, which encouraged open, productive conversations.

Blueberry’s rapport-building skills meant school leaders were more engaged and responded positively to the thoughtful, value-led discussions, allowing the business to reconnect with lapsed customers while also forging new relationships within the education sector. As a result, we delivered a rich, insightful database that will support the client’s future campaigns, service development, and long-term engagement strategy.

Blueberry discovered that 71 per cent of respondents did not know that our client was a preferred agency on the UK Government’s Crown Commercial Services (CCS) framework, a mark of quality and reliability. Raising awareness of this significant achievement would no doubt support the company’s customer acquisition further.

These valuable insights highlighted the need for them to reassess their service offering, teaching provisions, and future booking facilities, further solidifying their position in the market.

The success of this project highlights Blueberry’s commitment and expertise in the education sector. We have since been recommended to wider education group partners and look forward to working with them on several telemarketing projects.

Discover how we can help you meet your business growth objectives. Visit blueberryms.co.uk, email: info@blueberryms.co.uk or call: 0113 4877013

[COPYRIGHT © 2025 ANGELA KUNAWICZ & BLUEBERRY MARKETING SOLUTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]