Leapsekunden

Leapsekunden is a term encountered in German-language business discussions to describe customers who have lapsed in engagement or transactions with a company. It is relevant to customer lifecycle management and churn mitigation, serving as a label for individuals at risk of disengagement.

The term is a neologism combining the German word for customer, Kunde, with the concept of lapse or lapse in activity. It is informal and not standardized across industries, appearing mainly in marketing blogs, CRM discussions, and internal company vocabularies to denote customers who have become inactive or who have stopped paying within an expected window.

Typical criteria for designating someone as a Leapsekunde include a defined inactivity period (for example, 90 to 180 days) without purchases or other interactions, or a payment gap that signals elevated churn risk. Leapsekunden are often prioritized for reactivation efforts, such as targeted outreach, win-back offers, or usage-promoting communications. Subcategories may be used in some contexts, distinguishing between soft lapses (recent inactivity) and hard lapses (longer-term inactivity).

Management approaches focus on re-engagement and retention. Strategies include segmentation of Leapsekunden, personalized messaging that emphasizes value, reminders of unused features or benefits, time-limited incentives, and automated reactivation workflows in customer relationship management systems. In sectors like e-commerce and software-as-a-service, tracking reactivation rates and the impact of interventions is common practice.

Because there is no universally accepted definition, the term's usage varies by organization. Care is needed to avoid over-labeling customers, respect privacy, and ensure that reactivation efforts are targeted and measured for effectiveness.