Brands are often so focused on acquiring and reaching new clients, that they forget about the customers' post-purchase experience. Not to mention, aqcuiring new customers can be costly, whereas current customers are already at your business' fingertips. Once the customer has completed their order, the product gets shipped and the rest is left up to the courier. However, the sale is not the endpoint. Existing customers are a brand's most valuable asset as they have already converted, which can provide crucial information about why they converted and what factors almost stopped them from converting. Although, while you want to learn more about your customers, you don't want to come across as pushy or intrusive. Therefore, it's important to ensure that your post-purchase strategy builds a relationship that benefits both parties.
To help you get started, we've outlined 5 ways to enhance your post-purchase experience.
Continue Communications
Despite the heavy shift over to digital shopping, consumers still enjoy the more personalized experience that brick-and-mortar shopping provides. However, once a customer has made a purchase and left the physical store, they are gone. In the digital space, once a purchase has been made, we're able to regularly check in, provide valuable information and learn more about our target audience.
In addition, when a customer makes an order, it's key to communicate at every step of the post-order journey. Once the order confirmation has been sent, let them know you're processing the order, the team is packing their order, it has shipped, when it should arrive and so on. This demonstrates your brand genuinely cares for their package as much as they do and provides a positive customer experience from the get-go. Once their order has arrived, check in and ensure everything is as it should be. If it's not, have a support team on standby to handle any customer service tickets or resolve any shipping issues quickly and efficiently. This final check-in is also the perfect time to ask the customer to leave a review and thank them for their business. You can add a discount code or offer to encourage them to shop with you again and increase customer lifetime value.
Protect Orders
Following on from above, showing your customers you care is a sure way to build trust. One of the simplest ways to do this is to offer shipping protection on orders. With 1.7 million packages stolen or lost every single day in the US, providing shipping protection for your customers shows your business is going the extra mile to ensure their package reaches them safely. Also, in case the package does not reach them safely, with shipping protection, you are able to get another one out to the customer quickly and efficiently at no extra cost to the business. This allows customers to feel confident when shopping and, following a positive experience, encourages them to shop from your store again.
Learn more about how Green Shipping Protection can help cut your business costs.
Create an Online Community
Online communities are a great way for brands to build meaningful relationships with customers. Not only can they lead to greater brand loyalty, but also increase customer retention, improve reputation and reduce support costs all while providing upsell opportunities.
Within these communities, you can share early access to products and offers, product support and engage more with your customers. The idea is to build a community where consumers want to be a part of it and use this to learn more about your customers and their needs.
These communities can be easily created using Facebook groups, a Slack channel, PeerBoard and many others.
Loyalty Programs
In addition to online communities, loyalty programs are another excellent way to personalize the customer experience and create long-lasting and meaningful relationships. The most popular loyalty programs use points. Customers can accumulate points with every purchase and once they reach a certain amount, they can enjoy a free gift or discount. This is also an effective strategy to boost your average order value as it encourages customers to purchase more than they would have normally.
Pashion Footwear has created a multilevel loyalty program with different membership tiers. The more the customer spends, the higher the tier, which unlocks more perks such as free shipping, early access to sales, private sales and birthday gifts. Along with purchasing to collect points, Pashion footwear has cleverly added an "extra ways to earn" section. This allows customers to gather extra points without spending, but the "ways" include things that are beneficial to the business, such as following on all social platforms, leaving a review and extra points for leaving a photo and video in the review.
Share How-Tos
Sharing demonstrations or how-tos on your product or service is another great way to give your customers that extra value. This ensures the customer gets the most out of your product or service and goes a long way in improving their customer service experience. It can also be a great way to reduce customer service tickets, particularly if you were receiving similar queries about your product. It's also an opportunity to cross-sell however, it's important to not come across as pushy.
For example, a jewelry company could share an article or video on how to restore and clean jewelry. Alternatively, content on how to layer your jewelry for different occasions is a great way to include a cross-sell and share more products.
There are numerous ways to enhance your post-purchase experience but it's crucial to remember, that once the customer has hit checkout, that is not the end of their shopping experience with you, in fact, quite the contrary. These 5 ways to enhance your post-purchase experience all play a vital role in increasing your customer lifetime value and customer retention which, in turn, will help to grow your business.