Customer Service Strategies To Boost Post-Purchase Communication

Many businesses that are directly linked to customers overlook the potential of building relationship post every customer’s purchases.

Why post-purchase communication is important?

Brian & Company’s Ferderick F. Reichheld and Phill Schefter demonstrated the value of customer retention, in co-ordination with Earl Sasser of Harvard Business School.

They analyzed: The high cost of acquiring customers renders many customer relationships unprofitable during their early years. Only in later years, when the cost of serving loyal customers falls and the volume of their purchases rises, do relationships generate big returns.

The bottom line: increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%. In other words, venturing a customer retention practice will no doubt take time to get returns, however, the wait is bound to be worth it, as according to Market Metrics, “the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 – 70%. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%.”

Considering this data, you can yourself judge how customer retention can be cost-effective strategy than acquiring new customers for your business.

How can you adopt an effective post-purchase communication strategies for your business?

1- Request your customers to provide feedback for every order they receive

Encouraging your customers to speak about their shopping experience, is the first step you need to consider in your post-purchase communication strategy. Knowing what your customers feel about your products and services will help you take immediate measures to ensure you don’t miss them. Many unhappy customers don’t speak, they just walk away (leave you for one of your competitors). To retain such customers, an ideal way is highlight clear customer feedback instructions with every order you dispatch. Also, the feedback form should be an easy access to customers that will automatically encourage them to engage with your brand, whom you can always win over with some of your promotional offers.

2- Call customers and not email, to increase engagement post-purchases

Sending customer feedback instructions with every order is an important approach for retention, however, if your customer is someone like me who is only eager to receive and use the product, may miss out those instructions. To avoid such situations and encourage engagement, it becomes more effective when you call your customers instead of sending an automated courtesy email post-purchase. The demand for personalization has begun and you need to take an advantage of it to increase customers engagement and retention, both.

3- Share customer’s voice on relevant platforms

Modern online shoppers like to share their happy shopping experiences over the web, hence focusing in getting more and more reviews and sharing your customer’s voice over relevant social networking platforms including your website, will create a unique bonding and make them your loyal customers.

4- Upsell and cross sell

Implementing a marketing software for your website, you can target your existing customers with additional products or add-ons relevant to their post-purchase. This increase personalization and you’ll get a chance to win over them every time they engage with your brand.

5-Bounce back frequently

If your goal is to build a long-term relationships with your existing customers,  frequently reach them with products that they would like, special offers or incentives to keep your brand alive in their mind.

Wrapping up

To perform a successful post-purchase communication strategy, you need first make sure that products are delivered to your customers in time. The smart way is adopt an order management system that will automate major back-end tasks and ensure you fulfill every customers orders easily, and accurately.

When considering customer services strategies post-purchase, if your way of communication isn’t working, then you need to continue re-evaluating the function of the message until it creates a positive impact on your customers.

Source links used:

hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/1590.html

www.marketmetrics.com