We are human, and that’s why we often make mistakes, and no wonder we rarely thank people who helped us achieve something great. Back to eCommerce brands, often owners make mistakes by letting the customer go after their purchase, and the proof is only 18% of companies focus on customer retention.
Well, eCommerce retailers need to communicate to their customers even post-sale. This is where post-purchase strategies come into play. Having a Post-purchase strategy for your business means you care about your customers even after they haven’t purchased anything else.
The first rule of any business is to retain customers and build a strong relationship with them. However, Post-purchase is nothing but the strategy that helps up your value game in the consumer’s eye. It is nothing like we can build a larger customer base right away, but for sure can enhance customer experience.
What is Post-purchase Customer Experience?
As the name suggests, the Post-purchase customer experience is nothing but a journey between prospects to a customer after making a purchase. Caring for your customers in many ways after they buy your product can create a lot of good impact for your business.
What emotion may a customer have after making a purchase?
- The excitement of trying something new
- Are they made the right choice?
- Anticipation of receiving their products
Current customers are like gold that need to be saved, yet many brands ignore them and focus on gaining new ones. You probably heard this before; it is far more cost-savvy to persuade existing customers to make a repeat purchase than it is to acquire a new customer.
Your current customers are the treasure trove of your business, and that’s why you need to keep them to create a reliable customer base. Taking care of them for a long after purchasing from you is not an option but a necessity.
In eCommerce, you don’t have the same one-to-one sales interaction that you would in a physical or retail setting, so you have to take care of some of those steps post-purchase. In other words, the best way to enhance the number of repeat customers is to deliver a first-class customer experience right after a customer makes their first purchase.
How Can You Improve Post-Purchase Customer Experience?
When we talk about eCommerce businesses, there are many reasons why store owners should adopt a seamless post-purchase process for their customers. However, E-Commerce is a noisy market. Customers have tons of choices when it comes to spending money online. This means brand differentiation is both crucial and challenging.
Having a post-purchase strategy implemented can create a loyalty loop, which keeps customers coming back to your brand over and over again. Moreover, enhancing repeat purchases, there are several benefits to enhancing customer’s post-purchase experience, including:
- Retention is cheaper than acquisition
- Enhance and increase customer feedbacks
- Increase brand loyalty
- Build trust
Here’s how we can improve the post-purchase customer experience.
1. Show you Value them
If you love something, you care for the particular thing. Likewise, if you think your customers are your greatest asset, then show them by valuing them. A simple thank you is better than anything else in cementing the relationship and enhancing the post-customer experience.
In addition, you can also make use of handwritten letters where you thank your customers for being with you in good and tough times. It shows that you value each minute and has a lot of good impact on your customer’s post-purchase journey. And this way, you can take the first step towards creating a long-term relationship with them.
2. Offer Product care and How-to guide
This point seems obvious! As human beings or normal people, we can do things that are familiar to us. The same happens in customers’ purchases; some people know what they purchase and how they should use it, but some don’t.
To guide those who don’t know, you need to provide in-depth or all information about your product since they’re doctors in engineer’s dress (don’t know anything or flummoxed). A how-to guide or product care can enhance customer satisfaction and make sure they get the most out of their purchase.
Because after the purchase, there might be areas where the customer doesn’t know how to handle a situation. Don’t wait for a customer to jam your customer helplines quickly; answering questions.
3. Provide Omni-channel Support
Omni-channel support means you are everywhere and whenever your customer wants you to be, whether it’s social media channels or websites. You are always there for them to help in solving their issues and challenges.
If we define Omni-channel support, it focuses on delivering a customized and consistent experience for eCommerce customers across all channels and devices.
With the tools and technology like Chatbots and AI, you can help them easily, and since CRMs ruling the roost, it becomes easy to maintain customer’s order history and additional information in a single place.
4. Recommend related products
Product recommendations aren’t just about making more sales. Instead, product recommendations provide a chance to give the customer what they need even if they might don’t know yet.
By recommending related products, it does not only help you make more money and help your customers. So, what you can do is send related recommendations to use your product to the fullest. The fact of the matter is: what your customers would need and give them that even if it doesn’t make you any money.
As your customers go through the buyer journey, you get to know a lot of information about them, including their choices, products they purchase or products they might be interested in purchasing in the future.
5. Refund and Return Policy
Customers will like more than anything if your product would suit their needs and meet their expectations. But if not, the only solution is to return the product. Unfortunately, sometimes stuff doesn’t work. That’s why make sure your customers are aware of your return and refund policies.
You can win your customer’s hearts by letting them know before a purchase that you have a refund policy so that they aren’t caught unawares. Also, we would advise you to allow for refunds until a particular time. It will keep them at peace knowing that they spend money in the right place.
Being transparent about returns and refunds will build trust with your customer as it shows your brand isn’t all about sales and that you understand your customer’s needs.
Conclusion
To summarize, if you want to stay in business for a long-time, you need to believe that post-purchase experience is a positive thing and deserves your time, effort, and experience. We have included all the ways to help you know how post-purchase customer experience is key.
Want to improve your store’s post-purchase customer experience? M-connect Media can help you. We have eCommerce experts in the house who have already helped many store owners with the customer experience and more sales. Kindly contact us for more information.