Your post sale customer experience needs to be as good as, if not better than, every stage of the customer journey that has gone before.
The opportunity may well be “closed won”, but that doesn’t mean the job is finished.
Neglecting the post sale customer experience increases the risk of your company falling at the final hurdle.
In not giving the process due diligence, you could very well destroy all the effort you’ve already invested.
Mining For Post Sale Insights
Ensuring a positive post purchase customer experience is vital for brands.
It indicates if their service has met customers needs and expectations.
Also, it affects whether customers will return to the brand in the future, or if they would recommend the product or service to others.
Linnworks
For a number of reasons, interest can often wane once a prospect becomes a customer. Yet it is in the immediate aftermath that invaluable insight can be most easily collected.
Knowing why your customer purchased from you is great but knowing why a prospect didn’t is even better!
Post sale touchpoints are just as valuable for identifying the reasons for “closed lost” as they are for “closed won”. After all, how can you improve for next time if you don’t ask where you fell short?
Likewise, this is where you can seal the deal and secure a positive review to share far and wide.
How many of your clients will leave a glowing testimonial if you abandon them the moment they hand you their credit card details?
Taking advantage of post sale opportunities will set you up for better conversations, and better service. No matter the initial outcome.
Post Sale Customer Touchpoints
Businesses invest a great deal in winning clients, surely equivalent priority should be given to retention?
The question is, how to go about staying in touch with, rather than overwhelming, your brand new customers.
Introducing the following touchpoints, in line with your best practice workflow, will help elevate your post sale customer experience…
Thanks For Your Purchase
“64% of consumers say order confirmation emails are the most valuable emails they receive.”
Omnisend
Short, sweet and simple.
In the act of acknowledging the purchase, you can set the right tone for transitioning your relationship.
Here the dynamic between parties shifts from buyer/seller into one of progress and collaboration.
Adding a human touch to this touchpoint also helps indicate your gratefulness that the customer chose you above any other supplier.
New Customer Welcome
A welcome email provides a perfect opportunity to show a new customer that they’re valued.
It also allows you to share important information to save them hunting it down themselves and outline channels of support should an issue arise.
Maintaining excitement levels can also help negate any buyers remorse that can sometimes creep in once the transaction has been completed.
Delivery Reminders
These touchpoints can save both your own and your customer’s time.
Courtesy updates ensure the possibility for snags to arise are minimised by clarifying times, dates, locations and requirements for receipt.
They also alleviate any pressure on your support teams fielding inevitable delivery questions. Here it pays to be proactively informative.
Delivery Confirmation
Save yourself, and your client, a future headache by sharing delivery confirmation details.
Not only does this prove you’ve fulfilled your obligation, it provides an opportunity to share an installation guide or helpful documentation for the product they’ve bought from your business.
Addressing enquiries, before they have to be asked, will serve to set you apart from the pack as a conscientious retailer who understands their customer’s needs.
Common FAQs
“Be helpful, even when there isn’t a problem.”
CSP
Akin to providing help guides without customer prompt, periodically check in with your customer to ask how things are going and if they have any questions.
There could easily be something confusing or bothering them that they either don’t think is a big enough deal to bother you with, or haven’t gotten around to contacting you about yet.
Once again, a proactive approach to post sale customer experience will trump a reactive strategy every day of the week.
New Offers & Loyalty Schemes
Even if you consider your product purchases to be a “one off”, new offers and loyalty schemes are wilfully shared by customers amongst friends and family if you’ve provided an experience worth talking about.
An offer may also prompt a glowing testimonial review that would have never materialised had the chance to share an outstanding experience not been actively presented.
Reconversion Emails
On the flip side of the post sale conversion coin, could prospects that didn’t buy first time around be reengaged?
Whether as an exercise in seeking feedback, or a notification of a sale on the product line they were interested in, it’s worth checking back with lost opportunities to see if circumstances have now changed.
“Relevant reconversion emails achieve an average of 18 times more revenue than generic, broadcast emails.”
Hubspot
You won’t win everyone over but when it comes to thoughtful reengagement, it’s a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Efficient Post Sale Customer Experience
We’ve discussed various touchpoints to include in your post sale customer experience but missed out the greatest gem of all… each of these touchpoints can be automated!
For those that have converted, automation can help issue reminders, thankyous, and help guides, scheduled at designated workflow intervals in advance.
Likewise, abandoned carts, cross-sell opportunities and a loss of customer engagement are all things that can easily go unnoticed if left to be dealt with manually.
So whilst each of these touchpoints are potentially valuable, the true gains are made in automation.
Your staff are left to get on with their work whilst your process continues to delight customers long after the sale.
Happier customers, happier teams… a more prosperous organisation.
Ready to explore how Anthill can enhance your post sale customer experience? Schedule a demo today.
Intrigued to learn more? Check out our Insights Hub to keep your business at the cutting edge.
Related Articles
- August 31st, 2021