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What is the post-sales experience?
The post-sales experience refers to what the customers experience during the time between ordering their item and receiving it.
It’s up to you as an ecommerce retailer, to make sure they go above and beyond during after-sales timeframe so that customers are encouraged to come back again and again.
Why is it important?
If you want to build loyalty with your customers then you need to improve your after-sales experience.
In this blog post, we’re going to talk you through a series of things you can do to improve the experience for your customers. These are:
It’s important to communicate with your customers after they’ve made a purchase with you. It doesn’t have to be overly complicated.
An effective post-sales experience could be as simple as letting your customers know when their order has moved from the depot.
You could even allow them to track it themselves as well. Think about other ways you can communicate. If you have the customer’s phone number, a text alert could be useful as well, as usual – be sure offer them the chance to sign out of the process if they don’t wish to receive text alerts.
80% of retail professionals said email drives retention and so to improve your post-sales experience you should look into the different emails you could send.
Confirmation – This should be immediate and should confirm that you’ve received the customer’s order.
On the way – Letting the customer know their order is on the way
When it’s been delivered – If, for some reason, you need to deliver their order to a safe place, send them an email to let them know this has been done.
You recently bought X – Look for feedback, and ask if they were happy with the process. This is also a chance to upsell other products to them if they were happy with everything else.
When a customer makes an online purchase, they’re often not able to get hold of the item as quickly as they could if they made the purchase in-store.
Therefore, to improve the post-sales experience, offer them the chance to pick up their item in-store instead. This also gives you the opportunity to upsell or cross-sell further items.
Customers like the unity of being able to buy online and pick up in-store. This omnichannel experience means customers shopping experience and therefore post-sales experience will be seamless.
When a customer has made a purchase, you should have two core aims if you want to create a great post-sales experience: to make sure the customer is happy with their item and to make sure the customer comes back to make another purchase.
If you have a loyalty program, why not send them an email a day after they’ve made the purchase to let them know how many loyalty points they now have.
63% of loyalty program members believe having a wide range of rewards and offers is the most important aspect of a loyalty program, so why not send personalised offers and deals related to the item they just bought.
When your customers make a purchase from you, they’re showing commitment to your brand and if you want to build loyalty you have to act upon that commitment and provide them with the best service you can.
The post-sales or after-sales experience is crucial to ensuring customers come back. It’s not enough to focus your marketing efforts just on getting the customer to purchase, but getting them to go through a cycle that includes coming back to your store.
Through a thought out plan that considers, communication, flexibility, and loyalty, you’ll be able to provide your customers with an effective post-sale experience that keeps them coming back for more.
