The sale has been made. The temptation is there to simply sit back and relax on your current conversion efforts.
But, in reality, your work is only just beginning. It costs roughly 5 to 25 times more to attract a new customer. The even more shocking statistic is that only 18% of companies focus on customer retention.
Such a statistic presents a unique opportunity to be one step ahead of your competitors.
The difference is the quality of the post purchase experience for the customer.
The Question of Why
Here’s the truth:
If you finish paying attention to customers once they have completed a sale, you are foregoing the chance to convert them into loyal customers.
The post purchase experience is currently flawed, which is a similar condition to the product discovery process.
The reason is that the post purchase experience is rarely customer focused.
There is a predominant focus on increasing revenue as opposed to what the customer actually needs. Ecommerce needs to reconsider this and improve.
The key to increasing customer lifetime value centers around providing added value even in the aftermath of a purchase.
So how can online businesses optimize the post purchase customer experience?
Let’s see.
5 Ways That You Can Improve Digital Customer Service and Support
1. Do More Than Generic Notifications
The way to bring down your customer acquisition costs is to enhance your post purchase customer experience.
Every interaction with your customer should be used to make them feel valued and important as a customer.
There are many opportunities for you to communicate in a way that leaves an impression on your customers.
Personalized emails can be deployed at every milestone along the post purchase journey. Examples of these instances are:
- Order confirmations
- Shipping confirmations
- Returns or exchanges
- Loyalty program communication
- Notification of new products and services
Online businesses can potentially lose the chance to cultivate customer loyalty when they send standardized notifications.
It is an overlooked statistic that order confirmations are the most opened emails.
Say thank you to make use of this engagement and improve the post purchase experience of your customer.
Keep in mind that customers choosing your products, over a competitors’ product, is a privilege. They could always go somewhere else if they wanted.
Shipping notifications can also be an opportunity to inform customers that help is available for things such as setups, product tips and warranties.
This simple reminder can improve customer retention whilst optimizing the post purchase experience.
2. Give Information
This seems self explanatory, but it is not. Isn’t it frustrating when you purchase something and can’t even assemble it?
It is even more disheartening when the only guidance you are given are a few pictures that aren’t clear.
Most of us have experienced this.
Online stores should be proactive when it comes to offering information to their customers. You shouldn’t wait for customers to congest your customer support channels for answers that would otherwise be quickly and easily answered.
What should be done instead?
Give the customer all relevant product information and how to use it properly. The customer should enjoy the product with a minimum amount of hassle.
It could be an option to provide how to guides, FAQs and information booklets with purchases.
Product care tips should also be included. This approach encourages customers to buy from you again.
If these don’t help, ecommerce stores could also make use of service assistants to help with the most often asked troubleshooting and setup questions.
Unanswered questions is one of the most frustrating things that a customer could experience.
3. Set Up Multichannel Customer Support
Omni channel support is vital to an optimized post purchase customer experience.
But what does this mean?
Omnichannel support is focused on cultivating a personalized and consistent experience for online customers across all channels and devices.
The only way that this can be implemented properly is through the use of AI.
Bots and service assistants can easily field everyday and basic questions from a customer.
If a query is too complicated, and requires a more elaborate response, the enquiry can be sent to a live support agent.
In the longer term, this helps lessen customer churn.
What kind of added value do automated bots and service assistants give?
Service assistants help to guide customers through best practices with easy to follow instructions that they can navigate at their leisure.
In addition, service assistants can respond to common questions, at any hour of the day, which frees up live chat or phone support staff to focus on more complex customer support needs.
In the longer term, customers are kept happy when an omnichannel approach to support is used. And it is more likely that they will return.
4. Provide Product Recommendations
Product recommendations are there for more than just generating money.
They serve as an instance where you can give the customer what they need when they may not be aware of it.
Data from your ecommerce store will give you an indication of what products people buy together. This could be in the same purchase or on a separate occasion.
For example, if you sell office equipment, customers who buy office desks are probably fitting out a workplace.
That might suggest that they could need chairs, drawers, and things like stationery.
Additionally, information on additional products that are bought most often can help online stores create the right communication to their customers.
Personalized data also assists with more relevant recommendations for the individual customer.
5. Refund & Return Policies
Sometimes, things just don’t work as they should. Customers want your product to work for them.
Yes, you are in business to make a profit but don’t be an idiot to your customers.
Make your refund and return policies known to your customers.
Being transparent with these policies builds trust with your customers as it shows that you are concerned about what they need.
So if something doesn’t work, offer a refund or recommend an alternative product to the customer.
The reality is that the post purchase experience for online shoppers is broken. Using AI tools can fix this whilst increasing customer loyalty.