A Step-by-Step Guide to Improving Post-Purchase Customer Experience

If you feel like competition for new customers is fiercer than ever, you’d be right. That means you can’t simply provide an excellent product. You’ve got to provide an amazing post-purchase experience to your customers too. Keep on reading, and 3PL will tell you how to do exactly that!

Why does the post-purchase experience matter?

Surely it’s enough to provide an incredible product at the best possible price?!

Not anymore.

Whilst that would have been sufficient to win and retain customers in the past, consumer expectations have changed.

Today, consumers expect exceptional levels of communication, easy returns processes, personalisation, rewards for being loyal and more.

In other words, consumers don’t simply want to be abandoned once they’ve made a purchase from you.

The value of customer retention

Is it really worth going above and beyond once a customer has made a purchase from you?

Absolutely!

By creating a fantastic post-purchase customer experience, you’ll greatly enhance the likelihood of retaining that customer and securing further purchases from them in the future.

In fact, to drive home how important a good post-purchase experience, and by extension, customer retention is, let’s take a look at some facts:

• Increasing retention rates by as little as 5% could increase your profits by as much as 25%.
• The probability of selling to an existing customer is 14% higher compared to the probability of selling to a new customer.
• Almost 40% of consumers have said they would stop shopping with a brand entirely if they had a bad post-purchase experience with them.

It’s not just about retention, either. Consider this; 77% of customers are willing to recommend a brand to a friend. So, a great post-purchase experience can help you win new customers as well as retain existing ones.

What’s more, a study conducted earlier this year by eCommerce software company Metapack found that an unbelievable 93% of consumers have had a bad post-purchase experience during the last 12 months.

This provides an incredible opportunity for brands that do focus on creating a great post-purchase experience for their customers.

How to improve your post-purchase customer experience

Okay, so we’ve highlighted how important improving your post-purchase customer experience is. But, how do you go about doing this? The 3PL team has provided their top tips below.

Say thank you

This may seem like a blindingly obvious point – but, that’s perhaps why it is so often overlooked.

Simply say thank you!

Whether it takes the form of an order confirmation email or a card placed in with the order itself, saying thank you makes a big difference! It shows you’re not taking the customer for granted.

Personalise!

Nobody likes being referred to as a number. So, be sure to personalise your communications and post-purchase marketing efforts.

This can be as simple as using the customer’s name in communications, to providing personalised product recommendations in future marketing emails. By using a customer’s name, you’ll be forging a more personal connection and building loyalty.

Reward loyalty

Talking of loyalty, if you’re serious about creating a great post-purchase experience and retaining customers, then you should reward their loyalty!

Whether it’s a discount code for their next purchase, VIP access to a discounted sales event, or exclusive first access to sought-after products, you’re far more likely to retain customers if you offer them rewards for their loyalty.

Surprise your customers with treats!

Related closely to the above point about rewarding loyalty, you should also consider surprising returning customers with treats!

The best way to do this is to offer a free gift at checkout. This makes the shopping experience far more rewarding and fulfilling and is a tactic which is being successfully deployed by brands such as Getir.

Satisfaction surveys

Consumers like to have their voices heard. So, allow them to fill out a satisfaction survey following their purchase.

Not only will this show that you value the customer’s opinion, but it’s a fantastic way of securing valuable feedback and insights that’ll allow you to improve your post-purchase experience.

Provide easy access to customer service

If something does go wrong – perhaps the item has arrived damaged, or not arrived at all – it’s important that your customers are able to speak to you quickly and easily.

They don’t want to spend ages clicking through your website and not finding any help. They don’t want to send an email and have to wait a week for a reply. They want it sorted now!

So, provide quick and easy access to real human beings who can fix your customers’ problems. And, if you think that contact centres are too expensive for your brand, then think again.

Provide how-to guides

If you sell products which require assembly or take a bit of getting used to regarding their operation, then you can massively improve the post-purchase experience by providing how-to guides.

Providing simple, easy-to-understand guides can help your customers better enjoy their purchases, as well as reducing the number of returns you receive from frustrated customers.

There are a number of ways you can provide these how-to guides, from written blogs through to video tutorials or infographics.

Flexible delivery options

Everybody leads busy lives these days. So, one of the biggest things you can do to improve your customers’ post-purchase experience is to provide personalised delivery options.

Whether a customer wants to collect their order from a delivery locker, have it delivered to their home on a specific date, or pick up their order from a brick-and-mortar location, you should be providing them with as many delivery options as possible.

Be clear about returns

Make your returns policy clear, easy to understand, and visible on your website. This not only reduces customer anxiety concerning returns, but it also shows that you’re transparent and not just focused on making as many sales as possible.

Given that, according to a survey conducted by Shopify, ‘a quarter of all consumers return between 5% and 15% of the items they buy online’, it’s important to be clear about the scenarios in which you will, and won’t, allow returns.

Improve your customers’ post-purchase experience with 3PL

We know that dealing with returns, customer support requests and other parts of the post-purchase journey can be complex, time-consuming, and costly.

That’s why 3PL is here to take care of those things for you!

We can help you create the best possible post-purchase experience for your customers, dealing with returns, customer service enquiries, and more!

 

Speak to 3PL about improving your customers’ post-purchase experience today

For more eCommerce fulfilment, customer service and other advice, read the 3PL blog…

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