The only thing better than a new customer is a returning one. Giving people a reason to come back for more is why we put so much work into refining the customer experience in the first place. New business is advantageous, but regular business is reliable.
You need to go above and beyond to turn interested parties into outspoken advocates. The opportunities for your brand to make a good impression don’t end when the transaction is over.
There’s one final, vital step of the customer journey. We’re talking, of course, about the post-purchase experience.
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What is the post-purchase experience?
As the name suggests, the post-purchase experience concerns everything that happens after a purchase has been made, just like how marketing is essentially the pre-purchase stages of customer engagement. You’ve probably already experienced examples of it in your personal life as a consumer, from one customer support team or another.
To understand what makes an effective post-purchase experience, you need to engage with customer voices. But what is voice of the customer?
At its simplest, it’s about listening to customer insights or, at the very least, putting yourself in their shoes. Examples of post-purchase experiences include:
- Product-related elements like package design, set-up or personalization.
- Returning as a customer to find support or make additional purchases.
- Communal interaction, such as social media.
Really, though, the sky’s the limit if you’re creative enough. The right post-purchase experience can distinguish and define your brand.
Why care what happens post-purchase?
If it wasn’t clear already, even relatively small post-purchase experiences do a lot of heavy lifting in providing a memorable, positive customer experience to win people over. This means even people just starting side hustles can distinguish themselves without a big, expensive ad campaign.
It could be a creative package design or even a simple loyalty program, as long as people appreciate it enough to come back. In a competitive market, customer retention is often about going the extra mile in the most interesting way.
Also, even if someone never buys from you again, they might still return if their initial purchase is affected by issues, such as a broken product or disrupted service.
You might assume such developments mean you’ve messed up your opportunity. But they’re still chances to prove yourself. Customers who have their issues addressed in a timely and satisfactory manner still come away with a positive end experience.
How to instantly improve post-purchase experiences
To finish, let’s review several key ways to ensure memorable and enticing post-purchase experiences for your customers. The aim is to find the ideal balance of practicality and novelty in different areas.
1: Research your target market segments
The one percent of start-ups that succeed do so because they successfully understand and engage their target markets. To do this reliably, you have to eliminate the guesswork and rely on data-driven insights.
Learn what you can about your target demographics—their interests, beliefs and preferences. Social media can be a great place to learn this sort of thing, along with any publicly released surveys you can find. Unless your business is brand new, you can also learn plenty by studying the customers already frequenting your business.
Ideally, you should have a good blend of quantitative versus qualitative information. For example, the average frequency your customers repurchase versus the content of customer reviews.
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2: People love personalization
From simply putting someone’s name on something to algorithms making bespoke recommendations, personalization is the name of the game. If you follow our advice above and gather market data, you should be able to think of ways to personalize the post-purchase experience.
Let’s say your company does computer setup for less tech-savvy people. There could be things they struggle with down the line or questions they forgot to ask. You could, for example, have the team member who performed their setup contact them (via live chat, phone call, etc.) to check in.
This can deepen a particular customer relationship by reintroducing a familiar face. Of course, that’s just one option. It all comes down to the nature of your business or side hustle and what you want to convey to potential customers.
3: Use packaging to reflect and enhance your brand
Packaging does a lot more than keep its contents safe. The way you package your products says a lot about your brand identity. You might go for something minimal and renewable to be environmentally friendly or choose particular colors to evoke certain feelings.
Even the act of unboxing a product can be a huge part of the post-purchase experience, to the point where there are countless videos online of people doing just that. You can even tie package design elements to other post-purchase experience areas, like your loyalty program, playable app, or anything else you can think of.
4: Collect customer feedback
When you start a business from scratch, you have very little information to work with. Once you get the ball rolling, however, you’ll hopefully start getting reviews. Paying attention to these is a great first step in improving customer satisfaction and loyalty. That said, you also need to be proactive.
Surveying your customers allows you to examine key issues, such as which products they like, what got them interested in your service, and so on. If you do it well enough, it can be a post-purchase experience people appreciate.
The important thing is to follow through on customer feedback. If customers see their insights actually being taken into account, it motivates them to engage, which means even better feedback.
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5: Engage people on social media
We’ve mentioned how social media can help you learn about your target market, but it’s also a great way to provide a great post-purchase customer experience. For instance, many tattoo businesses post their most incredible pieces online.
With all major social media platforms, there are always people for your online customer service team to engage with. Respond to reviews, reach out, and join online communities. Social media engagement is a post-purchase experience that costs businesses nothing.
6: Implement fair and transparent policies
Buying from somewhere new can feel like a bit of a gamble, especially when shopping online and spending a significant amount of money. However, customers will be more willing to take a leap of faith if there’s a good safety net.
Fair returns policies ensure that even the most unfortunate purchase experience can still end on a positive note. They also act as a show of good faith to the consumer. Be sure to provide regular shipping updates where applicable.
Customers who are kept informed in a timely manner are more likely to trust you in the future. Hence, post-purchase communication is vital.
An invaluable opportunity
As tempting as it might be to wash your hands of things at the end of a long sales process, you’re missing a trick if you do. One successful conversion doesn’t make for a loyal customer.
That’s why it’s essential to fully exploit your capacity to offer positive post-purchase experiences to your customers. It’s the secret final stage in the fulfilment process. First impressions may be the most important, but last impressions are a close second.
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