Good job! You have successfully pushed a prospect to the end of the sales funnel. However, interaction with your customer doesn’t have to end there. There is a lot you can do to elevate the entire customer experience journey and increase the customer retention rate.
Customers will return to you when they’re ready to make their next purchase if you stay in touch and keep your store on top of their minds.
With a series of messages sent to your customers, this can be achieved. Even better, you can use Sendmunk to automate these emails or SMS. Sendmunk delivers the correct message at the right moment when you set up your routines, ensuring prompt and successful post-purchase communication.
Now, the medium to use is left to you to decide or you can as well leave it for your customer to decide- Email or SMS?. SMS campaigns boasts open rates of up to 98 percent, vs only 20% for email. The disadvantage of using SMS is length and picture limits. With catchy subject lines that spark curiosity, email open rates can greatly improve.
Here are 5 post-purchase emails you should consider in this order:
- Order confirmation and Thank you Message:
Give the customer a full experience and add some courtesy. Thank You is the assurance your customer needs of a successful purchase.
As soon as the money clears, an order confirmation should be emailed to the customer, informing them of the following:
-That their order was fulfilled.
– Their receipt or how can they get a hold of their receipt?
-When will it be delivered, and how will they be able to track their order?
– If there is a problem, who do they reach out to?
– What should they anticipate next?
2. Follow up on shipping:
The shipment confirmation email helps you to keep the consumer up to date on the progress of their order while also continuing to establish trust and nurture your connection.
These emails allow you to keep the consumer up to speed on the status of their order, give helpful tracking information, and maintain confidentiality.
- Confirm Product Delivery
You’ll want to check in around a week after their package is supposed to arrive to make sure everything arrived on time and in good condition. Pose queries such as:
- Was it delivered on time?
- Is it in decent condition?
- Were there any complications after it arrived?
- Maybe details on warranty if applicable.
We’ve all received parcels that were damaged late, or even included the wrong item. We’ve also had the frustration of attempting to get a corporation to repair a problem that isn’t responding. The “What I ordered, What I got” trend has affected the integrity of e-commerce. It’s quite aggravating, and it discourages customers not to repeat a purchase. One way to show you care is by asking about the delivered products and if it meets expectation as discussed in the next point.
- Feedback
It’s a good idea to ask consumers for feedback on their purchases ahead of time.
It’s a terrific approach to learning more about your product and service while also demonstrating that your company cares about its consumers. Of course, the client feedback you collect may be utilized on-site to assist other consumers in making purchasing decisions.
This email can be sent within 7 to 30 days following your initial email, depending on the sort of product you ordered. Seven days is the ideal length of time to wear and experience a piece of apparel. For products like electronics or cosmetics, a longer period might be required to get the full benefit. If it is not a physical product like an e-book, it might take a month or more to get useful feedback. So, it all depends on the product. The feedback could also be in form of a form or poll.
It’s understandable if you’re hesitant at this point. Receiving any negative comments may be quite upsetting. But don’t allow your fear to stop you.
- Win-back or Customer Loyalty Offer
You shouldn’t leave it up to chance if you want to establish client loyalty and convert first-time shoppers. After you’ve made a purchase, follow up with product recommendations! Emails with suggestions raise the average order value (AOV) by 11% and lead to a 30% rise in sales conversion rates.
Send follow-up reactivation and win-back communications depending on when your customers become less engaged or fail to purchase again. This usually happens between 1 to 3 months after the order is placed. Begin with a non-commercial message or a gentle offer, then go on to your enticing offer. Additionally, share what’s new on your site or promote your best-sellers, and provide social proof (i.e positive reviews) to stimulate purchases. Demonstrate to them what they’ve been missing out on since their last engagement.
Subtle cross-selling is allowed along with your main message for emails in particular. When you cross-sell, you suggest items that are comparable or complementary to the one your consumer has already purchased. Customers at fast-food restaurants are frequently asked if they want a drink with their meal. You can also cross-sell along with your feedback or win-back mail.
Create a plan that revolves around one core point: your post-purchase email must be recognized. If you send it too soon or too late, their emails will pile up and your message will be lost. That is something you do not want to happen.
Make sure your emails are spaced out. Every week, the typical consumer receives 21 emails from various businesses. As a result, it’s a good idea to limit the number of emails you send, with at least a day between them.
Whether you use Sendmunk’s email automation feature or SMS automation feature, remember to always leave room to cancel the subscription to these messages.
Like in every email marketing strategy, testing, optimizing, and measuring results are important. The quality of feedback and customer retention rates are good metrics to measure your strategy to see ways to improve on timing, subject lines, and CTAs. Using UTMs you can access some metrics that allow you to measure your results.
Customers should not feel obligated to buy anything every time they receive an email after making a transaction. It’s absurd to pursue them for purchases so it is important to make your tone subtle and give them a sense of belonging rather than being intrusive.
Making a sale may be the final goal, but it also marks the start of your relationship with your new customer. It’s a relationship you’ll want to foster, especially because recruiting new consumers costs five times more than keeping existing ones. So, build loyalty and make the access you have count!
