Landing a sale from a new customer is one part of increasing revenue, but it isn’t the whole story. To scale your business, you need to turn customers into repeat buyers.

Maintaining a good relationship with customers is an essential step at every step of the journey, even after a sale.

Providing after-sales service shows you value your customers, and encourages them to buy from your business again. In addition, a well-served customer can act as a promoter of your products and services, which increases your business’ visibility.

Therefore, delighting repeat customers with a memorable after-sales service is just as important as obtaining new ones.

Did you know that there are simple but effective ways of keeping in touch with customers without being annoying?

In this article, we will explain what an After-sales strategy is, identify concrete examples of how
E-commerce sellers can improve customers’ post-sale shopping experience with an after-sales strategy, and highlight its chief benefits.

The after-sales service definition is the set of actions you take to follow up with your customers after they’ve made a purchase. After-sales service and customer satisfaction are closely linked. The aim of after-sales service is to keep your customers happy and engaged with your brand.

It can include all the support and resources you provide your customers after a sale. This could mean checking in with your customer and asking for feedback, having reliable customer support options and providing high-quality how-to guides.

In E-commerce, an after-sales strategy is a series of actions a company takes after a consumer makes an online purchase to follow up on the customer’s purchase satisfaction. These actions are intended to help brands build a relationship with buyers and keep their attention and engagement even after they finalize their purchase.

Although overlooked, maintaining good post-communication with buyers and following up on after-sales services is just as valuable as SEO. Amazon and Walmart brands are increasingly incorporating after-sales strategies into their customer conversion journey to improve buyers’ post-shopping experience, increase brand loyalty, and boost sales.

After-sales service shows your customers that your brand cares in a time when consumer trust in brands is a powerful differentiator. It can help drive revenue in four ways: customer satisfaction, customer retention, increased referrals and creating a great brand image.

• It keeps your customers happy

In the online age, a great product with terrible customer service won’t last long. Bad reviews and low star ratings can spell disaster for even the most well-built products.

However, if you back up your great product with excellent customer service both pre- and post-sale, you have a formula for life-long customers.

Exceed the expectations of your customers and ensure they aren’t left with questions or roadblocks to using your product. Keep in touch with customers and provide them with great resources and customer service, so they’ll not only stick around but spread positive stories about your business, too.

• Increase your customer loyalty

Happy, loyal customers spend more and buy products more often than new customers. If you treat your existing customers well, they’ll choose you over other companies when they’re next looking to make a purchase.

Consider this the other way around: the less happy your customers feel with their after-sales service, the more likely your customers are to try a competitor the next time they make a purchase.

• Increase positive word-of-mouth referrals

Happy customers are essentially marketers for your brand. Satisfied and loyal customers are more likely to tell their friends and family about your brand and products.

Customers like to find out about other people’s experiences before they purchase a product or service. Friends and family are among the most trusted sources of information for most people, and hearing good news about a company can mean the difference between purchasing from them or heading to a competitor.

If you provide great after-sales service, your satisfied customers will bring in more business through positive word-of-mouth referrals.

• Improve your brand image

A customer’s interactions with you shape their perceptions of your brand, from when they first heard of your brand to well after they’ve purchased your product. A positive post-sales experience can help your customer think of your brand as familiar and trustworthy, leading to increased customer loyalty and sales.

Excellent after-sales service is how you can set your business apart from your competitors.

Produst Inserts are a form of printed marketing material that brands include in packages.

When done correctly, they can be a fun way to engage with customers long after the shopping experience has ended. They usually include contact information, newsletter invitations, thank you messages, additional information on how to use the product, or social links.

A package containing a handwritten “thank you” note with the customer’s name on it can personalize an order and encourage the customer to feel appreciated.

Product inserts also help set smaller brands apart from those larger-scale brands allowing them to build loyalty.

A great way to gauge customers’ post-sales experience is through customer experience management (CXM), which is the process of surveying.

Surveys, which remove the need for any guesswork, are one of the most efficient ways to know how customers feel about their new product post-purchase. They can also shed light on product issues that customers would not communicate otherwise and shows that the brand is invested beyond the transaction phase.

Additionally, analyzing survey responses after a customer receives a product can enhance that customer and future customers’ interactions with a brand.

Sending out delivery updates allows customers to feel excited about receiving a product and, if done correctly, keeps the consumer engaged with the brand even after finalizing the purchase.

Include their names in the delivery update to personalize the experience, remind them what’s on the way, and why they chose that particular product over others. People love to stay informed about the delivery status of their orders.

A Retail TouchPoints survey report found that 93% of customers reported that they want to receive proactive updates from brands and sellers about their shipments. This process encourages customers to look forward to what is to come and works as a primitive measure to address client inquiries before they even ask them.

Addressing customer reviews publicly is a critical element of managing post-sales experiences.

Publicly responding to customer reviews enhances consumer-seller relationships, regardless of the substance of the review. For instance, if a shopper leaves a positive review, it is beneficial to answer that review and express your contentment with their experience, making the shopper feel special. However, it is even more vital to address negative reviews.

If a customer leaves a negative product review, as a concerned seller, your job is to show existing and prospective customers that you are receptive to constructive criticism and are willing to offer a solution to rectify the problem. Responding to poor reviews with proper feedback can actually turn a negative experience into a positive one.

We also touched on the topic of responding to customer feedback in our article
Trust Comes First: How to earn customers when you have zero sales.

The post-purchase experience is too often overlooked among E-commerce brands and sellers as they are typically more focused on finding alternative ways to reach new customers instead of nurturing existing ones. However, as demonstrated throughout the article, developing an after-sales strategy can actually attract new customers.

In sum, what a brand offers its customers during the post-purchase process, is ultimately what the buyer remembers. Furthermore, personal touch and attention to detail go a long way in the world of E-commerce, where humanization feels like a distant memory. Therefore, incorporating product inserts, feedback surveys, delivery updates, and responding to customer reviews, all of which allow brands to reap the benefits listed above, can drastically improve customers’ post-purchase experience and, as a result, a brand’s overall reputation and sales.

We at Good Goods provide an extensive selection of tools to help a brand receive after-sale feedback from customers. With us, you'll get customer feedback, user-generated content, study cases, and more. Contact us through our website and join our community of happy customers with strong, scalable results.