Post-purchase customer care: the key to successful consumer relationships
If you’re a business owner or marketing fanatic, you may have heard the phrase ‘post purchase customer care’ floating around. But have you ever wondered what it actually is? If so, we’ve broken down what post-purchase customer care is, why it’s vital and, most importantly, what you can do to improve yours.
What is post-purchase customer care?
Post purchase behavior is the way a customer feels, acts and thinks after they have purchased from your business. A way to influence post-purchase behaviour is through excellent post-purchase customer care.
In short, post-purchase customer care describes the way you treat your customers after they have purchased a service or product from you.
It’s all too easy to make a sale and then abandon your customers, but the most successful businesses focus on customers after they have bought, as well as before.
What makes post-purchase customer care important?
You may think that focusing on the customer before they have bought is far more important than after. After all, you want to encourage them to buy in the first place, right?
However, this isn’t necessarily the case.
Post-purchase customer care can make a huge impact on how your customer feels about your brand after they’ve bought from you. Done right, post-purchase customer care can help your customer:
- Feel good about what they have bought (i.e. guilt-free splurging!)
- Negate buyer’s remorse
- Buy from you again
Not only does post-purchase customer care keep customers feeling good about choosing to buy from you, but it is also the perfect way to turn one-off buyers into repeat customers and even brand advocates through reviews and social media sharing. And with 5.9 million businesses in the UK, you’ll need to do all you can to keep your customers coming back.
Furthermore, if you want to convince prospective customers to buy from you, what better way to do so than to share with them glowing reviews and testimonials about your business.
Brand with excellent customer care reputations
When it comes to post-purchase customer care, the proof is in the pudding. Some of the biggest brands globally are those that really understand the benefits of customer care, and how they can use it to their advantage.
Companies like Amazon, Uber and Apple are great examples of businesses that have taken a customer-centric approach to the next level. In fact, Amazon are now so successful that they have been able to branch out from online only into bricks and mortar stores.
How to improve your post-purchase customer care
Now we’ve reiterated the importance of post-purchase customer care, you may be wondering how you can improve yours.
If you’re looking to blow your competitors post-purchase customer care out of the water, we’ve compiled five easy-to-implement ways you can improve your post-purchase customer care.
- Put in place a return policy
Nowadays, customers will often opt to buy online, rather than pop into a store. However, if you don’t have an easy returns policy in place, you risk losing customers.
By having the right returns policy, you can improve your customer care as customers will be happy to order from you again if they know that if something isn’t right, they can return it hassle-free.
- Improve packaging
Rather than sending goods in a scruffy box that looks like it has been used before, having great packaging is a good way to improve your post-purchase customer care as it gives the impression you care and value your customers.
- Ask for feedback & reviews
If customers are given the opportunity to feed back to you about their experience, they will feel as though their opinions matter, and that you will be proactive to resolve any issues they have had.
This goes a long way in the current market!
- Keep in touch
Rather than forget about your customers once they have bought, reaching out to customers to let them know you’re thinking of them can be a great way to boost your post-purchase customer care.
A great way to keep in touch is through a well-thought-out marketing automation strategy. By utilising marketing automation to keep in touch with customers, you’ll soon notice customers flooding back.
- Offer them special existing customer offers and discounts
Everyone loves a bargain! To entice customers back, there’s no better way than to offer exclusive discounts and special offers to reward people for spending with you.
This is a perfect example of excellent post-purchase customer care.
In conclusion…
The bottom line is that to stay ahead of the curve, you’ll need to embrace post-purchase customer care. However, although it may sound scary, it’s easier than you’d think. By taking a few simple steps to turn customers into brand advocates, you’ll be sure to reap the benefits.