Too often, companies focus on the purchase experience and acquisition of new customers at the cost of neglecting long-term customers. However, by focusing on the post-purchase experience and ensuring that it is positive, you can improve customer loyalty and encourage word-of-mouth marketing, both of which are essential for driving CX impact.
In this article, we’ll explore how to focus on the post-purchase experience in order to drive CX impact to scale your midsized business further.
Why Post-Purchase CX Is So Important
You’ve guided customers from a Facebook ad through your sales funnel and finally past checkout. While many businesses leave it there, this isn’t actually the end of the customer journey nor the customer experience. The rest is categorized as the post-purchase customer experience and it’s by far the most influential aspect of CX for driving impact.
Post-Purchase CX Leads to Repeat Customers
The essence of a focus on post-purchase customer experience is to create repeat, loyal customers. Though many business owners would argue having a good product and killer marketing is more than enough, it’s simply not true.
According to Paul B. Brown of the Harvard Business Review, first-time customers have about a 13% chance of converting whereas existing customers have a 65% chance.
If you only ever target new or first-time customers, you’re throwing opportunity out the window. Instead, nurturing existing customers leads to more purchases, more revenue, and more profit.
New Customers Cost More
They cost 16x more, in fact.
Think about how much your company spends on advertising and targeting customers on different platforms. Landing pages, email campaigns, site visitor data scraping—these expenses add up and don’t promise results.
Focusing on your current customer base, however, does lead to more conversions (as previously outlined) for less.
Loyalty Leads to Higher AOV
The average order value of an existing customer is up to 67% more than that of a first-time customer. By focusing on the post-purchase customer experience, you can nurture those existing customers and, in turn, increase sales.
How to Improve Post-Purchase CX
Now that we’ve discussed the importance of post-purchase CX, let’s explore how you can improve it for your midsize business.
There are a few key ways to improve post-purchase CX, but the most important ones are the following.
Send a Welcome Email
Don’t leave new customers in the dark. Send along a welcome email with a time-sensitive promo code along with how-to’s and introductions to your brand/team.
There’s a human aspect customers seek in brands. A small introduction will add some warmth to an otherwise cold business—and an introductory discount can’t hurt. Knowing who’s behind the scenes also helps customers know there’s someone they can try to get in touch with if they ever need.
Create a Loyalty Program
Customers deserve to be rewarded for repeatedly spending on your products. Creating a loyalty program provides a positive feedback loop where customers receive discounts for spending, so they end up spending more.
Improve the Return Process
No business wants to deal with returns, but they are inevitable. Instead of creating roadblocks to make the processor stressful and difficult with the hopes a customer will just keep the product, doe the opposite. Make it easy to return a product.
Offer a discount on their next product, ask for feedback, and try to talk them into exchanging rather than refunding. When the return process is fluid, customers will see this as a positive aspect of your business and will be more willing to make a purchase again.
Offer Better Technical Assistance
According to a report by the CMO Council, 51% of consumers want better tech assistance in the post-purchase customer experience.
That same study concludes that 60% of customers are dissatisfied with the post-purchase experience, with the majority citing a need for improved tech support, warranty claims processing, and repair.
Top Drivers of Exceptional CX
PwC finds the following as the top drivers for a winning customer experience strategy post-purchase:
- Efficiency
- Knowledgeability
- Convenience
- Friendliness
This report proves that the best customer experience is the simplest. Not barebones, mind you. But simple and effective.
When you can provide your CX team, your support team, and your customers a streamlined experience for discovering information, troubleshooting problems, and navigating a product all with an air of friendliness, that’s a winning strategy.
Use the Right Knowledge Discovery Platform
There are many methods to performing customer service tasks, and many providers would sell you on the idea that omnichannel is best. Of course, having service everywhere all at once leads to better accessibility; we can’t argue with that. But when the core of the issue is information discoverability, then omnichannel doesn’t solve the issue.
The right knowledge discovery platform is the future of post-purchase CX. It isn’t meant to replace your CX staff, rather it will assist by improving efficiency, convenience, and discoverability. Basically, all the top drivers of a successful CX.
Consistency Is Key
No member of your support staff should have more or less access to crucial information that can save a customer’s journey. That holds true for the customer, too. Why shouldn’t the customer be able to find the answer for themself with the same information your team uses?
Be consistent in your approach, which also means be organized. This can be difficult for companies that have teams in different areas of the world and store documents across various drives (online, cloud, and local).
Provide the Best Possible Post-Purchase Customer Experience with Korra
As a convenient knowledge discovery tool that’s equally accessible by customers and support teams, Korra provides a friendly, convenient way to be informed. With near-instant results derived from natural questions (not programmatic queries), answers, how-tos, and onboarding are presented clearly.
Empower your team and provide a post-purchase CX that creates loyal customers, increases revenue, and saves big on acquisition with Korra. Try free today.