Losing potential customers is probably one of the worst nightmares for your business, or for that matter, for any retail business. But, have you ever thought why some customers don’t come back for a repeat purchase? It might be the case that your product quality, quantity, durability, features and benefits are on point which is why you were able to close a sale but your efforts in post sale service lagged behind. Companies that fail to recognise the importance of post sale service after closing deals have difficulty retaining customers effectively. However, there’s no need to worry as this guide will cover 7 important post sale service tips for retail and the benefits of incorporating a chatbot created using software like Appy Pie’s Chatbot Builder into the post sale strategy to help optimize customer experience and improve customer satisfaction and retention. Let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
What are Post Sale Services?
The plethora of activities undertaken by a company to provide assistance to customers after they’ve made a purchase are collectively referred to as post sale services. An efficient post sale service may involve marketing, promotional and customer support activities combined. Thus, a company’s responsibility to provide good customer service doesn’t end with a successful purchase but continues afterwards to retain customers and make them repeat buyers.
Some of the post sale activities include constantly collecting customer feedback, sending them regular product updates or offer notifications via social media platforms, providing incentives and introducing loyalty programs etc. to keep them in the loop and create a sense of belongingness in their minds with respect to the company.
Carrying out these activities can seem irrelevant and a waste of time as the goal of sales conversions has already been met, however they have a much greater impact and provide much more value to a company’s sales base than one might think. Let’s discuss the importance and benefits of having a seamless post sale service strategy and some useful tips to optimize it even further.
Why is Improving Post Sale Service Important?
In a nutshell, if the goal is to satisfy customers and keep them coming back for repurchasing from your business, improving post sale service is important. Not only will that increase customer retention rates, but also enhance customer loyalty and encourage good word of mouth for your business which can prove to be extremely valuable in terms of generating new leads.
Take an example, a customer who makes a purchase from a company and is not satisfied with say, the product quality, and wants to report it but cannot find the proper channel to provide feedback on it, would feel lost and unsupported and would probably create a negative brand image in mind and not purchase from it again. This is a huge loss for the company as losing an existing customer is highly detrimental and would cause the need to generate new leads which is costlier than retaining old ones.
To avoid such a circumstance, it is advised to equally focus on creating a seamless experience for customers both before and after a sale is closed. Now, a question arises on how to provide this type of a post purchase experience to customers. Stay tuned to get answers to all your questions in the further sections.
7 Useful Post Sale Service Tips for Retail
Now, let’s look at some tips on how to provide a post sale service that will get customers attached to your brand and make them repeat purchasers. Here are 7 useful tips to keep in mind:
- Pay Attention to Both Existing and New Customers
- Determine Top Customers for your Business
- Track Factors that Keep Customers Coming Back
- Rectify Errors Promptly
- Optimize Customer Relationship Management Processes
- Offer Support Services and Product Training Materials
- Personalize Customer Interactions
When formulating your post sale strategy, make sure to pay the required attention to both, attracting new customers as well as retaining existing ones. In fact, focusing more on retaining existing customers proves to be very cost-effective for businesses as marketing, advertising and promotion costs are lesser when selling the product to someone who already knows about it and has used it. Thus, a balance between lead generation and customer retention should be maintained for effective post sale management.
Determine your top customers who buy your products or avail your services on a regular basis and engage with your social media posts and overall show an interest in your brand. Once that’s done, direct your efforts towards giving these customers VIP treatment i.e giving them extra discounts, sending insider information about upcoming sales and offers, offering them membership and sending free gifts or coupons etc. This would help create an even better image of the brand in their minds, resulting in a probable promotion on their social media handles and spread of the good word about the products and services, thereby increasing the brand’s reach. For example, Myntra has a great membership program for its top customers known as Myntra Insider which has led to extreme promotion of the brand by many influencers through Instagram Reels.
After putting efforts into implementing a post sale strategy in an effective manner, it is crucial to analyze and measure the results as well to actually see if the efforts are worth it or not. Check all communication channels as well as the company’s website and application to figure out where most traffic is coming from and what factor in the channel is attracting customers. Once that’s figured out, the company can pay more attention to that particular channel and can incorporate the factors identified into other channels as well to increase traffic from them.
Some form of human error is inevitable when handling complex processes at once. It could be either improper feedback redressal, inconsistent customer support provision, omission errors like forgetting to send important emails or updates to customers etc. These errors, however, can highly affect customer experience negatively and may result in loss of customers. To avoid that, it’s advised to take prompt action when a mistake is made by rectifying it and apologizing or compensating the customer in some way. An even better way to deal with this is by incorporating an after sales service chatbot into the post sale strategy to automate almost every task and eradicating the possibility of error.
A strong customer relationship management system is the backbone of a company’s customer support. When providing post sale service to customers, make sure to build and nurture relationships with them through effective communication, continuous feedback collection, proactive resolution of customer problems as well as regular updation and fun interactions etc. A good CRM system can bring great results for a company in terms of increased customer loyalty and enhanced public image and goodwill in the market.
To make your customers’ post purchase experience enjoyable, it’s important for them to actually understand how to use the products they have bought. If your products are virtual like a software, ensure to communicate the steps to properly use it to get the desired results. This information can be communicated either through an email, a blog post, a website prompt or say, using a chatbot. On the other hand, if you have tangible products, in addition to informing customers in the ways mentioned above, physical manuals and training guides should also be placed in the product package. Moreover, constantly offering help and support services to customers is a great way to enhance their experience even further.
Try to interact with customers in a personalized manner for a better response rate as well as increased engagement. When sending product updates or other important emails to customers to spark their interest in buying from your brand again, make sure to personalize the body of the email according to their needs and preferences. This would help them relate to the mail and increase their chances of repurchasing. Now, since personalizing emails according to different customers would be very time consuming, it’s best to use a chatbot to carry this out. Yes, chatbots are again the saviour! You can create personable after sales service chatbots or retail chatbots using Appy Pie’s Chatbot Builder which are equipped to send tailor-made automated emails to customers according to their interests and personality.
It is quite clear now that a good post sales service can go a long way in providing benefits to the company as well as its customers, and incorporating a chatbot into it does wonders. To gain more clarity on how exactly a chatbot can help you in this aspect, let’s talk about the benefits it provides.
Top 5 Benefits of Incorporating Chatbot in your Post Sales Strategy
- Builds Strong Customer Relationships
- Improves Brand Reputation
- Encourages Making Improvements in the Product/Service
- Higher Sales Volume and Growth in Revenue
- Adds a Competitive Advantage
It cannot be stressed enough that building strong customer relationships is a huge leap towards growth of a business and that can be achieved in the best way using chatbots. Chatbots allow continuously building and nurturing relationships with customers through regular personalized interactions, giving quick updates related to offers and discounts as well as delivering strong chat assistance and customer support which can increase customer loyalty, satisfaction and most importantly, customer retention rates.
Satisfied customers automatically improve a brand’s reputation in the market. Most potential customers, before coming to a final buying decision, go through customer reviews for the product/service they wish to purchase. If they see that a product is rated well by other customers, their decision to purchase it is strengthened. Thus, with the provision of an effective post sale service using after sale service chatbots, not only are customers satisfied, but the brand’s public image improves and goodwill increases
A chatbot can help ease the process of feedback collection from customers through the power of automation and the feedback so collected can be used to the company’s benefit as pain points in the product/service can be easily identified and necessary changes can be made promptly to avoid problems in the future. So, using a chatbot for the providing after sale service helps highly in continuously improving the product features, quality and service strategies to optimize customer experience at large.
An extremely important benefit that is provided through incorporation of a chatbot in post sales service is an increase in sales volume and eventually growth in revenue. After all, the main goal of any business is to bring as many conversions as possible so that the overall profit increases. Chatbots help deliver an experience to customers which is seamless and builds trust in them. They provide advantages like quick responses, prompt query resolution, automated reminders and important notifications which smoothens the after sales service procedure and helps serve customers better, which encourages them to buy from the brand repeatedly, thereby increasing sales and revenue for the business.
For most retailers, being better than competitors is one of the important goals. This can be achieved if a business has a competitive advantage in terms of product/service quality, pricing structure, customer support system, after sales service or any other aspect. With the use of after sales service chatbots, retailers can have an edge compared to competitors in terms of post sale customer experience. Customers are more likely to go for brands that provide an exceptional pre and post purchase service rather than ones which don’t follow up after a purchase is made or don’t have a proper feedback mechanism in case of dissatisfaction with the product. Thus, a well-built chatbot can pave the way for you to stand out in the market.
Also Read: Why Use Chatbots for After Sales Service?
Conclusion
To summarize, if you want your brand to be imprinted in customers’ minds and for them to be completely obsessed with your products and services, serve them well throughout their buying journey and more importantly, afterwards, through a seamless post sale service. Carefully understand and follow the above mentioned tips, tweak them according to your own business, prepare an excellent post sales service strategy by incorporating chatbots, focus on maintaining a good bond and relationship with your existing as well as potential customers, and just go for it to see skyrocketing results!
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