4 Exceptional Examples of Post-Purchase Support

The worst nightmare of every business owner, both offline and online, is to receive bad reviews or negative feedback. In this online era, the impact of complaints, bad reviews or negative comments can have tremendous effect on the future of your business. As it is open for everyone to see and it often stays online too, it is of great importance to prevent negativity as much as you can. Going the extra mile on otherwise basic things, may be the reason why a customer will place a neutral or even positive feedback where otherwise it would have simply been negative.

What the fuss is all about

In my previous blog post about post-purchase support I have explained to you what it is and why it is essential for you as a web store owner to pay attention to it.

Bad customer service can deter both potential and existing customers, no matter how good your product or service is. Customers that are satisfied and positively surprised with a web store’s post-purchase support more often decide to stay with the company. This will shift them from being a one-time purchaser to a long-term loyal returning customer.

You should take into account that repeat customers are worth investing in as research shows that attracting new customers cost approximately 5 times more than retaining existing customers. Moreover, the study of Consumer Reports revealed that as much as 91 percent of customers will not purchase at the same business again if they are faced with bad customer service.

Now, when it comes to paying more attention to your customer service in the after sales phase, you might wonder where to get started. Or maybe you already pay extra attention to your post-purchase support and you want to spice things up even more. To help you create one of a kind and creative elements in your support, I have come up with personal favorites of our team that will surely help keeping your customer with you:

1. Make your customers say ‘wow!’

The way a product or products look when delivered to your customers has a great influence on how your customer service is perceived. If you surpass customers’ expectations with the way a product is packed, you are on a good way to stick to your customers’ memory. There are numerous videos on how to wrap your products nicely, so just go ahead and find what works for you.

Recently packaging of products has become an art for many of online stores. It is no wonder why, in the era of social media, customers want to share their unwrapping experience with others. Fun fact is that the word ‘unboxing’ originates from the seventeenth century and it is due to its recent popularity in social media that the term saw a resurgence. Especially bloggers (photos) and vloggers (video bloggers) are really into sharing their unboxing experience. Google Analytics data shows that one out of five Internet users has watched an unboxing video on YouTube. The peak of people watching is in November and December. So, time for you to wrap holiday gifts extra nicely. Want more attention drawn to your creativity? Think about contacting a blogger or vlogger to send over some monsters and ask them to create an unboxing experience post.

2. Attach a personal ‘thank you’ card

As said before, adding a ‘thank you’ card to a customer’s order is an another great example of personalized post-purchase support. A card where you or your employees express gratitude to a customer for choosing your product(s) is likely to be reminded and highly appreciated.

There are some tricks that can make your ‘thank you’ card more personal. You or your colleagues can, for instance, write a short note by hand. Remember to write down customer’s name. A simple ‘Dear John’ can have a big difference on how your web store is perceived. Do you sell cosmetics? Try to spray or add a nice scent to your card. Perfume would be great for this. Especially if it is different from what they purchased, they will love to try out the scent and they might even like it so much they buy it.

3. Give away freebies

Giving away goodies is the way to exceed customers’ expectations and make them feel special. Offering your customers free gifts without mentioning what they will get, creates a mystery. Research has shown this stimulates customers to purchase new items in order to see what they will receive now.

Depending on the product that has been purchased, you can add a pen or a small sample of a new product. During holiday season try adding colorfully wrapped candy or a decoration, such as a Christmas star. For beauty products, adding an extra lipgloss or scent monster will do the trick. Do you sell food or edibles? Definitely go all in on the theme and send gingerman bread or Christmas tree shaped cookies.

4. Celebrate a customer’s birthday

You probably are sending your customers specialized offers for Christmas or Valentine’s Day. Go the extra mile by requesting them to fill in their date of birth when purchasing items. You can surprise them on their birthday by either sending them a small gift by regular mail or a gift certificate by email.

In addition to congratulating them on becoming a year older, you can give them a special discount on products from the brand they purchased most. This is actually a cross-selling technique. If you own a clothing store or any other store in which you just introduced line, you will make the birthday extra special by giving away a discount of gift certificate especially for the new collection or the newly added products. Happy birthday guaranteed.