Customers are critical to any business but especially for online commerce. But, knowing customers are so important, how do we ensure that customers don't become indifferent to us? In a world where competition is fierce and the customer seems to have all the options, what can you do to keep customers interested in you?
Retail is detail in the web shopping world
There may be things that you are simply ommitting to do which could give customers a feeling that you appreciate them (more than the competition). Here are some suggestions which you might want to consider instigating or refreshing.
We have six activities which you might be overlooking:
- No thank-you email after purchase
- No follow-up email asking for feedback
- No response to social media mentions
- No timely reminders for re-orders
- No rewards for referrals
- No rewards for loyalty
Minimising customer indifference
Here are our expansion of the six points in the list. Hopefully, they all make sense and give you some pointers where you can improve and keep your customers interested in what you are doing and offering.
No 'thank you' email after purchase
You do have to send some form of communication confirming the customer's order. But we can overlook the opportunity to say a simple 'thank you for your business'. Buying something from you is an optional activity and you should make customers know that you appreciate their business. If you view a completed transaction as history or as a future up-sell opportunity then there is a danger you will come across as insincere.
No follow-up email asking for feedback
This is quite a simple activity but does require some kind of process afterwards. If a customer outlines something wrong in your process then you need to have a process to resolve this issue for future customers. But a new customer is a great opportunity to find out what is good and what is bad, what works well and what needs to be improved. It might be something that you are completely overlooking. It also places the customer in a place where their opinion is of value and that is flattering.
No response to social media mentions
Social media is ubiquitous and, if you sell to anyone under 40 years old, then they will be switched on to social media mentions. It is pointless to say that you don't understand or it doesn't matter. If you want a business which works in the future then you should adopt a social media presence. Ignoring this now comes across as rude and you are increasingly unlikely to get a second piece of business from someone you ignore.
No reminders for re-orders
Some products which are ordered run out. It is a simple opportunity to add value to your customers by allowing them to put in a re-order date (or - if you are really clever - set up an automatic reorder date for them).
No rewards for referrals
Are you trying to expand your customer base? If so, then 'customer get customer' programmes are great and give customers the opportunity to let them help you. Customers don't expect the world for this type of activity but a voucher or an up-sell would be a welcome recognition for them helping you.
No rewards for loyalty
The Banks have recently realised that they maximise the retention of their customers by offering better deals to loyal customers rather than focusing those offers on the promiscuous new customers who are about to swap. The same can happen to you. There is some serious science behind this in that the marginal improvement in margin can be calculated for extending the average life of a customer by offering them targeted offers to stay. These activities work. But you do need to do some work on understanding how often and how much your best customer segments spend and that will dictate how much your offers are worth.
How do you deliver this in reality?
Much of these types of activities can be set up to occur automatically via content marketing systems. Essentially, it will be an extension of your email marketing for ecommerce site process.
If you liked this blog then you might also like this previous blog too: http://inbound.itqsolutions.net/blog/improving-customer-acquisition-cost-in-e-business
article to get more info http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ecommerce-business-killer-indifference?utm_campaign=blog-rss-emails&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=15171709