We are very busy on the web to guide people to the goal we have in mind for them. Whether that is an actual purchase or another form of conversion. But what if your visitor is already beyond this step? What if it is no longer a visitor but a customer? Bringing someone in is nice, but if you can turn your one-time customer into a satisfied and therefore regular customer, that is is much better now isn’t it?
But how do you keep your customers satisfied?
The importance of aftersales
You must have heard of the term aftersales.
Aftersales stands for; the contact that companies / sellers have with their customers after purchasing their products and / or services, to see if they are satisfied and whether he / she has comments or feedback that can further improve your service / product of yours as a company .
Already in the description of after sales, the aspect of being satisfied comes forward. But how do you respond well to this? Because you also don’t want to appear intrusive towards your customers.
Committing to a relationship and relationship retention
To have and maintain a good relationship with your customer you should not be afraid to make contact again after the initial purchase (or conversion).
Or perhaps even better at the initial purchase ask if you can approach the customer at a later time for extra services, information, feedback etc. Because approaching a customer out of the blue is not always appreciated and according to the AVG (General Data Protection Regulation) it’s simply not done.
See https://autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl/nl/onderwerpen/algemene-informatie-avg/algemene-informatie-avg
Since May 25th, 2018 you are required to ask customers for permission to use their data for multiple purposes and you must clearly state this when you request the data.
CRM
With a nice term you are dealing with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) if you are good at dealing with after sales. You really manage the relationships that your company has with the customer portfolio.
You do it to keep customers happy and to improve the attitude of dissatisfied customers towards the organization where possible. Because really always keeping everyone happy is a difficult job. But also with dissatisfied customers it is important that you deal with it in a good fashion.
For example, customers do not always take the initiative to contact you if they have problems or complaints about your product or service. That is annoying for them, because they do not get a solution even if it could simply be there, but also for you because as a company you do not learn how to deliver a better service / product.
Depending on which solution you choose (proactive follow-up, mailing if everything is the way they want, setting up a customer portal, periodic surveys, re-marketing, etc.) the scenario can diverge a little but one thing is certain;
Problems that customers have can still be solved in this way, which will improve their opinion towards the organization. They go from dissatisfied to satisfied.
Aspire to make everybody happy
The goal of all your after-sales activities should be to satisfy the customer, which increases the chance of a repeat purchase.
But to make it a goal to get every possible customer at 100% satisfaction is, for the sake of fairness, not realistic, therefore it weakens to the pursuit of satisfaction because that is much more realistic.
Therefore work towards your own indicator to determine whether a customer is actually satisfied with you. As an example you could periodically (every six months) email the customer what the experience is for them in relation to your service.
Make it worth their time
Note that not everyone thinks it is interesting enough to invest time in this. What you can do as a company to persuade the customer to do this is offer them some form of compensation.
Think of a 5% discount on the next purchase or a nice freebie to name a few.
They don’t have to be that expensive, but simply make it worthwhile. So that they spend time making things clearer to you. It is more than worth it in the long run!
The goal after the goal
Keeping customers satisfied naturally has a far-reaching goal, beyond the follow-up purchase of the customer himself;
Who does a great job will be met kindness!
If you manageto keep customers happy with your organisation, you will see that customers actually become (often unknowingly) ambassadors for your company / brand.
They will recommend you to friends, colleagues or others with a specific issue that you can perfectly solve. Nothing simply works as well as word of mouth!
Outside of that you can also ask customers to write a review. If you do you can that on, for example, a TrustPilot, Feedback Company or Google. You can also request customers to do this with the above approach.
By maintaining a good relationship with your customers you can also get new customers. By treating those customers in the same way again, you get new customers. I think you see what I mean by that, right? If you do this well then you can become self-sufficient.
The cost of customer relations
Working towards good customer relationships is something that will simply cost time. Time is of course money. But you really have to see it as investing time in maintaining customer relationships as an investment in the growth of your company / brand.
Where possible, you should look at what you can do to further improve customer satisfaction.
When I look at myself, the satisfaction of my customers comes first. Sometimes I shoot myself in the foot with that; I am more of a customer pleaser than being commercially minded. Oh well … everyone has their flaws but I notice that customers really like that extra eye for detail.
I want to be absolutely sure that it is completely in line with the wishes that you as a customer set.
That is the reason why, when I determine your requirements and wishes, I might keep asking questions. That is to be able to frame as much as possible what is desired AND possible. While keeping time / your budget in mind for instance.
Because we can wish for the moon, but we can only do what is realistic, right?
Can I be of service to you regarding anything, please feel free to let me know!
