You who have a company and sell your products and services usually celebrate each sale, right? But then what? Does the customer often come back and buy more? If the answer is no, read this article until the end and learn how to retain your customers after sales.
1 – Always be available
With instant messaging on the Internet, people are increasingly immediateness and want to solve the problem at that very moment. These SAC (customer service) processes, which take days and even weeks for an adequate return, in addition to infuriating the consumer, also set precedents for complaints on specialized sites. This can harm your after-sales service and even new sales, as potential customers can (and will) consult these complaint sites before making a purchase from your company.
Have a trained service team so that the process is as agile and effective as possible. Believe me: the basics work very well and a quality and empathetic service can make all the difference.
Consumers need to feel supported and welcomed. When the company conveys the image that customer satisfaction is the priority, even if the problem is not entirely resolved immediately, the fact that the response was quick makes the customer feel understood and even their tolerance level with your company. and the complaint grows. Waiting becomes reasonable when you explain why and the communication channel is quickly kept open.
2 – What is most important to the consumer today?
Still talking about empathetic communication with the consumer, always keep in mind: “what is most important to my client today?”. As mentioned in the previous topic, agile response may be all that matters today. He needs to know (and feel) that his complaint or request is important and is being heard and will soon be resolved.
It’s not just about the receptive post-sales (the one the customer contacts), but also the active post-sales, go after the customer and ask how you can help them today. He asks how the product is being used, if he encountered any difficulties, if he would like to make any criticisms. Yes, when the consumer feels that his feedback is important, even if he has a problem in a few days, he will be more understanding with the resolution, as he knows that the company’s policy takes his satisfaction into account.
3 – Solve new pains
If you did the homework before (during) the elaboration of your product or service and defined your target audience, you already have a list of all the pains that your delivery solves, right?
But, are there new pains that you didn’t foresee? Or even new problems that your own product or service has created? Use after-sales to collect this data. Catalog each criticism, complaint or request.
Use the SAC (customer service) to receive this pain information and store this data and the active after-sales service to solve them. Whether offering personalized support or even developing and offering other products or services that solve these issues.
4 – How to retain customers: Be one step ahead
Get ahead: offer solutions for pain that may appear. As well? Well, when you have the process of reviews and problems from previous customers well organized, you can be even more efficient and “predict” the problems that subsequent customers may have.
The quality of your after-sales service will certainly increase a lot from the moment you start offering solutions to problems that the customer hasn’t had yet, but if they do, they’ll know they can count on your company.
In addition to resulting in loyalty, it also leads the consumer to the purchase and after-sales loop and this becomes a circle of recurring purchases. Here’s the secret of loyalty: providing such quality after-sales service that the only conclusion the consumer has is to come back to buy more and refer them to all their friends and family.
5 – How to retain customers: pay attention to expectations!
Always work thinking about “over delivery”, always deliver more than promised. There is a great tendency to promise worlds and funds at the time of sale just to not leave money on the table. And this ends up causing frustration on the part of the consumer when after-sales he realizes that he has created an expectation beyond delivery.
That’s why it’s so important to work honestly and highlight the advantages of the product or service. From the beginning of the sale, show the consumer that he will be accompanied throughout the post-sale process as well.
And with over delivery, you manage to exceed these expectations that were aligned and established at the time of purchase. A well-served consumer with exceeded expectations will certainly be loyal. That way you activate the reciprocity trigger and the customer will always want to reciprocate everything he received.
Retention is cheaper than acquiring a new customer
In short, you need to build robust post-sales processes. Don’t direct all your business energy into getting new sales, as customer retention is a cheaper process than collecting new customers. According to Philip Kotler, a great reference in marketing, winning a new customer costs 5 to 7 times more than keeping a current customer.
All of this happens because the customer’s buying journey can be a time-consuming process and can demand higher costs of publishing content production, email marketing , sponsored ads on social networks, etc.
When the customer already has a relationship with your company and this relationship is satisfactory for the consumer, recurring purchases will certainly come. He will not risk consuming from another company without knowing. Even more so when he has proof that he will be well attended by you. In addition to maintaining retention, the indications made by this consumer can bring new sales at a much lower cost. Loyalty only has advantages!