Seven best practices in after-sales management

How do you manage your customers once they made a purchase? Here are the 7 things to do to improve the shopping experience and optimise retention.

Offering a truly memorable shopping experience is the number one ambition of any ecommerce. If you want to take care of your customers, after-sales management is essential to create a bond with your customers, gain their trust, and encourage them to buy from you again.

Yes, because sending an email with a "Thank you for your purchase" or "Come back & buy soon" is not enough to make your customer feel important: you have to surprise them and help them in all stages of their shopping experience, even after their package has been delivered.

If you don't want to lose your customer, here are the 7 best practices to immediately increase customer retention.

7 tips for an effective after sales service

Getting your customers to buy is not enough to convince them to do it again: here are some tools for you to try out, which can help you build valuable relationships.

1 - Ask for feedback

Asking your customers for feedback helps you understand what works and what needs to be improved. One of the best techniques to keep in contact with the customer after the purchase is to ask him/her for an opinion: this way, you can integrate positive reviews within your site and strengthen your position.

What if the feedback is negative? Well, handling negative feedback can also be an opportunity for you. Listening to criticism can help you grow and understand what gaps you need to fill to offer an improved service. When a customer is not satisfied, good customer care can sometimes rectify the situation and turn a criticism into a strength.

2 - Loyalty Vouchers

One of the most popular ways to encourage customers to buy from you again is to create a loyalty discount scheme. Offering a discount on your next purchase can considerably increase LTV, encouraging customers to make a new purchase as soon as they can. Not only that: setting minimum purchase conditions for claiming the discount also helps you to raise your average shopping basket and increase your income.

3 - Tutorials

Have you ever thought of making a tutorial on how to use your products? Offer your customer new insights & send a quick tutorial on how to get the most out of their new purchase. Your customer will feel appreciated and value your product even more.

4 - Reusable packaging

Eye-catching and reusable packaging can have a really big wow effect. Choosing a packaging with attention to every detail, made with a sustainable and 100% recyclable material, can be a really important investment for your brand.

Not only that: you could launch a campaign starring your packaging, inviting your customers to take a photo to share on their social media profile using an official hashtag. In return, you could offer them a mention on the official social media channels for your website and offer them a voucher to use on their next purchase.

5 - Birthday gift

What is better than a gift for your birthday? When a customer registers on your website, be sure to ask for their date of birth so you can set up a birthday email and offer a bonus. This bonus can be, for example, a special 24-hour discount or a gift to receive directly at home.

6 - Personalised messages

Customising your messages for customers shows that you are attentive to their needs and what they expect from you.

Capturing a customer's attention is a real challenge: every day we are flooded with dozens of emails and commercial messages of all kinds. Receiving messages that do not suit our needs becomes more and more frustrating: for this reason, customisation can be the trump card.

Send emails to your customers with products related to the ones they usually buy. Use re-marketing to propose tailor-made offers: this way you can satisfy your customers and offer them special promotions that are sure to catch their attention.

7 - After-sales service

Your customer may still need you after receiving your product: for this reason it is essential to take care of after-sales service. Tools such as live chat will help you manage their needs. Make sure you resolve even the smallest inconvenience: a happy customer will be willing to buy again and, above all, will recommend you to their friends.

That's enough about after-sales services for today: have you already taken these after-sales measures?