We’ve talked about why customer appreciation is important as well as some easy customer appreciation ideas to get started with…But we haven’t yet talked about how to show customer appreciation post-purchase. This, in fact, is one of the most important times to show customer appreciation.By doing so, you’ll help your customer feel good about purchasing from you, avoid buyer’s remorse, and motivate them to purchase from you again in the near future.This will lead to a reduced refund rate and more customer loyalty. You’ll save the money you would’ve had to spend converting a whole new customer.
Send a Thank You Email
You should send this email as soon as possible after the purchase.But this is more than just a simple thank you email. Sure, the thank you is important, and it helps to make the customer feel appreciated. But the thank you email should do a lot more than that.In this email, you should also:
- Confirm they’ve gotten their product/service
- Ask if they need any assistance getting started
- Point them to other helpful resources
- Ask if they have any questions or feedback
Allow Them to Show Off Their Purchase
For some people, the best part of making a purchase is being able to show it off to their friends and family. So, why not help them do it?For example, if you have a retail company that sells graphic tees, you can ask customers to send in selfies with their new tees for a chance to get featured to all the followers on your Facebook page/social media pages.
Offer Them a Gift
This is especially great during the holiday season, but it can work at any time of the year. Basically, you just offer customers a free gift along with their purchase.It doesn’t have to be a huge gift. It can be something simple and inexpensive, like a piece of company swag (i.e. a shirt or usable item with your company’s logo).Even a small and simple gift will show your customers that you appreciate them because you’re willing to give them a little bonus for choosing to spend their money with you.
Over Deliver
So many companies fail to come through on their promises to customers. So, when you over deliver, you automatically stand out.You can over deliver in several ways. For example:
- Send an email auto responder with instructions, tips, and resources to help customers get the most out of their purchase
- Craft a creative confirmation email
- Offer a temporary upgrade
- Send free bonus content
Here’s a notable example of a company that over delivered and saw huge success as a result…
Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby, felt like the post-purchase confirmation email to his customers was too filled with business speak. He wanted to add a little personality and fun to it.So, he sat down for 20 minutes and churned out the following email:
Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle, and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved ‘Bon Voyage!’ to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Tuesday, January 21st.I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did.Your picture is on our wall as “Customer of the Year.” We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!Thank you once again,Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby
The result? Customers went wild for the email, and it quickly went viral. Thousands of websites shared it out, and many linked back to CD Baby. The result was a huge influx of business.Perhaps you can over deliver by infusing a little personality into your emails, or perhaps you can do it in another way. But always be thinking of how you can go the extra mile for your customers!
Conclusion
The post-purchase time is one that can have that most impact on your customers. By showing appreciation in the right way, you can ensure that your customers are happy with their purchase, and motivate them to buy more from you in the future.
