Sustained Customer Satisfaction

Here we go…you got an order and a new customer through your website.

Congratulations! Your website is on it’s way to bringing you more success.

Now, all you have to do is leverage this customer, along with the rest of your clients, to bring you the biggest return possible. You have gained the trust of your customers and they will gladly share the positive experience they had with your company with peers, work associates, business partners and golf buddies. This will generate the best type of customer you could ever have, a referred customer.

Customer satisfaction after the sale is very important in every business. Online business benefits even greater than ‘Brick and Mortar’ businesses for the following reasons:

Because you have gained the trust of your customer, you can sell or suggest additional items to him in a non-intrusive manner via the web. He will gladly accept your email because of the positive experience he had with your company.
You can promote other programs and products that your customer will contemplate using based on your word.
You will earn his appreciation. Word of mouth is like a gold mine when someone has a positive experience. It is the best marketing a company can get.
Thank you!
When you make an online purchase you will typically receive a standard ‘Thank you’ letter that is very impersonal. Auto generated email can be a benefit for some situations but after a transaction has taken place through your website, a personal ‘Thank you’ is in order. You will be glad you took the time to send these personal notes because of the business they will generate for you in the future.
Want to know how to maintain customer satisfaction after the sale?
If possible, give an unannounced bonus gift upon the purchase of the item they have selected. This will give your customer a positive feeling about your company and the products and services you provide. This gift does not have to have anything to do with your business as long as it is something that will make an impression. Use your creative thinking to determine what will work best for your customers as well as your budget.
Send a personalized thank you to every customer that purchases from your website and make sure that in the message it is clear that you offer a 100% money back guarantee (if you don’t offer this guarantee, you might want to consider doing so) and provide information about returning an undesired product.
Four days later, send another email to check on the product purchased and to see if the customer has any questions or comments.
Seven Days later send one last email with the subject line: ‘Customer Name, your valued recommendation’. Within this email, you will invite your customer to recommend five of his friends to visit your site and inform them that he has purchased a product from your website. For his recommendation, you will provide him with another ‘quality’ surprise gift.
Final Tips – Sustained Customer Satisfaction
Make sure your gifts are valuable.
When writing your thank you emails, be sure to put some emotion into them. If it is a canned thank you, your customer will notice and will not be as inclined to recommend others to your site or to your business.
Add this customer to your email list, which will include him in any newsletters, update to your product or website emails, and general database list.