The dramatic trajectory of online commerce has transformed almost any industry and organization type. From native-digital brands to traditional retailers, online and omnichannel are the new standard. Despite this massive change in customer behavior has been around for a while, there is no doubt there are massive challenges ahead: Customer expectations and fierce online competition are higher than ever. In this context, post-purchase experience is key to stand out.
Multiple studies have demonstrated that the expense of acquiring new customers can be up to 5 times higher than the cost of retaining current ones. Despite variations in their results, a consistent theme underscores these studies: the cost of acquiring new customers is significantly greater than that of retaining existing ones.
Regarding the market, although the specter of a new economic crisis remains, especially for small and mid-sized businesses, according to Zendesk CX trends 2023, more than 75% of businesses understand that investing in customer experience helps navigate through hard economic times.
Overall, there is some cautious optimism. Businesses are feeling good about the future and are grounding plans to increase investment in customer experience in 2023 and beyond. Therefore, those companies maintaining extremely tight budgets and struggling to invest in customer experience at the pace of market demand will potentially face the risk of being outsold.
In this context, where new customers can be hard-won, post-purchase experience is crucial to nurturing the next sale. However, in 2022, only 17% of consumers believed brands cared about their experience after buying. The gap is massive.
After more than 8 years of helping businesses scale and improve their customer post-purchase experience, the EALYX team knows all about why or how companies are choosing to stay ahead or behind customers’ expectations. So, we are shining some light on the topic with specific insight to uplift your post-purchase operations and customer experience.
The cost of underserving your post-purchase experience
It is no secret that falling short on expectations for customer personalization can destroy confidence and retention. Studies show that 61% of customers will change brands after one bad experience. What is more, a customer who leaves will generally disappear in silence, with no trace of their dissatisfaction. For every 27 dissatisfactions experienced, only 1 is voiced in the form of a complaint to the company. But the 26 silent customers don’t stay that way for long—they each tell another 10 about their unhappiness.
Therefore, customer silence is not always gold. A deep and purpose-driven design of customer experience processes within your organization can help your brand increase awareness of customer satisfaction at every touchpoint. Transformation for a better post-purchase experience turns out to be a mid-term but paramount priority for business success.
Master returns management
Consumers increasingly consider online purchases a risk-free exploratory journey for product types, sizes, etc. in contrast to end-of-shopping journeys. Returns are here to stay and are a must in your business offering. A McKinsey survey showed that 62% of consumers would not consider buying from an online shopper that does not offer free returns, and 84% would not repeat if the returns experience was poor.
This new normal is extremely challenging, as mastering returns management does not only consist of connecting to a 3PL or software plug-and-play solution for order returns. Excelling in return management generally requires a deep transformation of many operational processes. Failure to treat returns as a holistic challenge will surely lead to poor performance, customer frustration, and a loss of loyalty.
From a sustainability (and cost efficiency) standpoint, the boost in returns also presents some challenges to address. Reverse logistic workflows should be reduced by preventing the return from occurring in the first place, whereas those unavoidable returns should be reintroduced efficiently into the product lifecycle. A lot of business transformation will happen around this topic in the near future.
Deeply personalized customer communications
Expectations of personalization are more advanced than businesses realize. As consumers, we want fluid and natural interactions with brands. We want companies to use the massive amount of data they possess to provide truly personalized experiences. According to one Infosys study, 86% of consumers said hyper-personalization has at least some impact on what they purchase.
Today, it is no longer enough to build personalization by setting up massive e-mail campaigns with your name at the top or generally segmenting your market into a few broad buckets. From chatbots that mimic real humans to multichannel conversational experiences, immersive customer experiences will strengthen customer-brand relationships.
Take this example: Liverly Experience Store. The moment the customer steps into the store, a sales associate greets you, beverage in hand, as she takes you to a bra fitting.
MoEngage’s internal report indicates customers get frustrated when brands send irrelevant and non-personalized messages with varying frequencies. This is a sign for brands to enrich their personalization game.
In this new paradigm, post-purchase and service centers are shifting from a cost-center approach to a revenue driver. From cross-selling personalized products to propelling customer loyalty through curated data about your incoming order, everything is about maximizing value for the customer and extending their lifetime value in exchange.
EALYX platform addresses all these challenges in the form of a ready-to-use yet customizable product to improve the post-purchase experience.
Incorporate circular economy
Consumer awareness and concern for environmental and social issues are rapidly increasing, influencing their shopping habits and purchase decisions. An intriguing trend in recent years has been the surge in interest in watching documentaries. As people become more inquisitive about the world, documentaries have played a crucial role in raising awareness about causes often overlooked by the mainstream media.
There is a genuine and uncomfortable realization of the extent to which consumer lifestyle is contributing to the sustainability problem. Customers want to feel good about the purchases they make and demonstrate with their spending that they care.
In this context, the circular economy is the responsible use, reuse, and regeneration of materials and products to reduce waste to a minimum and extend the product life cycle. If your organization executes or is planning to execute circular economy projects, the communication opportunity here is huge.
According to Deloitte’s report, UK consumers have consciously embraced circularity in 2022. Instead of replacing broken items, 53% have chosen to repair them, and 40% have purchased secondhand or refurbished goods.
First-movers implementing circularity in their organizations are benefiting from longer-lasting relationships with their customers. For example:
- Multiple touchpoints with the customer for repairing, reselling, and recycling their favorite products.
- Reduction in environmental footprint
- Acquisition of customer segments looking for pre-loved products
To successfully implement a circular economy model within an organization, it requires two main pillars to leverage: a simple and robust return process and great customer service.
Circularity is not an overnight lever to increase post-purchase experience and needs organizational readiness. However, those eCommerce companies making the effort to go circular now will see tremendous payoffs shortly.
AI in customer experience
The emergence of technologies that facilitate more realistic and personable digital interactions will create fresh opportunities for brands and retailers to broaden their customer base by making e-commerce available to a more diverse audience.
According to Zendesk CX trends 2023, among those who frequently engage with customer service chatbots, 72 percent report a noticeable improvement in the quality of their interactions, leading to decreased levels of dissatisfaction. Upon closer examination, these same individuals indicate that chatbots excel at responding to simple queries, offer prompter replies than human representatives, and provide reliable, helpful information.
Control crisis management
In today’s world, a dissatisfied customer or a social media callout can rapidly spread and have a significant impact on a business. As a result, eCommerce businesses must have a crisis management plan ready. There are various types and levels of PR crises that eCommerce businesses may face:
- Data breaches
- False advertising
- Problematic collaborations
- Negative reviews
- Social media backlash
- Supply chain problems such as faulty product recalls or shortages.
The reason for having a crisis management plan in place is that situations like these can quickly spiral out of control, often occurring in uncontrolled environments. An effective plan enables a business to respond quickly and tactfully to mitigate the situation and regain control.
In addition to the above, an ongoing process of maintaining the eCommerce digital footprint at its best through smart stimulation and the collection of excellently rated reviews will always help navigate harder periods of performance and keep the brand image and customer loyalty in their best shape.
As a conclusion, post-purchase customer experience is an ever-evolving topic to be addressed, and being centric on it seems to be a safe strategy to build healthy customer relationships while building great entry barriers for incumbents.
Learn more about what EALYX can do for your business.
Across industries, EALYX empowers brands that are serious about the post-purchase experience by unifying great proprietary technology, know-how and execution capacities.
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