It’s worth remembering that customer interactions don’t have to end with the purchase. Indeed, what happens after a purchase often determines the long-term success of your business. This is especially true for online businesses that can’t depend on foot traffic or proximity to consumers to draw in new customers.
Regardless of whether you do business online or offline, a strong post-purchase strategy keeps customers engaged and helps them remember your business. These strategies are particularly important given that 20% of your most loyal customers are generally responsible for 80% of your business, according to the Pareto principle. Also, investing your limited resources in getting customers to buy again is usually smarter than constantly finding new customers in the long term.
The good news is that, while you must build your own approach to post-purchase success, many other businesses have already paved the path forward. You can learn from the best practices they’ve cultivated and adopt these strategies yourself to keep your customers coming back.
1. Integrate an Online Payments Gateway That Accepts All Payments
Imagine an online store that only accepts credit cards. In the Philippines, credit cards are growing in popularity, but they have not been adopted to the degree that digital wallets have. As a result, the store’s sales will be limited and sluggish. Worse still, customers who had to borrow a credit card to buy from the store may not buy again because of all the added hassles.
In this day and age, you can’t afford to limit your payment acceptance to just one payment method. Thankfully, integrating an online payments gateway like Maya Checkout into your site will solve all the challenges of offering the payment methods your customers actually want. If your site is on Shopify or WooCommerce, you can just integrate the right Maya Plugin to get things moving. You can also offer Maya Payment Links and Maya Invoice Payments for customers who prefer doing business over email, chat, or SMS. Whether your customer wants to pay with digital wallets, debit or credit cards, or QR Ph, Maya Business ensures you’ll be ready to cover their needs.
2. Send Personalized Thank-You Emails
Addressing customers by name and acknowledging their purchase is a small but important step in expanding your relationship past a single purchase. These simple acts can help to make them feel valued, making your brand stick in their minds long after your transaction has concluded.
Emails can also do so much more. You can set them up to provide order details, estimated delivery dates, and customer support contact information. You can even offer exclusive discount codes for customers’ next purchases, giving you more opportunities to build your relationship.
You can further scale up this strategy through marketing automation. With a customer relationship management (CRM) or email marketing tool, you can use their contact details to generate the content of these post-purchase emails, guaranteeing a personalized experience for every buyer.
3. Provide Proactive Order Updates
All customers appreciate being kept in the loop about their orders. With a CRM tool, you can send each customer timely SMS or email messages with information on order processing, shipping status, and delivery. This can do a lot to manage expectations and reduce order anxiety. With their minds at ease, your customers may become much more inclined to buy again.
4. Offer a Simplified Returns and Exchange Policy
A customer-friendly returns and exchange policy does a few things. First, it helps you close sales, since customers have an assurance of redress if things go wrong. Next, it tells customers that their satisfaction is a priority, improving your relationship with them. Lastly and most importantly, it allows you to effectively convert negative experiences into positive ones, securing future sales and even brand advocacy.
5. Implement Loyalty and Incentives Programs
Giving existing customers more reasons to buy again is a no-brainer, especially given Filipinos’ suki culture. Consider tried-and-true strategies like loyalty programs or even discounts for customers who complete surveys. If it helps keep customers engaged, it might be worth trying out.
6. Offer Personalized Product Recommendations
With a CRM, you can leverage purchase histories to suggest relevant products to each customer’s emails and display ads. This can be complicated to set up at first, but it’s often worthwhile as it effectively provides all your customers with relevant reminders of your business. Over time, this data-driven strategy can increase your business’s average order value while also improving your rapport with your customers.
Start Better Business Relationships with Maya Business Solutions
Your e-commerce business depends on seamless electronic payments to start and build long-term relationships. Maya Business offers formidable experience and expertise in the Philippine e-commerce space, making it the right choice to handle your critical payments. Sign up for Maya Business to enjoy the transformative benefits of Maya Checkout, Maya Link Payments, Maya Invoice Payments, and Maya Plugins.
Signing up for Maya Business also gives you a Maya Business Deposit account for settling your online payments. With an industry-leading 2.5% per annum interest rate, cash in your Maya Business Deposit account can earn PHP 25,000 per year for each PHP 1 million deposited. You’ll also access free transfers via InstaPay and PESONet, saving cash on your daily transactions with partners and suppliers.
Signing up also instantly qualifies you for a Maya Flexi Loan offer of up to PHP 2 million within just 3 months. Funds from your Maya Flexi Loan can be used to set up your customer loyalty strategy and much more. Just use Maya as your primary processor for all wallet and card payments to access better terms and loan offers.
Enjoy the best ways to get paid online and grow your online business’s following. Sign up for Maya Business to start offering your customers seamless online payments and much more.
