The post-purchase experience is a critical stage in the buyer journey and an important part of strengthening customer retention.
A great post-purchase strategy increases repeat customers, generates more reviews and referrals, and generates more revenue.
In this recap of a panel webinar, industry experts from Feastables, Postscript, Rebuy, and Friendbuy share strategies on how to:
- Create a solid post-purchase experience
- Drive higher customer engagement
- Collect zero-party data
- Increase repeat purchases
Meet the experts
Why should brands care about what happens post-purchase?
Ivette, Friendbuy
Suppose you think about your customer and the customer journey. In that case, as soon as they’re done clicking complete purchase, they are the most excited and engaged because they’re waiting for the UPS truck to show up on the side of the road and deliver their item right there. They’re just so excited, so having a post-purchase strategy at the end of the order allows you to really layer in a message to them because they’re going to remember it.
And, they’re going to really take the time to read what’s on the screen before they click off because they want to know about shipping and what to expect next. So, it’s the best time to mention upsells or other offers, or prompt for a review if it’s a returning customer or even a referral.
Kara, Postscript
I think that it’s a great time, in addition to everything Ivette said, to capture some data from the customer that you might not already have. So not just first name or where they’re from, but what type of products they’re interested in and who they are purchasing for. who they per who they are purchasing
Aaron, Rebuy
Adena, Okendo
That’s why having something like a post-purchase survey to collect that data and feedback is really important. We see that having a survey on that post-checkout page has a really high engagement and completion rate, so it’s kind of a no-brainer to ask your customers at that point for any sort of information that you want to collect.
Jess, Feastables
Why is the post-checkout survey such a common touchpoint, and what can you do with that data?
Adena, Okendo
I think Jess you said it so well, having that post-purchase experience optimized, that channel in particular is one of the most important parts of the customer journey. We see much higher engagement and completion rates when surveys are shown on the post-checkout page, again as your customer has already shown interest and they bought from you, and they’re going to spend some time on that checkout page looking for more information or any order details.
So having that survey specifically on that channel is super important. What we’ve seen is upwards of a 50% completion rate on those types of surveys. So you can collect customer feedback at this point in the journey and get insights that can then affect the customer coming back, as well as experiences of future customers.
There are so many different types of surveys that you can have on your post-checkout page. You can have a net promoter score survey so you can understand you know how do your customers like your customer journey. Or see how they like your brand and how have they engaged with your brand before.
Asking these types of questions really help dig deeper into who are your detractors. What didn’t work with them, and how can we improve with our brand. And then also, who are your promoters? Where else would they purchase from you? What other products could you maybe upsell?
Another really great point in that post-checkout experience is asking your customers where they heard about you, and that gives you insight into where you could be funnelling in more marketing spend. If your customers are hearing about you from TikTok ads, you might want to explore putting more spend into that channel specifically so that’s really important insight. Not just into who your customer is and why they like your brand, but also where did they hear from you and how can you find more customers that look like that.
This is also a great way for contextual targeting, so tailoring the questions that you’re asking post check-out to the audience based on the insights and the data that you want to receive.
Jess, Feastables
We utilize our post-checkout surveys to understand that audience. So you know you can ask the basic things of like where did you come from, but I want to get a little bit deeper than that. I actually ask demographic information, as my audience can range from whether you’re a 17 year-old to a 35 year-old, or a parent, or grandparent. I want to understand who you are in our audience, I want to understand why you purchased it and who you purchased it for.
Because I see so much engagement in this survey, I ask information on what we’re thinking about for product innovation. So maybe we’re thinking about coming out with a new snack, and here I add a question like “hey, would you be interested in this type of snack? What are your favorite brands?”
I also like questions like “Where would you like to see us at retailers?” and I think that’s a very good question to ask if you’re a DTC brand looking to go to retail in the future. You’re then able to see where your audience wants to see you out in the wild.
I also like to ask these questions and compare new versus returning customers. I also ask a different type of post-checkout survey based on the product that you purchase. So for instance, we just launched a new merchandise product. Merchandise is very new for us, so I want to dig deeper into those questions “do you like merchandise? Would you like to see more merchandise? Who are you purchasing this for?”
And then bringing this all back home and collecting all of these points of data creates a feedback loop into supply chain, into marketing, and into the tech team. Then I’m not just asking simple questions about how is your shopping experience, I want to ask like five questions that are going to be heavy hitters for my customer customer research.
What data should you be collecting or utilizing in that post-purchase stage?
Aaron, Rebuy
What are some sources that you can get the data from to power that personalization in the post-purchase phase?
Adena, Okendo
Aaron, Rebuy
Kara, Postscript
What are some tactics to ensure you’re effectively communicating with customers to keep them coming back?
Postscript is an SMS marketing platform, so we are very much mobile only and I’m sure as many of you have seen over the last handful of years, the ratio of people purchasing on desktop versus mobile shifted very heavily towards mobile. This is true especially for younger audiences. I think meeting them where they’re at is important.
People love seeing those types of surveys, and also incentivizing them for engaging well with that channel. So if you see that they’re always responding to your feedback and things like that, maybe offering a discount code for those who are regularly completing your surveys and giving you good customer data.
It just goes back to exactly what I’ve been saying, it’s like just personalizing, personalizing, personalizing. Everything that I’m gaining from surveying individuals is going to help me segment and cohort better.
What are some opportunities or tactics to encourage additional sales from first-time customers to increase lifetime value?
As I mentioned, we see the post-purchase journey as one of the most important steps. In general, we know that people need to see a message five to seven times before it clicks that they need to take action. So that post-purchase overlay for referral is a good adrenaline hit.
Really in the transition and the things that we’ve seen in the economy lately, people are being more conscious about what they’re buying. And even though they made a purchase today, there were things in their cart that they probably removed that they’re saving for another time. So they’re already thinking about how they can get a discount on this. Through Friendbuy with referrals, we’re able to encourage them to refer a friend, and we’ll give their friend a discount and they’ll get a discount.
Aaron, Rebuy
You know they’ve just spent an incredible amount of effort and money in acquiring a bunch of customers during BFCM, so looking at how they can get those customer to come back. Part of what we look at at Rebuy is what is the experience like for a returning customer. It’s the same if I’m a regular at a coffee shop, I would expect the experience to be the same as if I’m the first time visitor.
I think people love seeing if you as a brand are able to share their photos. Personally I think that’s a fun little moment for me as a user, so I think that is a great way to just get people hyped on things. And then also get them to be interested in purchasing more long-term.
I think any product more or less could have something like that, whether it’s monthly or semi-annually.
Adena, Okendo
If you’re looking to collect more UGC, people love scrolling through those videos and those photos of your products in every day settings. You could potentially offer a higher discount code or more loyalty points for that type of review to help collect more.
We do incentivize on NPS, and let me tell you the reason we incentive on NPS and not everything else. NPS is actually a little bit harder to get, especially because I’m already asking a post-checkout survey. If they’re talking to customer support maybe there’s a reason. You want to bring them back for the NPS because that survey is going to tell you the entire experience.
With our integrations, especially with ESP and SMS providers, we’re able to help grow subscriber lists seamlessly. So when people enter in their email in a referral widget, they opt into future emails. And now, they’re going into their marketing emails so it’s not just about the referral, but it’s about putting them into the brand’s mix so that they can continue to service them and market to them and really educate that customer.
Adena, Okendo
Aaron, Rebuy
Kara, Postscript
What’s your final tip for ensuring a seamless post-purchase experience?
Leverage the data that you have existing, and get tools that can leverage that data to make the post-purchase experience better. Whether that’s you know getting the right messaging there, getting the right products to those customers, or really just wanting to make it as frictionless as possible. Stay 10,000 steps ahead of the customer in that journey.
Kara, Postscript