Aftersales are essential for an e-commerce business. Aftersales is the service after a purchase that is offered by your brand to the consumer. These actions ensure that you keep the customer satisfied and also to strengthen the commitment to your brand. Such actions can be initiated by the customer itself, who contacts you, but also by you as a brand. The latter can be done very easily by using email marketing automation. 

A good after-sales experience contributes to your brand image in the long term. Customers have a good experience with the purchase which makes them more likely to proceed to a new purchase later on. They are also more likely to pass your brand on to friends and family. Through good after sales you can generate more returning as well as new visitors. Keeping in mind that retaining an existing customer is cheaper than acquiring a new one.

Tips for an optimal aftersales experience: 

• Shipping: beautiful packaging and personalised messages make consumers feel good and encourage future purchases. Provide good tracking of package shipment. Give discounts or a refund when the shipment of an order goes wrong or is delayed. 
• A word of thanks: after the purchase you can thank the customer personally by sending an e-mail. Or you can add a personal message and include it in the package. 
• Rewards: reward your existing customers from time to time with an exclusive benefit. By means of a loyalty program you can easily distinguish between your ‘VIP’ customers and your one-time purchasers. 
• Feedback/reviews: ask your customers for feedback/reviews by sending them a follow-up mail. It is important to also respond to negative feedback and/or reviews. This contributes to the customer’s trust in your brand. In addition, you can also use this feedback to avoid the same problems in the future. How to best respond to negative reviews, you can read here. 
• Reachability: make sure your customer service is easy to reach, avoid customers having to wait days for a response.
• Returns: a user-friendly returns process is a must in times of high competition. Provide a return label with your package and if possible give the option for a free return. 
• Keep in touch: it is important to keep in touch with your existing customers. In this way you create a certain loyalty and show your professionalism and expertise. You can maintain this contact by means of newsletters.  
• Up-selling: when your customer has confidence in you as a brand, you can use an email to show a number of items that are related to the previous item that the customer has purchased. 

The competition within e-commerce is getting bigger and bigger, and customers are increasingly researching before they make a purchase. Therefore a good after sales experience can ensure that a customer will buy from you again. Also make sure that a number of elements are easy to find on your website such as the return process, how to reach customer service and feedback or reviews from previous customers. This already gives the customer confidence before they proceed to purchase. 

Would you like to focus more on after sales using email marketing automation? Do not hesitate to contact us!