Master your post-purchase communications

Post-purchase communication is all the touchpoints between a brand and a customer that occur after an order is placed online. This covers email, SMS messages, chatbot conversations, customer service interactions, or conversations on social messaging platforms. The most basic communication and shipping notifications journey might include, for example, an order confirmation, shipping confirmation, out for delivery and delivered notifications. More complex journeys can include dozens of options to cover all kinds of potential situations from carrier delays to failed delivery attempts to customs issues.

It’s more important than ever for e-commerce retailers to focus on retaining existing customers. Market conditions are pointing towards recessions in the US and Europe, the cost of digital advertising is going up while its effectiveness is decreasing due to privacy changes, and e-commerce margins are shrinking because logistics costs are increasing. Meanwhile, customers have high expectations, and a significant part of the delivery journey is out of retailers’ direct control. Proactive communication is the best way to prevent delays and problems from ruining customer satisfaction. It gives retailers the chance to get ahead of any negative experience and set things right again. It also allows retailers to create a sense of community with social media integration, re-engage shoppers with product recommendations, and build excitement by telling customers more about their new purchases while waiting for them to arrive. This connection can reduce the number of items that get returned.

The first step in good post-purchase customer support is to predict customers’ questions and proactively give answers. Brands can do this by creating customer journey maps and customizing communications for each step. Then, by communicating this information across email, order status landing pages, chatbots, SMS messages, in app push notifications, or other channels where customers want to connect. This self-service approach will cover most of the common information customers need. However, there will always be reasons that customers want to connect with a human whether by chat, text, or phone. So, it’s equally important to ensure customer service agents have easy access to each customer’s order history, communications, and shipping or returns status details. Ideally, this data will be available in the ticketing platform they agents already use, which saves more time. However, some retailers may not have a separate ticketing platform, so quick access through their post-purchase platform should give agents everything they need. This feature helps reduce call handle times and improve agent and customer experience.