How to Win at ECommerce Customer Service with Post Purchase Emails | #customersupport #supporticket

As an eCommerce business, acquiring new customers is the first hurdle. But once you get their attention, a bigger challenge is to keep them coming back to the store for more. Needless to state, increasing customer retention by a mere 5% can increase the profits from 25%-95%. The secret ingredient to successfully building a solid customer base is to offer exceptional customer service.

eCommerce customer service begins from the moment your customer places an order. The first interaction after they turn customers is critical. You must ensure to make a lasting impression through amazing customer service and support. 

However, a vast majority of brands miss out on the opportunity to interact with their customers during their anxious waiting period – from checkout until an order is delivered. Shoppers lack visibility during the order-fulfillment process. When brands fail to communicate, it only exacerbates their anxiety. As a result, the eCommerce support team is flooded with “Where is my order?” queries from irate customers.  

Post-purchase emails are an excellent way to keep your brand memory fresh. These emails, due to their transactional nature, have a 3X open rate compared to promotional campaigns. In this post, we talk about how automating post-purchase emails can boost your customer engagement effortlessly.

What are post-purchase emails?

Typically, post-purchase emails are order-delivery status communications shared with shoppers. They inform shoppers of the precise shipment status such as “shipment is at the distribution facility” or “shipment is in transit” etc. These emails are an integral part of eCommerce customer service. 

Post-purchase emails help you enhance the lifetime value of your customers. With the help of automation, creating post-purchase emails are one of the easiest and effective communication tactics for increasing your customer retention rate.

Carefully crafted post-purchase emails can help you develop relationships with your existing customers. By letting your consumers know that their purchases and feedback matter to your business a lot, they are likely to have a positive perception about your brand. 

Importance of post-purchase emails in eCommerce customer service

In a perfect scenario, customers would visit your eCommerce store, browse product categories, buy a product, love them and come back again to write a rave review. However, in reality, most customers need a little persuasion and encouragement to provide positive feedback and make a repeat purchase. 

Shipment-event based post-purchase and thank you emails sent after purchasing or subscribing, are the most effective emails. It is because customers expect them. Those emails have the maximum open and click-through rates and bring results.

Here is the ideal mix of post-purchase emails that you can use.

A report by MailChimp on eCommerce service and email marketing states that post-purchase emails have an average open rate of 16.75 percent and a click-through rate (CTR) of 2.32 percent, respectively. 

What about thank you emails? According to Remarkety, thank you emails have an impressive average open rate of 42.51%, a CTR of 18.27%, and a conversion rate (CVR) of 10.34%. It means thank you emails have 2.5 times better open rates and 7.9 times better click rates than most other emails.

The reason post-purchase emails have an impact on target customers because they are willing to receive those emails. 

When customers buy a product from your online store, they are most receptive to your brand. Take advantage of customers’ positive feelings by reaching out to them through well-thought-out post-purchase emails. Here are more reasons to start including post-purchase communication as a retention strategy:

• A report by ConversionXL shows that follow-up emails have an open rate of 40.5 percent, click-through rate of 6.4 percent, and conversion rate of 0.7 percent. On the other hand, digital receipts show an open rate of 65 percent, click-through rate of 10.4 percent, and conversion rate of 1.4 percent. 
• A study by Adobe reveals that the average probability of conversion for a new customer is around 1 percent, but goes up to 9 percent for a repeat customer, and they spend nearly five times more.
• According to Conversio, on average, retail organizations generate $0.25 additional revenue for every digital receipt containing cross-sell or upsell recommendations. Nearly 96 percent of customer feedback is positive when asking on receipt and confirmation emails.

When should you send these post-purchase emails?

You can send various post-purchase emails according to the different phases of the buyers’ journey. Here are the major use cases:

• Thank you emails: Earlier in this post, we mentioned the average open rate of thank you emails. Overall, the open rate of thank you emails can be up to 90 percent.
• Emails on order dispatch: Emails notifying customers that their order is dispatched from the brand, has an 82 percent open rate.
• Order on its way: Shipping notification emails or updating customers that their order is on its way has an open rate of 73 percent.
• Order delay: Due to any reason, if the order gets delayed, it increases the buyer’s anxiety. Emails notifying customers about a potential delay in their order have a 90 percent open rate.
• Out for delivery: Emails containing out for delivery are highly expected among customers, and have an open rate of 95 percent.
• Follow-up emails: Sending a follow-up email to customers can be about asking them whether they have enjoyed using the product they bought and how their experience is so far. You can ask for a review of the product. Attach the relevant links to make it easy for customers to follow. 

You can also send follow-up emails offering a discount or coupon that they can use during their next purchase. 

Follow-up emails can also be about inviting customers to follow your brand page on social media.

The cross-sell and upsell

When it comes to cross-sell and upsell, Amazon is the undisputed leader. A McKinsey study reveals that 35 percent of Amazon’s revenue comes from its website and email recommendations for products.  

The email by Best Buy below is a good example of cross-selling and upselling.

Cross-selling emails could be about recommending an accessory or complimentary item. An upsell is recommending checking other, high-quality items in the same category. Things like “Customers who purchased this item also purchased” or “You May Also Like” boxes are subtle ways to invite customers to check more products.

Impact of post-purchase emails on customers’ buying behavior

The impact of post-purchase emails on consumers’ behavior can be segmented as below: 

Persuasion

The rate of return for an eCommerce business from post-purchase emails is high. By sending these emails with the right visuals and call-to-actions (CTAs) for urgent action can persuade customers to buy within minutes of receiving and reviewing these emails.

Interaction

Since these emails open up avenues of communication between a business and customers, it is interactive communication. Put it simply, a business can generate responses from customers by sending a post-purchase email introducing a new range of products or services, and their opinions through a survey. 

Positive consumer response

You can use post-purchase emails for eCommerce support to influence the purchasing decisions of customers. According to a survey by Smith-Harmon, 76% of email or newsletter subscribers make purchases after receiving an email. A study by Responsys shows that relevance, timing, and personalization are major characteristics of post-purchase emails. 

Conversion

These emails make it easy for organizations to have insights into consumer behavior by tracking their response patterns to these emails. You can also track consumer behavior with the click-through rates, or how many consumers re-visited your online store or social media page through a link in the email message.

A few steal worthy post-purchase emails

Example 1: Order confirmation

This is the first email you need to send to customers, right after they place an order as a confirmation.

Example 2: Thank you email

After a customer receives an order, it is a nice gesture to send an email thanking him/her for the purchase.

Example 3: Request for product feedback

Sending an email to customers, requesting for an honest review. 

Example 4: Product recommendation

Personalized emails recommending similar products that customers bought earlier, or items complementing those products.

Example 5: Email on replenishment

Emails reminding customers after a certain timeframe, to refill or replenish their stocks. 

Automation of post-purchase email and impact on agents’ productivity

Instead of manually creating and sending post-purchase emails, automating them will save significant time, effort, and cost. Automated emails have the potential to reach a vast cross-section of consumers with a high level of personalization. 

Automation helps you create targeted emails, which will trigger on a specific date, event, or the activity of contacts. In addition, the number of “Where is my order?” queries are significantly reduced. 

While automating emails, you can design your emails, and set the sending criteria. 

Customer service agents are likely to have more streamlined work due to automation. Moreover, with the help of automation, agents can spend less time responding to redundant queries and focus more on priority issues. This will improve the overall productivity of agents significantly. 

Freshdesk + ShippingChimp = Turn eCommerce customer service into a profit center

With ShippingChimp integration with Freshdesk, eCommerce brands now have the opportunity to automate personalized engagement to scale their business and drive more revenue. This integration empowers eCommerce brands to own their customers’ post-purchase experience. 

ShippingChimp transforms your Freshdesk into a key driver of eCommerce customer loyalty in the following ways:

• View real-time order delivery updates within the Freshdesk portal

Support agents can now view all order and delivery related information without switching tabs. ShippingChimp imports order detail, tracking detail, historical information for every ticket that you receive from customers. Agents can truly know their customers at a glance before responding to their queries. Moreover, the response rate is significantly higher when all their information is readily accessible.

• Configure automated delivery alerts for every shipment transit point

Reduce 80% of “Where is my order calls/tickets?” by preemptively sharing order updates. Let your customers know where their order is at all times. Configure updates to be shared for different shipment statuses such as “Attempted delivery” “Shipment in transit” or “ Shipment on hold”. Additionally, with the help of ShippingChimp’s analytics predict shipments that are likely to be delayed. Inform the customers before the delivery mishap happens. 

• Stay on top of all delivery exceptions such as loss, damage, or returns

Processing returns are the biggest nightmare for eCommerce. Simplify returns by allowing shoppers to file return requests in the self-serve returns portal. Moreover, authorize agents to approve or deny a request based on submission criteria. For shipments that are suspected to be lost or packages that were received damaged, shoppers may dispute on the same portal.

• Drive repeat purchases by including product recommendations in order-update emails

Order-status emails have a 3X higher rate compared to promotional campaigns.ShippingChimp’s in-built product recommendation engine smartly populates the products that your customer is likely to purchase. Include recommendations in order status update emails to entice the customer to buy more. Throw in a pitch requesting customers to subscribe to your product to build a solid customer following. 

Conclusion

Customer experience is increasingly gaining prominence for brands to stand differentiated from competitors. Post-purchase emails are an integral part of customer service. And collating customers’ data to create a personalized post-purchase experience will go a long way in forging strong relationships with customers.