Sales After Service
Not that long ago a reader asked me to write a post following up after a sale to thank the customer and then offer any help. This is an issue I sort of talk about in a post I wrote about closing the sale on a good note, but not exactly the same.
A lot of companies incorrectly assume that when the customer has paid and gets his or her product, the sale is over. This is anything but true. When the customer’s credit card has cleared and they’re received their product, the company shouldn’t forget about the customer. They should be making an effort to ensure that the post-sales experience is remarkable.
It isn’t hard to set a reminder up to ask a customer about their experience and order a couple of weeks after the order is “completed.” When contacting the customer, take some time to talk to them about their experience ordering, what they think of the product / service, and if you can be of any help. You could send something like:
Hi Bob,
This is John from Company XYZ. I just wanted to thank you again for your order and make sure your Product 1000 arrived and is working as expected. I’d also be curious to hear any feedback you might have about the ordering experience. We’re always looking to improve and feedback from customers is the best way to help us do that.
If you have any questions or comments whatsoever, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I’m more than happy to help you however I can.
Warm regards,
John Smith
Customer Service
Phone: 212-123-4567 x 123
Email: jsmith@companyxyz.com
This is just a draft and should obviously be customized appropriately for each company, each product, and each customer. If it gets too generic, you’ll be defeating the purpose. You want it to be personal.
An important part of this interaction is not to sell the customer anything. Unless they start asking you about other products or services, don’t try to sell them. If you try to sell them new products or services, you’ll lose a lot of the customer’s trust.
If you do this, though, you’ll earn a lot of customer trust. They will appreciate you taking the time to reach out to them without any (apparent) ulterior motive. Of course, the long term goal is to generate repeat sales and increase customer loyalty, but for each call, the goal is to help the customer.
