Every day, people are subject to dozens of promotional emails hitting their inboxes, many of which are simply ignored because they don’t contain relevant information. With nearly every retailer offering a sale or trying to get you to buy something, how can retailers cut through the clutter to connect with their customers and build better opportunities for additional purchases?
Rethinking the Customer Approach
Following a purchase, it’s crucial that brands use opportunities during fulfillment, shipping, delivery, and even returns to connect with their customers. Customer journeys don’t end when people click buy. By effectively and efficiently communicating relevant order updates along with value-add content like product recommendations or how-to guides, brands can create experiences that engage and drive repurchases. 90% of people want brands to engage with them during shipping and delivery. Since these emails see opening rates of over 100%, it’s a missed opportunity when retailers don’t put marketing dollars into these transactional communications. Simply put, they’re a minefield of untapped potential for brands.
See More: Customer Success as the Flywheel of Corporate Growth and Profitability
Customers Want That Personal Touch
Operations experience management company parcelLab, recently took a deep dive into the customer experience that DTC brands provide. It showed that 94% of brOpens a new window andsOpens a new window did not include any product recommendations or personalized content in these transactional emails. Brands have the opportunity to seed new product recommendations and personalized content for their customers that create a multi-touch customer journey from initial online browsing to shipping updates and product delivery. And even beyond into repairs, returns and product circularity. Every interaction during these operational processes is critical to building customer loyalty that brings people back time and time again.
Taking advantage of transactional emails doesn’t just stop at the shipping information. Brands have the chance to reassure customers they care and build trust in their service, which is a building block of loyalty leading to additional purchases. By including a product recommendation based on the customer’s recent purchases, the brand shows the customer that they understand them and their preferences.
Post-purchase communication is an opportunity for brands to start conversations with their customers. For example, if a customer buys a facial moisturizer, a brand can include a recommendation for similar lotions or serums or even a video tutorial on applying their new moisturizer in a delivery confirmation. By using operational data to create personalized, enriched experiences, brands are elevating their level of care. Post-purchase is the time for brands to shine and promote themselves through these transactional emails.
Creating a Better Post-purchase Experience
When choosing an operation experience management platform to implement better customer communication, brands should consider the following as good practices in reaching customers after their purchase.
- Implement a platform that can gather, analyze, clean, and harmonize a large volume of complex operational data from warehouses, ERPs, and carriers.
- Based on this data, communicate effectively by only sharing relevant order updates. Sending the right number of emails and not flooding customers’ inboxes is important.
- Make sure your transactional emails are consistent with other aspects of customer experience and are tailored to fit your brand image.
- Build experiences that fit your brands, customers and products by enriching relevant updates with value-add content like recommendations, how-to guides, loyalty program info, recycling info for packaging, or weather information in case the customer needs to pick up their package somewhere else.
See More: 3 Practical Ways for Brands To Build up Customer Empathy
More Returns — More Problems
No one likes returns; they’re usually confusing and take a long time. For brands, returns present operational challenges and increased costs. For people, they would rather get it right on the first try and keep their product instead of having to figure out the returns process and go through all the steps to get their money back. By personalizing communications with customers, they are better equipped to make informed purchases and are at less risk of returning those packages. Using transactional emails to mitigate the risk of returns not only builds a better customer purchase experience but also a better brand image. Including pertinent information in these emails post-purchase shows the customer that the brand cares about the customer’s preferences. And when customers must return, transactional emails regarding that return are also a way to transform a negative experience into a positive with a new conversation and touchpoints. Returns present their own opportunity to personalize, engage, support and take care of customers, which is actually a huge benefit for any business.
Personalizing the Journey
Smart communications like this ultimately build trust and better relationships with customers. And relationships are ultimately what make the customer trust the brand and bring them back to buy again. Increased brand loyalty and awareness impacts the bottom line and enables brands to sell more.
Whether the goal is to increase product revenue, educate customers on a new program, or build brand image, transactional emails hold the key to a customer’s heart. A win-win situation is ultimately what every business and customer is looking for. Transactional emails are one big step in this process.
How are you using shipping communications to engage your customers? Let us know on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window