No matter if you own a start-up, eCommerce store or an established enterprise, building relationships with customers is the most important key to staying in business and growing it. Even if you have a great product but you lack in keeping your customers engaged, your business is most likely to fail.
So how do you make your customers engage with your brand on social media and other channels?
How do you ensure that customers stay in awe of your eCommerce website and regularly make purchases?
Along with great customer service, another thing that will work for you is customer appreciation. If you genuinely make your customers feel appreciated and that they matter for you, they are definitely going to engage more with your brand and website which will, in turn, help your business grow.
The following points will discuss ways to show customer appreciation that can result in them coming back to you again and again.
Handwritten Thank You Notes
Imagine going about your day and receiving a package you ordered. When you open it, you expect to find your product, but if there is also a thank you note inside, it will immediately catch you by surprise.
Hand-written thank you notes are a rarity these days and a great way of implementing customer appreciation. To find one in this digital world will immediately make it stand out in a good way. Next time you want to order a similar product, that particular brand will immediately strike your mind.
The same goes for your eCommerce business and customers.
With almost every aspect of online shopping getting digitized, a handwritten note will show the human aspect of your business. It might seem like a simple gesture but it is most likely to make your customers feel appreciated. However, there is a trick to making these thank you notes even more effective.
- Always greet your customer with his/her name. It will make the note more personalized.
- Mention why you are sending this thank you note with specific information.
- End the note with a salutation that you feel is best at that time.
- Sign off with your website and social media handles.
Include Free Package Inserts
Taking a similar example from the above point, suppose you ordered a couple of books from a newly opened bookstore or an eCommerce store. When the package arrives, you are mighty excited to open it. We all can agree on the fact that unboxing itself is a very delightful experience.
But, when you open the package, you not only find the books but also a couple of cute bookmarks based on the books’ theme. Most people will immediately click a photo and share it on social media praising the brand and how they went a step ahead and exceeded your expectations.
What a solid way of building great relationships with customers!
Here, two things happened for the brand-
- They gained a loyal customer for life.
- They got a free brand promotion on social media just by adding a couple of bookmarks that would have hardly cost them anything.
There are many brands with a similar story where they gained a positive image on social media by adding a small package along with the original product. You can do that with your business too. Adding a little extra to the package can go a long way to show the customers that you care for them.
Provide Free Gifts or Samples
So now you’ve gained a loyal customer base by personalized thank you notes and small free packages and by providing them with excellent product and customer service. But now, all this is getting normal for them.
Your competitors, be it a single brand store or a multi-vendor marketplace, are getting creative and finding new ways to attract the people you’ve worked so hard to acquire to their brand. You wouldn’t want to lose your hard-earned customers, do you? So, what do you do? Get creative yourself!
Providing free gift samples to all customers on all the purchases is a sure-shot way to quickly run through your budget. What you can do is sort your customers into different categories and accordingly decide who you want to give free samples.
For example, you can give free samples of your yet-to-be-launched product to those customers who have been the longest with you and are most likely to switch over to your rivals. You can send them these samples as a thank you for being loyal customers, and thus, further increase customer loyalty.
Two things will happen if you do this-
- The customer will feel appreciated and will reconsider switching over to another brand if the thought ever occurred to them.
- The free sample of the product that has not been launched will make them feel special, and if they like it, they are most likely to buy it when it does get launched. They also might post it on social media to show their appreciation.
You can do the same according to your business and the product or service you offer. If you only provide service, you can consider giving your loyal customers some discount.
Post-Purchase Discounts
All the above points are a great way to get user-generated content, and we know how it can be an important tool for positive word-of-mouth promotion for a brand, especially if it is tight on budget.
This point might not result in user-generated content but will definitely help in retaining your customers. Offering a post-purchase discount is a very direct way to increase interaction with your customers and of making sure your customers come back to make a purchase.
But there is a catch!
Giving discounts frequently or after every other purchase might make the customers wait for a deal or make them expectant of it. So, it is necessary to be careful about it.
However, giving discount coupons to new customers will surely bring them back to make the next purchase. You can also give customers a discount during a festive season or a special occasion like their birthday or anniversary. That’s a great way to make the customers feel appreciated and make a purchase.
In Conclusion
These are some simple and effective steps that you can utilize in appreciating your customers and boosting the engagement of your eCommerce website. Building customer loyalty is a long-term process and requires a stellar website and the dedication of you and your personnel.
We are confident about your dedication just like we are confident of building and providing eCommerce website development services that will work wonders for you. You can contact our eCommerce website development company to see your idea come to fruition and together we will build a business for you that you always dreamed of!
