Deep Dive Wednesdays

Author

Crys A.
August 14, 2024

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DEEP DIVE WITH IBRAHIM

6 tips to optimize your post-purchase and retention funnel

Happy Wednesday!

As a DTC brand, there are only a few key experiences that you can provide to your customers that make them excited to continue supporting and buying from your brand long-term.

The first is better, faster, and easier returns that don’t make you want to throw your phone at the wall. Recommend using Loop Returns for this. And the second is lightning-fast customer service focused on delivering relevant solutions quickly, even when it’s hard.

Alright, let’s get into it..

This email is for you if you are a brand that’s found some form of product market fit. You have customers, you have 1-2 ad channels working, and you are consistently generating revenue for your brand. The only problem is that you have a high churn rate, and your LTV is nowhere near where you want it to be. Unfortunately, you’ve fallen victim to the classic leaky bucket problem in DTC. You have plenty of customers coming through your digital doorway, but you can’t retain them long-term.

It’s obvious that you need to spend more time perfecting your post-purchase customer funnel. It’s where your customers go from being new customers to evangelists. This is where “brand” gets built… if you’re spending all your time on fancy ad creative, you’re wasting time. A brand is built after someone is bought in and ready to explore.

Here are 6 tips to improve:

  1. Surveys

  2. Email & SMS

  3. Customer Service

  4. Returns & Exchanges

  5. Discounts

  6. Surprise and Delight

1 . Surveys:

Surveys are one of the most powerful ways to know more about your customers: where they came from, why they purchased, and what else you could be doing or launching to improve your brand experience.

Adding a simple post-purchase survey from a company like Kno, Typeform, or even a Google form can make a world of difference in understanding your customers' wants and needs. I’m also a fan of how you can ask further questions based on an answer. Great post-purchase survey questions are often multiple-choice.

Here’s a list of Qs that I think work well:

How did you hear about us (include a multiple choice dropdown that highlights various ad channels, word of mouth, etc.)

This might look like:

  • A: Instagram

  • B: Snap

  • C: TikTok

  • D: Google

  • E: Friend/Word of Mouth

  • Others (let them mention the source so leave them space for that)

Why did you purchase from us?

  • A: Your brand came up first in my search for this product

  • B: This product has been on my wish list for a long time

  • C: A friend recommended this product to me

  • D: The product had free shipping and free returns

  • E: The product reviews helped me make my decision

How was your overall customer experience? Please check all that apply.

  • A: The product arrived on time and in good condition

  • B: The product matched the description on the website

  • C: The product exceeded my expectations

  • D: The product is fairly priced for the quality

  • E: I would recommend this product to a friend

Obviously there are a bunch of questions that you could ask, and I won’t cover them all, but you get the idea. Adding a tool that automatically sends post-purchase surveys to your customers is invaluable. It gives you real data from real customers (not just the people who have opinions on social media) about what’s working and not working for your brand. I definitely recommend implementing one if you can.

2 . Email and SMS:

Email and SMS are probably the two most important channels to keep customers engaged. As I mentioned in my last email, there are several critical flows that every brand should have in place before they even start selling.

You absolutely need email updates post-purchase which includes a confirmation that your order was placed, a confirmation that your order has shipped, and a confirmation that your order has arrived. These are the basics, but you can do more.

If you want to increase LTV, you need to focus on content, not just promotions. For example, I highly recommend sending an “intro to the brand” email 1-3 days post-purchase. You can get creative here and bring your customers into your brand's world by telling them more about your founding story, your mission, vision, and values, and where they can dive deeper into your company online.

The best products make consumers feel like they’ve just joined the cool kids club immediately post-purchase. They invite them into a community focused on shared values and experiences that happen to correspond to a particular set of products and ideas.

Take Outdoor Voices, for example. You’re not just buying a comfortable pair of leggings. You’re buying access to a community of like-minded consumers who take fitness seriously without feeling like they need to compete in every athletic event that they are in.

By creating and sharing valuable content with your customers post-purchase, you can turn your brand from something that solves a simple problem into a set of products and a lifestyle that customers can’t wait to tell their friends and family about over time.

3 . Customer Service:

If I had to name one thing that most brands get wrong, I wouldn’t say ads, creative, landing pages, or targeting. I would say customer service.

Way too many brands focus all of their time and attention on making a cool website or designing the perfect label or packaging and not nearly enough time focused on delivering lightning-fast customer service when their prospects or customers need it most.

If you’re looking for real-time, in-the-weeds customer service tools, I’d 100% recommend Gorgias. Their platform centralizes all of your support tickets in one place and can help you respond faster and more efficiently than other tools. They support 10,000+ DTC businesses, so it’s clear they’ve struck a chord and serve an essential need.

If you’re not replying to customer service tickets in a timely manner, your brand is likely going to fail. It’s the foundation of retention, and you should take it way more seriously than you probably do now.

4 . Returns and Exchanges:

Again, just like customer service, it’s no secret that returns, and exchanges are simply part of business when it comes to CPG. If you don’t have a seamless return and exchange experience for your brand, not only are you making customers extremely frustrated, you are likely crushing your LTV.

Loop Returns is the number one tool I recommend to handle all your returns and exchanges, hands down. Not only do they make the return experience seamless, but they also help push customers toward gift cards and exchanges instead of returns which helps you retain the revenue while still making your customers happy in just a few clicks.

If you want everyone to love your brand, it’s time to prioritize returns. I generally have nothing bad to say about products that make this process simple and seamless. That said, for the companies that make you jump through hoops, unsubscribe from 3 emails, text a random number overseas, or god-forbid, jump on a call to cancel (many of the major news sites still make you call!) that’s just something I can’t get behind.

5 . Discounts:

This one is pretty obvious, but I still think you can do some creative things. As we all know, everyone loves a sale, and discounts are still one of the best ways to keep customers engaged.

The key here is personalization. Don’t just blast out that you are having a Labor Day sale. Try more custom discounts based on consumer behavior related to the products your customers actually purchased.

Instead of the typical holiday sale, try sending an SMS to people who bought hats from your store and say: “Hey (insert customer’s name), we hope you’re loving our heritage cap. We just released a new version in blue and would love to give you 20% off. Cheers, and have a great day”

I always believe the more personalization, the better.

Here’s another example: “Hey (insert customer’s name), we noticed you purchased 5 or more products from us last year. We’ll give you 10% sitewide OFF with the code VIP for the next 24 hours to celebrate. Happy shopping!”

Try this or something similar, and let me know what you think.

6 . Surprise and Delight:

Surprise and delight is another heavily underrated marketing activity in business overall. Obviously, discounts can be one part of your surprise and delight strategy, but there is so much more.

Try adding a hidden gift with a purchase or sending a custom postcard 3 months after conversion with a hand-written note.

As a founder, have you ever tried cold emailing or cold calling a customer to thank them? How many times has Apple or Nike done that? Let me check….. Uhh… Probably never.

These are the ways you can surprise and delight and go above and beyond for your customers post-purchase. Do things that make memories and turn your customers into life-long superfans of your brand.

I hope this helps and can improve your retention efforts and LTV.

Alright folks, that’s it for today!

Have questions or feedback for me? Ask/share here.

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