1. Pre-purchase experience
This stage of experience should really be understood from the customer’s perspective aka the Customer Conversion Funnel.
Which begins all the way at Brand discovery, followed by Product awareness, and so on till lead conversion. In this step, your prospective customer gathers information about the various products available in the market.
Hence, it becomes necessary for your brand to be accessible and have such information easily available. And how do you do that?
a. Omnichannel presence
With the multiple platforms at their disposal, customers now have increased expectations from D2C brands. They expect you to incorporate different digital interactions without having to give their data repetitively.
Omnichannel engagement is best suited for this case. By integrating all your marketing channels in an Omnichannel CRM, you can have a unified communication setup for each customer across touchpoints and platforms.
Be it personalised promotional messages on WhatsApp, answering queries on your Instagram and Facebook, or a sales call using VoIP - an Omnichannel CRM can assist you with it all.
b. Automate customer support
Being present where your customer is one thing, but being able to respond to all their questions is another.
Since most of your prospective customers use WhatsApp & other such platforms, brands should leverage them 24/7 with use-case specific automation.
For example, with WhatsApp Business Suite, D2C brands can
- Automate over 92% of customer interactions,
- Increase qualified leads by 451%
- Reduce revenue loss by 20%.
c. Rapid checkout process
Traditionally, purchases on the internet would lead your customers to a different payout screen and ask to enter details, leading to a multi-step process.
At least 52% of online brands use such multi-step checkout systems
A rapid checkout process can fasten checkout times and can also deliver a simple yet better experience compared to a traditional checkout.
With 1Checkout, your customers get to complete the checkout process in under 5 seconds
2. Post-purchase experience
The simplest definition of post-purchase customer experience is how you treat a customer after purchasing a product from you.
a. Personalise communication
While you build your artillery of messages, personalisation is the silver bullet.
A purchase should be treated as a momentous occasion for your customer. In addition to creating a personalised thank you page you should also extend it to all further transactional and promotional messages
As an example, personalised automated messages work wonders for COD order verification and COD to Prepaid conversion. They are also useful in reducing RTO orders.
b. Retention triumphs Acquisition
Beyond personalisation, your brand can also highlight the good causes the customer’s money goes towards and the campaigns your brand supports like ‘Made in India’, ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’, etc. This will help soothe anxious customers and increase retention.
On the other hand, you will also have buyers who are excited after their purchase. A great way to leverage their excitement is to upsell on the thank you page since almost 100% of your customers will visit it.
It costs 5 to 25 times more money to acquire new customers than it does to retain them.
3. Post-delivery experience
A good post-delivery experience for D2C brands increases the likelihood of repeat orders and customers.
a. Create experiences that differentiate you
The first thing that your customer notices post-delivery is the package itself. A unique unboxing experience is a great way to brand yourself and remain in the hearts and minds of your customers.
Such experiences also bring about User Generated Content, personal advertising and other tactics that will improve your D2C brand’s purchasing experience.
b. Solid Return Management Process
Returns/refunds/exchanges are unavoidable for brands, but dissatisfied customers due to the return experience is entirely avoidable.
Setting up a neat and easy return management process is a good way to show that you care about your customers.
- Automate 100% of returns and avoid long waiting times
- Provide instant and secure refunds, even for COD customers
- Enable seamless handover to support executives for complex cases
Ultimately reducing churn!
An ideal returns process sees an 18% increase in customer satisfaction and a 5% decrease in cost.
c. NPS and reviews for increased credibility and ₹₹₹
Once your product has been delivered and you've offered excellent customer support, it's time to ask your customers to review your product & service.
Send them a message with a link where they can share their review. Also give them the option to share media files - images and videos.
These reviews significantly increase the visibility of your product and build trust with potential customers.
d. Create loyalty among your customers
Your current customers are 50% more likely to try a new product of yours, and 31% more than new customers.
The best way to make sure your customers remain loyal is to communicate regularly and reward them for their continued loyalty.
Your D2C brand can do this by
- Personalising communication while upselling and cross-selling
- Sharing discounts and coupon codes via customer-preferred channels
- Create early Holiday sales shopping for preferred customers
In the end, each one of us, including your customers, wants to feel special and to be pampered from time to time.
To Wrap it Up
A pragmatic approach to your customer's purchase experience begins with putting your customer first from the beginning till the foreseeable end.
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