This blog outlines a clear path through how Post-purchase challenges can be overcome; by being a genuinely customer-centric brand.

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Learn how much has changed in customer interaction, and offer best practices

and solutions to deliver consistent, personalised customer engagement throughout each stage of your brand’s journey – via our tried & tested methods, across all of D2C.

1. Why is Post-purchase Customer Experience crucial?

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A customer's overall satisfaction with their purchase depends on what happens after clicking the BUY button.

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A positive post delivery experience can lead to repeat customers and positive word-of-mouth marketing…

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While a negative experience can lead to customer frustration and lost business.

The 4 reasons why brands need to perfect Post-purchase experience:

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• Repeat business:
  
  A positive post purchase experience can encourage customers to come back and make more purchases in the future. If the experience is negative, however, they are likely to choose a different company for their next purchase.
• Customer loyalty:
  
  A great post purchase experience can create loyal customers who are willing to recommend the company to their friends and family. This can lead to more business for the company and help build a strong customer base.
• Word-of-mouth marketing:
  
  A positive post purchase experience can lead to positive reviews and word-of-mouth marketing, which can help attract new customers and improve the company's reputation.
• Brand reputation:
  
  A negative post purchase experience can damage a company's reputation and lead to negative reviews and word-of-mouth marketing, which can hurt the company's reputation and sales. A positive post purchase experience, on the other hand, can help improve the company's reputation and increase sales.
  
  

Now that the why is out of the way, Let get to the ‘How’

2. Omnichannel Communication

For 360° Online Consumer Reach

a. Envisioning the best reach

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(73% of consumers prefer shopping through multiple channels)

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Omnichannel communication is important in ecommerce because it allows businesses to provide a seamless and consistent customer experience across all channels. 

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This means that customers can interact with a business through multiple channels, such as E-store, messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Email, or through Social Media, and receive the same level of service and information regardless of the channel they are using.

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• Delivery tracking updates: Many ecommerce websites offer tracking information for orders that are shipped, allowing customers to see the progress of their delivery in real-time. This can be automated using tracking information from the carrier.
  
  (Customer retention rates are 90% higher for omnichannel campaigns than those whose focus is on single-channel marketing)
• Offer excellent customer service: This includes responding promptly to customer inquiries and complaints, and providing helpful and friendly support.
  
  (Omnichannel shoppers have a 30% higher lifetime value than those who shop using only one channel. This simply means that omnichannel customers can generate more revenue)
• Utilise social media: By engaging with customers on social media platforms and responding to their comments and reviews, businesses can build trust and improve the overall post purchase experience.
  
  (Omnichannel customers spend 10% more online)
• Follow up with customers after delivery: Check in with customers after their orders have been delivered to see if they are satisfied with their purchase. This is a great opportunity to gather feedback and make any necessary improvements to the delivery process.
  
  (As opposed to single-channel, omnichannel marketing provides an increase in purchase frequency by 250% and a growth in the AOV (average order value) by 13% per order)
• Use customer feedback and reviews: To improve the overall shopping experience and address any pain points or issues.
  
  (Omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain on average 89% of their customers)
• Implement a self-service portal for customer inquiries: A self-service portal allows customers to access information and resolve issues without the need for human intervention. This can include features such as tracking order status, making returns or exchanges, and accessing product information.
  
  (Businesses that adopt omnichannel strategies see 91% higher year-over-year customer retention rates compared to businesses that don’t)

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b. The Next Generation and the Last

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75% of people using digital channels 

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Every age bracket a brand targets will have a different channel preference

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When it comes to Gen Z..

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87% are on WhatsApp, 65% on Instagram, 43% on Facebook

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Similarly other generations have different preferences

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But… 80% of all online consumers prefer omnichannel strategies due to the seamless communication experience.

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For example:

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An individual could choose WhatsApp to get order updates

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Email to get Sales invoice and other related information

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Instagram to receive promos, coupons and other offers

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____

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64% of customers expect to receive real-time assistance regardless of the channel they use

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To conclude,

Omnichannel is what Brands need

Because it’s what customers want

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(Companies with strong omnichannel customer engagement see a 9.5% year-over-year increase in annual revenue)

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3. Real-time Order monitoring & management for Promise Delivery

For 360° Order Information

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a. Reacting Immediately across the supply chain

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Real-time monitoring means you React immediately at every stage of the customer’s order journey.

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How does this help?

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Brands can..

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Eliminate 60% of RTOs

Improve fulfilment by 15%

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Eliminate 35% of NDRs

Avoid 98% of SLA breaches

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There are several key elements to effective order management in ecommerce:

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Order processing: This involves verifying payment information, calculating best shipping options, and updating inventory levels.

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Fulfilment: This includes arranging for the physical delivery of the product to the customer, as well as handling any returns or exchanges.

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Customer support: Providing timely and helpful support to customers is crucial for maintaining a good reputation and keeping customers satisfied. 

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Inventory management: Proper inventory management is important to ensure that orders can be fulfilled in a timely manner. This may involve tracking inventory levels, forecasting demand, and reordering products as needed.

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Basically…

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Enable milestone-specific communication

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Enable customised messages on different shipping milestones that should be triggered to customers and delivery partners in real-time

To elaborate

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• You ensure there are no SLA breaches from the carrier side
  
  Avoiding NDR Fake Delivery Attempts
• Customer rejected delivery - Sometimes customers just change their minds about the order(s), which result in huge losses especially when it’s COD orders
  
  These consumers who repeatedly reject orders can be monitored - and brands can disable the COD option during checkout for those buyers.
• Rescheduled deliveries - Some customers, upon receiving the call/message from the delivery agent, may notify the agent that they require the order to be delivered at a later date.
• Customers can’t falsely blame the brand/delivery partner once schedule time has been confirmed
  
  Customer not available scenarios can be monitored - There may be occasions when the customer is contactable but not able to take possession of the order, thereby impairing successful delivery.
• There is no miscommunication or lost communication between…
  
  The brand - The carrier partner(s) - The consumer

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b. The Order Management Flow

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Stage 1: Monitor delivery attempts in real-time

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Deep API integrations with carrier partner(s) facilitate real-time identification and categorisation of NDRs. That data is pushed from the carrier to the brand to auto-categorise them into 'Address Issue', 'Delivery rescheduled' and other groups.

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Outcome: Immediate identification of failed deliveries with no manual intervention. Reducing future NDRs by over 30%.

Benefit: Brands understand the carrier partner’s efficiency

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Stage 2: Seek response from online customers to ensure delivery

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For all exceptions, brands can automatically seek issue-specific responses from customers by sending them messages via Whatsapp, Social Media, SMS, or Email. 

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And all customer responses are automatically shared with carriers as well.

Outcome: Superfast resolution with zero manual intervention from the respective sides. I.e. the brand, the consumer, or the carrier partner

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Benefit: Improvement in customer satisfaction by 25 - 45%

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Stage 3: Integrated order management portal

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Your team can also manually manage cases by contacting customers and updating reattempt instructions in a single portal.

Meaning, whatever you automated flows and chatbots can’t handle can be seamlessly handed over to live agents for resolution.

Outcome: Get real-time visibility of complex issues

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Benefit: Improve future automation by 5% with subject data analysis

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4. Data for Personalisation

For 360° Data Analysis

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a. Customer Data Platform

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A customer data platform (CDP) is designed majorly for marketing. 

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It collects and unifies first-party customer data from multiple sources to build a single, coherent view of individual consumers. 

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It then makes that data available to create targeted and personalised purchase experiences.

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It is crucial to implement CDP, as it helps in bringing consistent experiences and relevance across platforms ensuring maximum impact across their different lifecycle stages.

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First Party Data is crucial for all D2C brands because it's gathered directly from the people you have the most to learn from — your consumers. 

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Since it’s information handed straight to you through your digital channels…

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🎁 - It’s consented, reliable & issue-free.

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(Improving customer retention 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%)

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• Offer personalised recommendations. By using data and analytics, ecommerce businesses can make personalised recommendations to consumers based on their previous purchases and browsing history.
• Use data analytics tools to track customer behaviour and preferences, and use this information to tailor campaigns and personalise the post-purchase experience.
• Behavioural data helps identify trends and patterns. By analysing customer data, ecommerce businesses can identify common problems and pain points in the post-delivery process. This can help businesses to identify areas for improvement and take proactive steps to prevent issues from occurring in the future.
  
  

“E-Commerce + CDP = Hyper Personalised Experience”

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b. Segmentation for Targeting

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What does it entail:

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1. Customer segmentation across online platforms
2. Predictive consumer scoring based on selective criteria
3. Profile unification according to brand needs
4. Behavioural targeting/retargeting & lookalike advertising
5. Product recommendations based on prior data
6. Hyper personalisation with geographic data, cross brand data etc

To elaborate

1. Upselling & Cross-selling data -

Ensure personalisation while advertising products with the help of cross brand data

• Understand the products a consumer buys
• The intervals in which they buy them etc

2. Segmented Audience -

1. Messages will be sent on the preferred mode of communication - based on usage and contributing factors
   WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Email, SMS, or VoIP
2. The style/format of messaging - Formal, semi-formal etc; based on Gen-Z/X/Y
3. Timing - The right time to send notifications is decided by active user time on specific platforms etc. To increase CTR (Click Through Rate)

3. Holiday Targeting -

1. Understand which holidays suits best for your individual products
2. Gauge the period in which sales is maximum
   Example - 2 weeks before Christmas; based on which you can plan campaigns 

Basically

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Brands can Connect Multiple data sources

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Engage Predictive Segmentation for 1:1 personalization using AI

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And Activate Omnichannel engagement & growth

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5. Seamless Return Management

For 360° Returns Handling

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a. Return Management & Ecommerce

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A sound returns management process is absolutely worth the investment.

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Because an ideal returns process sees an 18% increase in customer satisfaction and a 5% decrease in cost. 

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It is simply a System developed to handle product returns efficiently while monitoring various intricate aspects

Some of them include:

• Categorising requests into returns/refunds/exchanges
  Examples: Equal exchange, Full refund, Partial refund, Coupon compensation etc
• Warehouse data on specific product necessity (SKUs)
• Closest distribution house for a cost effective delivery
• Real time monitoring of order status and progress
• Identifying frauds and manipulations

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The reason behind the emphasis of Streamlining a Returns Management Process is its losses. Where over 42% of customers returned items purchased online in 2020. Resulting in a loss of $328 billion (Worldwide).

And over 50% of those were COD orders.

With over ₹20 crores (India) of revenue lost in the first week of January 2022 alone.

There are many reasons why returns reduce profitability. For every returned item, you need to consider:

• Cost of return shipment 
• Storage required for said return
• Disposal of defective/damaged item(s)
• Customer complaints/bad reviews 
• Potentially losing a loyal customer

How to Minimise return rate

1. Your analytics segment should let you know the reason behind a return through repetition. Identify frauds, distinguish between genuine returns and thereby eliminate unnecessary loss of revenue. 
2. Your layers of Outbound Quality Check (QC) lets you determine the quality of the product standard. And evaluate the chances of getting a return due to ‘Damaged Product’.
3. The advantage of Geoanalysis allows you to identify unserviceable areas of a region. Allowing you to omit future orders to the area.
4. Layers of verification in your ‘Returns Management’ algorithm lets you minimise incorrect product delivery, incorrect location detail etc.

b. The Return/Refund/Exchange Flow

Step 1: Initiating a return

• Involves the reason behind a return
• Possible survey to better understand the situation, to identify where the issue began
• Then proceed to categorise the ticket as full refund, replacement, store credit or any other

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Step 2: Returned product is received

• The item(s) reach the predetermined distribution/fulfilment centre, warehouse or retail location
• The product(s) is examined and classified as restock, repair, dispose or other category
• Then the information is updated for future reference

Step 3: Return is processed

• The customer is notified on the next step taken. Whether they qualify for a refund/exchange
• Then the request is fulfilled accordingly

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And the entire process can be effectively automated along with the previous stages in post-purchase experience.

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6. Automation of Post-purchase

For 360° Automation of Post Purchase

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(75 percent of businesses already use automation)

a. Why Automate?

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Inefficiency costs businesses around 20 to 30 percent of their revenue every year, which is why brands automate – To put growth on autopilot!

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1. Improved customer satisfaction: Automated post-purchase processes such as order confirmation emails and shipping updates help to keep customers informed and satisfied with their purchase.
   
   21% of marketers use automated live chat (chatbots)
2. Increased efficiency: Automating post-purchase processes allows businesses to process orders and fulfil deliveries more efficiently, saving time and resources.
   
   65% of brands automated 1 or more services
3. Reduced errors: Automation helps to eliminate the risk of human error in processing orders and shipping products, resulting in fewer mistakes and customer complaints.
   
   Automation reduces errors by 60-80%
4. Increased revenue: By providing a seamless and efficient post-purchase experience, businesses can encourage customer loyalty and repeat purchases, leading to increased revenue.
   
   72 percent of successful companies use ecommerce marketing automation
5. Enhanced data analysis: Automation allows businesses to collect and analyse data on customer preferences and behaviours, which can inform future marketing and sales strategies.
   
   25% of marketers use automated campaign tracking

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Why do brands need AI enabled Chatbots?

Being in an increasingly remote-forward culture and social-media-savvy world, communicating with customers leaves very few options - most of the viable ones being online/digital.

And today’s consumers spend a great deal of their time on socials & instant messaging apps.

Which is why brands need AI enabled chatbots, to hit your number faster, and with fewer headcount.

SO, WELCOME TO THE VIRTUAL SELLING ERA OF REMOTE INTERACTIONS

• Opportunity for brands to reach more across the globe at a fraction of the cost
• To connect meaningfully with consumers at scale and still provide a quality assisted shopping experience
• Create an alternate channel of acquisition

HOW TO TAKE IT A STEP FURTHER?

• Facilitate AI-powered chatbots on Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook to help brands resolve customer queries and enable purchases
• It’s also presently the most widely used means of personalised shopping.
• Chatbots automate customer communication and greatly help in building a strong relationship converting every customer to a ‘Loyal Customer’

b. Brand Customisation: The Hybrid form of Automation

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Brands usually go for Hybrid setup these day to turn on AUTOPILOT 🚀

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But what is a HYBRID SETUP?

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A hybrid automation setup consists of 3 parts.

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Part 1 : The part of the bard that is automated by creating flows based on brand needs across marketing, purchase & return stages. 

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Part 2 : The part where Bots take on the role - for communication across channels

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Part 3 : this is where AI comes into play, to study and optimise existing setup based on consumer data.

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Note: While doing it all, a Hybrid Setup is also trained to seamlessly hand-off to a live agent

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This is to ensure complex cases are handled by a human.

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(i.e.) 🤖 Hybrid Setup = Rule-based Customisation + AI

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How much of a brands’ post-purchase can be automated based on this method?

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>67% of Omnichannel Communication

>75% of Order Monitoring & Management

>95% of Data Collection for Personalisation

100% of Return Management

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That’s the end of our analysis on every Post-purchase Touchpoint for D2C Ecommerce Brands.