Building Brand Advocates Through the Post-Click Experience

Creating a positive customer experience lies at the heart of every brand’s purpose in the journey to nurturing and retaining customers. But how does the post-click experience factor into this important dynamic?

In an ever-evolving and crowded marketplace — and with social commerce increasingly dictating how customers are introduced to brands and shop with them — retailers understand that to come out on top the target customer plays a critical role. This is especially apparent in the age of social media, when bad news travels fast and a negative experience can snowball into a crisis for a brand if shared online. Equally, customers who have a positive brand experience and share this via social media can be very powerful in building advocacy and good favor.

By implementing a positive post-purchase experience in addition to effective order fulfillment initially, brands can ensure they keep buyers satisfied, build customer loyalty and retention, and encourage repeat purchases. The consumer's experience is integral to driving sales so creating customer loyalty through the post-sales experience is key, especially when that experience can be shared online and has the power to influence buying decisions in others. Brands have the power to convert customers into brand advocates simply by investing in this important strategy.

The Complexities Behind the Click

What actually happens post-click and how does the process behind this contribute towards a customer returning to their brand of choice? A key driver in making the post-sale experience a smooth one is robust customer service. Brands can turn around a negative sales experience simply by ensuring that the consumer’s needs are met point to point. This can be achieved by arming customer service agents with the right information. For example, being able to assess stock availability and location, returns options that fit the needs of the individual customer as well as delivery timelines, and having the knowledge needed to signpost to any other sources of information that are required.

A seamless relationship between an inventory management system and a customer service agent is key to achieving this so that the agent can understand where the desired product is located and how long it will take the customer to receive it. Importantly, coordinating and managing the logistics involved is a process requiring numerous touchpoints before the package actually reaches the customer. Solid, proactive customer service ensures that the customer is kept up-to-date with every step of the process, including alerting them with their purchase confirmation through emails and notifications and informing them when their orders are packaged and shipped.

Understanding the needs of the customer is vital in increasing their loyalty both pre- and post-sales. Pre-click actions can inform post-click processes if customer preferences and pain points can be established by harnessing the use of big data to enable brands to pivot to meet demand. By understanding this, brands can improve interactions to engage customer experience and create satisfaction, all of which contribute to overall business performance and sales.

Solidifying Seamless Returns

The returns process holds an important key to strengthening a customer’s relationship with a brand. If the consumer receives a faulty, late or unwanted product and a brand makes the returns process labored and challenging, this can isolate the customer and risk losing them for future purchases. A seamless experience, which includes sending a customer a return QR code and arranging a replacement product to be delivered within days, reassures a customer that their complaint is being heard and, most importantly, dealt with in a timely fashion. A robust omnichannel strategy plays a significant role in reverse logistics. Retailers can deliver this seamless experience by offering the customer the option to return an item either in-store or through an online channel, and even the option for the brand to pick up the item being returned from the customer’s home.

If a customer receives the wrong item, or a product that's damaged or missing parts, this can be catastrophic for a brand unless the post-click experience is harnessed in such a way that turns a bad experience into a good one. This involves a smooth returns process or exchange experience and the ability to communicate with the customer through their channel of choice, whether that’s a social media messaging platform, phone, or email. This can go a long way in turning a negative experience into a positive one and converting customers into brand advocates, whether that’s on social media and other public forums, or by proactively influencing the purchasing decisions of their friends and family.

Harnessing Knowledge to Build Brand Advocacy

This important element of building brand advocacy can also go one step further. If, beyond the post-sales experience, brands take the time to understand what their customers appreciate about the level of customer service they received by conducting online polls to understand what motivates them to keep returning to their brand of choice for repeat purchases, they can increase the chances of the customer continuing to advocate for the brand.

While brands focus on attracting customers through a variety of ways, the value in establishing a robust post-click experience must not be underestimated. If a brand takes the time to properly train customer service agents, listen to the needs of the customer, and create a seamless and timely returns process, it can effectively turn any negative experience into a positive one, and be well on the way to building a loyal customer base.

Kamran Iqbal is a commerce strategist at PFS, now part of GXO.