5 Ways to Elevate the Customer Experience for Long-Term Growth

For as long as ecommerce has existed, the customer experience has been at its heart. Ensuring your customers are satisfied with your product and service determines whether they think about you fondly and purchase from you again. 

And this is nothing new. In fact, customer service is thousands of years old — the first recorded customer complaint was made way back in 1750 BCE.  Although the need for customer service is long-standing, the expectations of today’s shoppers are a lot different.

Customers expect an immediate response when they make a complaint and want to be able to contact customer support at all hours. 

But that’s not all, customers are also becoming more wary of the brands they buy from. Four in ten customers no longer trust social media ads, and only 14% of customers believe brands when they claim that they “put the customer first.” 

These rising expectations give you the opportunity to show how your approach to offering a better customer experience is leagues above your competition. To succeed in securing customers for the long-term, you need to do what you can to elevate the customer experience you offer. 

We’re going to look at the ways you can take your approach to the next level using a loyalty program, Facebook Messenger marketing, and SMS notifications.  Let’s get started! 

1. Keep the lines of communication open with regular loyalty program updates

Once a customer becomes a member of your loyalty program, they have shown they want to hear from you. Don’t ignore them. Send them regular emails that remind them that you’re there. 

Make these emails personalized by including the loyalty points they have waiting for them and product recommendations related to their previous purchases. On average, loyalty emails perform 35% better than regular marketing emails since they’re personalized and hold added value for the customer. 

With instant gratification driving many consumers' purchasing decisions today, messaging platforms are also a great way to stay in touch. They immediately reach the customer and urge them to click-through and make spur-of-the-moment visits to your site. 

Try notifying your customers about their points balance or new perk you’ve added to your program. 75% of customers prefer brands to personalize messaging, offers and experiences, so make sure it’s unique to their purchasing behaviours.

Ready to start sending the most personalized messaging across all channels? Find out how Octane AI can increase your revenue by over 10% with our suite of tools!

2. Make your brand truly customer-centric

Many brands use the term “customer-centric” but few really practise what they preach. Only 58% of companies survey their customers and a measly 48% monitor online review sites and social media to gauge opinion. 

This is a major missed opportunity because your customers are what make your brand a major success or a big flop. You need to understand your customer's wants and needs so you can better tailor the experience to them. 

To learn more about your customers’ desires, incentivize reviews through your loyalty program. You could even gift more points if customers add a photo. By taking this approach, you can see how your products translate in real life.

A positive review will act as a credible source of social proof for new customers: with 84% trusting them over recommendations from friends. Meanwhile, a negative review provides a learning experience and a better understanding of your customers, so you can deliver the products and experiences they want better in the future. It also gives you the chance to respond and show you care.

If customers see you putting in the effort to act on their opinions, they’ll appreciate it and tell others about your customer-centric approach.

3. Bring at-risk customers back from the brink

Often shoppers will become “at-risk” when they haven’t shopped with you for a while. This could be because they’ve forgotten about you, had a bad experience or are struggling to navigate what you have to offer.

To bring these “at-risk” customers back from the brink and to encourage them to return to spend with you, reach out to them in a way that makes them feel valued. One strategy to do this is to use your loyalty program to gift your customers surprise points or give them early access to your latest product launch. Or, if you have loyalty tiers, delight them by moving them up a tier as a surprise. This way, they’ll have more exclusive and experiential rewards to engage with and will be encouraged to return.

At-risk customers want to know you haven’t forgotten about them and that you still care. Loyalty points are a fantastic way to show that they’re still in front of mind even if you haven’t heard from them in a while. 

4. Make cart abandonment an opportunity

Cart abandonment is every retailer’s worst nightmare. You’ve done all the legwork to get your customer to the check-out stage, but they still don’t convert.

Turn this hurdle into an opportunity by first understanding why it’s happening. Some of the main causes are costly shipping, distraction or if the journey to purchase is long and complicated. 

To win these customers back, offer rewards in exchange for completed transactions. This will be particularly effective if the customer sees the instant benefits of spending their cash. So, remind them in a place they’ll definitely look, such as in SMS messages or on Facebook Messenger. 

With 61% of customers citing that they abandon their carts due to high shipping costs, you should also incorporate free shipping as a reward in your loyalty program. If these fickle customers see this perk is on offer, they’ll be encouraged to shop with you over the competition. Sending abandoned cart reminders is how DOYOUEVEN was able to recover over 7% of their abandoned carts and earn over $50,000 in additional revenue in just 30 days. 

5. Make the customer experience simpler and faster

Aside from making the checkout process as simple as possible and ensuring your website loading times are quick, there are other ways you can make the customer service experience quick and efficient. Using Facebook Messenger, customers can ask your business key questions that they'll get the answer to immediately. With AI smart responses, the Messenger bot can recognize 99% of customer inquiries, such as asking about shipping costs or a return policy, and your Facebook chatbot will respond to these questions right away. 

If customers have questions about their loyalty program status, points, or redemption, this is the perfect opportunity for you to ensure your chatbot is well-equipped with the AI smart responses to answer these questions too. 

With the immediate response times, customers will walk away feeling satisfied that they got the answers they searched for in an appropriate time, especially without the added effort on having to go through a long call or email wait time to hear back.

P.S., Do you want to get started with an A+ Facebook Messenger Marketing strategy to ensure positive customer experiences? Chat with us today!

Level-up your customer service to start seeing long-term results

It’s no surprise that an impeccable approach to customer service is vital to ecommerce success. But, what’s challenging to many businesses is the struggle to meet today’s customers’ high expectations. 

A great place to start is by upgrading your customer experience so it’s clear to these shoppers that you care about them on a personal level, value their loyalty and don’t want to lose them to the competition. 

Mollie Woolnough-Rai is a Content Marketing Executive at LoyaltyLion: a data-driven loyalty and engagement platform trusted by thousands of ecommerce brands worldwide. Merchants use LoyaltyLion when they want a fully customised loyalty program that is proven to increase customer engagement, retention and spend. Stores using LoyaltyLion typically generate at least $15 for every $1 they spend on the platform.