UPDATED: Customer Feels Secure and Confident during the Customer Lifecycle - Part 5 - Post-Purchase Experience

This continues the series, 9 characteristics of great customer experiences and the post series, The Customer Feels Secure and Confident During the Journey - Part 1 and Part 2, which covered the pre-purchase step. Part 3 addresses the Purchase Decision. Part 4 covers the customer's experience with the product.

This piece covers what happens after purchase.

Once a customer buys a product the "real" customer journey begins and a customer gets to know what that company is really like. Until then, the experience was focused on the company convincing a customer to buy, a customer researching the right solution for him or her, a customer seeing what it's like to use the product, and a company creating a usable product.

During this post-purchase step, a customer is no longer simply trying to own a product; he is building a relationship with that company. The purchase moment and product setup/usage started this step.

This is probably the most unsexy step of the lifecycle. It’s about operations and logistics - shipping, payment, warranties, guarantees, product service, support and maintenance. It sounds boring and a little “so what?” However, how a company operates and interacts with its customers - including its communications - reflects its personality.

If you think about it, when a customer calls support or service, it’s never about something great; it’s always about a problem. How a company handles that situation is probably the best way to get to know what it’s really like. Does the company resolve the issue quickly? Or does the issue linger and it seems that no one in the company cares enough to fix the problem? Are they responsive for calls, emails or chat? Do they seem to be organized?

And we can equate this to how a dating relationship works. Prospects reading marketing content and talking to sales is like dating. The purchase is like a marriage or commitment. Post-purchase with logistics, support and maintenance is like daily life after the wedding, when you experience what that person is like every day.

This is why customer stories really shouldn’t occur until well after someone purchases. The immediate experience of using a product is similar to what happens during the honeymoon. It isn’t until the product doesn’t work well or is broken and needs support that a customer understands what the company he purchased from is really like. Or if there is a confusion about payment.

And it's the step where people who are potential prospects can be dissuaded from talking to you ever again because of something a current customer said. Yep. It happens all the time through word of mouth or social media. What you do here can not only encourage current customers to exit the lifecycle and find a new partner or product, but prospects you didn't even know existed can be encouraged to talk to someone else.

What types of activities are considered to be part of the post-purchase experience and how a customer wants to experience that interaction?

Include and involve the customer as part of the company's community. I included some activities to do here in the previous piece, but there are so many ways to make a customer feel like they are an extended part of the company.
Support: highly responsive with fast resolutions
For larger purchases: implementation and adoption services that facilitate implementation
If replacement and refillable parts are necessary: make sure they are easy to access and don’t cost a lot
Repairs are simple to do
Billing and accounting is easy to work with if there are problems
Payment options are available and easy to access
Product delivery: various types and approaches depending on purchase and size of item. Shipping parts and refillables are also applied.
Product guarantees, warranties, etc. They have reasonable clauses that can be acted on and used.
Certifications and training. It helps the customer use the product more - and have a greater commitment to it.
Customers willingly share their experiences with the company because they are happy with the interactions

I’m not going to address channel partner purchases or other 3rd party purchases here. We’ll keep it to company/product and customer interaction for simplicity.

I should also add that the relationship that a customer has with a company during this phase depends on the dollar amount of the purchase. Larger purchases will require additional support at this step; less money spent won’t require as much support or support won’t matter as much. If an item is cheap enough, the need for support may not matter; the customer may just replace the item if it is too difficult to maintain.

One could say that the cost of the product has a direct relationship to the commitment the customer has to a company after purchase. More money spent, greater commitment. Less money spent, less commitment.

What are companies doing at this phase?

The goal of this step of the process:

Providing logical services to help customers
- Shipping
- Support - customer service, customer support, warranties, guarantees,
- Billing and payment
Build a relationship with a customer through these actions, providing trust and loyalty
Encourage the user to stay in the customer lifecycle; try to ensure that the customer doesn't research new vendors

How do you help your customers feel comfortable here?

It’s during this part of the customer lifecycle that, especially for larger purchases, it becomes clear that customers often don’t always choose to buy a product to buy that specific product. Customers decide to buy a product from a company because they feel that this company would be a better partner. It's about the potential for the long-term relationship.

Build trust

Until this point, the customer relationship was focused on building trust for someone to make that purchase decision. Once a customer owns a product, the product experience is to encourage the customer to use the product. In post-purchase, it’s about how this company supports and maintains the product and what a customer needs to continue using the product - or optimizing product usage.

(A secondary goal: prevent the customer from starting the customer lifecycle again and researching new solutions to his problem - meaning, get a new product from a different company.)

A company still needs to build trust with a customer at this phase of the process. That doesn't change. A customer always needs to trust you to keep the relationship going. In this part of the lifecycle, there are many opportunities for building trust.

Solving a customer's problem with your product quickly and easily
Providing a way for them to get the product fixed: either through a partner's location nearby or free shipping or a store presence
Repairing a product for free or for a low fee - and building a product in a way that can happen
Having a payment plan that makes an expensive product affordable.
Allowing customers to participate in support, product development, and sales

These activities build long-term trust between a company and customer. The easier and more convenient you make it to own a product, the greater the trust the customer will have with you.

Does this mean you need to have perfect support? A perfect payment plan program? The best warranty or guarantee in the business? No. It does mean that you need to hire individuals in your support, payment/accounting, shipping, or rather operations departments, that have exceptional customer service skills to build that relationship. It's these people that manage customer problems and turn them into opportunities for an improved relationship - even if the problem doesn't resolve in that customer's favor.

Help the customer succeed using your product

It is only when a customer has success using your product that you succeed. Saving money, time, effort, or some other gain will encourage that customer to not only continue spending money with you, but he will share his experience with others and get them to work with you too.

If he wins, he'll help his friends use your product to win too. And then you win with more sales. Always remember that without customers, a company has no revenue.

Sure, a company can improve an existing product based on the feedback from these services, but without the drive to make a customer shine - this can't happen.

Try to keep the customer happy and engaged so he doesn't leave

This means making the relationship easy. If it is hard for a customer to find replacement products or it is difficult to work with billing, a customer will start the customer lifecycle process all over again to build a relationship with a new vendor. It is during this stage that a customer could exit the process and find a better way to achieve his goals.

Remember: if you hear a complaint from once customer, there are probably a number of other customers who feel the same way. They just aren't saying anything. And that's a scary thought.

This opens an opportunity for many competitors to gain market share - and why that customer relationship is so important.

Make the customer feel included

The customer isn't an employee, but in many ways, they are just as important. And they can contribute so much to your company. From being experts who can provide support to other customers to providing product feedback to sharing their experiences with prospects and others. Customers have so much to offer - and they WANT to help. Customers love to work with companies to help them succeed too. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. Encourage them to contribute and watch how your company grows.

What you can include in your experience to make someone feel comfortable at this phase of the lifecycle:

Include and Involve the Customer in Your Company

There are so many ways to include and involve a customer in your company. Here are a few suggestions to help them contribute to your company and products to make them better.

Create a special customer group to get feedback for the products, services, support - anything. It's almost like a regular customer focus group that you meet with every quarter or so to get their feedback. You could call it a customer panel, customer guidance team - whatever. Ask them what they think other customers will like for new product features or services. Get their feedback on how support works - or doesn't. Learn from them what other customers are thinking and probably not saying.

Encourage customers to contribute to support forums to share their knowledge. Customers can be your expert users and sometimes know as much as - or more than - your support team or QA about your product. Let them shine! Try to get them participate and respond to items in the forum. Develop a rewards program for the support forum. An expert customer is probably the best spokesperson for your company. They will help others understand your product. What's best about customers doing this is that it helps prospects and new customers aspire to use your product. If this customer can be an expert - so can you!

Customers have the best ideas for new features. Especially power users. Sometimes, customers have a different perspective of how to use your product than you do - and that's not a bad thing! Talk to customers and let them brainstorm how to use your product. Create a way for them to submit new features. It will be a popular area of your site or product.

Engage with customers on social media. Happy customers will share great stories on social media. Repost them! Comment on them! Engage and interact with these customers. Same with unhappy customers. Reach out to them and find out what's happening. Social media is a new communication medium that customers are using to reach out to companies. Don't stop them! Use it! Encourage them to communicate to you in any way they can and know how. And then respond and engage.

Reward the active customers - and encourage the others to be active too. Have a type of reward program for customers who engage in social media, contribute often to a support forum, or submit new features. And don't only offer prizes. Customers appreciate different types of recognition and rewards. Ever hear about the five love languages? See how you can create rewards that appeal to people in each love langague. I know it sounds hokey, but some people like getting gifts; others want kind words; others would appreciate a tour of your facility or spending time with your executives.

Encourage customers to co-create content with you. Why does corporate content need to be so formal from a company? Why not invite customers and influencers to participate in content creation? For thought leadership, ask them to provide their perspective. Ask them to contribute data from their use of the product and product research. Partner with them to show how your vision is shared with your customers. It's not a vision unique to your company; it's a vision that your customers have adopted too.

Support, Service and Repairs:

Some shared insights that I had early in my career helping a call center succeed and win an award.

Make it easy for a customer to contact you. This may sound intuitively obvious, but many companies hide 800 numbers for support, emails addresses, and online chat capabilities in hopes that a customer won't contact them. If a customer is frustrated trying to contact you about a problem, hiding contact information only magnifies the issue. Make this process as straightforward as possible to reduce stresses from the customer - and you. A customer could find a new solution partner - even for a free product - if the issue is severe enough and it is too difficult to reach you.

UPDATE: Social Media is a support channel too! We often forget that people don't always contact you directly through support phone lines and the like. They contact you through social media. I had a great experience with this through Citibank. Make sure your support teams are able to interject in Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media conversations. That's where the action happens these days to lose the opportunity to form customer relationships before it can even start!

Create more instructional videos than FAQs and support documents. People read less and watch more. Keep the videos short, sweet and to the point. They will get more views - and more shares. This has happened with the auto industry - research what it takes to replace a part and you’ll find a number of home video presentations. Or research how to fix a home appliance. I've repaired a number of small home appliances using videos. They are probably the easiest way to illustrate a solution.

Include a gamification element in your support forum to encourage adoption. Many companies do this today - they offer a way to boost popular answers that provide great results. Or indicate who provides the best advice. Or indicate who contributes often. This type of recognitions is key to keep members engaged and contributing at their best.

Have easily accessible self-service support; balance that with access to customers. Customers often want to try to fix the problem themselves. They will research the solution on your site. Make your support area easy to search and find solutions. Search optimization takes work, but it is worth it. Make sure you associate typos to real terms in the search. Track all of the ways customers type keywords in the search - and have a way to refer those to the right solution documents or videos.

Have the right solutions available in support. This also sounds intuitively obvious, but it isn’t. How often have you gone to a site to search for a solution to find NOTHING? Monitor what people search for and create documents and videos for that. Also get insights into what your customers need for support content by reviewing call center reports - why do people call? What type of trouble reports are coming in? What types of issues need additional assistance? Let the customer know.

Add to your support mix a live, in-person option if possible. Apple was brilliant by adding the Genius Bar to their stores. The Genius Bar gets people to come to the store. While people wait, they can explore what’s new at Apple and be entertained. And an Apple employee spends time with the customer, helping him immediately solve his problem. It builds trust because the customer can see immediate results. A live person helping you solve a problem is completely different than resolving an issue over the phone.

Make it easy to get anything fixed. This is where companies often get it wrong. A great story about Apple: my laptop went to sleep and never powered on again. I replaced the battery twice, tried to charge it overnight, and did a few other things - but nothing worked. I tried to book time at the Genius Bar but there was nothing available for 2-3 days. This was my work computer - I needed a solution now! I called Apple and they recommended that I contact a Support Partner for a solution. In 2 days, my files were transferred over to the new computer. I was setup and good to go! It was fantastic. And it was easy. I had to drop it all off and it was magically fixed. As a company - remember, it's ok if you won't get full revenue credit for assistance or you are relying on a partner to solve the customer's problem. Keep the focus on the customer. What does the customer need to be successful? If the customer is successful, he will return - and bring friends.

Shipping a return should be easy - and local. Most companies allow you to make a return by dropping the item off at UPS or FedEx in a bag, a box, or by itself with a receipt. The shipping company packs it for you. Or you can return an item from mail order to the store (like Belk). Keep it easy. Give the customer options - even local ones.

Repair services can happen anywhere - not just the store or by returning the item by mail. Most people don’t like the idea that something needs to go somewhere specific to be fixed. For large items, people like to go to people they trust for repairs (partners, garages, etc.). For smaller items, people want to repair them themselves. They want to watch a video, get the parts easily, and fix it. Getting a repair should be flexible - it shouldn't be so rigid it requires someone to go to a specific place or mail somewhere.

Replacement parts are easy to purchase and not too expensive. Expensive parts that are hard to find make buying something challenging. This is one of the reasons some people choose not to buy a BMW or Mini Cooper - the parts and service are expensive.

Make repairs for free as much as possible. Offer free repair and maintenance services. If you are selling an expensive product, build repairs and maintenance into the cost. If the repairs are small, offer them for free. Make the customer feel special.

Services:

Implementation and Adoption services available for larger items. This is key for successfully using a product, especially for larger purchases in companies and organizations. Individuals may need this as well - specialized training or one-on-one instruction to best understand how to use a product. Sometimes this happens during the sales process when a customer is trying to understand what he is getting into with the product and purchase. Either way, provide assistance for optimizing usage. For free or for fee this is a useful offering.

Consulting services available to optimize use of the product. This may not be a service a consumer customer may want, but a corporate customer may want to optimize the use of a product - or better yet, increase use. This means that company may need its employees to be instructed in how to be a power user. Or the organization may need to shift and change to support improved and increased usage.

Finance & Billing:

Companies are typically weakest in this area. Accounting departments typically are considering the bottom line and how to increase profits. Customers are looking to build a relationship and trust a company. Those are two separate and distinct goals. There isn’t one that is right or wrong, but a customer could easily get offended by accounting’s goals if what they propose as a solution doesn't work towards a mutually beneficial relationship.

But there are ways for accounting to meet the customer halfway.

Assume that the customer wants to pay and be responsible. Often, financial departments will take a position with debtors that don't pay exactly on-time that those individuals don't want to pay. This can result in disastrous collection calls that put the customer on the defensive and make the company appear to be concerned with money and not the relationship. The customer relationship should always come first unless the customer isn't following through on his contractual agreement to pay. Always assume the best intentions of the customer and work with him to be successful on his agreement. And yes, within reason (sometimes customers are trying to skip payment and get the item for free.)

Treat initial collection calls and emails as a payment reminder. A number of places do this today - treat the first email, letter or phone call as a reminder for payment. I mean, if your customer wants to uphold his end of the agreement, he'll be sure to pay. Most people do want to pay; there may be some extenuating circumstances to prevent this. With that in mind, always give your customer the benefit of the doubt - even repeat offenders. You just don't know.

Offer different payment options to accommodate different lifestyles. Some people pay by credit card. Some by check in the mail. Some need additional support for high cost months. Find a way to help your customers by offering different methods for payment. I almost didn't include this because this is so common today. However, this includes payment plans or other agreements for high volume months. Make sure you offer something for that too - maybe split to two months or add the additional balance to future months. Help your customer successfully pay.

Don't offer a free trial, require a credit card to access it, and start charging the next month. I don't care how many instructions you include on a site for this, it's sketchy behavior. Many sites do it, but look at this practice from a user's perspective. Here is a product for you to use for free for two weeks. Then we'll start charging you, but we won't remind you about it. Wait for your credit card statement. Sound like a scam? It kinda is. If a company wants to offer a free trial period and then charge, send the user an email reminder that the charge will hit. It's user friendly and doesn't make you seem sketchy - getting money for no reason. That email may reduce profits, but it keeps the relationship with the customer on good terms. And if the customer didn't want to buy anyway, do you really want that customer? You can't force someone to be a customer.

Be clear about billing frequency or one-time costs. For example, many online product subscription sites will tell a user that the cost of a service is $25/month or $600/year, when the cost is for that purchase is an annual $600/year. No option for a monthly fee is available. Providing a monthly cost implies that is available; don't provide those numbers if it isn't offered. Sure, a company may provide it so the customer understands the value, but make that clear. Always be clear regarding charges to a customer.

Clearly define what monthly fees and taxes include - and why they are being charged. Especially for phone companies, there are taxes that may seem questionable about why they are being charged. Make sure that bills are clear in their labelling and customers understand exactly what they are paying for. The customer deserves this. He is paying for your service; a collection of customers pay your bills. A customer deserves your respect to break down why he owes you money and where it goes. It doesn't need to be broken down to the budget level, but the customer needs to understand monthly fees for product expenses vs taxes vs other fees.

Offer payment plans for larger purchases - and make the expectations for payment clear. Often a company will offer financing for more expensive products. This may be necessary to align with a customer's cash flow. Or allow them to purchase something that maybe they couldn't otherwise afford. It opens purchase opportunities - and makes it seem like you are working with customers so they buy. And as with any payment operation, it needs to be clear to the customer what he is paying for and why. Break down the payment plan as much as possible to explain to the customer the costs, the fees, the interest, the payoff amounts, etc. Make it easy to understand. And if a customer wants to switch plans and get something more financially achievable, help him. Again - if there are no customer payments, there is no revenue.

Create a cheat sheet regarding policies. Most contracts and financial agreements are the same, but if you have exceptional clauses, highlight those to the customer and make it clear. Hiding a key clause in page 15 paragraph 4 of a 30 page contract won't win you an "easy to work with award." Summarize these differences on a cheat sheet. Everyone will appreciate you for being upfront and clear. And if the customer wants to negotiate those terms, those open and honest conversations can occur - rather than disastrous phone calls about contract confusion.

Make it easy to apply promotions and coupon codes. It can be easy to link purchases with promo codes in an app or in an online store. Macys associate promotions and coupons with customer accounts. Bluefly can do this with an email address. This practice may contradict accounting’s goals (believe it or not, I have heard business people say that the goal of a promotion is to increase traffic and they openly admit that they hope that no one uses the promotion), but it’s great for the customer. Again - who pays those bills? And if you are offering 30% off, shouldn’t you follow through on that offer on your own anyway? Why make the customer work to earn a promotion that was already offered to him?

Remind finance and accounting that customers pay the bills. Without customer revenue, no one in a company would be paid. This is why it is key for customers to have a good relationship with a company - especially with finance and accounting. Most customers want to pay and be responsible. Sure, there are always a few bad apples. But in the end, make sure the customer feels like he is winning and working with the company to succeed.

Shipping:

Free shipping. Thanks to Amazon, this is pretty much a requirement at all stores and an expectation. Some sites have reset the expectation to be free shipping for purchases over $100. But shipping doesn’t always cost that much money for larger items and if you have considerable shipping volume, you can negotiate low costs. If you have a smaller store or smaller items - yes, charge. But try to get to the free shipping option if you can. One trick: charge a little more for your product, like $3 or so to cover shipping fees. Try to increase your purchase volume so you can get to the free shipping offering.

Offer an option for someone to pick up the item in a store if there is one nearby. If there are stores nearby or locations where someone can pick something up, why not allow someone the opportunity to do that? Offering shipping only options online can be confusing to a customer who is a short drive from your store. It may seem more complicated to you, but it isn't for your customer.

Refillable and Replacement Parts:

Keep costs in mind. Don't try to make a revenue stream out of parts. I mean, it's possible, but it won't win the hearts of customers. A customer knows how much he spent on the original product. If you try to charge so much more for the parts that the sum total of the parts costs more than the original, a customer will see through that nonsense and not want to do business with you again. Yes - the customer may exit the lifecycle and find a new company/vendor for this reason alone.

Make it easy to get refillable parts. Like shipping and repairs, make this easy. Ensure the refillable parts are sold in stores that are easy to find. Or certified resellers. Or online with convenient shipping options. Don't make it hard to use your product after the first month or two. Keep being easy to work with - which means easy to access parts and equipment.

Include a way for someone to know that he should replace a part with a refillable. If a battery is running low, include a way to indicate that. Or if a filter is getting full. Indicate that something should be replaced soon. It is a product issue, but it helps in the post-purchase side of the process as well.

Guarantees and Warranties

This deserves its own blog post. However, it is also an area that I'm not super familiar with and it is probably better to find experts who understand this best.

Certification and Training

If you can and it makes sense for your product, offer certification and training options - that alone can be a revenue stream for your company. Certification builds brand loyalty - you trained someone how to use your product, got that person to invest in your company, product, and ideas and gave them professional street creds. If you want to see loyal, look at Cisco Certified Engineers.

Most companies today offer online training and certification options as well as classes in different areas. This also includes channel partner certification and training.

Sharing Customer Experiences

Encourage customers who are happy to share their stories. Help them do it. Record them. Film them. Write their stories for them. The most powerful stories are the ones they tell themselves, so try to get them to share their own stories through writing, video, audio. Do a podcast interview with a customer. Or have them record a video on their own.

The more the merrier - have a panel discussion! Rather than have each customer share a story, encourage customers to share stories together in a panel. It's more fun for them and for you. And there's more opportunity for discussion with more people present.

Conclusion

A customer will always move to the next step (or go back a step, depending on what's happening) in the customer lifecycle, but that customer can always exit - especially during the post-purchase step.

Post-purchase is the time to build a true customer relationship; it can also be the time to destroy it if not handled properly. Customers choose your product because they want to work with your company. The choice was personal - there was something about your company that made you the better choice - that's why the relationship is so important. The post-purchase step is probably the most personal step of them all. It's the post-commitment step, so to speak.

Guidance here: balance business with the customer relationship. Which is more important? Well, paying customers are paying your bills....

Process + Brand = Experience

Wednesday, September 07, 2016

UPDATED: Customer Feels Secure and Confident during the Customer Lifecycle - Part 5 - Post-Purchase Experience

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