12 Ways to Follow Up With a Customer

 

Following up with a client after a sale can help your business provide great customer service. Customers may be more loyal to companies that not only sell quality products or services but also treat their customers with respect. There are multiple tactics you can use to reach out to a customer after a sale and continue their engagement with your business. In this article, we discuss the potential benefits of customer follow-up messages and offer 12 ways you can contact your customer after a sale.

 

Why is it important to follow up with a customer?

Following up with your customers may help improve your customer’s experience and satisfaction with your business operations. Here are some potential benefits to following up with customers:

  • Showing you care: Following up with a customer may help show your care and commitment to your professional relationship. Customers often appreciate businesses that treat them as humans rather than just another sale.
  • Improve experience: If the customer had a negative experience, they might appreciate the acknowledgment from your business that things did not go perfectly. Reaching out to a customer who had an unpleasant experience can give you the chance to apologize and ask how you can perform better.
  • Address problems: Reaching out to a customer after a sale can help determine if they have any lingering or recent issues with your product or service. When you proactively follow up, you can address problems before they become bigger, which can damage your relationship with your client.
  • Deepen engagement: A customer follow-up message may lead that customer to engage more with your brand, such as by subscribing to email lists or liking your company’s social media pages.
  • Boost sales: Customers who feel a business has provided quality customer service are more likely to make purchases from that business again. This can increase your revenue and may also improve customer loyalty.

 

How to follow up with a customer after a sale

Here are 12 ways you can consider following up with your client:

  1. Express gratitude

One of the most common customer follow-up messages is a simple thank you with a message about how grateful you are for their business. Many companies send thank you messages over email, but some might send physical cards, digital cards or even make a phone call.

  1. Ask for feedback

Another common follow-up method is to ask the customer to assess the sales transaction in a feedback form. You can send your customer a survey with multiple questions and choices or give them a more open-ended form to fill out. Asking for customer feedback not only helps continue contact with your customer but also can give you ideas for improving transactions in the future.

  1. Help them get started

You can send your customer advice on how to use their new product or service. Depending on your particular product or service, this might include installation guides, how-to manuals, diagrams or answers to frequently asked questions.

  1. Provide a special offer

You can send a new customer a discount, promotion or another type of special offer. Depending on the purchase they’ve already made, this offer could be for a related product or service, an add-on or an upgrade. You can also take the time to make the offer personalized for a specific customer’s needs.

  1. Share additional features

If your customer purchased an item or service with newly released features, you can let your customer know. Telling your customer about additional features is a great way to help them get the full value out of their purchase while maintaining your business relationship.

  1. Send them a referral

Another follow-up method that offers your customer practical help is to send them a referral for a potential customer who might benefit from your client’s business. It’s polite to let the potential customer know ahead of time that a new business might soon reach out to them. You could also recommend a third-party vendor to your client that you believe would benefit their business.

  1. Commemorate occasions

Contacting a customer on a holiday, anniversary or other special occasion helps to show you care about them as more than a sale. Consider sending your customer a message to commemorate, for example, their one-year anniversary as your client. Or you could mail your client a birthday card if you have that information. If you choose to send a card for a holiday, you can keep the message secular and brief.

  1. Ask if they need help

Send your customer a note asking if they would like any help with their new product or service. Customers appreciate businesses reaching out to them to see if there is a problem, as opposed to the customer having to get in touch when they experience an issue. This proactive customer service approach can help to solve potential problems before they grow, which can increase customer satisfaction.

  1. Comment online

If your client or their business has professional social media channels or blogs, follow them. You can comment, like or share your client’s updates on your own accounts. Interacting with your client through these online venues can be a great way to remain in touch with your client.

  1. Checking in

You can send your customer a brief message to check in on them and see how they are doing with their product or service. While your customer may not respond to you if all is going well, letting them know you are available if they would like to speak with you can be a considerate gesture.

  1. Send articles or videos

Message your client a link to a relevant article or video. The content you send your client might be about your business, their business or news in one or both of your industries. You can include a note with a link that says why you thought they might find the content interesting, especially if it relates to a topic you and the client have discussed before.

  1. Invite them to an event

Invite your client to a professional event. For example, you can send them an invitation to a networking event you are going to that you believe your client might also benefit from attending, or perhaps you are going to give a talk or lead a workshop. Sending your client event invites not only helps you stay in touch but potentially gives you more in-person time with your client, which may lead to more sales.

 

Source: Indeed. Top image by senivpetro on Freepik.