Optimize Post-Purchase Experience with Personalization

Retaining customers is easier and more profitable than looking for new ones, which is why optimizing the post-purchase experience positively impacts business performance and financial results. 

By investing in this area of marketing, you can expect a return in the form of a loyal customer base. Not only will they make repeat orders, but they will also help promote the brand by increasing its popularity and improving its reputation. 

Let's clarify what a post-purchase experience is and why it's so important. As a bonus, we’ll offer personalization strategies to retain more customers.

What is the Post-Purchase Experience

What does post purchase mean? Post-Purchase Experience (PPX) is all customer interactions with a company, brand, or product after placing an order. It starts immediately after conversion, i.e., after submitting an order online or by phone, messenger, or other communication method. Its first elements will be:

• an order confirmation message;
• payment;
• thanking the customer for their cooperation. 

The content and post-purchase experience meaning may vary depending on the product features. In e-commerce, it will be the shipping of a product, notification of arrival, issuance of goods, unpacking, etc. In the service industry, the emphasis is on familiarization with a product, consultations with a company's specialists, etc.

The post-purchase experience means the use of a product as well. A buyer's opinion is influenced by the overall evaluation of a product or service, including its relevance to their needs, expectations, and preferences. 

It is also worth understanding that the post-purchase experience may involve negative interactions, such as product returns, subscription cancellation, requesting warranty repairs, etc. By working through them, you can minimize damage to the company's reputation. 

Why is Post-Purchase Experience Important

According to SEMrush statistics, conversion rates among returning customers are 3 to 14 times higher than among new customers. The exact figures depend on the specific industry, but even a threefold increase looks impressive. And according to SurveySparrow, the most successful platforms in e-commerce retain up to 95% of customers, while the market average is around 55%.

The percentage of customer retention largely depends on the post-purchase experience. If it is outright negative, a client will look for alternative options, ignoring even big discounts and bonuses. On the contrary, a positive experience will motivate a customer to make a repeat purchase, even if the cost of goods is higher than the market average.

According to Red Point Global surveys, a customer’s post-purchase behavior is largely influenced by personalizing their experience. 74% of respondents said that understanding and feeling their value is more important than discounts and bonus loyalty programs. Therefore, personalization is the key element of retention strategies. 

Thus, we can conclude that optimizing the post-purchase experience provides the following benefits:

• builds a loyal customer base;
• increases customer retention rates;
• improves product margins and business profitability;
• reduces the number of customer service calls;
• enhances the company's reputation and protects it from negativity.

What are the Post-Purchase Experience Metrics

To build an effective marketing strategy, you'll need a system of analytics based on quantitative metrics that describe customer experience after purchase. Let's look at key metrics that will help you make data-driven decisions.

Retention and outflow rates

The customer retention rate is calculated using the following formula:

The metric shows which part of the customer base is willing to interact with a company on a regular basis. It does not take into account people who made a random purchase and will never return. The higher the value, the better for the business. 

The churn rate is the inverse of the retention rate. To calculate it, you need to deduct the retention rate from 100%. It will show what part of the customer base the company loses during the reporting period.

Customer lifetime value

This is a valuable metric that is often used to optimize post-purchase marketing. It actually consists of three metrics included in the following formula:

A customer's lifetime value is the total amount of income or profit a customer brings to the company for the entire period of cooperation. It is possible to increase certain indicators, improving the financial results of the business as a whole, using certain marketing tools.

Repeat purchase rate

The percentage of customers who order a product again within a specific time period. The formula for its calculation is quite simple :

This indicator should be evaluated in dynamics - if it grows over time, the marketing policy works correctly. The level of repeated purchases can also be used to compare the company's performance with its main competitors or with the average market level.

Customer satisfaction

A whole group of qualitative metrics can be turned into quantitative metrics to be used in an analytics system. They can be obtained through surveys in which customers rate their experience after a purchase. Each metric has its own corresponding question:

1. Customer Satisfaction Level (CSAT): Rate your satisfaction with the service on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 to 7, or 1 to 10.
2. Net recommendation index (NPS): rate on a scale of 1 to 10 what is the likelihood that you will recommend our product to others.
3. Evaluating customer efforts (CES): Rate the difficulty of receiving the product, contacting customer service, or returning the product on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10.

The first two indicators are positive. The more points a company scores, the better its customers rate their post-purchase customer experience. The third metric is negative - high values indicate that the customer service policy needs to be revised.

5 Strategies to Improve Post-Purchase Experience with Personalization

The key to success is personalization, which involves paying maximum attention to a customer. Let's look at post-purchase experience examples that will help retain more customers.

1. Stay in touch

Notify your customer of all events - payment receipt, shipment of goods, door-to-door delivery, etc. If possible, take care of sending all post-purchase emails - don't leave them to transportation companies and other participants in the process. 

After all stages are completed, continue to remind customers about yourself - share helpful content and inform them about new products in your catalog. The main thing is not to overload with too many emails.

2. Request user-generated content

Red Bull, Starbucks, Airbnb, and many other companies have built their company on user-generated content (UGC). Join this list - make your customers the center of attention. 

Offer them rewards for themed photos, videos, and social media posts. You are guaranteed to draw your customers’ attention to such an offer if you place it in a website widget. Claspo offers a huge selection of widget templates that can be easily customized to fit the style of any business. Your widget can describe or even show the reward provided for user-generated content and redirect website visitors to the right platform where they can share it.

3. Transform negative experiences

All companies face refunds, subscription cancellations, and customer service calls. That is why you must be prepared for them in advance. 

Optimize this part of the post-purchase customer journey - make sure a customer is served as quickly and politely as possible. Offer a customer a small apology bonus - a branded product, a discount on the next purchase, or points in a loyalty program.

4. Communicate with your audience

One of the best tools for marketing optimization is post-purchase surveys. You can use the standard CSAT, NPS, and CES metrics or create your own list of post-purchase survey questions to fit your company's business model. 

Claspo provides attractive survey widget templates. You can place them on your "Thank you for an order" page and get insights about the experience of interacting with your brand, the convenience of your online store, and the specific wishes of customers to build long-term relationships with them.

5. Personalize the packaging

Stand out from the competition by using all available information about your customer. Does a customer like Star Wars or The Hunger Games? Choose themed wrapping paper or put an original postcard in a box. Did a customer order a product for a birthday? Join in the congratulations by giving a small bonus. 

Pleasant emotions during unpacking will enhance the post-purchase rationalization effect - and a customer will focus on the positive aspects of a product, ignoring the negative ones.

Optimize Your Post-Purchase Experience with Claspo

Claspo is a simple platform for creating widgets with a huge library of ready-made templates. By placing a widget on the "Thank you page," you can:

• Offer a discount on a customer’s next purchase and thereby motivate them to come back to you again,
• Ask customers to leave a review and redirect to the desired platform,
• Invite customers to join your community on social networks,
• Encourage customers to share their purchases on social networks and tag you in the posts,
• Collect customers’ email addresses and/or phone numbers to send personalized offers and recommendations.

Since Claspo allows A/B testing, you can experiment and find what works best.

Claspo also helps you personalize the customer experience on your website. You can show a unique widget to those visitors who came from a specific email campaign. Let's say you offered regular customers a discount in an email newsletter. A widget can meet them on the site, remind them of your offer, and take them to the desired page for purchase.

Finally, Claspo provides a free subscription plan with no time limit or credit card needed. Discover the effectiveness of our platform and choose the best plan for your business.