I won’t name names, but I recently saw a movie in theaters that was absolutely terrible, and I mean seriously bad. I was confused because the trailers made the film look incredible. It felt like they spent all their money on advertising to trick me into seeing a movie that had no business being on the big screen. I walked out of that theater confused, and honestly a bit grumpy too.
This is what I imagine leads feel like when they’ve been nurtured so intentionally and carefully into buying a product or service only to be left in the dust after they’ve become a customer.
To ensure you never leave a customer feeling confused and let down (like I felt leaving that horrible movie), start automating every step of your onboarding and post-purchase nurture sequence. And to ensure you don’t miss anything, we’ve put together a list of some commonly forgotten post-purchase automations below. Check them out and add them to your strategy:
6 automations to onboard customers and delight them post-purchase
1. Welcome email and next steps
A welcome email is your first chance to delight customers and start turning them into fans. And to do this, you have to get personal. Fortunately, automated messages don’t have to mean impersonal, especially when they’re made with the help of your small business CRM.
Automate a warm, informative welcome email that auto-populates with dynamic content for each customer, such as their name, what they bought and a helpful blog or free resource. Then, make sure to include next steps that are relevant to the product or service they chose. This could include documents they need to fill out, an account they have to set up, or a group they’ve gained access to.
2. Notifying the team
Use business automation to immediately notify your team of new customers so they can perform any relevant tasks in a timely manner. This ensures your team knows what’s expected of them and your customers continue getting the best customer experience possible.
Start by loading your team’s contact information into your small business CRM and creating a segmented group of employees who need to know about new customers. Then you can send an email or text notifying that group about customer details and any tasks that need to be taken care of.
3. Service package details
When someone purchases a service package from you, automatically send a detailed summary of what their package includes using business automation. And if their package comes with access to a service portal, you can have this automated message deliver login directions, FAQs and a link to customer support if they have trouble.
Automatically giving customers what they need upfront will create a smooth experience and keep you and your team from having to manually answer their questions later on.
4. Fulfillment notifications
A simple automated email can cut out the middleman and manual work involved in the fulfillment process. To help fulfill product orders, automate a notification that shares a customer’s name, email, product and any other details with the fulfillment manager or vendor you use.
But this onboarding automation step isn’t just for businesses selling products. You can make this process work for any services you offer too. For example, if someone bought a one-on-one coaching session, set up an automation to notify their specific coach once the order has been placed and assign them fulfillment tasks.
Pro tip
Don’t just use your software to automatically assign tasks. Use it to monitor the due dates and progress on those tasks too with automated task management. Automatic reminders about upcoming deadlines and other features can keep your team on track.
5. Automated check-ins
To delight customers, they need to know they’re more than a number to you. You want to show that you actually care about their experience, so check in to see whether or not they’re satisfied with what they purchased.
An automated check-in email could include:
- A kind message and some encouragement
- A resource with strategies and tips tailored to their specific product or service
- Testimonials or inspiration from past customers who had success with the same product or service they purchased
- Details on how to access customer service if they need it
- A link to a landing page with a survey where they can provide additional feedback
6. Review and referrals
Review and referral requests generally happen a few months after purchase, so they’re often forgotten altogether. But automation never forgets. Make these requests part of your post-purchase automation sequence to ensure you never miss out on what your customers have to say (and who they might refer to you!).
You can even have your CRM tag people who responded to your check-in and add those contacts to a nurture campaign dedicated to collecting reviews. If they interacted with a check-in, they’ll probably be receptive to providing additional feedback like reviews and referrals.
Even more to automate
Are your onboarding and service automation wheels turning? We hope so! While you’re in this headspace, take some time to read about business automation and think through what parts of your employee onboarding process can be automated too. As you do, use our step-by-step employee onboarding guide for some inspiration.
