A few years ago, I was on a trip to London, frolicking through the streets (yes, frolicking) and fighting back the urge to take on that enviable British accent. Long story short, my friend and I, in all our excitement, decided to impulsively get bangs, so we booked an appointment at the nearest salon and got what would turn out to be the most expensive haircuts of our lives.
We loved our hair, but it was easily three times the cost of any other haircut we had ever received, so after the euphoria wore off, dread set in — Why did we do that? Should we have saved that money? Should we have researched other salons? What had we done?
Unfortunately, this buyer’s remorse isn’t confined to impulsive haircuts in London. It can happen with anything and to anyone, including to your customers after they purchase your products or services.
This doesn’t mean the purchase was a bad decision, but there are things you can do to positively reaffirm your customer’s decision to purchase, reinforce the benefits, and give them a great experience. Keep reading for creative ways to alleviate buyer’s remorse and discover how your small business CRM can help.
Start by anticipating their needs
The thing about buyers’ remorse is that it can come in waves. So it’s your team’s job to redirect those waves so your customers don’t have any regret washing over them.
To accomplish this, you’ll need your CRM’s database and your business automation software’s help. Create a campaign that automatically sends recent buyers a customized email or text every few days. These messages don’t have to be long, and in fact, they shouldn’t be. You want them to quickly serve your customers and confirm that they made the right choice.
Here are a few types of messages you can include:
Daily quick tip about how they can get the most out of their purchase
Testimonials from other customers that speak to the positive benefits they can look forward to
Link to a video tutorial
FAQs
Product feature spotlights
And because these communications won’t be lengthy, it shouldn’t take too much time to whip up this campaign. It’s a small time investment that will have a big impact on your customers.
To take it a step further, consider creating this automated campaign for each of the products and services you sell. This will give you the chance to customize the messages even more and provide resources, content and testimonials that are tailored to their specific purchase.
Next up: Personalized video
One key to dispelling any purchase regret is to remind your customers that they have a team in their corner. Simply knowing that they have real, live people to help them if they need something can be enough to send buyer’s remorse packing.
You could send them an email about your support services, but why not take things to the next level? Try opting for a personal video from someone on your team. This is a less common approach, and that’s why it’s a perfect way to set yourself apart from your competitors while simultaneously delivering the crucial reminder your customers need.
There are countless ways to approach this video, but no matter how you go about it and who's in it, make sure to include:
Thank you message: A simple, verbal thank you will make your customers feel appreciated. And when they feel appreciated, they’re less likely to regret their purchase.
Benefit highlights: Providing a quick overview of their specific product or service and its top benefits will remind your customers why they chose to purchase in the first place.
How to reach out: Let your contacts know that your team is standing by to answer their questions and support them post-purchase.
This video should be short, sweet and informative. You can use your CRM for small business to pack it with relevant information and make it as personalized as possible. For example, check the records in your CRM to see what your audience bought, when they made their purchase, if they added on any support services and more.
You can even see which member of your team directly helped the customer through the buyer’s journey and get them to be in the video. Dropping into customers’ inboxes with a friendly face can catch their attention, increase trust and feel personal.
It’s awesome if you have the time and resources to send each customer their own video, but we know that sometimes that’s not realistic. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t make this strategy work for you! To speed up the process when you’re short on time, simply make a short video for each product or service you offer. Then, use your small business CRM to segment your customers based on product purchased and automatically send each group the video that corresponds with their buying history.
Reward them with a loyalty program
When the new acai bowl place opened near my house, I was hesitant to stop in because of the hefty pricetag. But do you want to know what convinced me to try it? Their loyalty program. Now, I’m obsessed and the fact that I’m earning points gives me an excuse to go back more than I’d like to admit.
Loyalty programs where customers earn perks can both convince prospects to buy and encourage current customers to come back for more — it’s a win, win!
By organizing each customer’s information and recording their purchase history, your CRM can easily help you create a rewards system of your own. Start by brainstorming how you’d like to reward your customers. Discounts on their future purchases, free webinars and event tickets, and bonus coaching sessions are just a few ways you can structure your loyalty program.
Your team can have fun coming up with what freebies to provide, then small business CRM and automation software can help take care of the rest. For example, as people make purchases, your CRM will log each one. Then, you can have automation send out rewards notifications as people hit certain milestones you define (ie. once someone makes their third purchase, they automatically get an email with options on how to redeem their rewards).
No matter how you reward your customers, the data shows it will pay off. According to Statista, 80% of U.S. customers reported that loyalty programs impact their likelihood of giving a company repeat business. This alone goes to show that these programs give customers the nudge they need to return, which means more repeat business and less buyer’s remorse.
What’s the point?
If you’re wondering “what’s the point?”, we get it. Nurturing customers after the sale makes your buyer’s journey a bit longer, but it’s absolutely worth it. Going the extra mile to alleviate buyer’s remorse shows your customers you genuinely care, which in turn helps you build stronger relationships and increase repeat business. Plus, it’s just the nice thing to do, and your customers will notice.
Each of these three tactics can be brought to life easily and quickly when you have a CRM and business automation software on your side. But if you don’t have a software you trust, don’t sweat it. Start your software search by watching a demo of the best sales CRM for small business. And if you’d like to delight your leads and customers even more, enroll in our Perfect Customer Lifecycle workshop so you can level up your customer experience from start to finish.
