We're running some online stores, wholesale and retail. Customers find us and place orders, then we send the packages out. Before they get the packages, we can communicate with them by emails and they seems to be happy to update me if they get it or not. It's puzzled that when they get it, they keep silent and never answer our emails again. We just want to know how could they find our site and how to improve our customer service. Why this happened? Any suggestion?
I actually find that it's a good and bad thing that they do not communicate after a sale is made. Communication usually lasts in between as the customer is wary if your business is legitimate and if they're actually going to receive their product. After sale communication is hard to come by. Good thing about it is that the customer must be happy with the product they've purchased, thus not needing to contact you again for troubleshooting or for a refund. However, not receiving feedback on the transaction makes it difficult for the business to improve on where they're lacking. Perhaps 7-14 days after the transaction has finished, send a customer assistant review or survery, with fields about how they felt you dealt with them and what-not. Even better, include a hard copy of this in the packaging.
if you want to know how they find you, just put some tracking sources on your site that logs visitors like awstat is a good one or google webmaster tools
Offer a 10% or 20% off, or $15 off next purchase of $50 or more coupons to previous customers. Offer it once every few weeks, as to not get annoying. I guarantee you will see return customers if a) your product is in demand often by the same people (such as, toothbrushes, batteries, CDs, etc), and b) you have a legit, happy customer base whose orders have been smooth and nice.
OR, offer incentives for feedback (mail us back this form, get a reward, or receive a coupon, etc etc etc).
That life and we must accept it. By the way,i was encounter the same problem with you last time. I have tried several method to make them contact with me after they have buy the product and i found out that by offering them more freebies such as free product sample to them and they will happily reply your email
ditto, By asking them to answer questions, you are trying to take some of their time, which is valuable. You must compensate them for their time. How about something like this? "Get 10% off your next purchase by answering a few questions about our service so we can serve you better in the future."
you could do a coupon, but why not give them instant gratification? Depending on your product you could write up a short tutorial or ebook on your product or a related item. It would need to be info that is not readily avilable to the customer, but that they could benefit from. Perhaps it is just info that they may find interesting. Tell them that if they complete the survey that you will give them this, then forward them to the download link upon survey completing. A coupon is truely a great idea, but they may never purchase from you again, so what kind of motivation is that? You could also offer to send them something. Some sort of Digital Product would be best, or give them a choice among 2 or 3 things. If that fails or won't work for your product then offer to send them some little trinket. Something that is not of great expense to you but that may be of some value to them based on the product that they purchased. It would need to be cost effective. Something perhaps that only costs you a small amount and is easy to mail. This would also tell you who is your loyal customers. You could capture their email during this process and send special offers to only those who completed the survey. If they took that much trouble they are likely to buy from you again. As mentioned above a hard copy in the package is ideal, if possible. With Prepaid postage or a website to complete the survey. Use your imagination here and you can really get some great feedback and improve your average revenue per customer. My two cents. MAtt
Some sort of mystery can't hurt, either; for example, "Give us feedback on your recent shopping experience with us, and become a part of the beta trial of our newest project - [blank]" or "see the newest lineup of 2009 and become eligible for a free [blank]". I think a raffle isn't a bad idea, either.
Just thought for this. Claim your $$ for the next purchase after completing the 10 questions to help us improve your service and this way you would see more participation probably.
Hey, I can't agree more. After reading your reply word by word, I have to quote it without removing a single word. It's very useful. I'm considering create some tutorials about using laser pointer and laser safety related to my products. Thanks a lot. You're genius.
because they do not need you or your services anymore at that point of time ... many people are too lazy to reply email unnecessarily unless they need you again. if they need your service again they will reply for sure ...
If your keeping in contact with your customers and they're not repeat buying from you then theres something wrong with your product or your site.......
Jordan, we can't keep contacting them as it may bother the customers. BTW: your 4dropshipping seems be down.