Congrats! You’ve just made an online sale, giving your bank balance a small nudge north and another order to process. Great work everyone, job done right? NOPE, not by a long stretch. What about retaining that customer; you know customer retention? That thing no one ever really talks about much. BUT, is just as vital, as acquiring that customer in the first place. What if we told you that 80% of your company’s future revenue will come from 20% of your existing customers? Who , shocked? (Jao, 2014) So what’s the point of this? Well QIS was shocked, and we’ve gone about rectifying ways we can improve our own customer retention. QIS sat down and came up with our own strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. We realised there were many areas where we were coming up short. Through this process we documented what areas needed improvement, and how to go about mending these issues. However talking to other small businesses, we quickly realised we aren’t the only one’s failing to recognising these shortcomings. Thus we present you with… The E-Sellers Guide to Customer Retention That isn’t merely QIS’ own opinions and learnings. It also includes thorough research on the topics covered throughout the whole process; the checkout, delivery and the follow-up. We’re launching a 5 part series to break down the whole guide, to give you a taste of what’s in it. The E-Sellers Guide is FREE, and you can get a copy right here! We recommend you do, as the guide goes much more in-depth, on the wide range of topics covered. Who’s this for? We only recommend you read this if you want to improve the post-purchase experience for YOUR customers, we don’t want to waste your valuable time. People reading this should be serious about wanting to increase their overall customer retention at their business. And if that’s you, then this is the perfect place to start! This is primarily for people running an online company that generates leads or sales, principally for e-commerce businesses. Right now, let’s start with the first step in the customer retention journey, the… Order Confirmation Page You need to make sure that the page after your customer hits “place order”, is clear and reassures them that their order has been placed and is in safe hands. Why? You don’t want them to be anxious or confused if their order has gone through or not. A failure to do this can result in buyer’s remorse and that’s the last thing you need as soon as they’ve placed their order. This is really the start of the journey for retaining your customer, so it’s necessary you give a great first impression. A great way to achieve this is address the customer’s emotional needs, with how you design the page. This is done by using techniques in neuroscience marketing. All of this is discussed in greater detail, inside the guide. Contents of the page Items to consider putting on your confirmation page are ways your new customer can stay in contact with you. Whether it’s a newsletter or social media channels, it is a great idea to keep in touch, whatever way possible to keep reminding them you’re there! An image of what they’ve just bought, or if there’s the possibility they’re buying multiple products, then a more general image could be necessary. Make sure the image has a positive vibe; this person has just bought from you! We don’t want them forming any negative connotations with your brand. The 2nd article in the series will be dedicated to the order confirmation email, and what are the essentials when it comes to writing one. OR, if you’d rather not wait, you can go straight to the E-Sellers guide and download all the information right now for free. Either way I’ll talk to you soon!