Why and how does it affect the customer relationship?
In order to understand what after-sales follow-up is, how it affects you and your customers, and what constitutes an effective after-sales follow-up strategy, it is necessary to prepare an after-sales follow-up strategy.
What is after-sales follow-up?
Post-sale follow-up is when you, as a salesperson, contact your customer after a successful sale with the aim of achieving a few key goals:
- Making your customer feel valued: By contacting your customer after completing a sale, you communicate to your customer that they were not just another entry on a spreadsheet or a name on a call list. You give them the feeling that you care and that you sincerely want to be of help to them.
- Ensuring your customer’s needs are met by your product or service: While your customers may share many common challenges or pain points, their individual needs are still unique. By ensuring that the solution you’ve offered helps them solve the problems and challenges they had, you communicate to your customer that you’re actively invested in their success and that you stand out in your customer’s mind as a genuine source of help.
- Answering any questions or concerns your customer may have: Even if the sale was successful, the implementation of your product or service may give rise to unexpected problems or questions. For your customer, this can quickly turn an exciting purchase into another frustrating headache for them to deal with. In your follow-up, ask if there are any questions or concerns your customer has had with your solution. Even if everything is running smoothly and your customer is still excited, make sure they know you’re always available to answer questions and be a constant source of help if problems arise.
- Understanding how you might be of additional service to your customer: During your follow-up and as you continue to build your relationship with your customer, always look for opportunities where you might be of additional service to them. For example, your customer may rave about how much peace of mind they’ve had since becoming part of your company’s fleet maintenance program, but they may casually mention how nice it would be if the cars’ interiors looked and worked just as smoothly as the car’s interior does. By actively listening, you can seize the opportunity to remind them about your company’s car care service that might address the pain point your customer just mentioned. From the customer’s perspective, they notice how attentively you listen and how invested you are in being a continuous source of help.
How does after-sales follow-up affect customers?
Following up on a sale isn’t just an exercise in polite service: It’s a tried and tested practice that has a measurable and profound impact on the experience your customers have with both you as the seller and your organization as a whole.
Customers feel like they matter and that you care about their needs: Long wait times with terrible jazz music, rude representatives, and constantly being put to the test by businesses – We’ve all had terrible customer experiences. Unfortunately, companies and salespeople who go above and beyond to make the customer feel cared for are experiences that are becoming increasingly rare. By going the extra mile to make sure your customers know you’re always there, always actively listening, and always ready to help, you make them feel cared for. With you, they don’t feel like they’re just a number – they feel like a valued customer who has found a quality source of help and information in you.
Customers become more open to your suggestions: By following up with your customers, you communicate to them that you are actively interested and involved in ensuring that their needs have been met and that you have solved their problem. In today’s sales environment, where negative or upsetting experiences are more the standard than the exception, you stand out as someone who is a source of genuine help for your customers’ personal or business needs.
