When it comes to customer management, Amazon and Netflix are typically regarded as the Holy Grail. You’ve probably experienced it yourself, and thought “Wow, they really know me.” But that doesn’t mean hyper-personalization like this is out of your reach. As an eCommerce merchant, you have a wealth of data at your fingertips to put to work.
You just have to use it, along with a few well-timed and informed processes.
Automate in a personal way
Automation doesn’t have to mean everything feels automated. You can use it to create very personalized touches to your customer management processes. For example, personalize invoices based on previous purchase history and frequency to let customers know you’re paying attention to how often they shop with you.
If you’re a ShippingEasy customer, we recommend using Shipping Rules to personalize confirmation emails so they provide timely and predictive offers based on purchase history. Not only will your customers feel like you’re reading their mind, you could see a nice increase in sales. On the other end of that, use automation to welcome first time buyers with a special message or offer to really drive home a newfound loyalty.
Use a mix of manual entry and automation
Machines can learn a lot very quickly, but there’s one advantage we still have on them—personal experiences. When these personal experiences are noted on customer profiles, they can be used to take relationships up a notch. ShippingEasy’s Customer Management platform allows you to add tags, internal notes, and discussions to create a holistic view of your customers. You can note likes, dislikes, specific conversations, and the like. If you create a consistent methodology, this can even be used as a customer segmentation metric.
Everyone loves to be remembered. Anniversaries or purchase milestones are a great way to celebrate (and automate) the relationship you have with your customers. Want to stand out to your biggest customers? Send a personalized special offer or priority access to those with the highest lifetime value to make sure they know you’re thinking of them.
Use purchase data to make customers feel special
Something you’ve definitely seen Amazon and Netflix do (and it has probably worked): make recommendations in your email offers based on purchase history or specific items bought. The below example came to my inbox after I purchased a vegetable steamer—not the most exciting thing. But the seller not only told me how to care for the product, they gave me tips for making my veggies taste better and recommended cooking times. This wasn’t something the seller had to do, but it was a very simple follow-up email that added value to my purchase. And it was likely easily automated.
Purchase history can be used in multiple ways. Celebrate a new product launch and create a segmented list of those who’ve purchased a similar or complementary item. Let them know you’re thinking about them since they might be interested in this new item. Use multiple layers of segmentation to really personalize the experience for customers, and they’ll thank you with repeat business.
What makes ShippingEasy’s Customer Management technology powerful is the ability to pull data from your stores and shipping history, a treasure trove of customer data that you can use to get to know your customers on a granular level.
Want to give it a test drive? Set up a demo with one of our Shipping Experts and we’ll show you how it all works together!
Rob Zaleski
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