Success After the Sale: Making Customer Delight a Priority

It's easy to think that once you convert a lead to a customer, your work is done and you can go on celebrating; but think again. The modern way of marketing is to follow the inbound methodology. The last phase of the inbound methodology emphasizes delighting your customers post sale. By turning your customers into evangelists, you can create a marketing force of loyal, passionate fans to grow your network of customers. When you delight your customers, you increase the momentum of your sale.

Inbound Methodology and The Buyer's Journey

While traditional methods of marketing call for outbound marketing that broadcasts your products or services to prospects, inbound marketing focuses on attracting your customers to you through resources that you provide. Resources like helpful content, targeted emails, and downloadable offers nurture the sales relationship and have a high conversion rate.The inbound methodology is composed of three stages: attract, engage, and delight.

Your customers also have a three part process, called the buyer's journey. The three stages of the buyer's journey are the Awareness, Consideration, and Decision stage. As a business, it is your job to nurture these customers through each stage, from prospect to customer.

An easy way to think about how the inbound methodology meets the needs of your buyer's journey is to think of the two as interconnected. A typical guideline aligns the stages of the buyer's journey and inbound methodology with the different departments of your business.

• Your marketing team will attract prospects during the awareness stage.
• Your sales team will engage leads during the consideration stage.
• Your service team delights your customers during and after the decision stage.

Each stage of the inbound methodology builds trust and credibility between yourself and your customers, and momentum for your business.

Why You Should Focus on Delighting Your Customers

Many businesses make the mistake of focusing a majority of their efforts on attracting and engaging their customers. You want to bring in new leads, and convert these leads to customers by engaging them with your content. It's true; sales drives the bus. But the delight stage is equally as important. And here's why:

• Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%.
• It is estimated that 80% of your future profits will come from 20% of your current customer base.
• It is 6 to 7 times more costly to acquire a new customer than it is to retain an existing one.

The fact is, that happy customers are valuable customers. When you have a customer that is completely delighted with their experience, you create a long-lasting relationship that spans much longer than a quick sale. Customer delight provides opportunities for your business far beyond the initial sale.

For example, say you're a financial advisor, and you've just helped guide 'Money Mark' through an investment. You provide the best resources, recommend the best products, and provide excellent customer service during your sale to Money Mark. After the sale, your service team continuously follows up with Money Mark, making sure he has peace of mind and guidance when he needs it. You also periodically send new opportunities to Money Mark that you think would fit his needs. He's completely floored by his experience. Not only does Money Mark feel inclined to review your company on Google, but he refers 2 of his colleagues to your company, and becomes a repeat customer for life.

While your investment services could have been enough to make Money Mark leave the review, your continuous engagement during the delight stage helped Money Mark go the extra mile with the referrals to his colleagues.

How Can You Delight Your Customers After the Sale?

Here are some helpful tips on how to continue to delight your customers after the sale is over:

• Make it easy with automation - If you don't think that you'll be able to dedicate the time and attention to stay in contact and delight your customers, take a look into HubSpot's Marketing Automation tools. You can create automated workflows that cater to every type of customer and will keep your business engaged with your customers after the sale is over.
• Consider a customer loyalty program - Customer loyalty programs are an innovative way to influence your customer's spending behavior in a mutually beneficial way. When you reward your customers for spending their money on your products and services, you encourage future sales, and build trust and loyalty with your customers. It's a customer delight win-win.
• Remember the important stuff - Anniversaries, birthdays, holidays...they're all personal dates that you can capitalize on in a genuine way to remind your customers that you care. Sending offers or just a friendly message on these days can up your customer delight factor.
• Referral programs deserve celebration too - An easy way to delight your customers is to have a referral program. Reward customers who refer back to you, and reward referrals for following through.
• Ask for feedback - Giving a customer the gratification of voicing their opinion about their experience with your brand is another customer delight tool you need to add to your toolbox. It's also important to note that Google reviews, will improve your local SEO rankings. Better yet, incentive reviews with rewards!
• Keep creating resources for your customers - Part of inbound marketing means creating resources that help solve the problems of your potential, and existing customers. Keep creating helpful content that will make you their trusted source for information.
• Upsell to your customers when it benefits them - Having someone look out for your best interests as a customer increases your trust in that brand. You can upsell products or services to your customers after your initial sale when you feel that they can truly benefit from them. 

No matter your industry, your customers' experiences are just as important as the revenue you bring in. Happy customers are valuable customers, and you can increase their value by going the extra mile after the sale is over. Viewing your sales process as a cycle, not a checklist, will ensure that your customers stay delighted every step of the way.

If you want to see double-digit growth, contact The Diamond Group. As a HubSpot Agency Partner, we believe in the inbound methodology. We are a digital marketing group that offers supercharged website design and inbound marketing solutions to maximize your businesses potential. Whether you need a custom web design, a full inbound marketing strategy, or just want double-digit growth, The Diamond Group has your back.