We’re talking about engagement on the blog this month, focusing on three key groups: your prospects, customers and employees. Today we continue the discussion on your customers, a group that must be nurtured to inspire repeated purchases and long-term advocacy. Even when the first sale is closed, your work isn’t done.
Keeping the customer journey simple is often challenging for B2B marketers, thanks to the complex products and services offered by many companies in the space. Despite that, it’s crucial that the customer’s trip through the end of the sales funnel is streamlined as much as possible, even when dealing with large enterprise solutions.
To keep customers engaged, start at the end of the sales funnel and think backwards. Streamline and simplify each interaction with your company, so the customer’s experience is exactly what you want it to be: easy to understand, easy to commit and easy to close the deal. There are typically many places that present opportunity for simplification. Reducing complicated online forms to simple clicks, for example, will improve customer happiness over the long-term and keep them committed to your company.
Continue engaging customers even after they’ve purchased your product. Make sure your customer service or sales team has a plan in place to systematically reach out to customers. They can ask if they’re pleased with their purchase, if they need user support, or even if they were happy with your company’s sales process. More often than not, customers who are asked for their opinion are happy to provide feedback and in turn, feel like a valued member of your community. Perhaps most importantly, if your company’s service expires at some point and has to be renewed, it will be more natural for your sales team to invite them to repurchase if they’ve been in touch all along. Many customers will appreciate your attempt to make their lives easier by streamlining the renewal process.
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