Follow ups

[pendelton]

Do you follow up after the sale?

A quick email, a post card, or a call, depending on the value and purchase method, to ask them how the product is working for them shows them that you care about their happiness. This can mean repeat business.

A good time frame is 15 to 60 days.

You do not necessarily want to use this as a sales pitch, but you can add that if they need anything else from your business you will be more than happy to continue the relationship. You can use this to elicit testimonials for the product or service asking them to please let you know what they thought of the item and service that you provided. A testimonial can be worth several repeat customers.

At the end you can provide the promo code for a discount for their next purchase, or offer free shipping, which ever looks better for your product.

Good luck and happy sales

[Nazreen]

Yes, I also believe that a good follow-up is very good for business. For myself, I always take note of the birthdays of my customers and always remember to give them birthday cards. You don't know how happy they feel when they receive a card from you. I'm an independent wealth management executive by the way (I don't like being called financial adviser hahaha). I also make it a point to inform my clients if their investments are doing well or not especially now with the threat of a one out of four chance that there'll be a global recession.

Sending birthday cards and doing a yearly review of my clients insurance and/or investments with me is also some kind of a follow-up which makes them know that I'm putting them first and not just there to earn a commission. If your clients feel that you care for them, they'd be your customers for life and will even get a decent number of referrals from them :)

[Fergal]

The importance of good after sales care cannot be under-estimated. Many businesses fail because their competitors offer better after sales care than they do.

Many of the large car companies target their ads at their existing customers. The objective of these ads is not to sell to first time purchasers but to reinforce the belief in their existing customers that they have made the right product choice, so that when they buy next time round, they will stick with the same brand.

When you make a follow up call to your customers, this is an excellent time to ask for referrals. Ask your customers if they know anyone else that might benefit from or be interested in your product or service.

[Nazreen]

Yes, a follow-up is a also considered an after-sales service. When asking for referrals from your existing customers during your follow-up, I would like to add that you might need to offer some incentives or referral fees. "Law of reciprocity" dictates that we need to offer our customers something so that they'll be more inclined to refer prospects to us.