A few years back the definition of marketing was constrained to creating and promoting value for customers. The goal was to bring in more customers to generate more sales. However, the definition has been augmented in recent years, and tech marketing has followed suit.
In the current dynamic and cutthroat buyer ecosystem, the overall customer experience (CX) is largely dependent on post-sales support aka after-sales support, which is essential for sustaining upselling, customer satisfaction, cross-selling and generating long-term Return on Investment (ROI).
Moreover, customer expectations are driving up as the demand for better goods and faster service increases. Everybody is looking for convenience and a more individualised experience. Therefore, brands and businesses need to buckle up and be proactive to keep pace.
According to LinkedIn’s B2B Technology Buying Survey – EMEA 20/21, which they named “The Age of Agility”, 56% of the customers choose their vendors based on their post-sales support. Such insights demonstrate the need for innovative, more customer-focused tactics to be incorporated into Tech marketing.
Furthermore, in a study done by the Sitel group, nearly 74% of consumers would ditch a business if they receive an unsatisfactory customer experience. While 30% said that they’d share their experience on social media. So, the data is pretty much clear. After-sales support is the point of differentiation in your marketing journey.
However, despite its conspicuous significance, there is a lingering gap when it comes to strong leadership in the after-sales experience landscape. So, the market for after-sales support is largely untapped. Hence, there’s an undeniable opportunity for tech marketers out there to go beyond customer expectations and solidify their brand’s identity.
Today’s tech buyers demand that vendors go one step further in terms of providing ROI and carrying on to offer value. If you stick to the following strategies, your business is bound to gain advocates and better word-of-mouth marketing. Consequently, you’ll see an increase in sales, retention rates, acquisition costs, and acquisition spending.
Level up conventional customer support
After the deployment of the product or service, the emphasis on providing ROI should persist to guarantee that customers continue to benefit the most from the good or service. Give your sales and customer support teams the right tools they need to assist customers to get the most out of the goods and services they purchase. Additionally, Incorporate your sales initiatives that run parallel with the data-based marketing advice.
Listen and be responsive
Businesses should seek additional ways to demonstrate their value along with assisting customers with problems directly related to their goods and services. This strategy calls for responsiveness, which may be achieved by paying close attention to consumer needs, developing greater empathy for customers, using customer data, and leading head-to-head in the present competitive environment.
Additionally, you need to make sure that your business/organisation aligns with the value of a positive customer experience. Further insights from the aforementioned Sitel study, reveal that 49% of the respondents said that they would likely leave a positive review/comment of a brand online, or on social media if they had a good CX with the brand. Not to mention the popularity of product videos which serve as reviews or recommendations for the general public today.
Manage the implementation time
In order to streamline the onboarding process, marketing and sales should play a more active role. Marketers have an imperative part in optimising the time-to-value in the whole implementation process. That being said, prior to signing on the dotted line, knowledge sharing is important for a transparent experience between businesses and customers. The marketing team should keep the customers updated about the product’s features, implementation timelines and results.
The sales team should accordingly start focusing on which areas should be given priority after implementation. This not only guarantees that expectations are met but also that the most crucial operation may start working as soon as possible.
Gain the Customer’s trust
According to a survey from 2018, only 3% of participants thought marketers were reliable. As a marketer, it’s never been harder to gain the trust of customers because the line between businesses and customers has been blurred irrevocably, and today’s consumer is more aware than ever.
People now anticipate the same degree of support and individualised attention everywhere they shop, as tech titans like Amazon and Flipkart have raised the bar quite high for customer service, for better or for worse.
However, that doesn’t imply that small and medium-sized businesses can’t keep up. With the right strategies and unconditional customer support, it’s not that hard to gain the buyer’s trust. But even more importantly there has been an untapped growth opportunity- Your customers themselves.
People today would rather read your customer’s testaments first before checking your cold emails, website content or social media. Therefore, developing a positive impression with word-of-mouth marketing for your brand, especially from your customers, is the name of the game.
How to build an effective after-sales support strategy?
Customers value their connections with brands as long as its mutual. Though it is not that easy to retain satisfied customers but is no rocket science either. One of the best steps that one can take to tap into this opportunity is to build and deploy a comprehensive post-sales support strategy.
After-sale support ought to be the norm in your customer experience scheme. Therefore, everyone must take responsibility for CX and support from the very beginning. In order to put up an excellent after-sales strategy, you must perform some challenging organisational and procedural work.
Additionally, you must evaluate and expand your existing methods. You need to tackle a few burning questions such as: What are your current CX policies? Do you have a dedicated team for after-sales support or not? What rules do you have regarding shipping, returns, customer satisfaction, data privacy, etc.? Are they in favour of the customers? How many of your customers appreciate strong and excellent after-sales support?
In short, A few key steps to focus on are as follows:
- Bring more clarity in explaining how you assist your clients for all parties.
- Research well and empathise with the customer’s pain points.
- Give them the satisfaction of knowing you are to help by incorporating 24/7 Live support.
- Make it simple and straightforward for your customers to contact the support team.
- Make sure that your customers are aware that they have access to all the self-guided resources via online support groups or forums.
Bottomline: Good post-sales support is good marketing
With the constantly growing demand for products and services, marketing and sales need to go hand-in-hand. Gone are the days when these were independent streams. There’s no clear blue water between the two in today’s economy. Things are much mushier now. Consequently, a collaboration between teams is not only appreciated but it’s become a necessity.
Everyone now in the team needs to participate in the customer experience process, which is a thorough approach that spans the entire journey. At every point of contact, customers should receive what they require and more, and marketing is at the centre of this.
With a great after-sales assistance plan you will have something that not a lot of players have got in the market – Your customer’s trust and retention. Additionally, it will pay off greatly for you at the top of the marketing funnel. Also, one of the best marketing tools available is case studies, which can demonstrate customer success and pertinent proof points. Furthermore, there are other methods to make customers feel important and strengthen such ties like collaborating on marketing schemes.
According to the most recent study by LinkedIn on the Enlightened Technology Buyer, 70% of decision-makers expressly discuss products and providers with their peers both online and offline, reiterating the importance of customer feedback on new business technology purchases. now is a good time to invest your time and effort in feedback surveys. This implies that prospective clients will learn about their experiences and utilise this knowledge, whether it is positive or negative, to research and compare different vendors.
Customers who earlier engaged with content and personalisation now demand testimonials from satisfied consumers as the first step. Every engagement a consumer has with your business, from their first impression to their most recent encounter with a customer service agent, affects how they perceive and project your brand to the rest of the world. So, the solution is hidden in plain sight. You need a conspicuous marketing plan that augments your post-sales support strategy.
All you need to do is reach out and grab the opportunity.