Sellers who engage in cross-border e-commerce know that sometimes the cost of developing a new customer is equivalent to maintaining 5 to 6 old customers, and in a mature and competitive market, it is even more difficult for companies to win new customers, because we have a lot of “homework” to do in the early stage. Therefore, many cross-border sellers will choose to maintain old customers. Once a company establishes good customer loyalty, its sales costs will be greatly reduced.
Customer loyalty can be measured from three aspects: willingness to repurchase, basic behavior (recent purchase time, purchase frequency, purchase quantity, etc.), and derivative behavior (public recommendation, word of mouth, customer introduction, tipping, etc.).
Customer loyalty in the cross-border e-commerce environment can be defined as the preference, trust, and even attachment of cross-border customers to the goods or services provided by cross-border shopping websites even under various stimuli that may induce conversion behavior, and then resist other competitors, and produce a series of behaviors under this psychological guidance, including repeated purchases, recommendations to others, providing positive word of mouth, and willingness to pay higher prices.
Maintaining old customers and building customer loyalty, the more common service strategies include the following aspects.
1. Greet old customers regularly
In order to maintain a good “communication” with customers, many cross-border sellers will send an email or some cards on the customer’s birthday or some festivals, which can well transform the transaction relationship into a friendship relationship and help follow-up.
2. Give priority to replying to old customers
Emails from old customers must be replied to on the same day. If some problems are more complicated and require cooperation from multiple parties and cannot be replied on the same day, you must also inform the customer: “Your message has been received. It is being processed.” (Your email has been received and is being processed.) It is emphasized that even so, the reply to the customer must not exceed three days.
3. Ensure the quality of the goods of old customers
The quality of the goods must be strictly inspected to ensure the quality, because only if the quality link is done well, the company can develop better, and customers will buy high-quality and low-priced goods and will repurchase. Ensuring the quality of the goods of old customers is more conducive to the formation of a good reputation for goods and brands, and a benign “ecosystem” will be formed over time.
4. Regularly visit old customers
Return visits refer to the customer service staff’s planned follow-up services to old customers, which can be return visits by email to obtain feedback on recent product quality and services, as well as some improvement suggestions, etc. To let customers know that the seller is really doing practical things, in order to make improvements after understanding the customer’s ideas, so as to provide better quality services in the future.