Blustream's After-Sale Product Experience Blog

Connect with Customers Through After-Sale Product Engagement

Written by Blustream | Mar 24, 2021 4:00:00 AM
There has been a seismic shift in the retail landscape.
 
In a world where Amazon reigns supreme, customers today have it easy. They know what they want, search for it online and can find the lowest price in just a few clicks. More often than not, they’re choosing the big box brand that has outpriced its competition. In just two days, the customer who initially wanted a pair of Nike sneakers now has a fresh new pair of Amazon Essentials at their doorstep. How can brands compete with that?
 
This commoditization of the consumer goods market has forced brands to find new ways of connecting with consumers in a highly competitive product market. In the pre-sale stage of the buyer’s journey, brands and marketing teams are scrambling to build strategic campaigns and offer incentives that will entice customers to buy. Brands now have to find a way to truly win a customer over and promote the uniqueness of their product in other ways in order to stand out.
 
After-Sale Opportunity
 
With today’s extreme commoditization of products, the true differentiator will be what brands can do after the sale by offering a long-term customer value proposition. Today, the “pre-sale” landscape is crowded and commoditized and no longer allows companies to differentiate, create special relationships, or build brand equity. The race is on to capture the market and captivate customers in a more innovative way.
 
The rise of e-commerce and the need for an online presence has accelerated in the retail landscape due to COVID-19, and it’s safe to say we won’t turn back to brick-and-mortar store shopping alone. Brands now have to do something to enhance their E-commerce offerings, which have been commoditized by making it “too easy” to find and compare products online.
 
The new battleground is in the after-sale opportunity. Brands can now transform themselves by providing a connected, more personalized product experience after the sale—one that can be promoted during the pre-sale stage as an added bonus to their product offering.
 
Taking Advantage of Product Touchpoints After the Sale
 
Every product has an after-sale lifecycle. Today, brands have an arsenal of informative content that provides the answers to customer questions, but they lack the resources and technology to share this content with product owners at the exact right time during this lifecycle.
 
That’s where product touchpoints come in. Product touchpoints can deliver better customer experiences following the sale.
 
Take a new puppy for example. The first touchpoint may be an automatic 24-hour notification on what to expect in those first days. This may be followed up by an educational video on how to best set up puppy pads inside, with a link to a purchase recommendation for those pads. That touchpoint would be based on time, however other touchpoints may be the weather, customer usage, source data, among others.
 
The stages of this “after-sale lifecycle” that provide the opportunity for customer engagement with product touchpoints include:
  • Onboard – where consumers learn about breaking in their product and improving their utilization with it
  • Enjoy – where consumers use and enjoy their product and the product performs as expected
  • Maintain – where consumers either maintain care for their product directly from the brand and their recommendations or use third-party service providers to keep their products performing optimally

 

Companies that have a connected experience with their customers following the sale create new cross-sell/up-sell revenue-generating opportunities. These brands can sway customers pre-sale by promoting the after-sale experience and then stay connected with after-sale product engagement. It’s a win-win for brands ready to connect with the customers throughout the pre-and-post product lifecycle. 

The Blustream Difference

Blustream’s after-sale product engagement platform offers companies an easy-to-use SaaS-based product touchpoint engine that creates unprecedented, high-value brand-to-customer relationships. 

Brands can leverage this engagement by managing product touchpoints with data that triggers personalized actions through tips, alerts, and purchase recommendations, resulting in:

 

  • Better customer experiences measured in excellent CSAT and NPS scores
  • Higher retention and lower churn measured in higher multiples of Lifetime Value
  • Increased revenue and profits from relevant cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and significantly lower cost of sales
  • Insight into conversation rates of notifications, alerts, and purchase recommendations, all on one dashboard
  • Stronger future product strategies based on real-world-data captured directly from the after-sale customer experience. 

 

Blustream connects companies with their customers through after-sale product engagement.  We help companies with the transition into the e-commerce world to stand out among competitors by reaching consumers right from the start of product ownership. 

The brands that go the distance will take advantage of the after-sale space and digitally transform how they know exactly where customers’ products are in their lifecycle journey.  This will drive customer lifetime value and forge relationships that are connected, loyal, and more profitable for years to come.

Blustream creates these touchpoints with an end-to-end solution that can help bring products to life through after-sale engagement. 


Schedule a demo to learn how Blustream can immediately connect you with your customers. Get started today!
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