How to Sell Anything Online

CHAPTER 21Retention strategy #1: How to create an exceptional customer experience

Customer experience is more important than any paid marketing activity.

I want you to stop thinking of the customer experience as an operational function of your business, and start thinking of it as a marketing function. Parts of your business, such as customer service, dispatch times, and your returns process, are actually more important than any advertising or social media content. Yet, we don't focus on them every day because we think of them as operational in nature.

Imagine if every single customer touchpoint created an exceptional experience for your customers where they were made to feel important, all their questions were answered immediately and their objections were satisfyingly handled. This is what I want you to focus on when it comes to repeat purchases.

To create an exceptional experience, we are going to focus on three elements of your business: customer service touchpoints, dispatch and delivery, and returns and exchanges.

Customer service touchpoints

Geedup Co, one of my favourite clothing brands, uses customer service as its main marketing function, above paid ads, email marketing and SEO. I once heard the co-founder, Jake Paco, speak on stage about how they talk to their customers on social media. On their Instagram account, they get hundreds of messages per day (sometimes thousands when they launch a new collection). Their team not only reply to every single message, but ...