How would you gauge a customer’s experience during a business transaction? This can happen via a post purchase survey. You truly understand the buyer’s experience and expectation when you request for their in-moment feedback. They could be purchasing a product or a service, either offline or online. Either way, a survey can tell you if buyers would make repeat purchases in the future or become a churned customer. In this blog we will understand what is post purchase and how they can benefit an organisation and the customer alike.

What are post purchase surveys?

When it comes to understanding your customers’ opinions, post purchase surveys can be a valuable tool. These surveys are typically sent out after a customer has made a purchase, giving them the opportunity to provide feedback on their experience with your product or service. You can gather valuable insights into what their customers like and dislike about their offerings, as well as measure overall satisfaction and loyalty. However, in order to get the most effective feedback, it’s important to ask open-ended questions that allow for detailed responses. Additionally, timing is key – sending post purchase surveys too soon or too late can impact response rates and the accuracy of the feedback received.

Business Benefits of Post-Purchase Surveys

Post purchase customer feedback forms provide insights into customer feedback, satisfaction, and loyalty that can help you improve your products or services. Additionally, by showing your customers that you value their opinion and are committed to providing quality products/services, you create a positive brand image that can set you apart from competitors. Here are some noteworthy key pointers.

Personalization is the key to high customer retention

It is only via a survey you can comprehend and differentiate between a happy customer or an upset buyer. When you bring in authentic responses, you get the ability to personalize the experience for the shoppers. This will make every buyer feel heard and special , the next time they make a repeat purchase from the business.

Seek real-time feedback for business improvements

Publishing instant post purchase questionnaires, is a real time method of bringing rich insights for analysis. Customer satisfaction metrics such as net promoter score , CSAT scales are important but seeking qualitative data is also crucial. Ask open ended questions along with scaled metrics to bring candid responses. This will collectively highlight the need for a new feature, improvements in customer service protocols or better customer experience overall.

Bringing new insights from every patron or new customer

Deploying post purchase feedback surveys is a great way to show your customer base that you care about their experience, opinion and would like to enhance their shopping experience with the next purchase. Using the new insights, it is best to implement them and ask follow-up questions from your respondents. This reinforces the fact that businesses actively work towards offering a seamless customer experience. This is a win-win situation where you can build long term customer loyalty.

Gain competitive advantage in the market

The one way to stay on top of your marketing game is to listen and listen thoroughly. Organisations can use this post-purchase survey data to segment repeat purchasers and find out friction points in the customer journey. Marketers can also use this information to promptly act on grievances and close feedback loop.

Best Practices for Implementing Post Purchase Surveys

Some aspects of executing these types of surveys is to consider the language simplicity, incentivizing feedback, following up with buyers on certain experiences and upgrading customer support. Here are some best practices to note.

Keep it short and focused with simple language

Respondents are likely to finish off a questionnaire if it does not take much of their cognitive effort. Share direct and simple questions that will fulfill the goal of the question. Use simple language that does not contain jargon or abbreviations. This will encourage a greater completion rate and boost your response rate.

Use a mix of survey questions for more insights

Incorporate a variety of question types to capture different aspects of the customer experience. Use multiple-choice questions, rating scales such as NPS, CSAT or a customer effort score in addition to open-ended questions. A mix of quantitative and qualitative feedback is essential to gauge the true essence of a shopper’s experience.

Offer incentives to encourage greater survey responses

Even a small incentive or a reward can boost feedback while collecting user data via post purchase surveys. Rewards can be of multiple types depending on the target audience while keeping it appropriate. It could be a discount code, cashback offer, free samples with the current purchase bag, extra points to redeem, or even offering special pricing for the next purchase. Make sure the intent of the reward is mentioned upfront to manage buyer expectation.

Consider sending feedback form at the right time

A post purchase survey will only make sense when it is shared during checkout or after a financial transaction has been made. It can also be deployed at certain touchpoints when the buyer has had a good deal of exposure with your product or service. An example could be sharing a feedback form after completing a certain mileage for an automobile. The timing factor is applicable to most types of customer surveys.

Respond to feedback and attend to complaints

Buyer feedback is not merely for collecting analytics. Businesses can look at bad reviews or unhappy customers as an opportunity to offer a solution and gain a loyal customer. Once you have collected the survey responses, analyze the data to identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement. Use the feedback to enhance the customer experience, make necessary changes to your products or services, and address any specific issues raised by customers.

Set up post purchase surveys for success

When setting up post purchase surveys, it’s important to determine your goals and what specific information you want to gather from your customers. Here are some important pointers to note.

Choose a right survey tool

Build an effective post purchase surveys tool with a robust platform from Merren. Merren has customized templates that are conversational in nature. You can choose the number of questions and customize them according to the target audience. Analyze every data with our filters , all visible on the dashboard.

Choose automation for a seamless process

Avoid manual or paper based handling of data for an error-free experience. Integrate Merren with your CRM tool and automate your way to rich data collection methods. Merren can be used across industries including ecommerce, media industries, beauty industry and B2C markets to name a few.

Whatsapp, Facebook messenger apps and interactive emails

Use the messenger based platform of Whatsapp, Meta messenger, SMS/RCS to collect the fastest insights ever. With this , you can 10x your response rate and gain competitive advantage. Google also offers AMP interactive emails that are dynamic in nature. Customers can respond inside the email without going to a browser based platform.

Collect real time analytics

Using the Merren platform, collect super fast and rich insights all real time. All the data are available on the dashboard and it can be segregated as per filters chosen by the clients. You can also collect customer feedback in rich media and view this data such as audio clips, video and photos on the dashboard.

Deploy chatbot surveys in websites

It is time to upgrade using AI. Bring chatbot surveys to the equation and collect faster insights directly from your audience. You can deploy chatbots to take customer feedback at different checkpoints. This technology is fast, efficient and cost effective- fully automated.

Use data from post purchase surveys to make better marketing decisions

Your customers are surfing all over the internet including social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. A lot of purchasing decisions either made impulsively or made over time (for larger purchases namely a house or a car). Use purchasing feedback analytics to understand which demography your client comes from, their motivations, service expectations and user preferences. These will help you curate products and services better at various customer touchpoints.

While collecting post purchase surveys, it is also recommended that organisations start looking at deploying AI in their marketing processes. Check out our AI Survey Builder that lets you build a survey at super fast speed. You can also sign in to make changes to a generated survey. These feedback forms are ready to go.

If you want to learn how Merren can boost your post purchase survey metrics, sign up for our 14 day free trial here.