Follow-up can be one of the hardest and most challenging social marketers have. Let’s dive into the 11 ways to follow up with customers and prospects to save you time, work efficiently, and have more opportunities to make sales in your business.
Why You Should Have a Solid Follow-up Plan for Your Business
This would seem like a no-brainer, however, following up with customers and prospects is an often missed step in the sales journey. While never intentional, customer follow-up is usually an afterthought but having a solid follow-up strategy can provide sales opportunities that we like to call low-hanging fruit. These are warm leads and much like fruit hanging low on a tree, customers are primed and ripe for the picking! They already know you and can be ready to say “yes!” to just about anything you offer.
A successful follow-up strategy means you don’t have to stress at the end of a month when you’re $100 away from your sales goal. It means you constantly have a pipeline of customers who will more than likely answer your email, phone call, or text and have something on their list to order from you. It means you don’t have to focus on always acquiring new customers, but rather can rely on your existing customers to boost your monthly goals. With successful and effective follow-up, you can address problems from customers more quickly, deepen relationships, and improve your overall customer experience.
Now that we’ve explored why you need a follow-up strategy, let’s talk about all the ways to follow up with customers.
Ways to Follow Up with Customers
Send a “Thank You” note – One of the most popular ways to follow up with customers, sending a thank you note either with your product or soon after is a great way to set the tone for the entire customer experience. You can also send an email or a thank you text which opens the door to follow-up further.
Ask for a review or feedback – In today’s social media age, reviews often make or break a business. People tend to rely a lot on reviews before they buy so customer feedback and reviews are critical to your success. BONUS TIP: You can also use feedback and reviews as social proof to share with your broader audience to deepen your credibility and your expertise.
Get started video or infographic – Does your product have a bit of a learning curve? Embed a video in a QR code or email a link with instructions on tips and tricks on how to use your product. Add contact information so your customers can get in touch with you in case they have questions or issues. If there isn’t much to learn about your product, send a short tip sheet with all the ways your customer can use your product.
Send offers or coupons – If you’re regularly sending emails to keep in touch with your customers, this is easy. After your customer has experienced their new purchase and you’ve done all of the above, send a special offer or coupon to encourage a repeat purchase. Be careful sending offers too frequently; send at a frequency that makes sense or you run the risk of your customer marking your emails as spam and that’s no good.
Send complimentary product recommendations – Have you ever received an email with a title similar to “Hey, if you liked <insert product>, you’ll love this <insert complimentary product>”? This is a genius form of follow-up that shows your customer you’re listening, you care, AND is a form of follow-up. It opens up a dialogue for you to continue collecting information about your customer’s buying preferences and learning more about them. You can also send value-added blog posts or videos you think would be helpful to them.
Send happy birthday or anniversary notes – Collecting birthday and other milestone dates from your customer is one of the easiest ways to follow up with customers. It’s a low-risk and high-value activity that lets your customers know you care and are thinking of them. Anniversary wishes commemorating when they became your customer is another unique way to not only follow up but also is a great way to show appreciation for your customers.
Ask your customers to connect with you on social media – Expanding your social media network is an excellent strategy to use to build prospects and keep connected to your customers. Inviting them to follow your social media pages allows you to begin interacting with your customers, taking follow-up to a new level.
Check-in – Sometimes we overthink follow-up and it doesn’t have to be fancy and process-oriented. A simple text, email, or phone call to say “I’m just checking in to see how things are going with <insert product/service>?”. Follow-up doesn’t always have to be about a sale; the goal is to keep YOU in the forefront of your customers’ minds whenever they see your product. You want them to say “She’s MY consultant”.
Follow-up doesn’t have to be difficult but it’s easy to miss when you don’t have a solid plan to consistently do it. These ways to follow up with customers make it easy so you can focus on creating more income-generating opportunities and activities. Make sure to save this post to your favorites for easy reference!
