Improve eCommerce Customer Experience with Handwritten Notes
Improve eCommerce Customer Experience with Handwritten Notes
In the world of eCommerce, it's all about customer experience. From order confirmation to product delivery, your customers want to feel appreciated and valued — they should be your focus from start to finish.
And don't think that just because someone has already made a purchase, you can switch off and focus on other things! You should be constantly working to enrich their experience - whether it's a message thanking them for their order or a handwritten note in with the package - there are many opportunities for you as an eCommerce business owner to make an impression on your customers.
In this blog post, we'll look at how you can improve customer experience with the strategic use of handwritten notes.
What Is the eCommerce Customer Experience?
The term "eCommerce customer experience" has been coined to encompass all customer interactions - both online and offline — from the moment they learn about your business for the first time to the day their first order arrives at their door. This includes emails and social media messages, it also covers more traditional interactions such as phone and email conversations, as well as face-to-face marketing.
Customer service plays a critical role. Your eCommerce customer experience is only as good as each customer's last interaction, so your service people need to be on their game at all times. Additionally, you need to pay attention to your website's layout, load speeds, mobile friendliness, product descriptions, and every other aspect of the user experience. Finally, ordering should be easy, shipping should be fast and convenient, and returns shouldn't make your customers want to pull out their hair.
Assuming you have all of that taken care of, let's learn how handwritten notes improve your eCommerce customer experience.
Why Use Handwritten Notes?
eCommerce is fast, convenient, and gives consumers access to almost anything they could want to buy. But it isn't personal. The face-to-face experience they get going to a brick-and-mortar store is hard to replicate online.
The solution? Bring back that personal touch. Handwritten notes are perfect for this because they convey a message of thoughtfulness, heartfelt appreciation, and attention to detail.
Handwritten notes are personal in much the same way that a conversation bridges two people. The notes handwriting is a piece of the sender, one that they put effort into. Unlike an email, where the sender has one chance to get it right, a handwritten note is more likely to be interpreted in the way that was intended.
Consider how you'd feel if you got a handwritten letter from a company's president — likely you'd feel pretty special. They took time out of their busy day to write you a letter. Now compare that to the feeling you get from a generic company email. It's night and day.
Use Simply Noted to Automate Your Handwritten Notes
Handwritten notes are powerful and cost-effective, but they aren't easy to use. They require significant time and manpower to write them at scale. Unless you use Simply Noted. Our fleet of advanced handwriting robots can send thousands of handwritten notes, whenever you need them, which means you can spend more time focusing on other aspects of your business.
Most eCommerce businesses have their CRM tightly integrated with their website and ordering process. You can tie in handwritten notes just as easily. Our various software integrations allow you to trigger convincing handwritten notes from within your normal workflows. If you can send an email, you can send a potent handwritten note just as simply.
SEE ALSO: 6 Game-Changing Customer Service Ideas
How Handwritten Notes Can Improve Your eCommerce Experience
The difference between sending an email and sending a handwritten note is the same as sending just another direct mail piece versus sending something that was individually personalized. Personalization makes people feel special, unique, and important.
eCommerce businesses can use this concept to improve their customer experience in several ways:
Personalized Greeting
This is possibly the easiest way to improve customer experience through handwritten notes. Send each new customer a handwritten welcome note. This sets the relationship off on the right foot and demonstrates your commitment to personalized customer service. This is an excellent opportunity for small eCommerce businesses to stand out from their competitors by offering something unique and memorable.
Free Gifts
This is another way you can stand out by offering free gifts along with other items the customer ordered. Depending on the type of items you're selling, these could be physical or digital. You can offer coupons, discounts, pre-orders, or even early access to new products.
Choose something that will fit in a handwritten note. This way the customer will remember your business when they decide to make use of one of these offers. Simply Noted offers automated handwritten notes that can include inserts. You can even buy gift cards with your order and we'll add them into each envelope.
Thank You Notes
After making an order, the customer has every right to expect it to be handled promptly and efficiently. They should receive their order within the time frame you promised them, but they might not always know what to expect up until the point where it arrives at their doorstep.
That's where you can shine with detailed thank you notes. Let them know what their order means to you and how much you appreciate their business. If they had any issues, you can address them here and thank them for their patience. Perhaps your customer had questions about their order or maybe there were issues you needed to work through to ensure they got the item as soon as possible. Let them know what happened to their order and how it was resolved.
Handwritten thank you notes provide a personalized button at the end of their eCommerce experience. They reinforce your brand and leave the customer with a positive feeling toward your company.
Keeping the Relationship Fresh
Some customers will order from you consistently, while others are cyclical. Others may fall away and never return. To keep this churn at a minimum, check in with absent customers occasionally. Handwritten notes are the perfect medium.
These notes accomplish two things when they come back to you. First, they let the customer know that you're still around and thinking about them. Secondly, they remind your customer about your brand. For those that liked you but gradually slipped away, this gentle reminder can provoke new orders.
Try handwritten notes with your customers and see your eCommerce customer experience blossom.
