As a business, the act of your customer finding, interacting with, and remaining loyal to your business is what a good chunk of your time should be spent analyzing, working on, and perfecting. In essence, giving it a regular Health Check.

To help you with that process, we’ve put together a list of things you should make sure you’re doing, and some other things you probably shouldn’t be doing, to ensure your customer’s journey with your business is successful and that they come back eager for more.

DISCOVERY & WELCOME

Do:

• Give a little guidance to new customers by showcasing your top sellers or featured items (which could just happen to be products with healthy profit margins)
• If your product range warrants it, provide videos tutorials or demonstrations to not only boost sales, but to improve the user experience and customer satisfaction
• Create reciprocal relationships with influencers in your industry, providing them with products, compensation, and/or visibility, while they help you with content, social “currency”, and exposure
• Enhance your products or services by offering inspiration in the form of blog articles, expanded product descriptions, and customer reviews
• Optimize your marketing efforts by setting up AI-powered, automated email and welcome campaigns
  

Don’t:

• Have poorly optimized product pages. Yeah, it’s great to have an amazing home page, but many of your customers will enter your site by way of a product page. Check out our guide for some tips and tricks.
• Ignore social media. This isn’t just about creating an account, you have to make sure you’re engaging with your community, creating and sharing value-laden content, and staying on top of trends.
• Skip your homework! Before you can properly find and connect with your perfect customers, shouldn’t you know who they are? Map out your customer journey and create an ideal customer profile to get a better sense of your customers.
  

UPSELL & CROSS-SELL

Do:

• Make your customers feel like an upsell is giving them value!
• Ensure the timing makes sense, probably on the product page or at some point before the checkout or reach out to them after purchase with an email that showcases related products
• When selecting items, pick ones that are highly rated or contain good reviews
• Keep your satisfaction high and select items or services that are truly relevant to what the customer has selected or shown an interest in
• Consider automated personalization tools that harness the preferences, shopping history, and interests of a given customer and automatically customizes and executes optimized marketing efforts for them
  

Don’t

• Perform the process with little to no research or analysis. Take it a step further and “segment” your products and services properly, even if it’s in the form of a simple spreadsheet.
• Ignore testing. This goes for selection, communication, and timing. Expand upon what works and fix what doesn’t.
• Don’t be too quiet or too pushy, but find a happy middle ground. Be sure to provide sufficient inspiration and value, but select communications and timing that run congruent to their journey and the user experience.
  

REACTIVATION & REMARKETING

Do:

• Have a “wishlist” function, for those who aren’t ready to buy just yet, and make sure you send a reminder shortly after their visit
• Send an Abandoned Cart email as soon as it makes sense and be sure to include some related products, customer reviews, and/or current promotions/offers
• Perform some RFM analysis, identifying those customers who are most likely to convert and some basic structure on which customers fit into which segments
• Reactivate with winning email subject lines that incorporates a short and inspired message, coupled with a discount or offer. Think something along the lines of, “Get shopping again with $10 off”.
• Remarket with dynamic, varying offers and CTAs. Don’t target the same customers with the same communication if they didn’t click through in a previous communication.
  

Don’t:

• Give up! It’s been shown that a series of reactivation emails perform better than just a one-off message.
• Ignore your existing customers. Target customer segments that have recently purchased to keep your business top-of-mind or showcase new products or services that are relevant to them.
• Send out general offers if you have data on what your customer has shown an interest in. If you know what led them to your business in the first place or what they were viewing, use that information to fuel your communications.
  

LOYALTY & RETENTION

Do:

• This one may come as no surprise but offer a loyalty program. Check out some inspiration here.
• Have some giveaways and or contests that help build your brand and get your customers engaged
• Send incentivized surveys or questionnaires to your customers, getting valuable data and giving them a good reason to go shopping again
• Drive strong CLVs with great customer support and service, which could include an customer-friendly return policy, a knowledge base or FAQ section, and reminders for consumable goods/repeat purchases.
• Identify your most valuable customers and start running exclusive sales and offers for them
  

Don’t:

• Mess around with security. Ensuring the safety and security of your customer’s information is of the utmost importance so consider using a secure e-commerce platform, never store your customer’s credit card data, and switch to HTTPS, if you haven’t already.
• Have a clunky or drawn-out checkout process. People remember a smooth, accessible user experience, so make sure your checkout is optimized.
• Miss out on a holiday, trend, or other opportunity to showcase your products and/or services. This includes getting into the spirit of the promotion and showing off your creative side or including your community.