Customer Service Is the New Upsell

If your customers aren't satisfied with their experience, you won't be able to convert new customers. Here's a deep dive into how to turn e-commerce expectations into guaranteed sales

A customer service representative. Yan Krukov/Pexels

By David Wagoner

We all know that keeping your customers happy is the key to building loyalty and earning repeat business. If your customers aren’t satisfied with their buying experience, it won’t matter how good your marketing is, how many leads you receive, or how well your sales funnel converts new customers—they won’t come back.

And you need them to come back. In e-commerce, between 20 percent and 50 percent of your transactions are generated by returning customers, and for most merchants, those transactions account for the lion’s share of the revenue. In fact, the Pareto Principle predicts that just 20 percent of a given brand’s customers will account for around 80 percent of its revenue; in other words, your most loyal segment of customers produces the vast majority of your profits. Plus, returning customers cost nothing to acquire and take shorter journeys to conversion, meaning the margin on their purchases is higher. That’s why so many retailers invest in loyalty incentives and VIP perks designed to grow returning sales.