How to Do Sales Follow-Up: Six Post-Sale Tasks for Print Sellers

Every print seller knows the importance of making a print sale and delivering it on time, but fewer know the importance of good post-sales follow-up. This includes everything from after-sales service (also known as post-purchase support) to evaluating your marketing strategy.

Definition: After-sales support or service refers to any service that is provided to the customer after they have made the purchase.

After your customer receives their print order, you have a window of opportunity to follow up in order to nurture the customer life cycle after the purchase stage. There are many advantages. Good sales follow-up builds customer loyalty for repeat business by increasing customer retention rate and decreasing churn. It also wins new customers and brand advocates. So here are 6 post-sale tasks you should do after delivering every print sale.

How to Do Sales Follow-Up

1. Thank Them

This one should be a no-brainer, but there are different ways you can do this. You can thank your customer:

• Verbally: Say it in person or in a phone call
• Digitally: Send an email telling them you appreciate their business
• With special offers: Offer them a coupon for their next purchase
• With print: Since you already sell print, hand them a card or send them direct mail

In addition, personalizing your thank-you is always a great idea for building good customer relationships, even if it’s just signing your printed thank-you card by hand.

2. Measure Customer Satisfaction

After the sale, reach out to your client within a certain period to give them time to do two things:

1. Check if they like their order
2. Bring/send it back if they don’t

Now is also a good time to evaluate how well you’ve met their needs. You can request feedback through a survey or just by asking them whether they’re happy with their product or service. Use this to gage whether they would write a good review for your business.

3. Resolve Issues

Asking if they have questions or concerns creates a better customer experience than if they have to reach out on their own. If they express concerns about their products, respond promptly. Timely communication is crucial for better customer service during the post-purchase experience. Listen and understand the issues. Then resolve them quickly and communicate it as simply as possible. Your clients don’t need to know that you had to call 3 people, fix 2 machines, and renew your Adobe subscription to get their job printed right.

If they seem satisfied with how you resolved the issue, continue to the steps below.

4. Ask for Reviews

Ask happy customers for reviews or testimonials when they are the happiest. The ideal situation would be that they write the review right then and there, before they forget or become too busy.

To encourage this, make it easy for them. Have a review page open for them or send them a link. Suggest some review sites if they’re not sure where to go. Do whatever it takes to remove obstacles that they might encounter on the way to sharing their good experience.

5. Ask for Referrals

Provide a way for your clients to refer others to buy from you. You can offer incentives in a referral program if necessary, but that’s not the only way. Give your customers the proper tools for referral, which for most printers include stock and coating samples as well as printed pieces showing your products and services. The most common pieces are business cards, flyers, postcards, and brochures.

Giving them a social media tag or profile to link to can also encourage them to rave about your great product online in addition to word-of-mouth.

This moves your clients from the purchase stage of the marketing funnel to the advocacy stage.

6. Identify Opportunities

Is there anything else you can print for them? You might never know if you don’t ask. This question helps your customers think ahead to potential projects that they could give you. Seek new opportunities by planting that seed in their mind. Mark it on your calendar and encourage them to mark it on theirs.

It’s also a good idea to ask if you have their permission to contact them in the future. You might suggest that they subscribe to your newsletter. If you haven’t started using email marketing yet, we recommend you do so.

Growing Your Business

Making sales grows your profits but post-sales follow-up grows your business. It keeps existing customers as well as helps your sales and marketing team win new prospects. The results of these 6 tasks not only have immediate benefits but should also be part of your long-term sales process. Good after-sales support and continuous communication is a win-win for both you and your customer.

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Already have a post-sale service strategy? Share it with us by commenting below!