Taking good care of your existing customers should go hand-in-hand with enticing new ones. One of the hallmarks of an excellent company is having a superior customer retention program that is geared towards continuously surprising and delighting customers. This is where packaging inserts come in. It’s inexpensive and a truly cost-effective way of retaining and taking good care of customers, leading to a growth in your customer base. But how do you use packaging inserts to enhance customer loyalty?
Before we deal with the ‘how’, let’s look at the ‘why’ first.
Why Packaging Inserts are Important?
Packaging inserts are a very cost-effective way to continue building trust with your customers. When customers trust your organization, it leads to a more solid relationship which can then spell an increase in your company’s profitability through a commensurate increase in sales or even an increase in the average size of customer orders.
Technically, for every package that you ship, it is possible that your products will fall under three types of customer expectations. You may succeed at meeting their expectations, exceed it, or even fail it. Unfortunately, there’s no telling how a customer will feel every time he receives his orders as everyone will have a different way of feeling satisfied. However, bundling and securing items with heavy-duty materials almost always guarantee exceeding your customer’s expectations as the contents of your package – your products – will be kept in pristine condition. No customer would ever want to receive an order that looks like it has just went through a major storm.
How to Use the Right Packaging Inserts for Your Customers?
Packaging your products in a secure and trustworthy manner is just an example of how you can delight and surprise your customers. Using carefully-designed and well-thought out packaging inserts is clearly another. And here is how you can use packaging inserts to enhance customer loyalty.
1. Include a Personalized Thank-You Note
Did you know that going out of your way to really thank your customers for trying out one of your products can actually go a long way towards strengthening that relationship between your company and your customer?
Now, imagine if you could really handcraft your personalized thank-you notes and the message will be more meaningful. Of course, not every customer will really read a thank-you note. However, for those who do, you would have already connected with them in ways that no AI programming can accomplish.
2. Add Random Treats and Surprises
Whether you care to admit it or not, receiving something that you may or may not really need will surprise you. This is exactly what customers will feel every time you surprise them with a treat or even something that they may not have any use now, but may have later. The point is that, adding these random treats and surprises in your packaging can help start a meaningful relationship between you and your ordering customer.
It doesn’t have to be a treat every time he orders as this substantially eliminates the element of surprise. The treats don’t have to be expensive either. You can actually partner with other companies to exchange goods as treats for your respective customers. Just make sure you’re not going to provide your customers with a product from your competitor. The important message that you hope to deliver using this type of packaging insert should be one that tells your customer that you are very delighted in having him as part of the success of your organization. And as a token of this ‘partnership’, you are sharing something back.
3. Sweeten Their Purchase with a Free Sample
You may have a customer who is already warming up to you. He’s been ordering the same products every time he places an order. But you also know that you have tens and hundreds of products more that he hasn’t tried. Why not send him a free sampler of your other products the next time he places an order with you? He may not like the product, but he sure will appreciate the gesture.
Recent studies show that more than 85 percent of the purchases made by modern households are the same repeat purchases. Imagine the wonderful opportunity this poses for your company.
4. Offer Worthy Discounts
Everybody loves to get a discount or a rebate on their purchases. And if you can come up with a really worthy discount that your customers will really appreciate, the more favorable their impression of your company will be. It is thus, important to come up with discount offers that will not make your customer think that you’re essentially giving them rebates for products that you no longer need or are already nearing their expiry. Consumers have this tendency to be suspicious about products whose prices are simply too good to be true. Often, they believe that these are products that are already of no use to the company. As such, you have to carefully phrase your discount offers.
Additionally, you may want to include at least two discount cards for every package that you send. One should be for the customer and the other should be complementary, one that is best shared to a friend. And you know where this leads to. By extending your discount offer to a loved one or even a friend, you are essentially inviting additional customers to your company.
5. Don’t Forget to Ask for a Shout Out or Share
In any of the above packaging inserts, you have to recognize that this is now your best opportunity to ask them to share their experiences or write a simple review on social media. Not everyone will happily oblige, but most will. And if you put care in the packaging of your products, they will be more than happy to share their positive experiences to their friends and family members.
Including packaging inserts in your products can go a long way towards improving and solidifying your relationship with your customers. By providing them with products that will truly surprise and delight them, you are simply enhancing their overall positive experience. The more positive their experiences are the greater is their loyalty to your brand.
Author: Conrad Dykstra
