How to Build a CRM Strategy as Good as Amazon’s
Want to grow your eCommerce business and take profits to new heights? Put together a stellar CRM strategy by learning from the best: Amazon.
If you’re an eCommerce seller, your CRM strategy can make or break your company’s success and profitability. In fact, as you’ve probably heard us say before (and will likely hear us say again), poor customer service is what we at Replyco refer to as “the silent killer of sales.”
The great news here is that stellar customer service can propel your entire business to new heights. Keeping your customers happy can potentially result in higher sales, more positive reviews, a better brand reputation and much more. Just take a look at Amazon. The eCommerce giant is world-renowned for its excellent customer support, and just keeps breaking its own sales records as a result.
So if you’re going to put together a customer relationship management program that really gets results, why not learn from the best? Keep reading to discover how to build a CRM strategy as good as Amazon’s.
Amazon’s CRM Strategy: The Proof Is in the Numbers
If you need proof that Amazon’s CRM strategy is working, just take a look at a few recent statistics. For starters, the marketplace recently ranked as the most trusted online shopping site in America. It’s no surprise then, that Amazon just posted a record sales performance in 2020, with annual revenue up 38% to a whopping $386B. This was a dramatic jump of $100B from just last year.
These numbers show an impressive correlation between having a trusted brand reputation and increasing your sales. But how can you emulate Amazon in your own approach? The truth is, it doesn’t have to be complicated. It mostly involves taking care of your customers throughout each stage of the purchase journey…
Be Easy to Reach
Have you ever needed to contact Amazon about a question regarding your order? Odds are, you didn’t encounter much difficulty in figuring out how to do so. That’s because Amazon knows that a great CRM strategy starts with being easy to reach.
Make sure any visitors to your website or marketplace store can easily find where and how to contact you. That means posting your contact information clearly on your website’s “Contact Us” page and ensuring that the contact information on all of your marketplaces is always up-to-date and correct. You could even offer live chat support to meet customers where they are at critical times during the browsing, decision-making and buying process.
Respond Quickly
Another impressive aspect of Amazon’s approach to CRM is that the brand responds quickly to messages and inquiries. After all, statistics show that today’s shoppers expect answers to their questions in minutes, not hours or days.
By responding quickly to your customers, you let them know that their time and business are both important to you.
Answer the Question / Address the Issue
Next up, you need to answer customers’ questions or address their issues effectively. By reading reviews on Amazon, you can find countless instances of shoppers who had a question about an item or an issue after having received their order. These customers often explain how they had a problem, but Amazon fixed it to their satisfaction and they still wound up leaving positive feedback.
By addressing issues quickly and effectively, you can turn potentially negative situations into sales conversions, positive reviews and even return visits to your store.
Follow Up
On that same note, if you’ve ever contacted Amazon’s customer service team, then you know that they also follow up after interactions. By doing the same, you can make sure your customers received the help they needed. Conversely, you can determine whether further assistance is necessary or desired and provide it to the best of your ability.
Following up with customers after a transaction or interaction also gives you the opportunity to invite feedback, as well as learn lessons for the future. These conversations can be integral to shaping your CRM strategy going forward.
Deliver Orders Quickly & Correctly
There are also a few things you can do outside of answering customer inquiries. For example, one way Amazon keeps shoppers happy is by delivering orders quickly and correctly. This is especially true for Amazon Prime customers, who receive their goods in almost unbelievably short timeframes after having placed an order.
Even if you can’t deliver packages as quickly as Amazon does, you can do everything in your power to get your fulfillment on point. This includes using trustworthy couriers, packaging orders correctly and safely and shipping items out expediently (if you’re shipping from your own warehouses).
You can also opt to use Amazon FBA and let the trusted pros at Amazon ship your items for you. Learn more about using Amazon FBA as an Amazon seller here and here. Or, learn how to use Amazon FBA for eBay fulfillment here.
Reward Loyalty
Finally, any truly great CRM strategy rewards customers for their loyalty. This encourages repeat purchases and makes your shoppers feel like you value their business. As we already briefly mentioned, Amazon has one of the most widely known examples of loyalty rewards: Amazon Prime.
With Amazon Prime, members get free two-day shipping on a huge range of products, access to services such as Prime Video at no extra cost and a slew of other benefits.
No matter your brand, rewarding loyalty is certainly within your means. It may be as simple as offering discounts on repeat purchases. You can also offer things like birthday gifts or rewards to users who sign up with their email address. Or, you can even give discounts on all your items and / or free shipping to signed in members.
Whatever you choose, the point is to thank your customers for shopping with you and encourage them to come back for more.
Building a CRM Strategy: Final Thoughts
To wrap up, if you want to put together a CRM strategy as good as Amazon’s, you need to do the following:
- Be easy to reach.
- Respond quickly.
- Answer questions / address issues effectively.
- Follow up with customers.
- Get your fulfillment on point.
- Reward loyalty.
If you do all of this, you will be well on your way to thrilling customers, boosting sales and growing your business.
Plus, you don’t have to go it alone. As the sections above show, the biggest component to managing your CRM strategy is to stay on top of customer messages. We can help you with that.
Use Replyco helpdesk software for eCommerce to consolidate the messages from all of your marketplaces and platforms into one easy-to-use inbox. And our robust set of tools such as smart auto-responders, custom templates and instant messaging capabilities let you respond to customers more quickly than ever. Not only that, but you can do so in real time, while keeping shoppers happy when you’re not in the office.
Take a tour of our features to learn more, or get started with your free trial today!
