How to Bridge the Gap between Marketing & CX teams to Increase Customer Retention

Customer retention is all the rage these days among brands and their teams. In today's climate, it's becoming more difficult to acquire customers. As a result, brands are investing their energy in finding ways to promote customer engagement and repeat buying. With this new emphasis on retention, we're noticing an opportunity. 

While marketing teams are out looking for new customers, customer service (CS) teams are talking to current customers, trying to keep them satisfied. Therein lies the gap!

Retention activities can and should be a part of both teams's efforts. It is an opportunity for these teams to learn from each other and collaborate. In this blog post, we'll explore why CS and marketing teams should work together to prioritize retention and how Wonderment can help them do just that.

Acquisition to Retention

Traditionally, marketing teams fixate on growing their brand's customer base by expanding their audience and tapping into new ones. They create and test various strategies, such as bold campaigns and FOMO promotions, to attract fresh faces to the brand. While this is undoubtedly important, they often work in a silo, basing their work on what they learn from data and experimentation—never taking the time to understand current customers. What inspired them to purchase? What do they love about the brand? What could be improved?

The good news is there's a team that has the answers to these questions!

While marking teams are like the wavy guy on the side of the road inviting people into the store, customer service teams are on the front lines of interacting with customers once they get inside. They deal with inquiries, complaints, and feedback daily. These interactions provide invaluable insights into customer pain points and preferences. 

They don’t have to operate this way, though.

Marketing and CS teams working more closely together can open a new world of opportunity. Marketing teams will be better informed on how to speak to potential customers with campaigns that will resonate and can even work with CS to increase the value of the customers right in front of them. While CS teams can share insights on customers, marketing teams know what tactics work. 

Not convinced yet? The numbers speak for themselves. Various studies conclude that:

• It costs five times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.
• Existing customers are 50% more likely to try new products and spend 31% more than new customers.
• A 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a 25-95% increase in profits.

Marketing and CS teams working together toward retention helps reduce costs while driving meaningful revenue growth. A win-win. Together, they can strategize on cross-sells, upsells, promotions, free gifts, and other perks that make customers feel incredible and become advocates for the brand.

Where Wonderment Comes In

Wonderment taps into an often overlooked aspect of the customer journey: order tracking. While CS team may get non-stop inquiries about shipping and delivery, the carrier typically owns the order-tracking experience, making it hard for the brand to level up the experience.

That is where Wonderment comes in. At its core, Wonderment helps Shopify brands enhance post-purchase through proactive shipping notifications and branded order tracking pages.

Besides creating a more seamless experience for customers, Wonderment provides ample opportunity for marketing and CS teams to surprise and delight customers, building trust and driving retention. Here's how:

Branded Order Tracking Pages: Order tracking pages are often among the highest-trafficked pages of an e-commerce website. By owning this experience, brands can meet customers when they're most engaged and give them new ways to interact. Order tracking page features include:

• Cross-sells/upsells via Rebuy: Show customers what other products might complement their purchase. Sweeten the deal with a discount.
• Loyalty links: Activate customers for future purchases by letting them know what they'll earn through repeat purchases.
• Relevant education: While customers anxiously await their purchase, give them content to dig into and get even more excited about what's en route.
• Post-purchase survey via Fairing: Learn what led customers to purchase. As they await their shipment, their engagement level is high, this can be a prime time to hear from them, giving CS and marketing more insight to drive strategy.
• "Start a Return" link via Loop Returns: If the product doesn't work out, don't make customers search for what to do. Reduce friction with an easy-to-find return link to get them what they need.

With marketing and CS teams working together, they can use these tools to test and learn what resonates most with customers.

Proactive Order Notifications: Wonderment automatically alerts customers of stalled shipments, late shipments, packages returned to sender, and more via email/SMS. The beauty of this is reducing customer "Where Is My Order?" concerns while showing customers the brand is attentive to their needs.

Gorgias integration: What we love about Wonderment's integration with CX platform, Gorgias, is how it empowers CS to get ahead of customer issues. By tying customer support tickets with order shipping and giving CS access to shipping times, CS can get ahead of any issues. For instance, if a customer ordered two-day shipping, but the order won't arrive for five days, they can develop a playbook with the marketing team on how to handle these situations—perhaps a discount to future purchase or free gift for the inconvenience. 

Now is the time!

Now has never been a better time for marketing teams to begin collaborating with CS teams to prioritize customer retention. The benefits are clear: reduced acquisition costs, increased revenue, and a stronger brand reputation.

Leveraging tools like Wonderment can help these teams put their ideas into practice, ensuring that every marketing effort is aligned with the goal of delivering exceptional customer experiences and nurturing long-term customer relationships. By embracing this approach, brands can bridge the gap and thrive in today's competitive landscape.

—

Guest author: Lucas Ballasy

Lucas is a Partner and Chief Experience Officer (CXO) at Barrel, an e-commerce agency and Shopify Plus partner who helps brands navigate, strategize, and implement great customer experiences that deliver business results. Lucas also writes a weekly newsletter called Borrowed, Learned, & Thought about e-commerce, agency leadership, and personal growth.