Are Your Customers Regretting The Purchase? Make Them Fall In Love Again

How do you know when customers regret making a purchase?

You don’t see them open the parcel, sign in to the course dashboard, or log in to the app, so you really can’t read their expressions.

Ever since online shopping took over physical store purchases, it has become challenging to understand a customer’s reactions to any purchase.

But there’s one sure-shot way of finding out if people are happy with what they bought. One that doesn’t require post-purchase surveys, feedback forms, customer interviews, or sentiment analysis on social media.

You can find out so much about customer satisfaction by asking two questions:

1. Did they buy from you again?

2. Did they, in any way, interact with you again? (casual browsing, reading emails, watching IG stories)

If the answer to both one and two is no, keep reading this newsletter to find out three ways to reduce buyer’s remorse.

But first — following the tradition — I’m sharing a copywriting tip with you that you can start using right now.

🖊️ The Copywriting Tip You Can Use Right Away: Focus on Benefits, Not Features

Focus on benefits and create copy that resonates deeply with your audience, showing them exactly how your product or service will make their lives better.

Learn by Example:

• Feature: Our project management software integrates with popular tools like Slack and Trello.

• Benefit: Seamlessly manage all your projects in one place without switching between apps, saving you time and reducing stress.

Feature to Benefit Translation: Save time, reduce stress, and get important things done fast — Enjoy easy and efficient project management with our software.

✅ Hot tip: Start the sentence with the most desirable benefits. Instead of saying: Our easy and efficient project management software can help you save time, reduce stress, and get important things done fast, I started the sentence with Save time, reduce stress, and get important things done fast.

🧠 Reduce Buyer’s Remorse In Three Easy Steps

Reducing buyer’s remorse is the secret sauce for customer loyalty. Think of it as the difference between a one-hit-wonder and a chart-topping album.

But… When exactly in the customer journey does buyer’s remorse appear as an uninvited guest, and how can we effectively usher it out?

Buyer’s remorse can happen when:

→ [Ecommerce Example] Someone orders a pair of jeans and experiences shipment delays, extra shipping costs, order misplacement, or if everything else goes right: the jeans may not be the right shade of blue.

→ [Course Creator Example] Someone joins your course + discord community and experiences imposter syndrome, mediocre course material, or lack of 1:1 support.

→ [SaaS Example] Someone signs up for a free trial and experiences difficulty using the app/finding support.

As a marketer, you need to look at the points in a funnel/post-purchase journey where you can actively reduce buyer’s remorse. Your acquisition strategy may be strong, but where is it that people are dropping off and they stop using your service/product?

Coming to solutions — Marketers can reduce buyer’s remorse with the following strategies.

1. Post-Purchase Email Sequences

A post-purchase sequence includes transactional emails (order confirmation, shipment updates, and delivery status), relationship-building emails (that reduce buyer’s remorse), and upsells.

For e-commerce, this may look like providing a user guide or product care guide, showing different ways to style your products, or showcasing customer testimonials and reviews.

For course creators this may look like adding an extra step to welcome the member 1:1 with a voice message in your email when they join your community. 

For SaaS, this may look like sending an email to set up a demo or a free call with the support team.

2. Social Proof

Customers often seek validation from others before committing to a purchase. By showcasing real customer testimonials, user reviews, or case studies, you're not only building credibility but also directly addressing potential buyer’s remorse.

Social proof can be shared anywhere and everywhere including emails, SMS, social media, and check-out pages. 

3. Follow-Up Surveys

Ask how they feel after the purchase. A ‘hey, we care about your experience’ can go a long way. It engages the customer and shows them that you value their opinion. It also allows the business to factor in customer reviews and optimize their journey further.

These reviews can be shared via email or SMS. 

Wrapping Up…

You see, 74% of buyers in the US have experienced buyer’s remorse. As a marketer, our job is to help businesses make sales and increase CLV (customer lifetime value), which happens only when the customer feels good about their purchase and wants to come back for a second purchase.

✨ A Mindset Tip For Entrepreneurs

I’m a mom. And that makes me the strongest person in the room, except, when I’m surrounded by other mums.

If, at 1:43 AM, after a full day of wiping mouths and butts because both your kids fall sick at the same time, you change your vomit-stained t-shirt. Jolt open the laptop. Sip chamomile tea. Put on some music. And crank out 1,500 words on buyer’s remorse because YOU committed to writing this newsletter every week and frankly, you know people are reading it and therefore looking forward to it… You either really love what you or you’ve maxed out on mental toughness.

Either way, the mindset tip for this week is that hey, however sh***y your situation is, someone has it worse. Be grateful. Put your head down. Do the work.

📚 A Podcast Recommendation…

I’m going to recommend this podcast a lot: The SaaS Podcast by Omer Khan.

Fun fact: Omer and I chatted a while back and I learned that he’s from Rawalpindi, which is near my city; Lahore!

The SaaS podcast has one of the best interview formats and has incredible founder stories, strategies, and insights.

The episode that I’m recommending this week is this: Yembo: From Cold Calls & Rejections to Scaling an AI Startup – with Zach Rattner

Here is an excerpt from the podcast page:

Zach Rattner is the co-founder and CTO of Yembo, an AI-powered platform that enables virtual home surveys for the moving and insurance industries.

In 2015, while working as a software engineer, Zach noticed that computers were becoming better than humans at identifying objects in images. He applied this technology to the industry, which struggled with giving accurate quotes and handling logistics due to the complexities involved in each move.

As introverted engineers, Zach and his co-founder Sid had to force themselves to step out of their comfort zone. They made cold calls, visited moving companies in person, and often faced rejection.

Despite their efforts, the first version of Yembo's product had limitations in its AI capabilities and user interface, which led to some customer churn.

The founders realized they needed to focus on finding early adopters willing to work through initial challenges and continuously iterate based on customer feedback. Through their determination and hard work, Yembo gradually gained traction.

Today, the company serves customers in about 30 countries, processing hundreds of hours of video daily and generating high seven-figures in annual revenue with a team of 70 people.

Here are my key takeaways from the episode:

✅ Look where other people are not looking. Zach points out that while the entire Silicon Valley was pointing at self-driving cars and drones. He instead found an industry that was not expecting much advancement in tech.

✅ AI can easily solve very difficult problems. But to make that happen, you need to use your mortal, human brain to point it in the right direction.

✅ Need validation for your idea? Look at the data. Zach and his team went to Better Business Bureau. They have rankings of complaints that have been filed by industries. Turns out, movers get complained about more than lawyers, airlines, or diet supplements. Opportunity unlocked!

✅ They also looked at Yelp reviews, Google reviews, BBB complaints, and keyword analysis on the kind of complaints movers receive (in this case: they break things, quote incorrectly, or don’t show up on time).

✅ As a software company they could not help with showing up on time or breaking things because that’s a physical responsibility — but they could help customers get the right quote.

The rest of the episode will walk you through the process of how they got other companies on board and navigated through the challenges of scaling their brand as introvert engineers!

About The Founder…

Hi. 👋 I’m Hira, A Copyhackers certified SaaS conversion copywriter.

I raised $2M for MedTech and nonprofits in partnership with two different agencies last year.

Currently, I write end-to-end sales funnels (ad scripts, landing pages, VSL, nurture sequences) and product marketing blogs for 8-9-figure marketing agencies and enterprises.

Check out my guest post in The Copywriter Club, and scroll through the insights I shared on Hubspot’s 2024 Social Media Marketing Trends Report.

Don’t forget to peek through my website, maybe you’ll find a podcast episode that you like!

If you liked this week’s newsletter, share it with a friend!