Winning the First Customer Purchase Is Only Half the Job
Creating demand for a new product or service is difficult. You need customers to understand the offer, trust it and believe it is worth paying for.
But there is another growth challenge that comes next: How to increase repeat purchases.
In this episode of Business Builders Podcast, Pavlo Phitidis shares the story of a growing shoe cleaning, restoration and protection business with 11 stores and nearly 100 people.
The founder successfully created demand for a service many customers initially struggled to understand. Now the challenge has changed.
Customers value the service. But they do not necessarily use it frequently enough.
Why Customer Retention Is Not Enough
A satisfied customer is valuable. A satisfied customer who develops a repeat buying habit is far more valuable.
The problem arises when every purchase requires the customer to make a fresh decision.
They need to remember the service, decide they need it again, find the time to visit a store and complete the transaction. Every additional step creates customer friction.
Make the Next Purchase Easier Than the First
The opportunity is to use the first transaction to build trust, then make every subsequent transaction easier.
For the business featured in Business Builders Podcast, that means using its stores to establish credibility before moving customers into a simpler repeat journey.
Three actions can help:
- Introduce click-and-collect at the end of the first transaction to encourage the second purchase.
- Create a simple digital booking, collection and tracking process that removes effort.
- Introduce scheduled care once repeat behaviour develops, creating greater convenience and more predictable demand.
How Repeat Customers Build Business Value
Reducing friction does more than improve the customer experience.
Repeat purchasing can make demand more predictable, improve the return on customer acquisition and allow existing locations, teams and systems to generate more value.
That contributes to building an Asset of Value™: a business whose growth comes from repeatable systems rather than repeatedly recreating demand from scratch.
Turn Customer Behaviour Into a Habit
The lesson extends far beyond shoe care.
If you have an offer customers already value but purchase irregularly, map every step between one purchase and the next.
A Practical Customer Journey Exercise
Ask:
Where does the customer need to remember, plan, decide or make unnecessary effort before buying again?
Remove the biggest point of friction first.
Creating a category requires customers to understand why they should buy.
Building a scalable business requires making it increasingly easy for them to buy again.
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