Customer follow-up email — 6 best ways to follow up with customers

How to follow up with a customer

Building customer relationships is the best way to increase satisfaction, boost sales, and stay ahead of the competition.

Customer follow-up emails can help you achieve all three – and we’ll show you how. 

Writing an excellent customer follow-up email is easier than you think.

In this guide on follow-up emails to customers, we explain the purpose of customer emails, and the principles and provide 6 email examples. By the end, you'll understand the best ways to follow up with customers and be able to create your own.

Sending customer follow-ups with Outlook AI plugin, MailMaestro, is as easy as writing a few words and pressing a button, like this:

3 ways to follow up with customers

Customer follow-up emails are the gold standard in contact. But it’s not the only way to contact customers. So let’s take a look at the 3 ways you can contact customers. 

1. Customer follow-up emails

A follow-up email to a customer is an effective way to engage them. Why? Because they can be personalized, automated, and easy to manage.

It’s professional and respectful of people’s privacy. Lastly, an email is more convenient than a text, instant message, or call.

Some of the reasons you may want to send a follow-up email to a customer include:

• Requesting feedback on a new product or service
• Asking their opinion on a new product range
• Follow-up with a customer after a meeting
• Following up after you’ve visited a customer
• Asking them to complete a survey
• Customer service follow-up after a problem or complaint

There may be other reasons for sending a follow-up email to a customer that isn’t listed above.

Whatever the reason for your follow-up email, we’ll show you how to structure your messages and provide examples you can follow.

2. Customer follow-up text messages or IMs

Some businesses use text and instant messages (IMs) to follow up with customers. It can be effective, getting a message directly to the person – but it can also be intrusive. 

Search online, and you’ll see that SMS open rates are higher than emails, but that’s not the whole story. Text messages are short and won’t contain vast amounts of information. It’s also difficult to include links and create the engagement you can with an email.

But, beyond the character limitations of messages, not many of us want to be contacted via text or instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, which we might use for more intimate communication with friends and family.

3. Customer follow-up calls

Does anybody answer a phone call from an unknown number? No, say experts. In 2019, 90% of calls from unknown numbers were ignored, and we can guarantee the number is higher today.

Cold calls – even to customers you have a relationship with – are likely to be ignored and, for most businesses, are best avoided. 

OK, there are some circumstances where you’d want to follow up with a customer on the phone. If your matter is urgent, or you have a history of communicating through a phone, following up with a customer by calling them might be your best option.

4. What about letters?

Nobody sends follow-up letters to customers anymore. But maybe your business could differentiate itself with this and bring back those retro snail mails!

How to write a follow-up email to a customer

So, we’ve established why email is the best customer service follow-up method. Next, let’s look at how to construct follow-up emails to customers.

1. Customer follow-up email format

Customer service follow-up emails all share the same format and include five core parts:

1. Subject line
2. Greeting
3. Opening lines & Body
4. Closing
5. Sign-off

Here’s what goes into each part.

1. Subject line – your subject line is the first thing the recipient will see, so grab their attention! Make it catchy and get them interested, but don’t try to be funny, as it rarely works.
2. Greeting – Start each email with a positive and professional opening. Dear, hi or hello is fine. Hey, probably isn’t.
3. Opening lines & Body – Follow-up emails are often unsolicited, which means they’re easy to ignore. Get straight to the point and be clear about what you want and why you’re messaging. Get this right, and you’ll get higher response rates.
4. Closing – Be clear about what you want the recipient to do in your closing statements. Whether you want them to email you back, complete a survey or contact you another way, tell them!
5. Sign-off – Always end every email (including customer follow-up emails) with a polite and professional sign-off. Thanks and kind regards are OK. Cheers probably isn’t.

This is a basic introduction to the principles. If you want to know more about the email format, check out our guide on how to format emails here.

2. Customer follow-up questions

We’ve provided the foundations for creating effective customer messages, but let’s delve into the details.

Every follow-up email needs a purpose and focus on a question (or questions). Once you’ve identified the purpose of the email, use that to form its structure.

Some of the questions you may want answers to include:

• Feedback on a product or service – Can you provide feedback on our latest product or service?
• Customer satisfaction rating, such as NPS – Could you rate our service?
• A review or testimonial – Could you provide us with a review or testimonial?
• Survey response – Could you complete our customer survey?

This isn’t an exhaustive list but contains some common reasons for sending a customer follow-up email.

3. Customer follow-up email template

If you need to frequently send customer follow-ups, developing a template is an excellent time-saving strategy. Here’s an example from us that you can use for inspiration. 

As with all the templates and examples here, don’t just copy and paste them, but adapt them to your specific circumstances.

Best ways to follow up with customers with examples

We’ve broken down the principles of writing effective follow-up messages to customers; now it’s time to illustrate how it’s done with some samples.

Here we provide 6 customer service follow-ups covering (almost) every eventuality.

You’ll see how we’ve used the structure above to create engaging emails that will get a reply. 

6 customer follow-up email samples

1. Follow-up on customer feedback email sample

If your customers send you feedback, make sure to reply promptly. Addressing negative feedback or complaints and sending appreciation or responding to positive comments is easier with our sample (or MailMaestro’s smart customer service templates).

This sample follow-up customer feedback email sample is ready to use and will get results.

2. Follow-up after meeting with customer email sample

A follow-up email after meeting a customer is essential to establishing a good relationship. You’ll need to thank them for meeting you and provide details of the meeting and what’s happening next. Take a look at our follow-up after meeting with a customer email sample.

3. Follow-up with the customer after purchase email sample

If a customer has made a purchase, you’ll want to know how they feel about it. In that case, use our follow-up with the customer after the purchase email sample. You’ll need to provide details of your specific products, so always check before sending!

4. Follow-up to a customer after quotation email sample

In this competitive market, you have to show tenacity to close a sale or upsell to your customers. Sending sales follow-ups to prospects and customers can separate the dealmakers from the rest.

If you don’t get a response after sending a quotation, try this sample email:

5. Follow-up for customer satisfaction email sample

Customer satisfaction is a serious business, so you need to have email templates ready to go.

This follow-up for customer satisfaction email sample is a quick and simple way to gather valuable information that can boost your business. 

6. Follow-up after customer visit email sample

When you’ve met a customer, you should always follow up with an email to say thanks and identify ways to strengthen the relationship.

It’s helpful to reflect on your meeting and relay your thoughts to the customer. It shows you’re listening, learning and looking for ways to improve.

Best customer follow-up apps

As your customer base grows, following up regularly becomes increasingly hard. But keeping and nurturing those crucial relationships is essential for long-term success.

Thus you need tools, like MailMaestro to help you out. Here's how MailMaestro can help you send personalized follow-ups at scale:

MailMaestro is your personal email assistant that can write emails for you. Give it a few instructions, and MailMaestro turns words into ready-to-send emails.

Final thoughts 

Email is the best way to follow up with all customers, and with our templates and samples, it’s simpler than ever.

The basics of a great customer email are to keep it simple and be straight about what you want the person to do and why.

Persuasive, professional emails are the most effective. 

Our last piece of advice is to review and refine all feedback emails. Then, over time, you’ll hit upon the winning formula that gets results and responses.