What is a Customer Journey?
A customer journey describes the sum total of experiences a customer goes through while interacting with a company. This includes contacts on a variety of different levels, and through a series of stages, comprising the consumer lifecycle. For example, prior to even making a purchase, customers will hear about a company’s products through advertising, social media, word-of-mouth reports, and other related exposure. Then, during the process of making a purchase, they will come into contact with websites, sales representatives, and consultants. Completing the sale isn’t the end of the journey, either. After making a purchase, customers are often in continued contact with companies by engaging in follow-ups, training material, and future marketing campaigns, as well as by providing feedback and recommendations to others. A customer journey goes from the starting point of exposure to a product and ends, ideally, at the destination loyalty toward that product—with many steps along the way.
When a company familiarizes itself about the experiences of its customers, across the entire span of their journey, it gains valuable insights into how to make improvements in order to better ensure an optimal consumer experience, one likely to be repeated and recounted to others. In a sense, it can be considered a way of nurturing customers, anticipating their needs and responding to them with careful attention. CEO, Steven MacDonald observes, “The power has completely shifted from brand to consumer. And while the customer journey might be a new term, it won’t be long before it becomes critical to your business strategy. Putting the customer at the heart of your organization is no longer a ‘nice to have,’ it’s an entry level requirement to having a successful business in 2021.” (https://superoffice.com). Companies that pay attention to their customers’ journeys experience increases in growth, reductions in costs, improved sales performance and, in general, greater returns on their marketing investments.
Creating Roadmaps
A customer journey map provides a way to translate consumer interactions into a visual, readily accessible form. Making use of such a tool allows a company to gain insight into the entire buying excursion, from the customer’s unique point of view. Companies that put the time and effort into developing this strategy are able to make marketing decisions based on the way their customers are actually experiencing their brands and products, rather than relying on assumptions. In the words of Annette Franz, author of Customer Understanding, “Journey mapping is a creative process that allows you to understand—and then redesign—the customer experience. The output is not just a ‘pretty picture;’ once the map is developed, it is meant to be a catalyst for change.” (https://www.qualitydigest.com). Customer journey maps contain three aspects: delineating the consumer lifecycle, identifying a series of touchpoints involving a company and its customers, and then evaluating the extent to which a company’s strategies have resulted in its goals being met. Since customer journeys need to reflect experiences from their point of view, before beginning the mapping process it is necessary to collect “voice of the customer” feedback, which can include elements such as direct comments and concerns, material from social media posts, repeat customer stories, and customer satisfaction ratings.
The first step in consumer journey mapping is for a company to ascertain what it hopes to accomplish through the process, delineating specific goals and pinpointing the nature of the customers involved. Creating a buyer persona can be especially useful at this stage. Perhaps the most crucial element of a customer journey map is identifying all the touchpoints, which are the specific places where customers are able to interact with companies. These include such things as company websites, social media contact, paid advertising, and third-party reviews and mentions. This will lead to a clearer understanding of actions taken by customers, learning how they feel about taking them, and figuring out what obstacles might stand in the way of positive buying experiences. Next, companies need to decide what type of map best addresses their needs; some options are current-state maps, day-in-the-life maps, future-state maps, and service blueprints.
Why Map?
Creating customer journey maps makes it possible for companies to tune into every phase of consumer interaction, providing data that can be used to enact changes leading not only to increased sales, but also to the establishment of a base of satisfied consumers, eager to make repeat purchases, give positive reviews, and recommend brands and products to their friends. As well as increasing buyer satisfaction, mapping can also help to improve customer retention rates. It only takes one bad interaction for someone to decide to try a different brand. Digital marketing director, Aaron Agius, observes, “Customer journey mapping can point out individuals who are on the path to churn. If you log the common behaviors and actions that these customers have, you can start to spot them before they leave your business. While you might not save them all, it’s worth the try since attaining a new customer is 5-25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.” (https://blogspot.com).
Rather than relying entirely on finding customers, companies can utilize journey mapping to provide ways for customers to find them, through improved inbound marketing methods. By identifying the features most appealing to target audiences, companies are better able to attract the right customers. This initial attraction can then be followed up, by providing well-executed consumer experiences made possible by translating and applying the data obtained through mapping. Customer journey mapping can increase efficiency, across the board. Studying each phase of the customer journey, keeping focused on specific goals along the way, and restructuring touchpoints where indicated are key strategies that will contribute to establishing consumer satisfaction and an enduring sense of brand loyalty.