Building a Successful Customer Journey

Eric is a new customer who has recently learned of your brand through rave reviews from friends. He’s seen a few ads and finally decides to click on one to learn a little more about you. As he reads on, he decides he wants to dive head-first and buy two of your products just to test them out before committing to more. He visits your website to place his order and awaits his incoming package. Sounds familiar, right? At one time or another, we have all been Eric in this scenario, learning of a new brand, excited about buying and then traveling through the entire sales process to complete a purchase.

 However, how many times have you looked at this process from the consumer’s perspective instead of a business owner’s perspective? The steps a customer takes in order to learn about and/or purchase from you is called “the customer journey”. The customer journey is a visual representation of the overall process a prospective customer takes to complete a goal with your company.

 If mapped correctly, a customer journey maps the current process from the very first touchpoint to the final touchpoint to clearly identify if your prospects are reaching their goals and how you can improve the distance from start to finish.

 Let’s bring back Eric for another example. Eric, a sneakerhead, learns of a new shoe brand through a friend. His first goal is to learn more about the company. He goes online and searches the brand name on his favorite social media platform. As the profile page appears, he scrolls through the previous posts and clicks over to the company website from the social media profile. Now he is scrolling both through products as well as clicking around to learn the history of the company.  He likes what he sees and wants to engage even further. He signs up for the email newsletter to receive the latest deals and product launch announcements. Eric logs off feeling satisfied that he accomplished what he set out to do – learn more about this new company, explore the shoes and determine if it fit into his lifestyle and purchasing preferences.

As you start your process in improving the customer journey for your consumers, consider these questions first.

• How many places does a prospective customer have to go to in order to learn what you’re about?

• Is your social media handle easy to type or guess based on your business name?

• Are you on all social media platforms your target market frequents?

• Does your social media give a clear description of your company/values?

• Does your social media link to your website?

Understanding each click and step that your customer must take to either learn about, engage with, or purchase from your business are all a part of their customer journey. Identifying these steps and developing opportunities to reduce and/or improve them will help improve customer satisfaction and can lead to improved overall sales.