October 14, 2019

Mapping a Customer Journey: Stages of The Process You Need to Know

To make a customer journey you have to divide the work into several parts. On each of the stages you can easily see what needs to be adjusted and what has already been perfectly working. It helps you to visualize your working progress and is a nice way not to forget the things you need to remember.

In this article we provide you with a framework of 5 steps towards a successful customer journey.

Step 1: Increase Awareness

You should start from the very beginning, the people who are just browsing the web for something interesting and who do not really know what your brand is yet and whether they need it. How do they search and find you? How does this process look like?

Advertisement in Google search results or some content which an eye can catch you should always have a tactic. If you so not know yet what works for you, today is the day you can try something out. Concentrate on the first impression and step-awareness, gradually raising interest in a brand.

Step 2: Facing Competition

How can you handle competition when there are already brands that people believe and trust? And here is the time when we have to mention the significance of online reviews (both positive and negative ones) to a brand.

Ratings and social proof in general are a basis for your brand success on the market. Listen to the reviewers and correct ads, mention the ones who reviewed you and draw attention to your company. Remarketing can make a huge difference so use it rationally and really soon you will see the changes.

Step 3: A Shopper Is Ready to Buy

When a person is going to make a purchase that means you have won someone over on the market. Does it mean that you can relax and see the business flourish? Absolutely no.

According to recent statistics average cart abandonment percentage reached the point of 70% in 2019. When someone has a wish to buy an item from you it does not necessarily mean that this is really going to happen.

A website with high purchasing results loads fast and is comfortable to use and suitable for search. It is proved that there is a relation between lags and bounce rates. People leave because they do not have time to wait. People leave because they have other brands which websites work better and can satisfy their needs right now.

What you should also keep in mind is SEO and its tactics. Change your product descriptions so they would attract the customer and appear in the search engines. Follow the instructions we have in another article of ours: user-generated content, interactivity aimed at the user, keywords and backlinks etc. Try to check it all.

Step 4: Hold

Suppose your customer finally did make a purchase. What is next? Almost the final stage of the journey should be raising enthusiasm among brand advocates and building durable relationship with them.

However, if you are at this stage, you have already done the most difficult part so keeping in touch with recent buyers and choosing the advocates is not supposed to be hard. Send emails and newsletters with outstanding content or special offers and promotions to maintain the interest.

Take into consideration possible loyalty programs to inspire your clients to come back. Build a community around your brand and a strong life-long bond with your customers so they could trust you and return to your store.

Step 5: Advocacy

The last step towards a full customer journey is to make a deal with brand advocates. For that you need to motivate your clients to share the items they bought and the feedback they can give with the audience they already have.

Some companies use giveaways and contests in order to gather content and encourage people to participate. The best posts of the participants are featured and highlighted on the website so it would inspire the others. You create a full circle starting from letting the people know you, then share the emotions about your brand with others and bringing new customers.

You have done everything to make your marketing strategical decisions work. However, there is always a risk of something going wrong. How to understand what is the problem and what can be done differently?

Try sending real potential clients through your tunnel and analyze their experience. Mystery shopping programs as we have at Collect Reviews can help you to do it with less effort. We gather feedback and provide you the unique data you can later use in your brand development. It is easier to figure out the advantages and weak points of what you already have if you ask a real customer about it.

Customer journey requires time and patience but is extremely necessary today when the competition in e-commerce is so high. There is no other tool as crucial for your business as this one. Therefore, start now and we will always be here to help and guide you so you and your customers would be happy and satisfied.

Alice works on the Renewals and Account Management team at Collect Reviews. She is always happy to grab a spot of coffee and chat about current art events, fashion or mountain hiking.