Customer Journey: 5 Quick Steps to mapping it
We are living in a digital world now. Not to dispense of brick-and-mortar stores but a lot of us are shopping online today more than ever. A bit of this was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic that saw global lockdowns and movement restrictions.
In Kenya, Jumia, Kilimall, & Sky gardens are some of the major online retail stores. Globally, everyone is familiar with Amazon & Alibaba the two tech giants.
Moreover, many small businesses have now built online stores to increase their customer base, ease consumer journey and sell more.
Thus, the main question that business stakeholders must ask themselves is how their customers have found the business online.
Once this is established you must find the right strategy to keep the customer on board and engaged.
Hence, this is how you should map your customer journey and enhance their loyalty.
1. Map the key phases of the customer journey
The buyer journey has key phases with awareness, consideration, purchase, retention, and advocacy being the main ones. Business stakeholders must be able to highlight the key steps and what influences a customer at each stage.
Knowing the triggers at each stage of a buyer’s journey will help the business strategize on how to help the buyer more.
One way to do so is to ask the customers you already have questions.
2. Understand the customer’s motives
Customers have intentions when looking to purchase a product or a service.
Work to understand their concerns and queries. By creating relevant content that is relevant you will have preempted the customer’s questions and answered them.
Relevant information will help your customers in their decision-making.
3. Pinpoint all digital touchpoints in the customer journey
4. Create the right message
Now that the customers have found you, it’s time to engage them. Ensure, your messaging is correct, consistent with your brand and delivered at the right time.
Good messaging will help your customers move seamlessly through the buying cycle.
5. Create a Customer relationship that lasts
Indeed, the after-sales process is the main sales process. One must ensure they build customer loyalty. This makes the customer feel special and wanted. Needless to say, this is what will keep them coming back and fend off your competitors. The cost of customers is much higher than the cost of customer retention.
Create a newsletter campaign to keep them engaged on product news and offers, develop a referral program or implement a loyalty program e.g. coupons/ cards
Now that you’ve mapped out the specifics of how customers interact with your brand, take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
Mapping out your customers’ journey gives you insights into opportunities and weaknesses, which you can address to optimize your marketing.