Improving Customer Experience for a Sustainable Customer Journey

Customer experience is the entirety of interactions between a brand and a customer, beginning with the first purchase and concluding with the end of the purchasing lifecycle. Interactions take place during each step of the decision process associated with a given product category. Successful brands map out the journey for taking a prospect from an introduction of their products/services to a lifetime of loyalty.

The success of a brand journey which leads prospects to becoming brand evangelists depends on building the decision process around values like trust, purpose, and meaningful relationships. Communicating to customers with emotional relevance during every phase of a decision or brand journey is also key.?

The customer journey, can include the decision process associated with purchasing across categories. As a marketer, your goal should be to assist consumers with their decisions in order to get to the final step, the assignment of loyalty.

? Identification of problem or need: Consumers realize they need to purchase a product to solve a problem or fill a need, e.g., a good home computer.

? Discovery: Consumers conduct research and explore options for products that fit their need and decide on the functions and features that matter most, e.g., should they buy a laptop, notebook, desktop, or tablet?

? Evaluation: After they’ve found options or product categories they want to purchase, consumers start to evaluate brands.

? Trial or purchase: After researching and engaging with various brand representatives online or in stores, consumers make a purchase.

? Confirmation and reassurance: Consumers gather information after the decision or purchase to reaffirm that their choice was the right one. They read expert and customer reviews, talk to others who chose the same product or brand they did, post their decision on social media to get more validation, and so on.

? Assignment of loyalty: A brand experience doesn’t stop after the purchase. It continues as consumers use the product and access the resources available, such as customer service and technical support.

Marketers need to define a customer journey specific to each of their customer segments that encompasses the decision steps as well as additional steps to secure repeat business, referrals, and lifetime value from each customer.

A customer’s journey encompasses the steps you must take and deliver upon at every touchpoint. And, the actions needed for customers making recent purchases include:

? How do you thank or recognize customers for their purchases?

? How do you resolve conflict when you’re right or wrong?

? How do you validate customers’ decisions to continue purchasing from you?

? How do you reward them for loyalty and referrals?

? How do you engage them in meaningful activities, causes, and so on?

The purpose of a customer journey is to build and maintain emotional bonds with your brand and get customers to refer others. To do this most effectively for your brand, it helps to look at the most powerful affiliations people have in their lives that aren’t associated with the purchase of products or services. People hold powerful beliefs that guide them, and they make life-lasting choices and decisions based on these values and beliefs.

A person’s commitment to their value structures can be so strong that they pledge their time and even money to related organizations that don’t give anything in return but intangibles, such as hope, faith, and anticipation of rewards if they stay the course and further the cause. Experiences that are memorable and become part of a routine often include symbolism, sensory appeal, promises, community, and ritual, just like the experiences we have with our religious and political organizations.

The idea is to build emotional connections around shared values, experiences that bond consumers to brands, and customer journeys that take a lead from introduction to lifetime value. Use digital tools and tactics, for emotional selling, and on how to trigger the unconscious mind for unthinkable return on investment.