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AFFILIATES AND REFERRALS CUSTOMER ADVOCACY CUSTOMER AND MARKET RESEARCH CUSTOMER
COLLABORATION CUSTOMER MARKETING CUSTOMER RETENTION CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION OKRs

3 May 2022 8 min read


BECOME A TOP CUSTOMER-CENTRIC BRAND BY MAPPING OUT YOUR CUSTOMER JOURNEY

Customer marketing

AMIE STEPHENS

Read More

 1. The customer journey
    1. Post-purchase flow
 2. How to map the customer journey
    1. Who are your customers?
    2. What are their goals?
    3. How do they feel?
    4. What are the touchpoints?
    5. Do you deliver?
 3. Customer journey challenges



The customer journey is typically a visual representation of a user’s journey
with an organization, and how they interact with it at various points over time
and across channels.


It may explore the emotions that arise in the user, and on which channels these
emotions may occur as these interactions unfold. This article serves as an
introduction to the customer journey and key areas of interest to customer
marketing.


In this article you’ll find:

 * An overview of what the customer journey looks like,
 * Its relevance to customer marketing,
 * How to approach customer journey mapping, and
 * The possible challenges it can present.


THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY

Although often represented in linear form, the reality is that there are often
cycles or skipping across the course of the customer journey.


It’s worth mentioning that each consumer will approach this journey differently.
This is why personas are at the heart of how customer journeys work; they should
be mapped specifically to a particular persona, as customer behavior and
touchpoints will vary.


Generally speaking, the starting point is the moment that a potential customer
becomes aware of the product or service.


The customer journey aims to understand the point of view of the customer and
how they experience an organization. They enable understanding of any pain
points, how the consumer arrived at these points, and reveal opportunities for
intervention.


Interestingly, as Georgia Watson, Sales Enablement at IBM points out, even in
the buying stage, customers increasingly value experience over anything else -
with 85% for B2B , and 79% for B2C customers.


The journey might also reveal how an organization maps out their ‘to do’s’. They
chart a path of possible actions that align with a given type of customer and
visualize how a customer may engage with particular channels or content and how
individuals or teams can respond.


They also chart frameworks that may be invisible to the customer. For example,
processes connected to email nudges on customer onboarding triggers. They enable
teams to design specific services across the journey to reduce friction at any
identified pain points along the way.





Initially, consumers sequentially move through the awareness and consideration
stages. For example, a prospect may encounter a brand via a quick Google search
or word of mouth.


Next, in the consideration stage, they weigh up the brand, and any other
contenders, against alternative solutions, before seeking out reviews, case
studies or product demos in the decision-making phase.


These stages are typically quite complex for the consumer, and how they go about
them will vary depending on the persona identified. As you can see on the
graphic, there are a range of channels and touchpoints - and depending on the
nature of the purchase involved, could be physical, digital, or a combination of
these. After careful evaluation and justification, the consumer will buy the
product and move into the ‘service’ stage as a paid customer.




As depicted in the graph above, an alternative way to look at the customer
journey is to divide it into pre and post-purchase stages. This model is more
explicit when it comes to the post-purchase stages.


POST-PURCHASE FLOW

We can break down this post-purchase flow into the following processes:

 * Adoption - setting up users for success, through content and monitoring
 * Customer retention - fulfilling customer needs and giving them a reason to
   stay
 * Expansion - connecting with and learning from customers, uncovering new
   solutions, identifying opportunities for upsell and cross-sell.
 * Customer advocacy - activity connected to reviews, word of mouth
   recommendations, and so on, resulting in new prospects, leading to a constant
   loop rather than the end of the journey



Here’s where customer marketing really comes to the forefront.


In essence, mapping and refining the customer journey can further our
understanding of the consumer, what’s influencing them, and predict what may
happen next.


It also enables the creation of optimized and personalized experiences.  As a
customer marketer, knowing your personas’ journeys inside out, evolving with
them, and ensuring that they’re full of magic moments that dazzle the customer
is crucial. Having a customer journey mapped out also:


 * Increases engagement
 * Increases revenue
 * Builds brand loyalty
 * Saves time through automation
   

Depending on the structure of your team or set up of your organization, you may
or may not have a hand in all of these stages or indeed the creation of the
customer journey map.


The beauty of visualizing the customer journey, however, is that you can zoom in
and out where needs be. You may want to map out specific flows such as
onboarding or advocacy programs to optimize those areas for a particular persona
or customer segment.


Next up, let’s look into some key action points when creating or mulling over
the customer journey.

But first, consider downloading our ebook  that covers the essential elements of
a customer marketing plan. Fill out the form below to to learn six elements to
build into your customer marketing plan, from the early stages to elements
that’ll support you during growth and scale-up.




HOW TO MAP THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY

There are so many different ways to bring the customer journey to life:  some
teams prefer to start on paper, with post-it notes and markers, others opt for a
digital whiteboard, such as Miro.


Whichever way you choose to kick off, here’s our framework for getting started
that can be tailored to the aims of your teams and organization.


WHO ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS?

Your personas are a great starting point here; they can give you a lot of
information about the audience in front of you. For more information about
personas, see our sister community, Product Marketing Alliance’s, dedicated
personas module.


If this isn’t an option right now, focus on interviews, ethnographies and or
surveys to get an idea of the interactions your customers are having and the
touchpoints at hand.


Quantitative surveys can follow to confirm the results. Some companies also
enlist the help of customers to aid in the mapping process. This can be
especially helpful if you’re zooming in on a particular section of the journey,
like onboarding or support.


For Saas companies, don’t forget to consider the multiple types of users that
may interact with the product to find out which user may be involved and at what
point.


The person that does the initial research will more than likely not be the one
making purchase decisions. Therefore, it’s important to keep them in the front
of your mind while mapping and considering touchpoints.


It’ll be useful to consider:


 * Where do users use the tool?
 * When do they use it?
 * Do they use it collaboratively? Who with and what role do they have?
 * Which functions are they using?
 * What can we learn from how they are using them?
   


WHAT ARE THEIR GOALS?

It’s really important to know and understand your customer’s goals. They may
impact how long a particular person spends on a particular process or stage. For
instance: how much time they invest in the onboarding process or how much
interest they will have in additional resources.


These goals may also evolve over time as customers develop their relationship
with a company. Consider what problems they have that need to be solved. Goals
can also impact the feature adoption of your product.


HOW DO THEY FEEL?

Whether you’re in a B2B or B2C setting, considering how someone might feel at a
particular point is invaluable. If you want to be truly customer-centric, you
ought to be tuned into the emotions of your customers as they interact with us.


Whether it’s frustration or elation at the adoption stage or the warm fuzzy
vibes that stem from a feeling of belonging to a brand community, it should be
considered and give you insights into why people feel the way they do at a given
point in time.


Mine your interviews or probe your customers for emotional insights. NPS (net
promoter score) can also give a snapshot of how customers are feeling at a
particular time and gauge their sentiment towards you.



WHAT ARE THE TOUCHPOINTS?

It’s vital to get a handle on the sequence of events that a typical customer
from a given persona might follow. These are your touchpoints, the moment in
which a customer encounters your brand.


Some, of course, will be external and out of your control. Chris Ridson, the
Design Director of Adaptive Path suggests that touchpoints should be:


 * Appropriate
 * Relevant
 * Meaningful
 * Endearing
   

To ensure that touchpoints are truly reflective of customer experience, talk to
existing customers about the path they’ve taken, via roundtables or feedback.
Make use of tools such as Hotjar which provides mapping and recordings of a
user’s movements on websites - highlighting sections that are commonly visited,
or conversely, ignored.


For instance, it may give insights into why a particular type of user may drop
off a homepage or landing page after a few clicks. The information they were
looking for probably wasn’t available or easily accessible, and key interactions
were missed.


By switching up the page and testing different layouts and content, the number
of exits or bounce rate can be reduced, as the target personas see content that
is relevant and of value to them.


Also consider moments of truth. These are key points in which customers often
form an opinion of your brand, and be sure to pay attention to them whether
they’re good or bad.


Some common moments of truth typically occur earlier in the customer journey
when users discover the value of your product. This might be in the onboarding
process, or slightly further down the line when they truly integrate the product
into their daily lives. Do some digging to find out when these ‘aha’ moments
normally happen.


For example, imagine searching for a flight with a new airline. You find a few
contenders, but the timing and services onboard with one particular company
knocks it out of the park. The booking process and communications are fantastic.
You check in, go about your usual pre-flight activities and wait to board.


After some time, a message appears on the monitor with ‘DELAY’. confronted with
a huge line and no explanation as to why or how long it will take to check-in.
You wait for an hour. An hour becomes two. Communication is non-existent. The
moments of magic (great booking process and communications) are now long
forgotten  


Even though this may not be the airline’s fault, how they go about communicating
the issue at hand is their remit. This negative moment of truth is likely to
spill into not so favorable feedback, or possibly will be passed on to friends
or family.


According to a Nielsen survey, eight out of ten customers say that completely or
mostly trust recommendations from friends or family. Therefore, you need to
consider where these key points fall in your customer journey mapping.







DO YOU DELIVER?

What do your customers believe you’re delivering and does it live up to your
overall brand proposition? Whether your brand is sold as the fastest, most
convenient,  or the cheapest doesn’t really matter if your customers fail to see
that supposed value.


This point is inherently tied to the last, and sketching out the customer
journey can provide key insights into where this disappointment originates and
where your brand could tighten up a touchpoint or a process.


CUSTOMER JOURNEY CHALLENGES

Some possible challenges lie ahead when mapping your customer journey. It can
take a lot of skill to get everyone onboard the customer journey train. Bear in
mind that the purpose of journey mapping is to uncover potential sticking points
for customers, improve processes and enrich overall customer delight.


Therefore, ensure any areas for improvement are addressed. Like personas,
customer journeys may change and evolve and could need updating if you’re seeing
contradictions.


To learn more about these challenges, have a look into our Customer Marketing
Certified course. Here you will learn more about the customer journey including:

🛤  Some customer journey best practices,

🎟  Introduction to the onboarding process and framework,

🎤  Tools to boost customer engagement, and

💛  A breakdown of customer advocacy and community.



Enroll to learn more


LIKE WHAT YOU SEE? THEN CHECK OUT TONNES MORE.

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templates, to 100s of hours’ worth of presentations and mentors, our membership
plans are packed with awesome sales enablement resources.

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Written by:

AMIE STEPHENS

Amie creates course content here at PMA, and loves researching the newest goings
on in the marketing world to make engaging and tailored programs.

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