Customer Journey, what it is and how it has changed

The Customer Journey is literally the path that the Consumer takes to get to the purchase. Anyone who wants to effectively offer products on the market should take into account or at least know what the Customer Journey is.

It is the core of Inbound Marketing because it identifies when and how the company can be found. But it is also useful in Outbound Marketing, because the Customer Journey offers indications on the right moments to implement communication and advertising strategies. And we will see that its usefulness is not limited to this!

It is therefore a strategic tool because it aims to define the dynamics that are created between those who offer and those who ask for a good or service. Sophisticated and interdisciplinary, it ranges from psychology to economics, to the mechanisms of communication.

What is the Customer Journey

The Customer Journey is a marketing tool as powerful as it is complex. It indicates how the customer comes into contact with the company, from the moment he perceives a need to when he buys a good or service, taking into account how:

• be identified on the market
• engage with the customer appropriately
• provide information and support in the selection phase
• offer a pleasant and rewarding shopping experience
• assist in after-sales
• inform about news and updates

The Customer Journey is obtained from the analysis of company data and points of sale (sales, warehouse, production but also archives, feedback), market data, surveys and media data.

The criteria for data collection are initially defined on the basis of the product, the type and size of the company, the market and the social environment in which it operates. It is essential to choose the data methodically and verify the degree of truthfulness.

The collected and organized data allow to identify the key elements of the Customer Journey:

• the target audience ( Target )
• Touchpoints (meeting points between consumer and product/brand) and communication channels to reach the target
• contents (information and emotions) and experiences that guide purchase, gratify and build loyalty
• the tools for measuring (commonly referred to as KPI: Key Performance Indicator ) the reactions to the strategies implemented

The relationships in time and space between these elements give the Customer Journey.

Locate the Target

Through the analysis of the data collected on sales, navigation on sites and social networks, the market, surveys and feedback on both online and offline behavior, it is possible to outline buyer personas , i.e. imaginary typical buyers who help us understand the type of public which we address.

These virtual people represent the so-called Target and help to position oneself from the buyer's point of view.

A good tool for sorting out the many data and defining the Buyer Personas can be the use of an empathy map.

Once the types of public have been identified, it is possible to start studying all-round Marketing and Web Marketing actions , projecting them into their own purchasing experience.

The Touchpoints

Touchpoints are the occasions in which the company can transmit and receive information during the Customer Journey. The analysis of the economic context in which we operate and the definition of the buyer personas allow us to identify the communication channels available but above all to understand which ones are the most useful for getting the message across to our audience.

Touchpoints are of three types and for each there are several channels available:

• Traditional : press releases and public relations, newspapers, TV, radio, promotional phone calls, mailings, posters and brochures, shops and events
• Digital : corporate blog and website, social networks, webinars, emails, influencers, online advertising (ADS)
• External : reviews, back links

Knowledge of buyer personas, Touchpoints and channels allows Targeting : getting organized to reach the right audience.

In the first formulation of the Customer Journey, digital channels did not exist.

But digitization is leading to increasingly simple and frequent access to news and offers. Channels and opportunities for contact (Touchpoints) are multiplying. The use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) is also increasingly frequent.

The interweaving of real and online experience gives rise to autonomous and personalized purchasing behaviour. But also more information on the consumer: every move in the digital world, if properly monitored, leaves precise traces.

The contents

It is Content Marketing that takes care of transmitting the right contents , i.e. information and emotions in line with what it wants and when it is looking for them. Therefore, companies often focus above all on this phase when they think about marketing actions.

But having identified your reference Customer Journey allows you to act from the beginning of the buyer's journey and better if even before (the so-called ZMOT ), creating occasions in which product information can intrigue potential customers when the need has not yet arisen . Not only. The Customer Journey itself will help Content Marketing to choose the right tones and messages, through SEO and SEM optimization. To make the difference on the market at the most appropriate cost.

KPIs: measure the reactions to the strategy implemented

Each marketing tool is such only if it offers measurable results. And this also applies to the customer journey. On the basis of the type of relationship envisaged between the public and the company, the relative Key Performance Indicators must be identified for each Touchpoint.

The monitoring of online interactions is usually managed through a Dashboard (or Dashboard ) which, just like in a car, allows you to keep an eye on what is happening as you proceed.

What is the Customer Journey Map

The Customer Journey Map is nothing more than a graphical representation of the Customer Journey.

To trace a Customer Journey Map it is necessary to summarize the salient moments of the relationship between the public and the company in a diagram, highlighting for each key moment who , where , when , regarding what , how and why they act.

The model initially took into account the greater difficulty of obtaining information, both for the buyer and for the company, and envisaged a linear succession of Touchpoints over time.

The phases of the Customer Journey before and after the digital revolution

Until recently, in the era of one-way communication, when the company and the product were still the great protagonists of the scene, the customer journey was divided into 5 phases:

• Awareness : the customer acquires awareness of his need and of being able to satisfy it with the purchase of a product or service that is offered by several companies.
• Familiarity : the product emerges, is recognized, becomes familiar and stands out from the others for its usefulness in satisfying the customer's need.
• Consideration : the research and comparison phase, where the customer studies and compares the characteristics of the same product offered by several companies.
• Purchase : the moment of purchase, the first milestone for the company.
• Loyalty : a very important phase for the Brand, the one in which it can generate loyalty in the consumer. Loyalty that is generated not only through the newly purchased good which must naturally live up to the customer's expectations, but also with all those after-sales activities, from assistance to repairs, which create trust.

As mentioned, this type of model is now outdated, since through the multi-channel system the customer is no longer a taxable person, but has many more tools at his disposal and is every day more aware and protagonist of the whole process.

The web has made it easier for those who buy to find out what interests them or simply learn about some news. And this has produced countless variations on the buying process.

Because, you know, there are those who get information online and buy or collect the product in the store, because they still prefer to see it before concluding or getting more information. On the other hand, there are those who go to physical stores to see or try the product but then buy it online, for economic convenience or for a thousand other reasons (time, convenience...).

At the same time, every online interaction, starting from simple navigation on one's own sites, can be monitored by the company to obtain information.

For this reason, different map models have been developed, with circular or concentric shapes, which take into account the space-time discontinuity, faster decision-making dynamics and which in any case enhance the greater complexity of the shopping experience.

Avinasj Kaushik even proposes abandoning the traditional Customer Journey Map and creating one starting from the intentions and behaviors of potential buyers, because their greater freedom requires more than ever the company that wants to grow to focus on its audience. In line with the empathy map, he advises companies to:

• See (Look): observe who and what they see when they encounter our commercial proposal
• Think : studying what kind of thought our proposal arouses
• Do (Do): study the practical consequences of the proposal
• Care (Caring): nurture relationships with those who have taken actions following our proposal

The circular model of the purchasing process

In 2009, a circular purchasing process model was introduced, where it is the consumer who judges and continuously changes his perceptions of the Brand, deciding its success or failure.

Therefore only through an accurate definition of the customer journey, which helps us to fully understand our target, will we be able to address users in a personal way, with the care necessary to capture their attention and transform them into customers, offering them a positive and exclusive customer experience.

A typical mistake, which we often encounter in our consultancy activity, is to imagine that it is sufficient to open an online presence (a store on Amazon, your own e-commerce, a showcase site) and wait for contacts and sales with open hands. Obviously this is not the case: in addition to perseverance, time, investments (in communication, advertising, etc), it is also necessary to build this process circularity, starting from knowledge and constant contacts with one's target of interest.

Finally, not only strategy, but also tactics : there are now also effective tools for developing the customer journey, which allow you to monitor and manage the various circular models that arise during the various purchasing processes in a professional manner and without wasting time. So: strategies and tactics originate from theory. But how to create an effective customer journey?

How to create an effective customer journey

The customer journey must tell us about our users: through their interactions with our Brand we must get to know them in as much detail as possible, by monitoring and analyzing all possible touchpoints. But how to create a customer journey? Of course it is not easy, but to simplify the task the 5E model , theorized by Lewis Lin, can be useful:

• Entice : the initial phase, the one in which the attention of users is attracted to bring them closer to our product or service. This input can happen across all channels, from corporate blogs and social media to newsletters, and even through word of mouth. At this stage, the goal is to create interest and give a positive impression of the brand and product.
• Enter : it is the impact that the user has with our product or service, the emotion that we have managed to arouse in him. To exploit the customer's emotion to our advantage, it is essential to understand what level of involvement we have reached and to cultivate the relationship in a personalized way with each subject.
• Engage : the phase following the purchase, the one in which the goal is to solidify the relationship between customer and company. If the experience is positive, the chances of it being repeated increase.
• Exit : the greeting phase, in which it is essential to understand the customer's degree of satisfaction not only with respect to the product or service purchased, but with respect to the purchasing experience as a whole.
• Extend : at this level the after-sales service and assistance service come into play, with the aim of creating loyalty and satisfaction in consumers and generating word of mouth.

Of course, managing the whole process manually is almost impossible: it is necessary to correctly administer and segment the contact database and communication with users, which in order to be successful must be personalized and sent on the right channel, at the right time.

Fortunately, there are marketing automation tools to achieve this goal, such as SendInBlue or HubSpot , which work in harmony with CRMs and which can detect and interpret online and offline touchpoints, managing to create a detailed map of the customer journey.