What is a customer journey and what are the benefits?

If you want to delve a bit deeper into marketing, you quickly come across many marketing terms. The ‘customer journey’, ‘customer experience’ and ‘touchpoints’ are terms you may already have encountered. In this blog, we explain what these marketing terms mean and what the benefits of a customer journey are.

What is a customer journey?

The ‘customer journey’ is also known as the ‘buyer’s journey’. The customer journey covers the entire journey your customer takes, starting from a potential customer’s initial orientation through to after the purchase of a product or service. This can therefore start with reading an online advertisement and end with becoming a loyal customer of your company.

This customer journey consists of several stages, depending on the type of company. The customer journey usually consists of around four stages:

• 1. Awareness
  In this first stage, a (potential) buyer recognises a problem.

• 2. Consideration
  Once the buyer becomes aware of their problem, a need (demand) is created for which your product will serve as the solution. The buyer starts looking for companies that can meet their need. This is often done by checking reviews, reading blogs and browsing social media. By going through various companies or sources, your potential customers find out whether you can offer them something.
  
  It could also be that the buyer already knows your company. This could be through an advert, an online advertisement or a Facebook repost from someone they follow. If you have made a good first impression, the buyer may look you up before checking out competitors.

• 3. Decision
  When a buyer is in this stage, it means they have chosen a company and are ready to make a purchase. Before making the purchase, they often check the terms and payment options, so make sure these pages are up to date and load quickly.

• 4. Service
  After making a purchase, the buyer may need extra explanation or, for example, a discount on a future (additional) purchase. It could also be that something went wrong with the delivery of an order or during the completion of a service. By meeting the (now) customer’s need, you may encourage them to eventually become a loyal customer. To retain these loyal customers, you can offer loyalty cards or reward cards, which may in turn generate word of mouth (the best advertising there is!).
  
  During the customer journey, potential customers may drop out at, for example, the first or third stage. This can have various causes, such as a cheaper competitor or a poor user experience on the website.
  
  To ultimately guide as many customers as possible to the final stage, it is important to optimise all points of contact around your customer’s needs. These points of contact are seen as ‘touchpoints’, for example when your customer views a social media post from you about a particular service. This improves the overall customer experience, also known as ‘customer experience’.

Benefits of the customer journey

• Customer loyalty: by responding to the customer’s needs, you ensure an optimal customer experience. A good customer experience creates an emotional bond, causing your customer to choose your company over competitors.
  
  
• Higher conversion: when you respond to the ‘touchpoints’, you reach more potential customers. By coming to their attention more often, the chance of conversions is higher.
  
  
• Finding areas for improvement: by gaining more insight into the journey your customers take, you can also identify bottlenecks, or areas for improvement. This way, you can optimise the customer experience and generate more conversions.
  
  
• New opportunities: besides finding areas for improvement, you may also gain insight into new or different needs that arise for your customer during their customer experience. This can lead to the development of new services or products that meet the needs identified.

Would you like to know more about the possibilities of a customer journey for your company? We are here to help you set goals, a marketing strategy, personas and a corresponding customer journey. Schedule a no-obligation meeting.