In my previous post, we have discussed about Google announcement of considering Page Speed as a ranking factor for mobile searches and today we will discuss about “Customer Journey”.

“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology- not the other way around” – Steve Jobs

A Company is a tourist spot: Attracting your customer, making their stay comfortable and retaining them are the pillars for taking your company to next level.

The definition of marketing is changing with time and it is expected that by 2020, 85% of customer’s relationship with a company will be without interacting with a human. In this constantly changing era where the competition is getting tougher, one should strictly stick to Darwin’s theory: “Survival of the fittest.”

Wear the hat of customer and adapt to how the consumers are starting to behave now. Turning a visitor into a customer is a tough job and for that one should understand what a customer journey is?

The experiences that customer goes through while interacting with your company and brand sums up to form the customer journey.

Customer’s Journey Timeline…

Customer has to go through various stages while reaching the destination. Following is the customer journey timeline:

• Engagement;
• Buying the product or service;
• Using the product;
• Sharing;
• Completion

The journey of a customer is well explained in below example.

Components of Customer Journey…

While developing a customer journey map, there is a TEAM of ingredients which should always be included.

• T- Touch Points: Once you have noted down the stages, identify the key interactions that customers have at each touch-point with your company.

• E- Emotions: The map should include the emotional state of customers at each stage of the journey. Sentiment analysis of customer feedback is the most effective way of getting to the heart of customer emotions
• A- Audience: The main characters that illustrate the needs, goals, thoughts, feelings, opinions, expectations, and pain points of the user.

• M- Medium: Determine the channel where the interaction is taking place (website, call center or in-store).

Why Customer Journey Mapping is Need of An Hour…

·  Helps to channelize your funds on the target

In this highly competitive world, everyone out there is working hard, but the one who works smart and thinks out of box, stands as a true winner.

a) The Engagement stage in the customer’s journey is an important phase. Completely understanding the customer and engaging him efficiently at this stage will make customer consider your brand continuously. Understand the three aspects of your customer:

• Needs;
• Wants and
• Challenges

Read Also: Social Media Engagements- 7 Amazing Tips to Boost up Your Business

b) Communication with customer is necessary but finding the best time to communicate is a key to successful marketing. The best time means the time at which maximum involvement is witnessed. If the maximum traffic of buyers on social media is witnessed on weekends, that’s when you should be posting.

c) Identifying the best medium for your targeted audience is as important as choosing a best time. Perfect medium when shakes hand with accurate time, delivers fruitful results. Wasting funds on channels that are unable to reach your audience is an example of weak marketing skills.

Digital marketing initiatives when move in tandem with customer journey, helps to get rid of wasteful marketing efforts, thereby increasing ROI.

·  Strengthening Brand Relationship and Loyalty

“The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best but legendary”- Sam Walton

In this modern era, customer’s expectations are at zenith and at same time their patience level is at all-time lows. So to maintain a good online reputation of your company is a challenging task. In this competitive fish market, if you don’t provide your customer with exactly what he wants, he will switch to your competitor in no time.

A trust between a customer and their peers tend to lean them towards the suggested company. So it is a high time to strengthen the relationship with potential customers.

But the big question is HOW?

Focusing on cementing the relationship and earning loyalty by providing outclass experiences for the targeted customers is the key for marketers to attract the customers towards their company and on behalf of your company, market your business, taking it to next level. When the voice of customer is on your side, no one can drag you back.

An example of customer feedback power lies in this instance in which an unsatisfied United Airlines customer posted a YouTube video about it. This costed the airline whooping $180m as its share dropped by 10%.

Give your business wings of customer journey mapping and make it fly high in the sky.

About the author

Internet Marketing Analyst, present Director @kvrwebtech.com Since 2009. Providing Internet Marketing as a medium for all kind of businesses to achieve the modern era goals. Have been highly successful in cultivating projects in Real Estate, Financial and Education Sector.