In today’s landscape, the customer journey is more crucial than anything else, and large companies must prioritize it. This is because when users have a subpar experience with a brand, they are unlikely to return for future purchases or services.
Individuals are growing increasingly discerning, seeking to engage with enterprises that empathize with their pain points, value their experiences, and can understand (and please) them by providing solutions in a simpler, more practical, and faster manner.
One thing is certain: you will lose sales if you fail to offer a personalized and uncomplicated purchasing experience. This will determine whether a potential customer will truly close a deal with your company or seek solutions to their concerns from your competitors — those who implement the right strategies to ensure that the customer feels genuinely esteemed, embraced, and comprehended.
Your customers expect your brand to provide a positive experience before, during, and after making a purchase. The customer journey should not end after a single action; quite the opposite, it should be consistently nurtured to cultivate connection and rapport.
In other words, you need to attract, convert, and delight your audience in the right way. Therefore, it is worthwhile to reflect on…
What experience am I providing to my client?
Let’s consider the following scenario: you own an online store selling electronic products and offer your audience a catalog with numerous options. However, your website falls short in terms of functionality, offering limited information and less-than-enticing prices.
Upon accessing your site, the customer becomes confused with the processes and finds it overly complicated to locate the item they want to purchase. Or, when they do find it, the product lacks the right information, let alone the technical specifications they need to evaluate.
A complex, slow, and non-functional website that lacks trust, in addition to unappealing prices, can lead to cart abandonment and the search for a competitor that meets the customer’s needs. This occurs when users add items to their carts but ultimately decide against completing the purchase. According to Opinion Box research, 80% of users have this habit of giving up at the final stage of the purchase for these and other reasons.
So, if the goal was to make a good impression and establish a connection with a potential consumer, it certainly was not achieved. Instead of creating a sense of welcoming, showing the user that your store had the potential to solve their problems, your business actually caused irritation and confusion. The solution, then, lies in leaving your website to explore alternatives that better cater to their requirements.
What sort of experience do you think you provided to this customer? An uncomfortable journey that is unlikely to bring that user back to your brand. You lost the customer, failed to make a good impression, and even stirred up negative feelings. Unpleasant, isn’t it?
However, it’s plausible that the issue doesn’t solely lie with your website; it may extend to your customer service. When a customer wants to get in touch with your company, they expect you to provide three things: ease, speed, and humanization — even if the contact is online, they expect to be well-assisted.
When the customer encounters obstacles, such as slow chatbots with generic responses that convey little empathy and humanity, and lengthy service times that require the user to wait for long minutes (often for hours or even days) to speak with a representative, the customer journey, which should have been smooth, quick, and easy, actually turns into a significant disaster. People do not want to wait. Your audience wants you to deliver a positive experience from start to finish, meeting their expectations.
Therefore…
How to ensure a positive journey for my client?
To establish a relationship steeped in trust and warmth between your brand and your audience, even before contemplating any personalized strategy, it is necessary to understand the sales funnel and what the needs (and behavior) of each consumer are during the three stages:
Top of the funnel
It’s the stage of learning and discovery, where an individual, while seeking information online, realizes they have a previously unknown need or problem that requires a solution.
Here’s an example: Leandro, 25 years old, enjoys taking photos with his phone. Over the past few months, he started following relevant and informative content (such as blog posts, websites, posts, and videos) about smartphones recommended for this purpose. Features, functionalities, and technical specifications previously unknown to him began to capture his attention.
Reading information that can directly influence his decision (learning), the question arises: is it time to replace his current device with one that offers better features for photography (discovery)?
The top of the funnel, then, is the stage where your customer recognizes a pain point with the help of relevant information and, from there, seeks the ideal solution to address this problem.
For businesses, the top of the funnel stands as a golden opportunity to attract users and showcase that, even if their predicament hasn’t been fully recognized yet, your company can help them solve it. The best way to do this is through a content marketing and inbound strategy, for example.
Middle of the funnel
The middle of the funnel is the stage of problem recognition. When, through research and following content, your customer identifies that they indeed have a pain point that needs addressing. The likelihood of finalizing a deal at this stage amplifies, as your brand can precisely identify the optimal solution for that problem:
Leandro (as illustrated above) identified, with the help of relevant materials, that his current cellphone is not as advanced anymore, and that there are devices with much better features for photography. The subsequent step entails researching which smartphone aligns with his needs. However, with so many options in the market, determining the ideal choice takes time (which the user doesn’t want to waste).
Fortunately, after reading the information that led him to recognize this problem, he also noticed that the website provided informative content about the ranking of the best releases for those, like him, who enjoy taking high-quality photos. He was able to evaluate the models (checking prices, payment methods, and technical information) and identify the perfect solution that led him to the next stage: the purchase decision.
Bottom of the funnel
We’ve reached the final stage: the bottom of the funnel, where the user decides to take action, whether it’s making a purchase or hiring a service.
After reading all the information he needed, tracking the models most aligned with his needs, and recognizing the best solution for his pain point, Leandro chose an excellent model to help him with photography and decided, therefore, to complete the purchase on the website that assisted him so much.
The connection was established. The customer was satisfied. The brand gained another customer. Leandro is likely to recommend the company to his acquaintances because his journey was seamless, practical, swift, and enjoyable.
To encourage this action, companies can use attractive strategies such as discount coupons and CTA’s (“call to action” buttons) like “enter your email and receive a special discount on your first purchase,” “talk to a representative,” or “ last units available.” At this stage, the objective is to convert and ensure that the user departs your website only after taking action.
After encouraging the customer to make a purchase, it is crucial to invest in after-sales to foster their loyalty. Sending a thank-you email or message, inviting them to return, along with providing new promotions, discount coupons, and attractive materials, is a good strategy for this.
Once you understand the sales funnel, the next step is to study your audience and create a strategic marketing plan to attract, convert, and delight. In other words, to build connections, drive sales, and cultivate consumer loyalty by offering all the necessary support during their journey.
Does this mean that I need a communication agency to assist me in making the customer journey more engaging?
It could be! Combining the knowledge your company has about your audience with the expertise of a complete marketing team forms a sound strategy to craft the ideal customer journey, setting aside obstacles that may deter potential customers from your business.
If your goal is to establish a strong relationship with your audience, understanding their pain points, and making their journey more interactive, a 360° communication agency can assist you with various marketing strategies, such as content creation, automation, lead nurturing, branding, and much more.
Check out this successful case study:
TD SYNNEX (formerly SYNNEX Westcon-Comstor), a leader in IT solutions distribution, identified a pain point brought about by the pandemic that affected numerous organizations: the lack of security in remote work environment. With a comprehensive catalog to address this issue, the brand saw an opportunity in this challenge and approached Ideatore to promote its solutions.
The company’s objective was to expand its cybersecurity solutions throughout Latin America. To accomplish this goal, the 360° communication agency created campaigns in three languages, targeting the most relevant audiences for the brand.
To yield significant results, the team developed a strategy for lead generation and qualification, providing Gartner reports (a technology reference) and other nurturing content. By optimizing the ads, the campaigns were successful, reaching relevant audiences and achieving high conversion rates with broader and more precise results.
In total, seven campaigns were executed, generating over 1700 leads, with 350 contacts ready for sales and 140 requesting direct contact with specialists. On social media, the ads reached over 6 million impressions and over 40 thousand clicks. Each campaign had its geographical focus, being broadcasted in 36 countries across Latin America. Read more details here!
If you want to be the next company to achieve exceptional results by providing an enjoyable customer journey: get in touch!