Put the ‘C’ word into Customer Journey

Customer journeys have changed. While many purchases still occur offline, ecommerce is snowballing and the media and information that inform those purchase journeys are increasingly online. In 2020, businesses adjusted and rapidly pivoted to digital to capture the opportunities and gain potential efficiencies that marketing automation offers to connect with customers.

As digital transformation accelerates, there’s more focus than ever to deliver a customer experience that truly differentiates.

In their haste to connect, many businesses think technology before customer

Companies simply can’t afford to overlook customer journeys. Internal stakeholder workshops and Miro whiteboards are all well and good, but, to paraphrase Wendy’s, without research, Where’s the Customer?

Customer Journey Mapping research should be the first step for any business looking to automate its marketing and communications process. Customer research brings to life the story of how a customer engages with your business. Basing technology design on a deep understanding of the people you are designing for ensures that you develop the best solution to meet their needs.

Taking a customer-first approach helps build empathy for the customers you are designing for. Its purpose is to discover insight into the human problems that customers face and enable you to see the hoops they have to jump through before you scope the technology.

Let the people speak

When you are developing a technology solution for people, it’s vital to learn as much as you possibly can from as many of them as you can, within the constraints of time, budget and opportunity. Don’t be put off by those who say ‘it costs too much’ or ‘we haven’t got time’. It costs much more and takes valuable time to fix your system if you don’t undertake consumer research before you start.

You live and breathe your brand. Your customers don’t. You need to shift your perspective from inside-out to outside-in. Research with actual customers is essential to explore what they really think, feel, see, hear and do at different stages in the buying process, identify potential barriers, explore “what if” scenarios and find ways to answer to them.

You need to learn how people think and behave and explore their varied experiences and different perspectives to inform the technology solution. Relying on sources that simply align with and reinforce your own perspective prevents you from connecting with and understanding the real issues, perspectives and challenges faced by people.

Try to walk their way

Be empathetic. It’s important to experience first-hand someone's 'problem' so that the solution is designed for the way people behave, not for how you would like them to behave. Start with your consumer and collect rich insights about them using human-centred research such as depth interviews or observations or ethnography. For example, watch people shop, listen in on conversations and observe body language.

Try doing the task you are designing for the consumer’s way. Get out there and try the product – buy the family’s shopping for the week, test-drive the car, go through the mortgage application process your customers go through. That way you will discover the hidden shortcuts and workarounds that people unconsciously take to get a job done.

It’s good to talk to the ‘wrong people’

Conducting research only with category loyalists or brand evangelists can result in hearing everything that’s great about a brand, not what needs to change. It might make for a feel-good session, but it won’t lead to the insights needed to do something truly new. Instead, interviewing light category buyers or brand rejecters can uncover the real barriers in your brand experience that must be fixed. Or the frustrations that force them to give up and buy your competitor’s product.

The power of customer-first 

Armed with insight into how your customers interact with your business, you can then take a true customer-first approach to deliver relevant activity through the awareness, consideration and conversion phases of the customer journey.

While businesses are tempted to invest in the latest technology, research shows that what really drives loyalty is efficient and personalised customer service. Chatbots or VR may be appealing technology solutions, but what customers still really, really want is a personalised response to their queries and to have their issues resolved promptly.

That’s why it is critical to do a deep dive with your customers before investing in digital transformation. There may be exciting developments in the technology pipeline, but they mean nothing without first getting the customer basics right.

Because, without customers, there is no customer journey.

Talk to us about talking to your customers.

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