How to Optimize the Modern Customer Journey
In this short video we’re going to talk about the modern customer journey.
If you’re not paying attention to the modern customer journey, I guarantee you’re not bringing in as much money as you could for your business.
The modern customer journey takes place in 5 distinct stages.
1) The first stage is Awareness when interest is first created.
This can be any form of advertising, it could be a billboard, this could be a commercial on radio or TV.
Or, this could be some form of advertising online like a display ad on Facebook or a Google Search Ad.
2) The next phase is Findability.
The logical next step when a customer hears about your business is that they’re going to search to try to find you.
They’re going to look for you online and look for anything they can find out about your business and maybe look at your products and services.
Your business has to be visible online so customers can find you when they search for you.
3) The next stage is when customers perform research to look at your online reputation.
Consumers want to shop at places that they can trust so they’re looking for businesses that have 4 and 5 star reviews.
When customers have gathered enough evidence that they can trust you – that’s when your business gets chosen and customers take the next step, which is…
4) Conversion: This is when customers are primed and ready to give you their money – it’s ultimately converting a sale when a customer agrees to buy from you.
This could be someone walking through the front door or calling your phone, or this could be someone shopping on en e-commerce website, or it could be someone booking a free consultation or requesting a free quote from your website.
This is when the first 3 phases have paid off and you’re now taking money from the consumer.
And that’s what every business wants – sales.
If you deliver an awesome experience in these first 4 stages, your customers will be primed for phase…
5) Advocacy: This is becoming more and more important in terms of digital marketing, and it’s a great form of advertising.
If you offer great customer service at your business, you’re likely going to amass a ton of 5-star reviews and this is tremendously helpful for your business.
This is when your business gets talked about by customers and they become advocates for your business, telling their friends and family about you on Facebook, Google, Yelp, and they’ll bring it up naturally in conversations.
And that’s going to affect the modern customer journey for the next consumer.
When someone leaves an amazing 5-star review for your company that contributes to the next customer’s journey and their decision making process.
And it’s important to note that as you go further down the funnel, there are less customers in each stage at any one time and some drop out completely.
We want to keep as many customers in the funnel as possible.
In fact, it might be worthwhile to think of the customer journey as circular.
For example, what if someone has a bad experience buying from you and leaves a nasty review?
Let’s say I need to hire a mechanic to do some car repairs.
Am I going to choose Business A that spent a lot of money advertising their services and is the first Google result, but has a number of bad reviews where they caused an engine failure or an oil leak?
Of course not!
Even worse, instead of driving down the street to find another mechanic, I just need to swipe my finger down the phone screen and hire Business B, C, or D that have better reviews.
Business A spent a bunch of time and money at the top of the funnel only to send a customer to their competitor!
Or let’s go upstream I heard an ad on the radio for a car mechanic that’s in my area, but when I look them up online they’re nowhere to be found.
What am I going to do?
Even though they spent a bunch of money running advertisements on the radio, I’m most likely going to go somewhere else.
Without a proper online presence they’re sending all their customers to their competitor.
This is the danger of not having a comprehensive strategy.
We’ve learned that understanding the customer journey and building a strategy while looking at it holistically is much more effective than if we focused on any of the individual marketing channels in isolation.
But when you implement a broad based strategy like this, it can be hard knowing what to look at to confirm if things are working as they should.
People generally don’t tell you exactly why they came to your store, and they might not even know when they first became aware of you.
We’ve found there are a number of data points such as search types on Google listings, citations across the internet, and review scores over time that are best viewed in tandem to understand how they affect each other.
We collect and collate all of this data in an executive summary to spot trends over time to help you get a fuller picture of the effect on the customer journey.
For most local businesses, taking care of all of these elements is a lot of work – particularly because they don’t have an expert in digital marketing on their staff or the budget to hire a dedicated staff member.
This can result in a lot of pain as staff juggle their regular work duties, and it’s unclear whether their work is positively affecting business
When you work with us, we are committed to help you growing your business and providing you all the information needed to see where there are growth opportunities.
Navigating the modern customer journey can be complex, but you don’t have to do it alone.
Partner with us to optimize each touchpoint and ensure your business stands out.
Reach out today and let’s forge your path to meet your dream customers and chart your course for digital success!
Aricle by
Josiah Jones
Josiah is the founder and creative director of AZ Web Design Studios, creating websites and marketing strategies for small businesses and entrepreneurs around the world.
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