Customer Journey: Think like your customer

Customer Journey, although it seems like a complex term, it really isn't. The Customer Journey is the tool that helps us understand what the customer experience is like with your company told from their perspective.

It is a map that shows how customers interact with your company, which is essential to know what your buyers need and expect at different times in the relationship with the company and is the key to your company moving towards success.

In this article, we analyze what exactly the Customer Journey is and how you can implement it. And we also tell you what tools you can use to adopt it and what benefits you can have. Let's do it.

What is the Customer Journey?

The Customer Journey is more than just a tool; is a comprehensive view of customer experiences with your company.

The Customer Journey is a moving photo of what the customer experiences (and lacks) in their multiple interactions with a company, from the moment they set a goal, until they achieve it. This helps companies to chart and understand the full lifecycle of your customers or fragments of that relationship, always from the customer's perspective.

You can also think of the Customer Journey as an enormously powerful tool, as it helps you to think like your customers (not about him or for him), and therefore, it allows you to identify key insights to innovate in what truly matters to them and values at every stage of their “journey”. That's the Customer Journey.

However, if you are an entrepreneur or you are a professional of Customer Experience, you should know that this customer-centric approach allows you to capture their perspectives. And this, ultimately, improves business decision-making, as it allows businesses to be oriented to the real needs of the target audience.

Phases of the Customer Journey

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Let's talk now about phases of the Customer Journey, which are found throughout a customer's journey with a company. Let's see what they are:

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1. Conscience

This is the stage where the customer realizes that he has a need or problem and start looking for solutions. Here, it's crucial for companies to capture the attention of potential customers and make themselves visible through marketing and advertising.

2. Consideration

At this stage, The customer already knows their needs and start evaluating different options and brands available in the market. In this phase, companies must highlight their products or services as the best options, providing detailed and useful information.

3. Decision

During this stage, the customer makes the purchase decision after comparing different products or services. Here, offering a simple shopping experience and quality support can tip the balance in favor of your brand.

4. Buy

During this phase, the customer makes the purchase of the product or service. Even if you've already taken it to the sale, a smooth and pleasant shopping experience is essential to leaving a good impression and fostering loyalty.

5. Retention

After the purchase, the customer uses the product or service and form an opinion about its quality and value. In that sense, good after-sales support, effective problem resolution, and maintaining a positive relationship are crucial to retaining customers.

6. Promo

Finally, if the customer experience is positive, they are likely to recommend the brand to others. Satisfied customers are brand ambassadors, and your positive word can attract new customers. You must be aware of this.

Benefits of the Customer Journey

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Now that you know what are the phases of the Customer Journey or Customer Hallway, as it is also known, let's discuss the benefits it can give you. The most relevant are the following:

Recognition of key moments

Identifying and empowering moments that generate gratitude in customers is crucial for any business. Through the Customer Journey, not only can these positive experiences be identified, but they can be prolonged and improved.

This is used to create stronger and more lasting bonds with customers.

Quick wins and innovation

The Customer Journey also allows us to discover “quick wins” and opportunities for innovation to stand out from the competition.

For example, companies like Amazon and Zara have transformed their processes and strategies based on insights gained from their customer journey. And see how far they've come!

Leadership and Experience

The Customer Journey can also help you identify those situations in which you are a leader in customer experience. This in turn allows you to empower and capitalize on those moments of leadership to strengthen your business position in the market.

Emotional Management and Reduction of Obstacles

Customer Journey mapping is key to understanding and managing customer emotions. And this in turn is the key to minimizing operational effort and maximizing satisfaction at every touchpoint. Great, right?

Elimination of worthless interactions

Finally, the Customer Journey can also be used to identify and eliminate interactions or services that do not provide value to the customer, which is essential for any company. And it's essential not only because it improves the user experience, but also because it allows for resource optimization.

How to implement the Customer Journey in your business strategy

After learning about the phases and benefits of the Customer Journey, you are probably wondering: How do I implement it? Don't worry, we've got you covered. Keep reading and discover the step by step:

1. Current customer analysis: The first step is to understand who our customers are and what they expect from us. To do this, you can use tools such as archetypes and buyer personas, which serve to obtain a deep understanding of their motivations and behaviors.
2. Mapping the current journey: The second step is to identify all the touchpoints and experiences along the customer's journey with your company. Here, the journey taken from the first contact to the after-sales service must be considered.
3. Identifying critical points: You should also locate those moments in the journey where customers experience friction, dissatisfaction, or moments of truth that may define their loyalty to your brand.
4. Designing the ideal experience: In this part, you must create a Customer Journey Map that reflects what we want the ideal customer experience to be like, taking into account each touchpoint and phase of the buying process.
5. Implementing improvements and strategies: Based on the ideal Customer Journey, you should develop and implement strategies to improve the customer experience at every stage of their journey.
6. Constant measurement and adjustments: To measure results, you must use metrics and monitoring tools that measure the success of your strategies. Finally, based on this information, you must make adjustments in real time to constantly optimize the customer experience.

The latest on Customer Journey

In short, the Customer Journey is more than a tool or a concept; it's a business philosophy that puts the customer at the heart of the business strategy.

And as you reviewed in this article, understanding and continuously improving the customer experience at every touchpoint not only increases customer satisfaction and loyalty, but it can also boost the growth and innovation of your company.

If you want to know more about this concept or are ready to implement it, you can contact us. We want to know more about you! Write to us!