The customer journey is the process of a customer traveling through your business. It is one of the main points that every business should not only map out but continually monitor to ensure they are providing the very best customer experience to each of their customers.
By mapping out your customer journey through your business, it ensures that:
· You are not missing out on any potential sale points
· You are not missing out on any interaction points
· You can focus on a smooth, seamless transition through your business from start to finish
· It will allow you to find out where you should market
· You can spot any customer pain points
· Identify any gaps within your journey and your business
So how do you develop your customer journey?
Step 1
Something I am sure most business owners do regularly. If you do not, you really should! Set your targets.
What do you want to achieve?
How do you want your business to grow?
How much do you want to earn?
Step 2
Identify your client again. It is something you might already have but nail this down to the point you have given them a name. It is important to fully understand your customers so you can locate where they will be, what they are looking for in products and services, how easy or hard they are to sell to, and so much more.
Step 3
Understand your customers goals, why they would be buying this product or service, and what they want to get out of it.
Step 4
Understand your customer's pain points. What pain points are leading to them buying this product or service?
Step 5
Map out your customer's journey. Either on paper or there are fantastic systems that you can use, such as Lucidchart, which you can utilise to put it all down and ensure the flow through your business is as it should be.
Step 6
Identify on your customer journey map your customer touchpoints. Where a customer will be in contact with you, such as initial sale, and sourcing your business, and if there are any customer care issues. Look at where you can increase the touchpoints to reach out to them; this can be a simple email checking in after the sale, a well-placed marketing email for sale conversions upsells, or additional sales or ensuring they have all the information they require between the sale and delivery.
Step 7
What pain points could they hit through their customer journey with you; this is important to identify so you are aware of them and can make changes to your business or implement alternative actions and processes to remove these painpoints. Are there any touchpoints you can add here to reduce or eliminate these pain points?
Step 8
Identify and fix any roadblocks your customer may find. Why should they buy from you and not a competitor?
Step 9
Revise, update and improve constantly. Set calendar dates in the future for you to monitor this to ensure that you are adjusting your customer journey map regularly and when you make any changes within your business.
Implementing these steps and creating a customer journey map for your business will ensure that you are providing your customers with the best possible service through your journey.
If you have not created a customer journey process for your business, now is the time! Demand for an excellent customer experience is rising, with a higher percentage of customers choosing that as the reason to buy from a business over a lower price.
Do you need help bringing your customer journey map into existence for your business? We have a customer experience and processes specialist at VASS waiting to help you. Contact us on the link below to arrange a free consultation to discuss how we can help you.