We have to accept it: what used to be an “added value” that only some brands could offer, today is the fundamental material from which the customer-business bond is built.
The journey your customer goes through when interacting with your brand is EVERYTHING (or almost):
80% of customers value the experience
purchase as much as the product
Today, a user uses messaging apps, email, web reviews, social networks and several other channels to communicate with companies, in addition to the most decisive communication of all: face-to-face interaction with the brand.
All of these touchpoints create an increasingly complex customer journey, making it harder every day to continuously ensure a great customer experience .
How then can a business meet these expectations and always ensure that every customer journey is seamless, but above all, productive?
A great way to understand the quality of what you offer and optimize the experience you provide is to listen: you have to measure the satisfaction of your customers . And for that, there are tools with precise metrics.
Here we will guide you step by step: there are several factors that you should take into consideration. See.
Understanding your customer’s journey solves problems before they escalate
For a moment, let’s please think about a highly possible scenario:
You’re in your business. You receive negative feedback from your customers: there are complaints because your products/services do not provide the desired results by buyers.
For any company, negative feedback is a necessary evil , and there will be no detrimental consequences if a genuine attempt is made to correct it.
Perhaps you think that it is a good option to resolve this type of claim by looking at the problem in isolation according to each particular case.
This is very dangerous: handling claims properly, before they escalate, can be the difference between losing a customer or building customer loyalty.
So, what does your company need so that a bad individual experience doesn’t turn into a larger group problem?
All your business requires to deal with this is to have a different perspective. Your buyers’ perspective: You need to find out what your customers want before they do .
Today there are accurate tools to measure and solve this type of situation in real time (along with many other problems related to customer satisfaction).
Having real-time feedback with your customers will allow you to access the perspective from which they express their doubts, concerns or complaints. And that allows you to stay one step ahead in the face of potential conflicts.
The key to delivering an outstanding customer experience is to know exactly what your brand’s customer journey is like. This is the basis for looking to grow your business in the direction you want it to.
But don’t forget, a bad customer experience can damage your reputation forever:
91% of unhappy customers will not do business with a company again after a bad experience
So what can you do to understand how your customers are feeling? Start listening. It offers fast, anonymous, and easy ways to download. Get a real, unbiased picture of what’s going on in the trenches of your business.
What is the customer journey and what does it mean?
The customer journey is a customer’s story with a brand. It consists of all the interactions and emotions that users experience from the first encounter with a business to the end of their relationship.
Said in a row, it seems simple, doesn’t it? But as we said at the beginning, we live in the age of customer-centric culture , so it gets a lot more complex.
Jaakko Mannisto , in his book “The journey: How to create the happiest customers in the world?” (“The Journey: How to Create the World’s Happiest Customers?”), states:
“Customer Journey is the complete experience
that a customer has with an organization”
The author proposes that this process can be broadly classified into five main phases:
- Knowledge
- Consideration
- Purchase
- Retention
- Promotion/loyalty.
A customer journey, in short, aims to map out customer behavior, expectations, and requirements in detail, highlighting the different channels through which the brand and customer interact with each other.
Problems exist (even if you don’t know they exist)
The value of understanding or mapping the customer journey is that it allows you to “own” the buyers’ perspective, offering the possibility of minimizing the gap between customer expectations and brand delivery as much as possible.
When you understand your customers’ journey, you begin to become better acquainted with the tastes and personalities of your ideal consumers.
Not only will you understand what users experience; You’ll also understand what’s missing from your brand. What it lacks or what it does completely wrong.
Collecting information from your customers in-store is an efficient way to access different niches of consumer information in real time.
This allows you to analyze each stage of the customer journey, and therefore, will help you to be able to respond to these concerns that usually arise:
- What are the common ways through which customers access your business/product/services?
- What motivates customers to consider your products/services?
- How do they perceive your brand as customer-business interactions get stronger or weaker?
- What doubts linger in the minds of your customers as they examine the possibility of purchasing your products/services?
- Where do customers feel distracted or interrupted in their buying process with your brand?
These are some of the many aspects that materialize into real metrics when you’re looking to learn everything about the journey you offer customers.
How can you systematically obtain and collect this type of information that allows you to continuously improve your brand experience?
A simple and effective way to achieve this is to use satisfaction surveys .
What Problems Can a Customer Journey Map Help Solve?
A company must efficiently manage the customer journey from the very beginning of the interaction between both parties.
A “map” of the journey can be created as soon as some consumer data is obtained from the research results.
Mapping the customer journey is more than projecting simple business instinct or following potential “hunches”; It’s about using solid data obtained from the specific analysis of user behavior.
There are 3 common challenges that travel maps can help you solve:
Respond to requests for help
When accessing your products or services requires extra effort from your customers, then there is a clear indicator of potential dissatisfaction.
If you have a clear journey mapping, your employees will have tools to solve the problem as quickly as possible. At the end of the day, don’t forget that they are responsible for the reputation of your business .
Your customer journey map should inspire confidence in your employees, giving them greater clarity on what your customers prefer and how they often feel within the experience process with your brand.
Detect negative experiences in the customer journey
Many organizations believe they understand the journey their customers take with their brand. They think they “get it” because they have prior ideas and prejudices about what they want to happen in the customer-business interaction.
Meanwhile, the customer is experiencing a journey that includes several points of frustration and effort.
We know that bad experiences lead to unhappy customers. It doesn’t matter if it’s just one, or one case in a hundred: the best time to receive honest feedback is when the experience unfolds.
Journey mapping can help you see the real experience your customers are going through, and not the one you may think “ideally” happens.
Anticipate problems
When you know your customer’s journey, you can see the big picture. Progressively you begin to understand what factors and expectations your customers expect from your brand.
Through touchpoints, you can be aware of various issues that your consumers face throughout the journey you offer them.
Companies understand their true weaknesses only when they see their shortcomings from the customer’s point of view.
You can implement immediate solutions that turn a bad experience into a simple misunderstanding: having real-time alarms will give you an advantage in managing issues before they escalate.
Find out what they feel and think about your business with one-click surveys and comprehensive statistics
Global Metrics allows you to collect valuable information for your business using in-store customer satisfaction surveys.
In addition to working with real-time metrics, you can also count on alarm systems to learn about negative experiences.
This allows you to quickly and effectively serve disgruntled prospects, which can be the difference between losing them or building loyalty.
If you need more information on how to get direct, regular and real-time feedback, click here.
