What is a customer journey?
So a customer journey maps the customer's journey. It reveals to what extent you have successfully designed the customer process. You can apply it to existing customer processes, but also to customer processes yet to be designed. But to do so, you first need to know who your customer is. Buyer personas allow you to really put yourself in your customers' shoes. It gives you a picture of who your customers are, what characterises them and what they need. They serve as the basis for all marketing and communication.
In another article, we give tips on how to apply buyer persona(s). After you have created buyer personas, you can move on to mapping the customer journey.
The 5 phases of the customer journey
The customer journey model consists of five phases within which the customer can be: awareness, consideration, purchase, service and loyalty. To explain the five phases, we take as an example the customer journey of a company that wants to buy new computers.
Tried and tested process for linking the customer journey to channels and online resources
1. Awareness (recognising problem)
The computers in the organisation's office are outdated and the connections do not fit the new equipment. This ensures that not everything runs quickly and smoothly. This has become a bigger eyesore and is now also seen as a problem.
2. Consideration (search for solution)
A search has begun for new computers in the office. The search begins at the search engine to find out which computers are most suitable for the work required. Should we stick with brand A or is brand B better for what we need? A white paper provides useful information on these issues. This is downloaded and read carefully to choose the best solution along with the rest of the information. In the end, brand B is chosen.
3. Purchase (where is the best place to buy this)
Now that a solution to the problem has been found, the next question is where to buy the computers. Several companies offering brand B computers are approached. Company A, B and C are invited to drop by for an interview. Company C created the white paper which they downloaded and used to find the solution.
4. Service (is it easy to find and how are you helped)
After consulting with the team, they decided to go with company C. The cooperation with company C goes very smoothly and the computers of brand B are in place and installed in no time. Company C also provides advice and tips on how to use the brand B computers. They are knowledgeable, which has already been shown by the information in the white paper. Moreover, in case of a technical problem, company C comes immediately to solve the problem so that the company can get on with its business as soon as possible.
5. Loyalty (building a relationship)
Company C provides excellent service and they regularly send a newsletter with interesting offers to the company that previously bought computers. Therefore, if they later need beamers, they contact Company C directly to get more information about it. They eventually make the decision to deal with company C again.
Customer journey model completed based on the example
Link the customer journey stages to the sales funnel
Each phase of the customer journey can be linked to the sales funnel. At each stage, the customer has a particular need that needs to be met.
A sales funnel is actually a funnel that represents the customer's journey, just like the customer journey, only with the funnel you see that not all the people you reach actually make the purchase. In the sales funnel, you see which action belongs to which phase. For instance, awareness involves attracting attention, consideration involves persuading/converting the customer to your brand, purchase involves engaging your customer, service involves making sure the purchase goes well and loyalty involves building a connection with your customer.
