What really happens in the customer’s world, when someone considers buying a product or service? And what could a business do with that knowledge?
Much depends on how you see the process. Businesses have used a number of metaphors to describe the stages between needs awareness and a decision to purchase. We’ve all heard about the customer lifecycle, the sales cycle, a sales funnel, and the buyer’s (or customer’s) journey.
For some organizations, the concept of the customer journey is becoming a dynamic, game-changing framework that enables them to do more than send timely information. They want to design and create unique interactions that are new sources of value for buyers and the business.
Buyer’s Journey as a Funnel
Many organizations view the buyer’s journey as three familiar stages, as Salesforce and Pardot illustrate:
Awareness (of brands and needs)
Consideration (of a narrowed-down list of semi-finalist solutions)
Decision (to purchase and/or talk about the experience)
Others envision a buyer’s journey in other forms, one resembling a loop, or a two-way managed exchange that brands and consumers shape in response to each other.
In a widely read 2009 article, The Consumer Decision Journey“, McKinsey & Company, suggested an alternative framework to the funnel. The article described a “wilderness of messages” from which brand-aware consumers enter a circular four-part journey:
Initial consideration
Active evaluation
Closure and purchase
Post purchase and advocacy
Challenges to Funnel Frameworks
This model proposed some shifts in thinking. It challenged the funnel model, in which buyers start with many initial choices and narrow them with research, while brands push company-driven messages at opportune touch points, ending at the sale.
Instead, it accounts for consumer-driven activities that pull information from sources including those beyond touch points the brand can control. Word-of-mouth recommendations widen, rather than narrow, top-of-mind (formerly top-of-funnel) options. This gives smaller brands the chance to engage prospects who have discovered them.
The updated customer journey concept also includes post-purchase experiences such as ongoing data-informed interaction with the brand.
That’s where personalization shines as a competitive advantage.
Since the McKinsey article, the vision of what’s possible for the customer journey continues to evolve.
The Case for Compelling Personalization
Big data can change an organization’s ability to view and design experiences for customers in the moment. Algorithms and predictive systems enable brands to respond to the actions of the individual customer in new, more captivating ways.
To illustrate, solar panel provider Sungevity wanted to do more than educate prospects about the benefits of its solutions. It set out to personalize the customer journey so meaningfully that prospects would have no desire to consider other options.
David Edelman and Mark Singer at the Harvard Business Review describe David’s own highly personalized journey with Sungevity. It began with an email subject line that offered, “Open this to find out how much the Edelman family can save on energy costs with solar panels.”
A link showed David his estimated energy savings, based on the company’s assembled data on the roof angle of the family’s house, the impact of nearby trees (thanks to real estate data), and the potential productivity of the number of panels recommended to fit the roof. A custom URL displayed an image of David’s House on Google Earth, updated to show solar panels as they would likely look installed.
Another link launched an online chat with a company expert, who was looking at the same images on David’s screen.
Fast-forward through several more similarly custom-tailored experiences mapped to David’s precise stage in his journey, to the finished installation. Sungevity now sends David regular updates on the energy production of his panels, his cost savings, and suggestions for further savings based on additional information about the household.
According to HBR, Sungevity is the fastest growing residential solar provider in its vertical.
One could argue that Sungevity’s product is not simply solar panels – it’s the ongoing personalized experience of using energy through relevant, continued engagement.
Personalization via Apps
Two more brief examples: OgilvyOne, a customer engagement agency, worked with a footwear retailer with a lagging loyalty program. The goal was to expand customer loyalty and improve sales.
The agency noticed a void in the area of mobile experiences for customers. So they developed an app with the footwear company to offer incentives and personalized product information.
Users have downloaded the app over a million times and the project exceeded its goals.
L’Oréal’s Makeup Genius app, introduced in 2014, allows customers to virtually try on makeup looks from a catalog of celebrity photos, or to try individual products, using their tablets or smartphones. The app scans an image of the customer’s face, and shows a mirror image with the chosen style or product realistically applied. The image even tilts, moves and turns with the user’s movements, like an actual mirror, to show the look at different angles.
With the app, consumers can scan product barcodes in-store, and try them on virtually before they buy. Consumers can share their app-generated look on social media and order products online. Makeup Genius has been downloaded over 14 million times, and helped fuel a 40% surge in e-commerce sales in the first nine months of 2015 (reported Forbes).
Managing the Buyer’s Journey as a Product
The model and mindset used to map the customer journey makes a big difference in the opportunities organizations find to interact, close sales, and create loyal clients and customer advocates.
A dynamic data-informed buyer journey model can free companies from a framework that’s limited to a number of touch points. Instead, it can help them envision ongoing ways to co-create value for both customers and the brand.
To compete on customer journeys, brands will need four capabilities, say Edelman and Singer. They will need to apply:
Automation (to pull data relevant to the customer from elsewhere, and to manage interaction);
Personalization (to generate customized experiences in real time);
Contextual interaction (to keep pace with where the customer is in the buying journey); and
Innovation, to test and experiment with ways to expand on the relationship for mutual benefit.
Brands who are using these capabilities are thinking about the customer journey as a product — a way of shaping and reinforcing engagement that improves sales and gives them a superior place in their customer’s experience.
The post How Rethinking the Customer Journey Gives Brands a Competitive Edge appeared first on IDG Research.