How To Build a Customer Journey To Win The Digital World

You must have heard this before that the CUSTOMER is the king and this stands true even today as the Customer is the king and will remain the King for forever. Customers are now more educated than ever and it’s important to map the customer journey. Customer Journey is the King in the Engagement and retention world.

Over the past few years especially after COVID-19, There is a huge shift from offline to online and the major dependency is on SmartPhones. The line between the online and offline worlds continues to blur more every day as the customers are now active on social media, and digital touchpoints like Email, SMS, WhatsApp, and Notifications.

Serving users without deploying Marketing Automation Platforms and Automated customer journeys is nearly impossible. In fact, 75% of companies admit that COVID-19 increased the budget for digital transformation and customer journeys has helped them to achieve the transformation from offline to online to stay connected with their audience to provide a seamless customer experience with the help of Customer journey.

Today, Customers expect relevant content about what they are doing anytime anywhere, and on their preferred device, language, and channel. Understanding the Customer Journey is the Key as customers are considered the oxygen for any business. Without customers, there is no business.

The Brands that implement the Marketing Automation platform and use customer journeys at each stage and with respect to the use cases get highly engaged customers.

Highly Customised and personalized customer journeys can help brands to achieve-

• Six times more likely to try a new product or service from their preferred brand.
• Four times more likely to have referred your brand to their friends, family, and connections.
• Two times more likely to make a purchase with their preferred brand, even when a competitor has a better product or price.

Furthermore, highly engaged customers buy 90% more frequently, spend 50% more per purchase, and have 3x the annual value (compared to the average customer) which leads to boost the customer lifetime value.

Achieving customer love is the single most important criteria for business success and this is only possible when brands can reach out to customers where they are!

What are the stages of the Customer Journey?

Any customer who visits the brand website can go through the Five fundamental stages.

• The Discovery Phase
• The Evaluation Phase
• The Selection Phase and Final Purchase
• Retention Phase
• Growth Phase

The Discovery Phase

The discovery phase is the entry-level point for any customer. At this stage, the customer did research for any services or products. During this time the customer visits various websites to understand the product range, availability, and Price and look for similar options.

Brands can use Browser Push and Web Push at this stage so that they can engage more with the brand and get more valuable information. Brands can do Offline and Online engagement with customers.

The Evaluation Phase

The evaluation phase is the second level stage where the customer compares the product with other brands. Understand the offers on various sites, Check the bank offers, and Understand the ratings and the reviews. Brands can nurture the users by setting up relevant customer journeys and engaging with users as per their interests, behavior and time spent on the website.

A brand can share the USP of product, Brand Story, Testimonial, Latest reviews so that the customer can make their mind to purchase.

The Selection Phase and Final Purchase

After all the research done by the customer and based on their experience with the Brand, they decide to go ahead with the final selection process and finalize the product.

For Eg. I have recently made a purchase from XYZ Brand; however, the product is available at both XYZ and ABC Brand. As a customer, I found their delivery is faster than others and their return policy has no ask questions policy. I decided to go ahead with the XYZ brand even though it’s INR 100 and costly.

For me, The delivery, packaging, and hassle-free returns are more important.

Retention Phase

Brands can simplify their retention using marketing automation platforms. At this stage, Brands can engage with customers via feedback form, their experience about the purchase, and Smooth Installation of the product (if applicable). Based on the purchase, the Brand can set up Upsell, cross-sell, New Launches, Refill, and replenishment kinds of customer journeys.

Growth Phase

Every brand wants to grow their business with minimum cost. The cost of acquiring a new customer costs five to ten times more than retaining an existing one. The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 – 70%, while the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%.

Existing customers are 50% more likely to try new products and spend 31% more, when compared to new customers. The growth phase includes the Refer and Earn, Special discounts for existing customers to encourage higher AOV, App downloads, word of mouth within the social connections and more. The objective of the growth phase is to increase the customer lifetime value.

Please check the below use cases of the EdTech Industry and how we can create customer journeys as per the defined use cases and business requirements.

Campaign idea	Channel	Message	KPI Impacted	Audience
App Installed to sign up	Push	“Sign up and get the maximum out of
Sign up to first transaction	Push, Email, SMS
Collect leads through surveys on website	Surveys	“Survey form with name, email id, phone no.”	Increase in leads	Unknown users on specific URL’s
Download the app (Website)	Website (Onsite notif)	“Download the app now”
Nurturing the lead	Email, SMS, Push	“Welcome aboard, sign in and get 10% off on your first course”	Engagement & increase in leads	New leads
Class reminders	Email, Push	“Hey! Your {custom.class} is about to begin in the next 1 hour. Don’t miss it	Increase in attendance	Subscribers
Dormant users	Email, Push, Webpush	“We’re afraid how your learning minutes have gone down. Come back and finish your course”	Engagement	Inactive base
Uninstalled > Feedback / Install	Email, SMS	“We see that you are no longer using the app. Give us yoru quick feedback.Also, we ahve an offer for you”	Win back	Lost users
Payment abandonment	Email, Push		Increase subscription	Payment abandon
Referrals	Push/Email	Refer your friends & get 10% Cashback	Increase in subscribers	Paid Users
Broadcasting a course details when published	Email, Push (Relays)	“Your favourite {custom.educator} has released a new course on {custom.goal}. Subscribe now!!	Upsell & Increase in subscriptions	Existing subscribers
Lesson Completion Reminder – Reminder sent to subscribers to complete the selected courses	Push/InApp	You are a Champ! You have only 2 more chapters to complete l It’s okay to take your time. Our leading experts are here to simplify all concepts, complete your chapters here!	Increased engagement	Course enrolled
Weekly Progress/Report – Motivate users to complete Course/Module/Chapter	Push/Email	You’re doing great! You’ve completed 80% of your course, keep it up. l Hey Champ, You’ve been great, here’s your weekly recap l You’ve come so far! Keep at it!	Increased engagement	Course enrolled users
Module Recommendation – User is subscribed to Module A, Modules B & C can be cross sold	Push/InApp/Email	Hey, here’s some recommended modules to help you up A game at school	Increased LTV	Course enrolled > Subject A
Certificate	Email/Push/SMS	“Congrats! Click here to download your certificate	Increased LTV	Course completed

Top Benefits of Implementing Customer Journey

• Channel Preference and Flexibility
• Higher Reachability Higher Engagement
• Personalization is the Key
• The right message to the Right Audience via the right channel at the right time
• Higher conversions
• Brand Building
• Boost Loyalty
• More Data points better Data-driven decision making

Personalized Customer journey is the real game changer in today’s digital world. Brand can address the complex use cases by using customer journeys across all the digital touch points and provides a unified view and 360-degree overview of any user.

We at EnR help brands with dedicated MarTech Consultancy and Growth services and implement the best possible use cases and customer journeys to achieve overall business engagement, retention and conversion goals.

If you are interested to know more, Let’s connect and discuss the same in detail. Please Visit www.enrcloud.com or write us hello@enrcloud.

Also Read- 24 Reasons Why Email Marketing Is Important in 2024