Ever wondered why you have so many people visiting your website, but not so many people making a purchase? It could be to do with your customer journey. With so much competition in the online retail space, it’s now more important than ever that every interaction a potential customer has with your brand is positive and clearly leads them towards a purchase. At this month’s Networx event, three industry experts shared their top tips on how to improve your customer journey to ultimately help grow your business.
On the panel this month was Sueanne Carr, Customer Strategy Superhero at Customer Frame, Michael Joo of Datari and Mark James of Customology. These are our key takeouts from the night.
You Can’t Change the Customer Journey – You Respond To It
Businesses often confuse the customer journey with the customer experience. The customer journey is owned and controlled by the customer and there’s nothing that you can do, as a business, to change that. What you can do is respond to the customer journey by shaping the customer experience. To do this, find out what parts of the journey are most important to your customers, as well as where their pain points are, so you can create an experience that makes them want to keep coming back. So, how can you gather this information?
#nxbris slide: Sueanne from @customerframe shares her final top tip for the evening #loftwestend #customerjourney #customerexperience https://t.co/zhmB4B9BIV pic.twitter.com/7mHwgnBMmY
— Networx Brisbane (@NetworxEvents) May 29, 2019
Data is Everything
Data will help you inform the relationship with your customers from the very start, which will nurture them into a better long-term relationship with your business. Whether it’s from ads, in-store or online, data is the fundamental piece to really drive the customer experience.
#nxbris slide: @MJ_MarkJames @customologyaus shares how data helps in the customer journey https://t.co/qUz9qkUzzi pic.twitter.com/gNba97iPAI
— Networx Brisbane (@NetworxEvents) May 29, 2019
Google Analytics is a great place to start, or you can go directly to the customers by asking for a post-purchase review or to fill out a survey on their experience with your site. Don’t be afraid to ask for the data. Generally, if you ask your customers for information, they’re going to expect that you will use it to enhance their experience. This shows the customer that you care about them, which builds trust and will nurture them into a better long-term relationship with your business.
Think Like a Customer
Start by finding your best and most loyal customers and ask them what it was that made their customer journey amazing. Then find the people that didn’t make a purchase and ask them why. It’s important for marketers to go through the customer experience themselves, but make sure you inform this with feedback from real customers so you don’t make any false assumptions.
If you’re really serious about keeping customer: 1️⃣ Think like them. 2️⃣ Really invest and put 90% of your budget in keeping your customers. Have a part for finding and for keeping. (And don’t put technology in it!) @MJ_MarkJames @NetworxEvents #NXBris
— Melissa Black (@melissablack86) May 29, 2019
Everyone is Responsible for the Customer Journey
A lot of businesses make the mistake of leaving the customer experience up to the marketing team, but if you want your customers to have a seamless customer journey, every department in the business should care about your customers. For example, while the IT department might not be involved in direct communications with your customers, their impact on your website will directly affect the customer experience. Every team has an impact on customer touchpoints, so strategising for the customer experience needs to take place across all departments.
Follow tonight's #nxbris speakers on Twitter: @customerframe @mjoo0113 @Datarati @MJ_MarkJames @CustomologyAUS with facilitator @liamtfitz https://t.co/2YmeAJ3JKx pic.twitter.com/HSjR5bzYIn
— Networx Brisbane (@NetworxEvents) May 29, 2019
Need some help improving your customer journey? Contact us to see how Reload can grow your business with our tailored digital marketing solutions. The Reload team can work with you to identify the actions you need to take to turn more of your visitors into customers.
