Customers deserve the best experience possible. Many competitors exist in every industry today, and the public has set high expectations of their shopping escapades.
Consumer trends also change. Despite the supercharged online sales of recent times, larger proportions of customers are moving away from goods and gravitating toward services instead. These types of shifting attitudes have to be monitored and prepared for too.
Only working towards perfecting the customer journey can improve things. But what would it require? Is it even possible? Here are some ways to make progress with it all.
Utilise Growth Platforms
Digital growth platforms can equip your business with various dynamic tools to help you tweak the customer journey. HubSpot is a prime example of what to look for here.
So, what is HubSpot? It’s a suite of interconnected marketing and sales tools, enabling you to automate repetitive tasks, streamline your processes, and more. More importantly, the software enables you to analyse the customer journey more deeply. You can view social media reports to see which business profiles generate the most activity and lead and analyse dashboards to see how your various marketing campaigns are coalescing.
Because of the broad range of applications the cloud-based marketing software can perform, it’s a good idea to learn how to use HubSpot effectively to ensure you’re utilising it to its utmost potential. Red Evolution has a comprehensive guide detailing everything you need to know, from customising dashboards for team members to mapping social interactions like blog clicks. They also provide hands-on support if you require it and can help you seamlessly integrate these systems into your firm.
Launch Questionnaires and User Testing
Very few firms provide a perfect customer journey. Even the big names get things wrong regularly. If you can be open about the state of the customer journey so far, it can lead to more significant improvements being made. How did customers feel about their experience? Are there any processes that are running on a trial-and-error basis? Embrace these questions rather than shying away from them.
Present optional questionnaires to your customers so they can comment on their experience. Permit anonymous participation so that they’re more inclined to answer. User testing experiences can also be beneficial, recording how often customer support was required throughout the process. In the end, shortcomings with the customer journey are soon forgiven if they can see your company strives to improve.
Walk in The Customer’s Shoes
People rarely buy a product or service when they’re feeling apathetic. Sadly, people don’t have much money to spend liberally these days either.
Because strong emotions are more likely to elicit a purchase, you must understand where customers are coming from beyond what they’re clicking and even their answers on a questionnaire. They have a lived experience before, during, and after the customer journey you’ve supposedly tailored for them.
Live as much of the customer journey as you can. Do you feel compelled to click the same links? Are email campaigns resonating with you? Of course, given your role in proceedings, your immersion is likely limited. Still, the more you gauge how customers feel and think, the more effective your changes to the customer journey will be, and the more confident you can be in customising things.