For a business to be sustainable, its main concern must be its customers. And more particularly the management of its customer relationship (CRM). This is all the more true today, given the increasing number of potential competitors for each company.
But how ensure customer loyalty ? By meeting their needs, anticipating them and offering them the best possible experience. How to do ? Fortunately, there are tools to analyze the customer journey. In this article we will give advice and look at the definition of CRM customer journey.
What is the point of the customer journey?
9 out of 10 buyers are not completely sure of the brand they want to buy when they start their search. This is what several studies conducted by Google and Ipsos have shown. Several criteria come into play to motivate the purchase: in particular the customer satisfaction. The latter is partly linked to the quality of the customer journey.
As a reminder, the customer journey is the path taken by customers during the purchasing process. It consists of three major main steps:
- The creation of the need
- The act of purchase
- Actions following the purchase: leaving a customer review or contacting customer service, for example
Each step is subject to a analysis using the CRM customer journey tool. Thus, it is possible to define, for example, which communication channels are preferred by customers. This makes it possible to adapt to the different needs of customers and therefore to optimize customer journeys.
Forensure customer satisfaction, purchase and contact loyalty, the human factor should not be overlooked. The customer experience should be at the heart of your thinking when defining your customer relationship management objectives.
That’s why the CRM customer journey is an increasingly used tool by companies in their CRM strategies. In particular, it allows CRM managers to analyze the interactions and relationships between the company and customers. This makes it possible to understand how these relationships work, and therefore to be able to set up an appropriate marketing method.
And so, improve the experience of each customer, and customer service. Indeed, customer service is an aspect not to be neglected in the CRM customer journey. Many buyers rely on customer reviews to choose a product. Structures offering quality customer service are often more popular.
What are the stages of the CRM customer journey?
1 – The discovery phase
This is the first step, where a contact comes across your offer. It can be done through multiple channels : social networks, classic advertisements or word of mouth. If after analyzing the data, you find that this step uses several channels, you can adapt your work. By setting up an omnichannel customer journey, for example. If you notice on the contrary that this phase of discovery is done mainly through digital channels. So it might be wise toimprove the digital customer journey.
2 – The consideration phase
During this step, the prospect is interested in the product of the company. He will therefore seek to learn more before making the purchase or not. To do this, the prospect can perform various actions. Like communicating with a chatbot, visiting the website, consulting customer reviews… It is during this phase that you will be able to judge the relevance of your marketing strategy.
3 – The act of purchase
This is the stage in which the prospect becomes a customer, he proceeds to the purchase of the product or service. This phase is made up of different moments, each more important than the other, in particular for retain. To order his product online, the prospect will have to log in (or create an account if he does not have one).
Then, he will fill his basket, perhaps buy other complementary products. This is also the time when the customer will apply the promo codes if he has any, choose his payment tool. And finally the customer may possibly leave an opinion on his experience, that is to say on his CRM customer journey so far.
4 – The shopping experience
Just because the sale has been made doesn’t mean the CRM customer journey is over. On the contrary, this step is just as important as the others. These are the moments following the sale. That is, product shipping, delivery tracking, online help, warranties. But there are also the various interactions between the company and the customer (customer follow-up, contact with customer service, etc.).
5 – Loyalty
For agencies to work, they must be able to count on a loyal clientele. That’s why this final stage of the CRM customer journey should not be overlooked. In addition to the use of traditional tools to stay in contact with the customer: emails, social networks or advertisements, these structures must go even further to build loyalty.
It’s necessary create a real emotional connection between clients and organizations. This is the whole point of the CRM customer journey. Optimize the customer’s experience as much as possible in order to create a unique bond with him and ensure his satisfaction. Indeed, as companies know well, a satisfied customer is a loyal customer.
You will also like our article: The best CRM software
Inbound marketing: a plus in the CRM customer journey
Its link with the customer journey
As a reminder, inbound marketing is a marketing strategy that aims to find and sign new clients. As we touched on before, customer journeys are focused primarily on customers, as the name suggests. These two tools are therefore extremely complementary. Implementing an inbound marketing method can be a real asset for optimizing the customer journey.
THE CRM customer journey is based on several points that make up the buying process. Thanks to the analysis of the data obtained, companies will be able to implement their strategy.
It’s there that inbound marketing is linked to the customer journey. Indeed, inbound marketing is based on the creation of content specifically designed for prospects. By creating specific content according to the customer’s profile, the latter will feel “understood” and “heard” by the company. However, as we saw at the beginning of this article, this now counts a lot in the purchase decision.
The inbound marketing process
An inbound marketing strategy is divided into 4 key moments:
► Attracting new customers : to do this, it is necessary to increase the traffic on the website, that is to say, to increase the number of visitors. It is therefore important to clearly define the profile of the targets, in order to offer content that will interest them.
► Converting visitors into leads : once the visitors are on the site, they still have to be converted into leads. For this, the objective is simple: succeed in obtaining the email address of each visitor. But how to do it ? Several actions can be implemented.
In some cases, the visitor will give his email address himself, by subscribing to the newsletter for example. In other cases, it will be necessary to offer him content that is sufficiently interesting to encourage him to fill in his e-mail address. It can be: offering a white paper, receiving a promo code… There are many tools to optimize this phase.
► Validation of leads into customers : normally you now have enough data to create a well-organized “customer” file. The objectives of this stage are to provide personalized content in order to maintain customer interest and satisfaction.
► Loyalty of satisfied customers : It is easier to make another sale with an existing customer than to win a new customer. In addition, a satisfied and loyal customer is a major asset for your business. He will not hesitate to talk positively about your company around you, and this “for free”.
CRM customer journey and marketing automation
A smart journey
As a reminder, marketing automation consists of automating certain actions according to predefined conditions. This can for example be the automatic sending of a message when a visitor abandons his basket without finalizing the purchase.
These scenarios are based on the customer journey. In order to precisely define the key moments when it is necessary to interact with the customer. This analysis of the customer journey makes it more “intelligent” and optimizes it.
You have to make a kind of customer journey mapping. That is to say, identify the stages of the journey, the different points of interaction between the customer and the company, as well as the channels used.
These two tools allowincrease customer satisfaction. We are entering a virtuous circle that is very beneficial for the company. The automation of certain actions, according to predefined objectives, also saves considerable time. In addition, it makes the customer experience more pleasant and interesting.
Of course, for your strategy to work, it is not enough to have marketing automation or CRM software. You have to take the time to clearly define the objectives. Clear objectives, allow each software to give the best of itself.
You will also like our article: how to choose your CRM?
FAQs
What are the types of customer journeys?
In addition to the digital customer journey, there are several types of customer journeys.
For example :
► The multichannel customer journey : As the name suggests, this type of journey uses several contact points. Like those of a digital customer journey. On the other hand, these points of contact are dissociated.
► The cross-channel customer journey : this type of browsing uses the principle of the multi-channel browsing, but in an improved way. Switching between touchpoints is much easier. It is therefore easier to improve sales volume or retain customers.
► The omnichannel customer journey : this is the ideal customer journey for businesses since all channels are unified. All information is directly accessible for customers, which facilitates their experience.
What is a digital customer journey map?
A mapping of the digital customer journey aims to outline the development of a project. This helps in particular to better understand the interactions between the customer and the company. Mapping the digital customer journey also makes it possible to better understand the “pain points”. That is, the negative points that have a detrimental impact on the customer’s experience.
Thanks to this mapping, you can better understand your customers, and therefore, refine your content creation strategy.
What are the challenges of the customer journey?
The major challenge of the customer journey is to better understand the needs of your customers or prospects. It also helps to understand the customer’s experience during the buying process. Thus, after analysis, it is possible toidentify the problems and opportunities encountered by the customer. Based on this knowledge, you can rework your strategy, defining priority areas for development.
The customer journey also makes it possible to personalize the interactions between the customer/prospect and the company. It also has the challenge of streamlining the sales cycle.
Set up a CRM customer journey presents many challenges and advantages. Always with the aim of satisfying and retaining customers.