How to Build Positive Customer Journeys

A big part of running a successful business is knowing how your customers become customers; knowing how they found you and the many interactions that took place on their journey to checkout.

In other words, being able to place yourself in their shoes and think like a customer.

Although you may be a business owner, keeping this mindset leads to a disconnect between you and them. You have to be able to understand why they would come to you in the first place, why they would continue interacting with you, why they would convert with you, and finally, why they would come back for more.

With this knowledge, you’ll have a good understanding of their customer journey, which involves every single interaction they have with your brand, its products and services — their whole experience with you.

Whether they first heard about you from an ad on social media, an eCommerce agency like Appnova, or from a friend who’s already your customer, that’s part of the customer journey. Whether they added a product to their cart and checked out immediately, or dropped it only to come back after opening a reminder email, that’s part of the customer journey.

The Customer Journey

Loosely defined, a customer journey is the collection of touchpoints a customer has with your brand before, during and after a purchase, appropriately called customer touchpoints.

For example, before the transaction, this includes any marketing efforts or similar endeavors that placed your brand on their radar:

• Any ads they may have seen
• Any reviews they may have read
• Any testimonial they may have seen or read
• Any mentions on social communities they have come across

During the transaction, this includes what they saw and/or interacted with that eventually pushed them to convert:

• Any page they viewed on your website
• Any person/bot they may have interacted with as they weighed the decision to buy

After the transaction, this includes any further interactions they had with your brand, whether they came back for more or remained as one-time customers:

• The purchase confirmation email they received after the purchase
• The shipping email they received when their product was shipped (if a product was bought)
• Any further marketing emails they receive
• Any retargeting ad they may see based on their purchase

Once you have every touchpoint mapped out, you can create a customer journey map as a visual representation of your customers’ experiences with your business, which will help you place yourself in their shoes and gain a better understanding of how they see your brand.

With this knowledge, you’ll be able to smoothen any pain points and create a seamless customer journey that’s more likely to lead to a conversion.

How to Build Positive Customer Journeys

Just like running a business entails more than simply selling something, building positive customer journeys goes beyond providing a product or service your audience needs.

When you boil it down, it’s about making sure that every touchpoint leaves a positive, if not lasting impression with your audience.

And, like we covered in the beginning, this involves putting yourself in their shoes and out of yours. For instance, what will benefit you, the customer, as opposed to the business owner?

As a business owner, your focus is on making the sale and getting repeat customers. As a customer, on top of getting what you want at a reasonable price, you care more about the experience as a whole.

In other words, as a customer, you want to know that all your needs will be met. You want to know that, if a question comes up along the way, it will be answered truthfully and with your best intentions at heart, not to temporarily soothe you and get you to convert.

But, if you push too hard getting them to convert to satisfy your goal of making a sale, you risk scaring them off. If, on the other hand, you don’t push enough, they may be inclined to stay as-is and not take any action.

A point down the middle is what you want; one in which they know you care about their experience, while at the same time urging them just enough to get the sale.

To get to that point, you need to be able to recognise what to say and when; that is,  when to push and when to back away.

For example, whereas certain moments are prime for nudging, such as when your users are open to inspiration or guidance, that’s the last thing you want to do at other times, when it’s better to foster the relationship and let them know you’re there in case they need you.

To this end, a proper understanding of each touchpoint and how they come together to create the whole experience is needed: are any more prone to obstacles than others? If so, what can you do guide them along, while at the same time making it clear that your prime directive is to help them out, not to get their money?

When you reach that understanding for each touchpoint, you’ll be able to build a customer journey marked by positive interactions in each one.

Final Thoughts

Building a customer journey can be likened to designing an article of clothing. Just like a designer designs different aspects of a dress or jacket according to a specific purpose, a customer journey map should be designed in the same manner, with each action on a certain touchpoint according to a specific purpose.

For example, whereas a certain action on touchpoint A is meant to assuage any concerns your users may have, another action on touchpoint B pushes them a little closer to converting, and one on touchpoint C can do either or, depending on how the action on B went.