Let's see, then, how to best use this tool.
All marketing actions that are generally planned and implemented by companies start from one assumption: that of knowing their customer, or lead.
Only by knowing who we are addressing, what their characteristics and needs are, why they would purchase our product or service, can we in fact structure the best actions to reach them and guide them in their choices.
The Customer Journey is a way to refine our investigation. It does not take into account the “who” is in front of the company (for that there are different types of analysis!) but the “when”, giving us the opportunity to prepare increasingly effective actions.
Knowing the Customer Journey allows us to create a good Customer Experience, which will earn us not only immediate purchases, but customer loyalty and a solid reputation.
Let's see, then, how we can track the Customer Journey of our customers and use it as a marketing tool.
Why is the Customer Journey important?
Generally, behind a purchase operation there is not a single moment, but rather a path that starts from the knowledge of a brand, or from the awareness of a need.
The potential customer will almost certainly come into contact with the company in several ways: through an advertisement on the web, for example, or by entering a physical store. He or she may look for reviews online, or want to ask a friend's opinion.
Eventually, he will buy the good or product we are offering. Even after purchasing, he may still need to get back in touch with the company, for example to ask for assistance.
Each of these contacts between company and lead is called Touchpoint; together they form the Customer Journey, or the path that, step by step, leads to the purchase and (possibly) to loyalty.
This is obviously not a standardized path but something that varies significantly depending on many factors. To give an immediate example, it is clear that a sunscreen will not have the same touchpoints as a refrigerator, nor a toy car.
Tracing the Customer Journey of our customers then becomes important because it allows us to understand, phase by phase, which channels to use, or the type of message to transmit: sometimes we will focus on educating the customer, or on the advantages of the product, other times on removing the main objections...
This is why it is worth putting in place all the tools necessary to carry out an adequate analysis: it is a unique opportunity to really know your customers and their real behavior.
The Seven Stages of the Customer Journey
Before seeing what tools there are to track the Customer Journey, let's briefly summarize the seven phases that compose it.
These phases are always the same: whether we are talking about sunscreen, a refrigerator or a toy car, it doesn't matter. Depending on the product, however, some phases will be addressed by the customer in a more thorough and demanding way, while others will be managed much more quickly.
There are different classifications for these phases; here we present the most complete one, which also adapts to the most complex purchasing processes, both B2C and B2B. And here is the list of the different phases:
1 – Awareness, or awareness
The Awareness phase is when the potential customer becomes aware of the existence of your company, or your product. It can happen through an advertising campaign, a friend's recommendation, a store, having seen the product in other contexts...
Or it could be the moment when the customer realizes that they have a certain proble
