75: The 5 Stages of the Customer Journey — Making Good: Small Business Podcast

75: The 5 Stages of the Customer Journey

Welcome back to Making Good, the podcast for small businesses who want to make a big impact.

I’m your host, Lauren Tilden, and this is episode 75.

Today’s episode is all about the customer journey for product-based businesses.

Customer journey is one of those marketing terms that might make you roll your eyes and want to skip right through to the next episode, but I have one really good reason why I think you should stick around and listen to this episode (and more importantly, consider spending some time thinking about your business’s customer journey).

The reason why I think you should listen to this episode, all about the customer journey, is:

If you have a business, you have a customer journey.

That’s right: Like it or not, you ALREADY HAVE a customer journey. The question isn’t, do I need a customer journey? The question is, are you going to spend some time thinking about and optimizing your customer journey for the best possible business results?

In this episode, which I PROMISE will not be full of marketing jargon, we’ll talk about:

What a customer journey is
The stages of a customer journey (I share a map specifically for product-based businesses)
Most importantly, how to build a customer journey that attracts customers, treats them well, and creates loyalty for your brand.

BUT!

Before we get started, a couple of things I wanted to chat about first..

Let’s talk about content. One thing that I hear over and over again is: I can’t figure out what to SAY in my marketing. If that sounds like you, I have an awesome workbook that will walk you through a process for generating A LOT of content ideas that your audience is guaranteed to love. To download that, head to: makinggoodpodcast.com/content.

Second, I invite you to join other values-driven small business owners for inspiration, accountability and lots of business and marketing strategy. That all takes place in the free Facebook community for this podcast, the Good Business Community. The link will be in the show notes, or you can go to makinggoodpodcast.com/community to be redirected.

FINALLY, if you love this podcast, there are a few ways you can help spread the love! First, I’d be so honored for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher to help others find the podcast. And second, take a screenshot while you’re listening and tag me on Instagram @laurentilden -- I would so love to connect with you and cheer you on!

Alright, now! Let’s talk customer journeys.

First things first. If you’re like me, visuals might help you learn :). If you want to view the customer journey I describe in the form of a map (which I always think is super helpful for learning), head to makinggoodpodcast.com/journey for the free download.

Okay. So, what is a customer journey?

Let’s go back to basics and get on the same page with a definition of customer journey.

A customer journey is a marketing term that sums up every interaction and experience a custom has with your brand. A customer journey starts when a person first comes across your business in some way. It includes every interaction and touchpoint that guides them from a being a visitor, to learning more about your brand and becoming interested, to ultimately making a purchase.

Many definitions of the customer journey stop at the purchase, but in my view, the customer journey most definitely does not end there. After the customer makes the purchase, the next step is to delight them in the process of fulfilling the transaction, ideally exceeding their expectations. We then work to turn them into a loyal customer who will return to purchase again and even help spread the word about our businesses.

We’re not starting from scratch.

Now that we’ve defined a customer journey, let’s revisit something I said earlier:

Whether you optimize it or not, if you have a business, you have a customer journey.

A customer journey is simply the sum of experiences that a person has with your brand, starting at the point they’re first introduced to your business, taking them through to making the purchase, and including what happens after the sale.

I point this out because I don’t want you to feel like creating a customer journey is one more huge thing to add to your to-do list.

Instead, this is a matter of stepping back and looking at your current customer journey, and finding ways to elevate it.

I’ve explained very briefly how a customer journey runs from the moment someone first comes across your brand to well after they make a purchase. This journey can be broken down into 5 stages:

Awareness
Consideration
Purchase
Delight
Loyalty

Let’s talk about each of these 5 stages.

The stages of a customer journey

Awareness

The first step in the customer journey is AWARENESS.

The AWARENESS stage is when a customer is first introduced to your business.

Examples of interactions that fall into this category:

Customer stumbles upon your business on social media
Customer is searching for web content and stumbles upon your website
Advertisements reach customer and introduce them to our product
Media mentions of our business
Word of mouth

At this stage our goal is most importantly to get discovered by new customers in the first place. We want to make a positive impression, and start to provide the information they need to make a decision to purchase from us. Here it’s important to build credibility and trust as much as we can.

Consideration

The second step in the customer journey is CONSIDERATION.

This is where our customer evaluates our offer and makes a decision on whether what you sell is a good fit for their needs.

Examples of activities that fall into this category:

Customer may be following and engaging on social media
Customer may do research comparing their options, learning more about your product
We continuing to serve customer with content marketing
We can consider retargeting ads, which are ads that track your customer’s interest in something specific and reappear later

Our goal in the Consideration stage is to establish our products as a good solution, and provide all of the information your customers need to make a decision.

Purchase

The third step in the customer journey is PURCHASE.

The Purchase stage is where our customer makes her first order.

The activities that fall into this category are just however we sell our goods. For most of us, that probably means on ecommerce through our websites or Etsy, but it could also be in person at markets, via social media, on the phone, etc. This will also include any transactional details that confirm the purchase, provide a shipping update expectation, etc.

In this stage, our goal is to make the purchase process seamless. We want to make sure our customer has all the information they need before ordering, and that the process itself is easy and simple as it can be.

This is where many models of the customer journey end, but this is very much NOT the end of the customer journey.

Delight

The fourth step in the customer journey is DELIGHT.

In this stage, we’re making sure to provide a very positive customer experience, and to nurture and stay engaged with the customer so that they become a repeat customer. This is my FAVORITE stage, and I think, the one that is the most full of opportunity.

Activities in the DELIGHT stage include

Deliver a quality product quickly… and ideally including some element of surprise
Solicit feedback form customer about their experience
Ask for review if relevant
Follow up with relevant offers
Relationship building on social media or in any other communities
Communications via email
More retargeting advertisements
Continuing to serve them with content marketing

Our goal in the Delight stage is pretty straightforward. We want to DELIGHT your customer. We want their experience to be very positive, and if possible, include some element of surprise or joy. Here we’ll solicit customer feedback, make our customer feel part of a community, engage them, etc.

Loyalty

The fifth step in the customer journey is LOYALTY.

In this stage, our customers become repeat buyers, and more importantly -- ambassadors for our brands, where they’ll help spread the word for us.

Activities in the LOYALTY stage include:

Involving the customer in product development
Engaging on social media and in email
Personal touch from business owner (make sure they know we notice them!)
Customer gets rewarded for loyalty
Customer may create user-generated content
Customer spreads the word about our business

Our goal in the Loyalty stage is pretty straightforward -- it’s to keep our repeat customers happy so that they will continue to support our business, and even more importantly, spread the word and help us market our business.

How to build an elevated customer journey

So. Now that we’ve walked through the five stages of the customer journey, let’s spend a little bit of time talking about how to apply this to YOUR business.

The first step in applying this model to your business is to get in the right headspace: Really put yourself in the shoes and headspace of a customer who is being introduced to your business for the first time.
Do an audit of where you are now.

Go through each step of the customer journey, and ask yourself how that particular stage shows up in your business now.
For example, for AWARENESS -- how do people currently learn about your business?
For CONSIDERATION -- what information or experiences does your customer have to factor into their decision-making?
For PURCHASE -- what is the process of making the transaction look like?
For DELIGHT -- what is the customer experience after the purchase is made?
For LOYALTY -- how is your customer encouraged to purchase and spread the word again and again?

Here’s a pro tip.

The the best way to get the answers to these questions is to ask your customers themselves.

Collect any information you currently have from your customers. What do they love about shopping with you? What frustrates them? What do you hear in your customer service questions over and over again?

A step beyond collecting any current information or comments you can find would be to survey your customers. We’ve all received surveys after making a purchase asking us to review our experience, share how it went, and how the experience could have been better. Put together a quick and simple survey find out what could be stepped up (and what people love), and get it automatically sent out after purchase.

If you’re not up for a survey, another thing you could do to collect feedback would be to just get in touch personally with a few customers and ask them some specific questions.

Next, get creative. Now that you’ve got a better idea what your customer journey CURRENTLY looks like, it’s time to think through how we can elevate it to better serve our customers and as a result, get better results.

Remember to keep your head in the mindspace of your ideal customer, and then for each stage of the customer journey, ask yourself how you could better meet your goals for each stage.

For the AWARENESS stage
-- what other ways are there for your business to get discovered?
-- are you providing all the information people need at this stage?
-- how are you intriguing people to do more with us?
-- how are you establishing your credibility?

For the CONSIDERATION stage
-- how are you keeping your customers engaged?
-- how are you helping them make their decision?
-- what social proof or testimonials can you offer?

For the PURCHASE stage
-- does your customer have all the information they need when making a transaction?
-- is the purchase process as seamless and simple as possible?

For the DELIGHT stage
-- what can you do to make the process of waiting for and receiving the product as positive as possible?
-- where can you add an element of surprise into the product delivery?
-- is there a way your goods could be delivered faster?
-- how can you engage with your customers to remind them of the human touch?

For the LOYALTY stage
-- how are you getting feedback from customers?
-- how can you encourage customers to spread the word of your business?
-- how can you encourage customers to create user-generated content?
-- how can you involve your customers in your business decisions?

Now that you have a bunch of ideas of ways to elevate the customer journey, we’ve arrived at the most important stage by far. And that is TAKING ACTION.

Looking at all of your ideas, I would rank them by the tasks that will make the biggest impact AND are the most doable, and start working your way down the list from the most impactful and doable to the least.

When it comes to the customer journey, remember that no one knows the customer journey for your business better than your customer. So when in doubt, find a way to poll, survey or simply have a conversation about your business with someone

Before we wrap up, I want to say one more thing. Remember that a customer journey is a work in progress -- it’s NEVER finished and there’s always more we could be doing. The important thing is to spend the effort to understand what your customer journey currently looks like, and find ways to elevate it.

Finally, to assist you in this process, I would download the customer journey map companion PDF to this episode at makinggoodpodcast.com/journey which will help you lay things out.

So, there you have it! Elevating the customer journey for your audience.

One last reminder: If you would like the visual companion to this podcast episode that maps out the customer journey, head to makinggoodpodcast.com/journey to grab your free PDF.

If you enjoyed this episode, just a quick reminder of a couple of ways to keep the ball rolling:

First, I have an awesome guide to creating great marketing content and coming up with new ideas. Download it (FREE) at: makinggoodpodcast.com/content.

Second, there’s a Facebook community of amazing other small business owners and great content just for the group that I would love for you to join. makinggoodpodcast.com/community.

If you found this podcast episode helpful or valuable, I would love to hear from you! Take a screenshot of this episode in your podcast player and tag me on Instagram @laurentilden.

You can find all the notes from this episode at makinggoodpodcast.com/75.

If this is your first time tuning in and you’re interested in hearing more about my businesses, check out: