During your customer’s journey wit your company, if you move them through these 5 different but linked phases, your customers will give you more attention, become more aware of what you have to offer, feel nurtured, move forwards the buying decision and become long-term loyal clients who the refer you to others.
Here are the 5 key phases so you can maximise your customer experiences and create raving fans…
1. The Discovery Phase
This is the initial awareness stage where a potential customer comes across your products and services which you offer in your business either: online via a Google keyword search, your social media sites, blogs or adverts such as pay-per-click and Facebook ads; or offline such as a friend’s recommendation, a promotion or visiting your premises.
And once you get their attention you need to maximise their experience by responding to them in a way that is specific to their needs and desires. So remember, at this point you have raised their curiosity and started building the relationship through excellent communication to show them that you care.
2. The Learning Phase
Once customers are aware of who you are and are either ‘sticking’ on you’re website gathering more information about you and what you have to offer that’s of benefit to them, or they’re entering into an offline conversation with you… This is the exact point where you have to hold their attention and peak their curiosity by providing them with great educational information about what your offer means to them and the results they’ll get after using your products and services.
3. The Nurturing Phase
At this point you have now got their attention, created curiosity and educated them about what your offers mean to them, and now you continue into the next phase of their journey with you by building their relationship you.
Which means you continue to connect with these new prospects with further great information by adding them to your email list for upcoming blog posts and newsletters, you connect with them on social media, and offline you invite them to events, workshops and exclusive purchase opportunities.
4. The Purchase Experience
Your potential customer has now moved along the journey with you from the awareness, interest and nurturing phase and is now entering into the purchase phase where they’ll experience how you convert them into a customer by helping them to make the buying decision and the purchase itself, whether online or offline.
They may already have tested your product and service through free trials, samples or snipers of online training and you’ve provided them with friendly and professional assistance to evaluate and choose the product that meets their needs. Now you’ve set up the conversion process, you want to make the purchase process as smooth and easy as possible. So you continue to provide plenty of help to reassure they’re making the right choice and emphasise guarantees in order to overcome any final issues or concerns they may have post-purchase.
Best of all, you make the buying process easy for them with clear instructions and online check-out procedures that are simple to follow and highlighted security of payment.
5. The Follow-up Phase
After all you’re customer has experienced in the previous four phases, including how you have built your relationship with that led to a purchase, you now have the opportunity to do three things:
- First of all, you follow-up with them and make sure they’ll not just happy, but delighted with their purchase and experience
- Secondly, you keep connected through email, blog posts and social media and provide further information and offer incentives for further purchases
- And thirdly, this is the precise time to enhance your reputation by getting social proof from your delighted customer via online reviews, case study testimonials and best of all, referrals to their family, friends, colleagues and other business people through their association and networks.
Follow these five phases and you’ll surprise and delight your customers on their journey with your business.
Leave a Reply