Have you ever walked into a shop for the first time, just to have a look, and had a salesperson assault you after three seconds trying to sell you something? Or receive an email from a company you’ve never heard of shouting at you ‘BUY NOW! 50% OFF!”?
There… I’m sure you must have felt annoyed by this kind of behaviour. It’s like being at a party, starting a conversation with a stranger and being asked for a loan after two minutes or going out one night with a one-time person and being proposed to. It’s inappropriate isn’t it? At the very least embarrassing and the only reaction you get is to run away.
There, this communication disaster has a name: ignoring the Customer Journey. Many companies, especially SMEs that are in a hurry to sell, treat every potential customer as if they were one step away from buying. They shout the same message to everyone, hoping someone will take the bait. But this is not marketing, it is annoying noise.
So, basically, what is this Customer Journey?
Without using big words, the Customer Journey is nothing more than the path a person takes from when they are a complete stranger to when they become your loyal customer (and maybe a fan).
As the term goes, it is a journey, indeed. And as in any journey, there are intermediate stages that must be taken into account before arriving at the destination. You cannot teleport from departure to arrival. You have to go through different stages, and at each stage the person has different needs, doubts and a completely different level of ‘confidence’ with you.
In general, we can identify four basic stages:
- Stage 1: Awareness (The “Hello, do you know I exist?”)
- Stage 2: Consideration (The “OK, I’m interested, but why you?”)
- Step 3: Decision (The “You convinced me. I’ll buy.”)
- Stage 4: Loyalty (The “Wow, that’s cool. I’ll speak well of you.”)
OK, but how do you create this journey map?
Creating a Customer Journey Map is not an academic exercise for multinationals. It is a practical and operational tool that we need to put ourselves in the shoes of our customers and talk to them in the right way and at the right time. You don’t need sci-fi software, often all you need is a piece of paper (or if you’re a techie, a virtual whiteboard) and the right approach.
Here’s how to do it, the easy way:
1: Choose your interlocutor
Who do you want to talk to? You cannot talk to the whole world in the same way. Start with your specific buyer persona. Who is your typical customer? Give them a name, a face, needs. The journey of ‘Marco, the 45-year-old artisan’ will be different from that of ‘Giulia, the 22-year-old student’. I will not dwell on explaining how to create a buyer persona because the web is full of articles that deal with the subject in a comprehensive and simple manner, for example I recommend this link.
2: Gather information (i.e.: listen where people are already talking about you).
This is a phase that companies often neglect. We often make the mistake of being self-referential and thinking we know what ‘outsiders’ think of us. This is a big mistake.
The good news is that you probably already have the information you need, it is at your fingertips, you just don’t know it or how to use it. You ‘just’ have to collect it and put it in order.
- Analysing your CRM:This is your internal gold mine. Your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is full of data on the behaviour of your existing customers. Who buys most often? Which products do they buy together? After how long do they make their second purchase? From which channel did they come? Analysing this data gives you a model based on real behaviour, not assumptions.
- Talk to your team: Those in sales and customer service know a lot. They are the ones who know the objections, the questions and receive the complaints every day. Interview them, have a good chat with them: their answers are invaluable qualitative data.
- Read reviews: What do customers say about you and your online competitors? Reviews are a spontaneous and honest source of pain points and strengths. Depending on your business you might find this information on Google Reviws, on TrustPilot, on Tripadvisor, on Booking… find this information and analyse it.
- Analyse your web data: Google Analytics and social media insights show you the digital paths of users. Which pages do they visit before they buy? What content generates the most interactions? Where do they leave the site?
- Ask customers directly: they are the most obvious source of information and yet often the most ignored. Don’t be afraid to send out a short post-purchase survey or do some interviews with your most loyal customers. Ask them how their ‘journey’ was to get to you.
3: Map the ‘touchpoints
A ‘touchpoint’ is simply a point of contact between the customer and your company. For each stage of the journey (Awareness, Consideration, etc.), list all possible touchpoints. For example, in the Awareness phase it could be your Instagram post, a blog article found on Google or word of mouth from a friend. Other touchpoints could be your website, a radio spot, your physical shop, a qr code… you need to be able to take them into account and make the most of them.
4: Identify your customers’ emotions, desires, needs and problems.
This is the heart of the map. For each touchpoint, ask yourself:
- What is the customer thinking right now?
- What are his demands or his frustrations?
- What could block him and prevent him from moving on to the next step? (E.g. ‘The site is slow’, ‘I can’t find the prices’, ‘Shipping costs too much’).
But I have already written an article on this very important point. To read more, read this.
5: Find opportunities.
Every frustration you have identified is a golden opportunity to improve. Every unanswered question is content you have to create to answer. Every cumbersome step on the site is a process to be simplified. That is what the map is for: to reveal where you are creating friction and where, instead, you can make the customer’s journey easier and more pleasant.
At each stage, your conversation
Once you have mapped the journey, the next step is obvious: communication is not always a good thing. Talking to a ‘stranger’ (step 1) with the same message you would use for a ‘loyal customer’ (step 4) is the best way to fail.
Let’s try to imagine and give examples of mistakes and solutions for each stage:
If it is in the Awareness stage:
- Error: Bombard him with offers and requests to buy.
- Solution: Offer value. Blog articles, video tutorials, free guides. You must be helpful, not intrusive.
If he is being considered:
- Error: Only talk to him about you.
- Solution: Show why you are the best choice. Case studies, testimonials, comparative guides. You need to build trust.
If it is in the Decision phase:
- Error: Create friction with complicated purchasing processes.
- Solution: Make life easy. Irresistible offers, free demos, a simple purchase page.
If you are in the loyalty phase:
- Error: Forget about him.
- Solution: Cuddle him. Onboarding emails, impeccable support, exclusive offers for existing customers.
The Real Journey Begins After the Purchase
Having reached this point, it should be clear that understanding and mapping the customer journey is not a simple marketing ‘trick’. It is a radical mindset change necessary if you want to stand out against competitors who do not apply these strategies.
It means stopping looking at potential customers as targets to be hit and starting to see them as people to be accompanied on a journey. It means, in a word, respecting them. Respecting their time, their doubts, their space. It means abandoning the intrusive approach of the nagging salesman to become a discreet but ever-present guide, offering the right answer at the right time.
This approach transforms communication from a hegoriferous monologue (“Buy my product!”) to a dialogue that will eventually lead to building a relationship. At every stage of the journey, your goal is not to sell at all costs, but to create trust.
- Offer a solution to a small problem with a blog article,
- fulfil a desire for insight with a case study,
- satisfy a need for security with a testimony.
- etc.
By putting one brick after another, trust grows and the purchase decision becomes for the customer the logical and natural consequence within a path, not a forced act.
And it is precisely here, at the moment of sale, that most companies make the biggest mistake. It sees the transaction as the end of the journey. He takes the money and, metaphorically, runs away. He thinks the job is done.
NO. The work has just begun.
The sale is not the finishing line; it is only a milestone, the moment when the relationship with the customer changes and from potential becomes real. If up to that point you have worked to win his trust, you must now work to earn and keep it. Here begins the crucial issue of customer retention. A customer who has just bought is your greatest asset: if his post-purchase experience is positive, he will not only come back to buy from you, but will become your best marketing tool, speaking well of you to friends and colleagues.
But to achieve this, you have to keep working on him. Your relationship should not be considered as concluded, but just begun. And this means extending your map: you have to consider new touchpoints (the welcome email, the tutorial on how to use the product, customer support), you have to define new communication strategies (exclusive offers, content for those who are already customers) and you have to add new, very important steps to your customer journey.
True marketing, the kind that builds solid, lasting companies, does not end with a transaction. It starts with a relationship and thrives by keeping it alive, strong and profitable for both.
