Customer journey lifecycle
Marketing and sales funnel may seem simple, but as consumers, we’re struggling to find the information we need from these brands and companies, which is why our customer cycle has become so messy.
The customer lifecycle is the various stages that consumers go through from start to finish of their sales funnel. It can be seen as Point A to Point B, which is where a customer starts off and ends up with a final purchase and customer success.
Customer Lifecycle vs. Customer Journey
Customer Life Cycle and Customer Journey are often confusing and certainly not interchangeable terms.
Typically, a consumer journey or buyer journey has three stages – awareness, consideration, and decision.
In the awareness phases, the customer is aware he/she is experiencing some pain and needs solutions and begins searching for the information needed to identify the problems they are dealing with.
In a review phase, customers recognize their exact pain points and begin actively looking to find the best possible solutions.
Activation
Remember that subscriptions do NOT mean selling.
Customers can leave at any time to go to competitors if they don’t feel they have any value.
Is there an alternative to training and support for a product? Is there a solution to this question? Proactive customer support and training programs can help you avoid roadblocks that can lead to churn and turne them into customer success.
Renewal
According to our previous point, in subscription-based systems contract renewals are needed before customers may use the products you offer.
Your dedicated customer success manager should have developed a good relationship with existing customers as well as have a clear understanding of any objection to their contract that could inhibit their renewal.
Referrals
It is perfect when you work with SaaS software. Your clients renew their loyalty by being able to be advocates for their business. Customers who want to share the joy they experience are great for the business. It’s also a great time to discuss your customer loyalty program, unless you offer one through your marketing and sales efforts.
There are five basic stages to the customer journey cycle
- Discovery
- Consideration
- Conversion
- Retention
- Loyalty
Discovery
This is the beginning stage of the customer journey. At this point, people are searching for a solution to a problem, but aren’t always sure what it is.
There are a number of ways people can learn about your brand.
Your audience will likely look to blogs, social media and search tools.
If they find your brand through these channels, they’ve reached the next stage in their customer lifecycle.
Consideration
At the consideration stage, consumers are evaluating your business and comparing it to other choices.
They are considering how well your products and services meet their needs and assessing if they would be a good fit for their lives.
Customers might reevaluate the information they gathered at the discovery stage, while also evaluating new information.
Reviews and ratings from current customers can all play a part in their evaluation, as well as product pages and specifications.
Conversion
After potential customers gathered all the information they need, they decide to purchase. When they make a purchase, they become customers.
To keep customers, you need to form strong and trusting relationships.
Retention
After someone converts, you need to develop a relationship and provide them with post-purchase care to ensure that they stay with your company.
You should do your best to keep the customer coming back. The relationship isn’t just for the first purchase; it is for future purchases as well.
To maximize retention, you should provide great service and personalized support for your new customers.
As your relationship with a customer progresses, you become aware of what they want and need. You can offer them discounts on things they are likely to be interested in since you know their preferences.
Loyalty
You are investing upfront. If your customers are satisfied, they share information about your company, become free advocates of your brand, and refer their friends.
Your employees should strive to provide the best experience for them by giving them discounts and offering VIP service.
So far, you have learned all 5 stages of the customer lifecycle. Now it’s time to dive into customer lifecycle management KPIs.
Customer lifecycle KPIs
It’s valuable to take a step back and look at the whole customer journey management. That way you can see what proportion of your customers are at the different stages of their lifecycle, and see if there are trends in how people move between these.
Therefore, you need to identify and control KPIs to ensure that everything is working properly.
Customer acquisition
Understand customer acquisition costs to see if your business is getting a return on your investment in marketing.
You calculate the cost of coming up with new customers, and whether they turn into long-term customers or those who only use your product once before quitting.
Brand promoter score
You can measure customer engagement using a simple survey to determine the likelihood of customers recommending your product.
Customers rate from 0-10, with 10 meaning they would highly recommend your company.
This score can be used to identify different types of respondents such as brand ambassadors who are likely to share information about your company.
Churn rate
This metric calculates how many customers dropped out at a given time, such as those who canceled their subscriptions.
The rate is determined by the number of churned-out customers.
If your churn rate is high, it means that your customers are not content and you need to identify the cause of this dissatisfaction.
To lower customer churn, you should make sure that all necessary educational materials are provided to all potential consumers, target the right people, and act before they show any signs of dissatisfaction.
A customer journey map
Mapping the customer lifecycle makes it easier to optimize interactions with customers and get them through each stage of their purchase.
When they map out a customer’s journey, businesses can identify which are the most important interactions, and make adjustments where necessary.
You can identify customer milestones, so you know where they are in the customer journey and how to engage them.
This map is useful when deciding on customer engagement strategies and analytics tools since it helps you know what will work for each type of customer.
The customer journey is not just about onboarding. They are also at many different stages of the customer lifecycle, which includes more than one stage.
You need to improve customer loyalty and satisfaction with your product by managing the lifecycle of your clients thoroughly, who should be taken care of from the moment they purchase your products.
To create a recurring value for your customer, it is important to map out the ideal path for them to purchase their product.
Customer lifecycle map heightens your awareness of your customers’ experience and improves customer service.
Every department in your company can deliver a more positive interaction with the customer by better understanding customer needs.
Customer journey map can tell you what your customers are doing when they find you.
Examples are organic search, social media, paid advertising, and email marketing.
The information on your map can include how much each device and promotion generates.
You will gain insight into where to invest your marketing funds so that you reach the potential customers who need your products the most.
Customer lifecycle management and user experience are critical elements of delivering a product that is successful and scalable.
Customer Experience includes a greater range of interaction in that it not only focuses on UX but also the customer’s demand for product/services – something very different for users, especially those working in corporate. In articulating a detailed customer experience, a customer lifecycle map can make sense.
Focus on clear buyer persona
When you have a clear buyer personas, you attract the kind of customer that is more likely to convert. This saves your time and makes marketing campaigns more cost-effective.
Mapping your customer journey to your website will allow you to find out the demographics of your buyers.
Using this information, you can use tools such as Google Analytics to find the right places where similar customer profiles can be found.
Also, mapping the customer journey can help you discover what drives inbound visits to your site, leading to insights about ways to increase the number of visitors and leverage inbound marketing opportunities.
Mapping your customer journey can give you an edge in by increasing the potential for sales conversion.
You will know who visitors are, as well as what content will be appealing to them.
It also gives you a map of the ideal progress of a customer from the moment they contact you until they make a purchase.
Follow the customer experience journey
Mapping allows you to figure out where potential customers are in the process of interacting with your product and what they are experiencing.
You can map out where each customer’s experience is going, or not going, and make corrections at any given stage.
If you map out your customer’s journey, and their potential challenges within the journey, you can reduce support tickets and get ahead of any potential problems.
A customer journey map is a tool for optimizing the customer experience to increase your business.
Because customers who have a positive experience are more likely to have high satisfaction rates, you can strategically place the renewal process within their journey so they’re more likely to continue purchasing your services.
A customer journey map is useful for businesses because it can reduce customer churn.
After customer experience frustration with using a product and feel that they are not being taken care of, they will walk away from the brand.
A customer journey map can preempt the potential issues that could cause customers to leave and so increase the chances of repeat business.
Understand customer milestones and needs
Customer lifecycle management is all about mapping key milestones that show whether a customer is getting value.
Milestones should be things like using a feature, business outcomes, and people logged in.
With each milestone determine how long it should take to complete.
Beside key milestones, you should also track key events.
Keep track of any key events that may need the attention of your team, including significant increases or decreases in usage or changes in administrators.
Conclusion
Advanced knowledge of customer journey can help with business, such as by improving the customer retention of your company and helping with promoting repeat business.
This is one of the many methods that can lead to increased revenue for your business.
Unlimited Digital Agency, marketing agency that works to help companies maximize the value of their customer journey maps, can help your company monitor customers’ buying signals and health scores.
To see what Unlimited can do for you, schedule a call, see if we can find out more about your advertising issues and how can we help.
