The customer journey is the process a customer follows when interacting with your company’s products, services, and brands, from initial awareness to post-purchase interactions. On this journey, your customers encounter a variety of touchpoints, or any point where they learn about your brand and offerings before making a purchase. Touchpoints can include websites, email, social media, television, in-store shopping, and so on. 

Each touchpoint your customers encounter on their journey helps them form opinions about what you are selling. Knowing how your people interact with these touchpoints allows you to create better customer experiences so they can make informed decisions when purchasing.

In this post, we will discuss the five stages customers typically go through as they interact with your touchpoints on their journey to buying your product.

Create a customer journey map

While it’s not a requirement, you might want to create a customer journey map. This helps you visualize and understand what your customers go through as they learn about your offerings and decide to purchase from you. You can visualize where they get their information, what they experience with each touchpoint, how they feel about your company and its offerings, etc.

Use a customer journey map to get inside your customers’ heads so you can create experiences that address their needs and expectations and that will guide them in their journey to purchase from you.

What are the 5 customer journey stages?

A typical customer journey consists of these five stages:

• Awareness

• Consideration

• Decision

• Retention

• Advocacy

It’s important to note that not every customer journey is the same. Some customers might experience different stages, and others might not pass through each stage linearly. 

Awareness

At some point, potential customers become aware of your products or services. Awareness comes from various sources like TV, radio, ad-sponsored streaming, word-of-mouth, social media, websites, search engine results, etc. 

At this stage, your potential customers don't know much about your company or what you sell. To get the most out of this stage, create content that informs and educates your audience about who you are, what you do, how you do it, and how it addresses specific pain points. By addressing these pain points, you can help potential customers feel your offering is the right solution for their needs.

Consideration

Chances are high that your potential customers are also aware of competitors. They’ve read or watched the information you’ve made available but also engaged with similar information from other companies. 

During the consideration stage, your potential customers will evaluate their options. They’ll look at product reviews, compare features, assess limitations, and consider the price they are willing to pay. To guide your potential customers through the consideration stage:

• Make sure you provide detailed information about your products or services, including answers to frequently asked questions, pricing models, etc.

• Make reviews from existing customers available for potential customers to read. Recent research from Dixa shows that 93% of customers read online reviews before purchasing. This means that ratings and reviews are the primary factors influencing buying decisions.

Decision

After evaluating several different products and brands, the customer is ready to buy. To help them decide to purchase from you, consider the following strategies:

• Offer free trials that let the customer complete real work. This helps them to see how your solution meets their needs. 

• Communicate pricing structures. Be transparent so the customer understands how much they will pay for one-time purchases, subscriptions, single-user licenses, multiple licenses, etc.

• Use clear and compelling calls to action that encourage the customer to use your products or services.

• Display badges, certifications, and awards that instill consumer trust in your company, brands, products, and services.

Retention

After the customer buys your product or service, you’re not done. You want to keep that customer happy so they’ll continue to purchase from you or influence others to do the same. Retention strategies could include:

• Prioritizing positive customer service and timely support that quickly addresses any issues that may come up. When customers feel like you have their back, they’ll stick around and see what else they can buy from you.

• Offering repeat customers promotions like discounts, early access to new products, or loyalty points.

• Periodically checking in with personalized messages, emails, or phone calls to ensure that the customer is happy and that the product meets their needs. This helps the customer understand they’re important to you, and they’ll feel valued.

Advocacy

Happy, loyal customers will likely recommend your product and services to friends, family, co-workers, department heads, etc. But this only happens if they are satisfied and have confidence that your company is there to care for their needs. In this stage, you can foster customer advocacy by doing things like:

• Setting up referral programs that incentivize customers to refer people to your brand. Incentives can include discounts, loyalty rewards, etc.

• Asking customers to share stories or testimonials about how your products or services filled a ted in their processes.

• Creating an online community where customers can connect with other users, offer tips and tricks, and share experiences of working with your company and its products.

Why is it important to understand the customer journey steps?

Understanding the phases of the customer journey helps you know where your focus should be so you can help customers decide to buy your products or services. It makes it easier for you to create better customer experiences that will drive your company’s growth through:

• Targeted marketing: When your customers are in the awareness stage, they need content different from those in the decision stage. Knowing where your customers are on their journey lets you create targeted messages that help them navigate each journey stage.

• Optimized touchpoints: Understanding the customer journey phases helps you to understand how to optimize touchpoints as customers navigate each stage. For example, customers in the decision stage using a free trial might have questions about specific features. You could create a YouTube channel with how-to videos, tips, and tricks to help your customers familiarize themselves with these features. Optimizing touchpoints allows you to create a better customer experience at each stage.

• Improved conversion rate: Identifying and addressing bottlenecks in the customer journey can help you improve your conversion rate. For example, if you are losing potential customers during the consideration stage, you might need to adjust the touchpoints in that stage. Adjustments can keep customers engaged with those touchpoints for more extended periods and make your products and services more compelling.

• A customer-centric approach: Creating targeted marketing and optimizing touchpoints along the journey ensures a customer-centric approach because you prioritize their needs, expectations, and preferences.

While you want to make money and your brand to grow, remember that the customer journey is not just about making sales. It’s also about establishing long-term relationships and keeping customers happy. Satisfied customers return for more, encourage others to buy your products and services, and help you drive your bottom line.

Understanding the customer journey steps helps you convert and retain happy customers.