Why do so many organisations misunderstand their customer journey?

The modern customer journey is anything but linear. It features a labyrinth of choices that customers carefully navigate as they begin, pause, change, and complete their buyer journeys. Search engines, referrals, vendor websites, and social media are all reviewed for insights into products and services. However, according to a recent Harvard Business Review, peer recommendations and referrals are influencing an estimated 90 percent of B2B customers. With this statistic in mind, it begs the question: why do so many organisations misunderstand the customer journey?

To Understand The Customer Journey, You Must First Recognise Common Consumer Challenges

The primary challenge faced by B2B customers is that many companies leverage the wrong approach. They don't understand the proper method for a) approaching a customer, b) engaging with a customer, and c) eventually purchasing a product or service. Fortunately, the right data, analytics, and customer insights will help organisations create the authentic and memorable customer experience that their consumers desire. Discovering the latter keys to success is made possible when companies implement the right digital marketing strategy. 

Research suggests that companies with a digital transformation strategy that focuses on improving the customer experience can deliver five times more revenue growth than their competitors. While every digital strategy will look different, the following key aspects should be included: 

• Updating systems to create a streamlined customer experience across marketing channels.

• Delivering a cohesive omni-channel experience that accommodates the customer's "labyrinth approach" to product and service research.

• Applying Account Based Marketing (ABM) strategies to achieve higher customer success rates.

• Reorganizing selling channels to better recognise customers who blend their personal B2C buyer's journey with their professional B2B experience.

• Leveraging digital solutions that focus on the moments that matter for the consumer.

The B2B Customer Journey Relies On Moments That Matter

In previous years, companies would carefully guide customers down a funnel of pre-designed steps. The goal was to move new and potential customers from the initial awareness stage of the buyer's funnel to the final purchase stage. Of course, along the way the marketing and sales team would assist by delivering pre-determined content marketing pieces. However, the customer journey has changed, it is no longer a linear movement that can follow pre-determined steps. 

The customer journey is now centred around the moments that matter. Moments are defined as key touchpoints that create the opportunity for delivering positive and engaging customer experience. While the type of touchpoint will vary, from social media posts, to blog posts, to successful B2B email campaigns, one thing remains true - unnecessary friction will bar buyers from engaging with your content. To overcome this challenge, your touchpoints can use the following strategies and become friction-free. 

Gated content has to be worth it

Using gated content for lead capture and intelligence gathering is a valid strategy, but making it difficult for your prospect to get to a piece of content that isn't worth their time and effort is truly detrimental to building trust. Instead, ensure that all content is worth the user's effort.

Don't ask too much of your users

Complicated forms, intrusive questions, and asking for far too many pieces of information are all signs that you are asking too much of your users. When in doubt, keep it simple. It is far better to gain one piece of accurate and valuable information for your user profile than it is to turn someone away simply because you asked too much.

Don't ask twice

If you know an answer, and it's not creepy to show you know it (i.e. it's information the user has already told you and not something you've sleuthed from their LinkedIn profile), then go ahead and automatically fill it into the form. The right technology solution can track returning visitors to your site and fill in form fields when it already knows the information. This approach saves time and begins to create a more personalised experience for the user.

Use progressive profiling to build your understanding

Progressive profiling works to help you gain additional insights into the user. A progressive form works by only displaying fields where the data is unknown. For example, if you don't know what products or services the user is most interested in, then that form will be displayed. However, if you already know the user's email address, then that particular field will not be displayed. In short, progressive profiling helps you to gather the insights that you need to better understand your users and their specific customer journeys.

Thank people for taking the time to get your content

Gratitude is always appreciated. It's also a nice way to move the conversation forward.

Pick your moment

The customer journey relies on a few key moments that matter most. To effectively use gated content, you need to ask yourself what stage in your customer journey is the right time to request additional information.

The above strategies will introduce customers to leadership content, answer their most pressing questions, and position your company as the solution to their pain points. With these benefits in mind, it is important to remember that this positive friction-free customer experience must also continue after the sale has been completed. By recognising that the customer journey does not end with the sale, companies can position themselves to more effectively capitalise on the 90 percent of B2B customers who rely on peer recommendations and referrals. After all, if you continue to delight customers with a superior experience after the sale, then they are far more likely to recommend your products or services. 

Creating A Predictable Customer Journey That Promotes A Better Experience

Customer experience mapping helps you provide simple, reliable, consistent experiences

Now that you understand the importance of the customer's experience, it is important to explore one final key to their journey: predictability. B2B business relies on predictability. It is the word that is embedded into the specifics of a product, the frequency of established Service Level Agreements (SLAs), the number of goods being delivered, even the location involved. All of the latter aspects rely on predictable results, which are the linchpin to shareholder satisfaction and increased customer loyalty. In this vein, predictability must be incorporated into the customer journey via a rich feedback loop. 

Creating a feedback loop that is rich in data, analytics, and insights is made possible with three key approaches.

The first approach relies on making direct consumer engagements a priority. Whether it is a social media interaction on LinkedIn, or selling directly to consumers, the customer wants to know that they are valued and important. At the same time, B2B companies need to use trusted direct channels to gather accurate customer data (without infringing on data privacy regulations). 

Next, the changes to the customer's journey must be recognised from a technology standpoint. In layman's terms, the right technologies, such as a marketing automation platform, can be leveraged so that customers can retain the trusted, personalised, and most importantly predictable experience that they desire. They don't want to be bombarded with gates or messages that don't relate to their buyer's journey. Instead, they want to do the lion's share of their research in peace before they reach out to the sales associate. Through the right technologies, B2B companies can more effectively identify prospects from direct engagements with their organisations. Whether it is sharing a LinkedIn post or visiting a website, direct engagements, when tied to the right technologies, can be used as behavioural triggers to qualify leads and deliver personalised and relevant content. In this way, you can build a relationship based on trust and good service.

The final component of the rich feedback loop that drives sales and increases revenues involves dismantling outdated internal silos. Sales and marketing should no longer be separate entities that hoard information as they strive to meet separate goals. Instead, marketing, sales, and service operations should work together to gather rich marketing data, generate better leads, and respond to customer enquiries with more accuracy and insight. The latter approach will yield more brand advocates, who once again are far more likely to recommend the company to their peers, and thus further perpetuate the 90 percent of B2B customers who make buying decisions that are influenced by referrals. 

The Bottom Line: The Customer Journey Has Changed, Have You Changed With It?

The B2B customer journey is focused on removing friction to enjoy faster and more powerful results. By first recognising the challenge that customers face, companies can create the foundation needed for enhanced digital marketing strategies. Next, they can avoid the linear sales strategy that is no longer effective, and instead choose to support the labyrinth approach that relies on personalised and meaningful touchpoints. Finally, if companies want to support the new customer journey and increase sales, then they need to leverage the right technologies, including marketing automation services. To discover how your company can better adjust to the new customer journey,  contact a member of the 1827 Marketing team today.