BT Skills For Tomorrow: The Customer Journey

On March 29th, our Managing Director, Chris Sainsbury, will take part in a LinkedIn Live in association with the Skills For Tomorrow video he made in collaboration with BT (watch that here). In the lead up to the exciting event, we want to share some of the key insights he gives, specifically those to do with the customer journey. 

The customer journey is defined by Chris as a way for companies to get in the mind of their users, and understand how consumers may behave differently in the various stages of a consumption process. This allows you to understand the different steps to be put in place in order to get the most out of your customers, and vice versa. So, here are the five main steps of the customer journey: 

Awareness

Customers become aware of your product, service or brand – and begin to understand how it can positively affect them. They might see an online ad, TV commercials or a poster in town, and they then know that the company exists. At this point, they do not really know what the company can do for them.

Consideration

In the consideration phase, the customers are interested in that special service or product and start to do research on the matter. They will look at competitors and compare the information they receive. An example is buying a new TV, where the customers will compare features, price and size and so on. This makes it very important for companies to have all the information needed and that it is easy to find so that you stand out among the competitors. This will, hopefully, lead the customers to the next stage: conversion. 

Conversion

The customer makes a decision to buy – either online or in-store – so this stage needs to be as frictionless and easy as possible.

In Life 

After purchase, the customer enjoys your product or service – how can you improve this experience? There are plenty of things companies can do to improve this stage. Perhaps include recipe cards with the food they bought or add some wonder moments to their experience.

Advocacy 

The fifth and final stage of the customer journey is advocacy, when the customer is satisfied with your company and becomes an advocate – recommending you to friends and colleagues.

So, the overall goal with working with the customer journey is to put a framework around the customer’s perspective to really understand what they need. This, in turn, will make them buy from you and eventually tell their friends about it. It defines this cycle of consumption in separate sections, so you can zoom in on each process and understand where you might be losing your customers.

“User experience is a framework, and a methodology for thinking about your user, your customer. From the first time they experienced your business right through to using your product or service, and then telling their friends about it at the end”

Chris Sainsbury

Don’t forget to watch Chris’ Skills for Tomorrow interview with BT here, and send in any questions for the LinkedIn Live via our social media!