What is Customer Journey Analytics?
Customer Journey Analytics is the process of gather data for every touchpoint a customer has with your business. A customer is on their work computer shopping for an item. They go to lunch for an hour and continue researching that same item or variations while out. Then go home at the end of the day and jump on their couch with a tablet to finalize a purchase they found throughout the day, that’s information you need to know. Every single touchpoint is part of the Customer Journey. The information provided throughout the entire cycle the customer took is critical. It establishes a specific behavior vital to businesses and especially retail when looking to evolve their CX and turn more profit.
The entire customer’s point of view must be understood and analyzed for the effective delivery of messages, advertising, and promotions for continued success in today’s marketplace. Customer Journey Analytics will reveal the entire process and provide bountiful insights if appropriately used.
Why Do Customer Journey Analytics Matter?
Now that we understand what Customer Journey Analytics are, we need to know why they are essential for our businesses. In a report conducted by Gartner concerning digital commerce trends: “Effective customer journey analysis can result in reduced customer pain points across channels, better continuity between channels, more accurate revenue attribution, and better customer segmentation and personalization.” This equates to an increase in revenue and customer satisfaction.
As you effectively provide your customers with a more efficient method of interacting with your brand, you can lower the distractions and build a more cohesive and persuasive message across multiple channels. The deeper you dive into the customer journey, the more personalized you can be with your marketing and sales outreach efforts, which ultimately converts into more opportunities and results in more sales.
Another great reward is that the quality of your leads increases. The more personal the experience, the higher the quality of communication and level of understanding. This allows your customer to feel they are heard and communicated at their stage in their customer journeys. Hyper-Personalization is a valuable concept for any business and something in which Group FiO is an industry leader.
Clearly understanding Customer Journey Analytics and the value it provides your business can be the differentiator between your business and that of your competition by 30-40% in growth and customer satisfaction according to a recent McKinsey report.
Furthermore, McKinsey also found 56% of all customer interactions occur during a multi-event, multi-channel journey, while only 38% of all customer journeys involve more than one channel of communication. This study provides fierce support in the need for organizations to understand customer analytics and the value of gaining deeper insights into the customer journey.
Customer Buying Behavior and The Loyalty Loop
At this point, we have covered what Customer Journey Analytics means and why this concept for customer analytics is so important. We will dive into two areas to take this a bit deeper and provide you with a couple of starting points for you to begin developing your strategy. Let us Discuss two different items: Customer Buying Behavior, or sometimes knowns as triggers or buying triggers, and the Customer Loyalty Loop.
Customer Buying Behaviors (Triggers)
Customer behavior is altered in today’s retail landscape and the pursuit of understanding that change and its effect on businesses’ current and future state is paramount. Every moment is a pursuit to discover how and why companies are being affected by online and offline retail.
When we discuss customer buying behaviors or for a simpler term, “buying triggers,” we want to focus on the why and when. Why did a customer make the decision, and when did they make that decision? The crazy thing about triggers is they can be subjective per individual, carry common themes, and spiral out into various life events. Now that could sound chaotic, but let us explore the common theme through an example.
John is at work and looking to purchase a new lawnmower. So, he begins his journey on his work laptop. As he looks in between calls, time runs out, and it is time for John’s lunch break. While carpooling with friends to a restaurant, John continues his search through social media but ends up back on the same website. Lunch ends, and John gets back to work but does not have time to continue his research. Already at this point, John has been on two devices and three channels searching for his new mower. Later that evening, John realizes he needs to get the grass cut and jumps on his tablet to continue looking. Finally, he lands on the item he wants and notices there is one mower discounted for in-store pickup. The very next day, he drives to the store, finds the mower, and completes his purchase.
Let us quickly evaluate. John has used three devices, a work laptop, phone, and home tablet. Then he searched the internet and social media. He ended up going to the store to purchase in person. First, this speaks to the highly important fact of Omnichannel Marketing. It is critical to keep the same consistent Brand and messaging for each stage of the customer’s journey. But the most vital component is John’s behavior. He used two mobile devices and still ended up in the store to purchase the lawnmower. Throughout the entire journey, John had different options to choose from, such as online purchases and in-store discounts, both with their advantages. A Customer Journey Analysis provides you deep insights into every area of John’s interaction with the company.
What areas in your customer journey are you missing? Are you thinking about the lifestyle and events of your customer’s lives or compiling them into a large bucket of buy or no-buys? There are many questions you can ask when you examine the customer journey and begin to decipher what customer buying behavior triggers are leading your customer's CX.
