We kicked off this year’s Influitive Live 2020 conference with a hot topic: the customer journey. In his Opening Keynote, Influitive CEO Dan McCall presented this important finding: 84% of customers say that the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services. “A company that listens and engages with their customers is the company that will win in this era,” said McCall.
Influitive helps companies engage customers through recognition, rewards and gamification using targeting and personalization. Working towards true customer orchestration is all about using a recognition and rewards program to drive all customers to become advocates. “You need to think about what makes a good customer a great customer, and then chart a path to motivate them towards those results,” said McCall.
In their session, “Customer Journeys: a Step-by-Step Guide,” speakers Caroline Papadatos and Vivek Anandaramu broke down the key stages in a customer journey and how to make orchestration a reality for your advocacy programs. Here are a few key points every company should consider when building or optimizing their customer journey.
Apply segmentation from the start
Customers will buy and use your product or service differently, which is why a one-size-fits-all approach will deliver an underwhelming experience. Your segments will vary, but consider elements like company size, industry or use case. Not sure what segments to build upon? In the sales stage, collect as much data as you can in order to build the best personas and apply them to your journeys, starting with a robust onboarding experience.
Incorporate product usage metrics into the journey
While onboarding gives customers the tools and education they need to be successful, usage is all about creating habit building. “[When consulting] I often focus on usage as many companies do it poorly, or don’t measure it consistently,” said Papadatos. “If you can demonstrate a strong correlation between your efforts and increased customer usage, you move from influenced marketing to direct contribution.”
Bring in rewards and recognition at the right time
Once customers complete their onboarding and know how to connect to value with your product or service, the job of rewards is to help identify the next action they should be taking. These can be incremental steps, like rewarding them spending a defined amount of time using your product, or for acts of advocacy like making a referral, completing a third-party review or participating in your community. “You want customers to take and calculate the ROI for these actions, such that the reward pays for itself,” said Papadatos.
Focus on potentials
While advocates are the holy grail for your brand, the next group of customers (your ‘potentials’) are very important to the financial growth of your company. These are customers who are engaged with the brand, are open to your messaging, but may have lower usage stats than your advocates. However, they may account for 40-50% of your entire customer base. Identifying and investing in this group can lead to big returns when it comes to customer lifecycle management.
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