How Can I Improve My Customer Journey?

Improve customer journey

Amazing Customer Journeys!

How much thought do you give to these? Surely people either want what you’ve got, or they don’t. But how do they feel after they’ve purchased? Does it matter how they feel, as long as they’ve purchased?

See also - Learning The Language Of Funnels

Your Customer Journey Really Does Matter

Creating beautiful customer journeys which makes buying from you the obvious decision and keeps the customer coming back for more is a huge passion of mine, it’s what I do. But it’s also something I see being given a low priority too often.  

Focus is more often on creating a fantastic product or freebie, one that you KNOW they’ll love and find value in, but your approach to the ride you take your customer on before AND after they purchase will ultimately be the reason they purchase from you again in the future or continue with their membership each month.

PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL

Let’s talk examples… 

Example 1

Back in August 2020 (It was November when I started writing this, and now Jan 2021 when I'm actually hitting the publish button!), an online course which had been on my radar for over a year and had a great offer on.  This was a very “system” specific course that through extensive Googling, I eventually found a UK based company which could teach me exactly what I wanted to learn. I signed up to their mailing list at the time, and their free Facebook Group to stay in the loop and hopefully learn some bits and bobs through there until I was ready to invest in the course.  

12 Months after signing up to their mailing list and seeing the occasional user comment in the free Facebook group, I suddenly receive my very first email from the company telling me that the course I’d had my eye on was on special offer until Friday. Fantastic, it was on my to-do list, and since it was on offer, I figured I might as well buy it now, and work through it in my own time! 

I replied to the email to just double check the course really was for me… waited a couple of days, and still no reply by the Friday morning. Figured “what the hell” and signed up before the offer closed that evening. 

To this day, I STILL have not received any emails from that business – not even a welcome to the course, thank you for your purchase, or confirmation of my log in details – nothing other than a PayPal receipt (thanks PayPal for sending that out BTW!).  Within the learning platform of the course I’d just bought, I could reasonably easily find my way Module 1 – which on beginning, gave me a list of things I needed to purchase to enable me to complete the course! ARGH! This was never mentioned in the promotional email OR the sales page (which I’d read and re-read a dozen times before squeezing my eyes shut and clicking the “Buy Now” button). How annoying, but hey ho – at least there’s a private Facebook Group associated to the course that I can now interact and ask questions with the business owner and others who have done the course too – groups are a brilliant source of information and support, hurray!  

WRONG.  After much trawling the learning platform, I eventually found the link to the Facebook group, eagerly requested to join, waited over a week to be accepted (they must be super busy in there, that’s a good sign, right?!) only to arrive to…. Silence. Nothing. The last post had been from a course member in May, which had gone unanswered by the provider. Seriously?!  ARGH. 

The upshot of this – I have no doubt that the course itself will be valuable, once I’ve made the extra investments and begun to find my way through it, but I won’t be purchasing from, or recommending, that business again.

 

How did I feel? Like £££’s to the business owner. Now I may be more sensitive to customer journeys (or FUNNELS as they’re less lovingly called), but all in all, this one was quite frankly SHITE. I think it’s also really important to note that it definitely wasn’t their nurture process from signing up to their mailing list which got me on board, it was the need for a very bespoke programme that I’d so far not found available anywhere else. 

 

Example 2:

Less than 2 weeks ago, a sponsored Ad appeared in my Facebook feed from Andrew & Pete offering a fantastic free resource which instantly piqued my interest.

Straight away, I signed up and by the time I’d navigated over to my inbox, a “We’re so excited you’ve joined us” style email appeared, alongside the free resource I’d requested for the price of my email address. Their email was written as they would talk and felt like it was written directly to me, the resource was great and value packed, and definitely made me interested in hearing more from them.

On days 2 and 3, I received a couple more emails from them, gently and easily guiding me through their customer journey, showing me how they could help me, and what they had to offer. 

Next came the sales email – telling me about their subscription group, Atomic, and the fantastic offer they had on until Friday. Not only was it a great offer, but I could join for only £1 for the first month – take as much value as I was willing to commit to actioning from the Membership and leave again with no automatic renewal or hidden charges.  WOW.

Trying not to be bitten again following Example 1’s investment, I dropped Andrew & Pete a message via their Facebook Page (was super impressed by their intuitive Message Bot, lovingly named Barnaby the Bot Butler), told them about my queries, the problems I was seeking solutions to, and asked them if they truly believed their Atomic Membership would suit me (given my history of subscribing to business memberships and then being “too busy” to make the most of the content available to me).

Straight away I received a message from Pete himself, letting me know he was just diving in to a meeting but he would get in touch as soon as he was out. Unfortunately, I missed Pete when he message back to ask if I had time to hop on a call (it was school run time!), but fear not, instead, he recorded me several videos in person, covering all of my queries, and telling me how excited they would be for me to join Atomic, making sure I knew my only commitment for the next 30 days was just £1 and that I could leave again, no questions asked, and with their best wishes on my journey. 

WOW! This guy, who is in full launch mode, rushed off his feet serving their already well-grown community took a whole ten minutes out of his day to make sure my questions were answered personally.  

Boom, I was in (as soon as I’d fed the kids and made it back to my computer!). The sign up process was so easy, and I was invited to take part in a survey which would give me “instant results” to my inbox which consisted of advice they could offer me straight away based on my answers.  I also had the opportunity to book a 20 minute 1-2-1 with Pete, which I snapped up. 

On completion of sign up, I was taken to a welcome video which quickly and accurately showed me around the membership site, invited me to the group, showed me how to sync their upcoming events calendar with mine so I never miss a session and told me exactly where to get started to get the most out of my membership. 

The sponsored Ad for the freebie arrived in my Facebook Feed on Tuesday, and by Thursday night I was a fully fledged member of Atomic, and was left feeling valued, individual, empowered and excited. 

Every single step of that journey was easy, flowed smoothly and I was made to feel like a valued human with every piece of correspondence I received from not only Andrew & Pete but their support team too. 

(I later emailed them to tell them how beautiful their customer journey was, to which they actually took the time out of their crazy busy lives to that they were grateful for my feedback and warmly welcomed me to Atomic.)

So What Makes A Great Customer Journey?

Make sure your freebie has a PURPOSE in your customer journey.

Make sure your customer knows how much you appreciated THEIR investment. Their investment is essentially an investment in you. They are placing their trust and hard-earned money in YOU, show them you appreciate that.

Make sure they are left feeling like it was a worthy and valued investment.

Make sure they feel like you know they are there and not just another number in your membership or online course subscribers.

Make sure they know how and when they can contact you or your team with any questions or feedback they may have.

Ultimately, make sure you give as much thought to how you make those buying your perfect product, as you have done to creating your perfect product!

And remember, if you want your customers to stay a subscriber in your membership month after month, or buy from you again, don’t just forget about their journey after they’ve purchased and assume they’re there to stay – your efforts in their journey will determine whether or not they re-invest in your business.

I’d love to hear more about your customer journey, and if you have any good examples of when YOU'VE felt like a valuable customer (or even the bad stories too!!) and if you found this article helpful!

Drop your experiences in the comments!

Kristina x

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More about Kristina

Fuelled by lemons, sunshine and a terrible sense of humour, Kristina is a lover of all things Simplero, systems and tech. She spends her days helping business owners build, nourish and grow their online communities and memberships using her not-so-secret weapon - the all-in-one platform Simplero.

Kristina's support allows her clients to spend more time doing their thing, creating an income and serving their crowds, and less time losing their zing in the dull, behind the scenes stuff that is required to run a business online.

An intuitive wing-woman, sounding board and loudest cheerleader for her clients, Kristina’s proactive approach and enthusiasm is infectious and makes the leap to outsourcing and growing your team feel effortless.

Refreshing, zingy and makes online business easy-peasy lemon-squeezy for the non-square business owner.