How many businesses actually go through the exercise of determining where their customer’s pain points are? I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work on a very interesting pitch for a popular automotive brand. Part of the task was to map out the entire customer experience. The point of the process was to determine where the brand should focus their efforts (and their budget) in the coming months.
We conducted some interviews, including those in the market for new cars, and salespeople on the dealer floor, and built personas. We then broke down the journey into five key milestones, mapping out what each persona would be thinking, doing, and feeling. We determined the tools and experiences that would address any pain points, and then looked at whether those tools and experiences already existed. If they didn’t, these became the recommendations. The results it yielded were clear and gave the potential client some deep insights into where they could improve. Like many brands today, some areas of the customer experience were second to none, and some were almost non-existent.
Content and marketing are not everything
Many brands are obsessed with content. Visit any brand site or social page, and you’ll find content galore. Videos, infographics, long-form and short-form. Yet, time and time again, the consumer has made it abundantly clear that they’re not particularly interested in hearing from brands. In fact, recent research shows that on a scale of impact, reviews and recommendations from friends and family far outweigh brand messaging.
Back to our CX audit. As I mentioned, there were gaps and drops in the customer experience, but none of those gaps were content issues. They were all to do with dropped balls and poor experiences at a multitude of real world and digital touchpoints. Boots CMO, Pete Markey, was recently quoted as saying: “Your customer experience is your brand, so focus on getting it right consistently.”
Marketing moments of truth that matter
Therein lies the real challenge – being consistent across the board. How much effort are you putting into your marketing vs. your customer’s experience? In a recent CX report published by Rogerwilco, we took a look at the moments that mattered, ranking them by importance to the customer. These moments of ‘truth’, when done well, act as marketing channels all on their own, earning positive reviews that count more than a brand’s self-praise. Surprisingly, moments like unboxing and delivery (in the ecommerce space), were far more important than the search and purchase phases. Many ecommerce brands tend to focus on the search and purchase phase, while neglecting these final phases.
Ask the right questions
The questions you need to ask yourself are, which phases in my customer’s journey am I ignoring? Have I mapped my customer’s moments of truth? Have I taken time to strategise and understand my customer, or am I simply ploughing ahead with creating content and marketing that has no value? I would also implore you to stop using the term ‘audience’. You don’t have one. You have a customer. Start focusing on the things that matter to your customer.
*This article originally appeared on Retailing Africa
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