Understand the Customer Journey to Boost Your Marketing Effectiveness

Why bother understanding the customer journey?

What is the customer journey?

In 1961, Lavidge and Steiner created ‘The Hierarchy of Effects’ model to explain customer buying behaviour, and also help advertisers make better advertisements (1). The concept of the customer journey is essentially the flip side of the same coin.

‘Hierarchy of effects’ model

Lavidge and Steiner’s ‘hirarchy of effects’ model comprises three stages; each has one, two or three steps. Thus six steps overall, as illustrated in Figure 1, and summarised from top to bottom, below:

The linear customer journey

Lavidge and Steiner’s model is effectively a linear series of steps:

However, while most relevant in a world of mass advertising, in today’s online world, customer journeys are much more complex.

Understanding the customer’s journey allows marketers to determine the sequence, nature and importance of the steps, also the triggers, drivers and barriers to sales of a particular service or product. Thus, where and how to promote and add value to an offer. Also specifically how to improve trial, retention and endorsement.

It is akin to a powerful ‘sat nav’ to marketing success.

The online customer journey

However, shopping no longer takes place just in the High Street but anywhere, anytime, with the result that nearly 20% purchases were made online in 2019 (and significantly more during the lock-down). Further almost all UK adults aged 16-44 years, and 95% adults aged 16-74 years use the Internet daily (2). 79% also own a smartphone making it easy to go online on the go (3). Thus the ability to buy food, clothes, music, films, sports equipment, holidays, cars etc. online has never been easier.

With the growth of the online world, the customer journey has become a more complex, stepping stone process (Figure 3). Sometimes purposeful, and fast, sometimes serendipitous, looping, and seemingly never – ending. Recent research by Google Australia/New Zealand, describes this as the ‘messy middle’ (4).

Different media present different environments, and thus attract different demographics and psychographics. Further media entry points and occasions vary, and technology increasingly links from one medium to another. Of course, markets, competitive contexts and customer needs also vary. Consequently, influences differ, resulting in different customer behaviour.

Threats and opportunities for marketers

The threat to marketers is to only see digital media and only to rely on website analytics data. This only sees the effects of customer behaviour and fails to explain why they do things and what their needs are. 

The opportunity is to see and understand the big picture. In particular to understand customers, in context of the entire media and competitive landscape. Where, when, how and why they behave as they do, and then to plan marketing accordingly.

How to understand your customers’ journey?

First, use qualitative research to understand the big picture, what customers do, and why? The benefit of a qualitative approach is to fully explore and understand what customers consider important, what engages, fails to engage and most importantly why? Here are some start-point (though generic) questions to ask (Figure 4).

In our experience, there are also two tracks to any customer journey; first the journey into the category, and secondly, the journey to discover, and choose a particular brand. Thus original customer research is valuable to understand the twin tracks, and also the relationships between the tracks.

It is almost impossible to predict a journey from the outside looking in, and thus research will inevitably unearth new insights.

Google’s own research suggests consumers are in sequential exploration and evaluation modes. With continuous offer selection, short-listing, and deselection until a final purchasing decision is made. They also highlight the importance of brand awareness, and the power of benefits, recommendations, and incentives to shift demand from a familiar to lesser known brand (4).

Mapping customer journeys

There are many ways to map customer journeys, and what to do should follow from your business objectives and needs. A grid matrix may best inform a new IT customer contact system, but risks the ‘wood being hidden by the trees’. A more visual representation may better help colleagues understand and act on research findings. Figure 5 (below) summarises on one page, a customer journey to  research family history or family trees. It highlights key events, and drivers and barriers on the journey. It is useful in bringing to life rational and emotional factors. And thus opportunities to optimise the journey and better market brands.

Use quantitative research to rank ‘influencing’ factors, and thus prioritise marketing effort. Though conduct qualitative research first to scope your quant survey, and finesse the questions. You’ll need to devise a long list of answers to the following:

Figure 6 (below) summarises some of the results from a survey to assess key reasons (and barriers) to buying telecoms services (fixed line, mobile, broadband and TV). This shows how issues and attitudes differ across two countries. It also reveals a marketing opportunity simply to promote additional services!

Research Inspiration

References