From prospect to buyer: owning the customer journey

It’s a cornerstone of every business. To sell products and services, you need to coax prospects along the buyer’s journey. That means meeting the customer where they are at every stage – and making sure your organisation delivers a consistent message, in a consistent voice.

Because for today’s consumers, there’s no excuse for static and impersonal customer communications. As the digitally native Gen Z and Millennial cohorts increase their buying power and influence, that trend will only accelerate, and businesses that aren’t making the most of new advances in customer comms tech will find themselves unable to engage their target audiences.

In a new white paper created in collaboration with Canon, customer communications consultants Aspire explore how the traditional focus on customer experience is increasingly out of step with the latest best practice. The key to effective customer comms, as this article will outline, is moving towards a holistic ‘total experience’ model.

Total experience consists of three parts

1. Customer experience
2. User experience
3. Employee experience

Together, these feed into the interactions a customer has and shape the overall impression they take away. And it’s that abstract impression which ultimately influences the decision to buy, not any single touchpoint along the journey.

A total experience approach to customer comms relies on an ‘outside-in’ view. Instead of businesses considering how they can best serve consumers with the capabilities they have in place, they will ask what capabilities they need to meet customers’ needs.

By gathering information on how customers want to engage with the business, and where they’re getting the most value, it’s easier for businesses to foster a meaningful cross-channel exchange.

Why is it so hard to provide a joined-up experience for customers? The truth is, organisations often struggle to establish a consistent narrative even internally, because of siloed information.

Large organisations are complex. As they grow, businesses build up a variety of legacy systems, which often operate independently. For stakeholders working across different departments, using different systems, there can be gaps in the information available to them when delivering customer communications.

Businesses must overcome organisational and technical obstacles to ensure data is shared between key stakeholders. That could mean creating a cross-functional centre of excellence – based on a unified technology platform – to control every aspect of customer communications throughout the entire company.

The role of employees in enabling this is critical. Employee experience is the least well-known of the three parts of the total experience model, but it underpins consistency throughout the customer journey.

Outdated software creates frustration for employees. If employees who play a part in the customer comms process leave, and there’s no system in place to share information and manage communications centrally, then their experience and knowledge goes with them. That means customers end up dealing with less experienced replacements, and risk becoming less satisfied.

Total experience is the logical evolution of the current trend towards two-way, omnichannel comms that give customers the freedom to engage as they see fit.

It can seem daunting to connect the dots within a large organisation, but it needn’t be an instant seismic shift. Here are four starting points businesses can look at to understand their position and see where they could improve their customer comms:

1. Take a snapshot of your current customer comms practices and set your destination

Undertaking an assessment of your customer communications maturity level can help you understand areas for growth and progress further towards an interactive approach that puts the customer first.

2. Create meaningful customer-centric metrics to measure total experience

With a clear view of the interaction touchpoints that customers value, and how that contributes to business success, you can define key performance indicators that drive your ongoing adoption of a total experience model.

3. Look at your tools and how they help you manage interactions

There’s no one-size-fits all customer experience management software. By choosing a platform that aligns with your needs and goals, you stand to gain the most, opening a path to personalisation and consistent multichannel experiences.

4. Bring in an experienced partner to bolster your capabilities

Since total experience demands a holistic approach, transforming your business can involve complex integration and orchestration. There’s no need to do it all alone – if there are gaps in your expertise or resourcing, bringing in a proven partner will smooth the transition.

Every potential customer interacts with your business with a certain set of expectations. And those expectations have skyrocketed in recent years. Responses need to be fast. They need to be tailored. Most importantly, they need to be consistent. By adopting a total experience approach, you’ll empower your employees to quickly create personalised communications using all the relevant information your business has, for customers that keep coming back.