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Digital Marketing – Critical Success Factors
Swaroop Chandra
02 Mar 2017, 08:09 AM
Let´s go on a journey ....
Again, we will be putting ourselves in the customer´s shoes and how marketing communication looks from their point of view
Step 1: Who is the customer? (Chose 1 option)
OPTION #1.A CUSTOMER OF YOUR´S In case you are working for a company (and even have personas to choose from) - you might wanna go with a specific customer you are marketing to
OPTION #2. YOU - in case you don´t have a customer you can refer to, just take yourself and look at a purchase you made (that wasn’t an impulse purchase)
Sidenote: For those of you who have a B2B customer, make sure to differentiate between the buyer and the user resp. just pick one. Though make sure to write down the interdependences - between the different parties involved - that might come up along the way.
Step 2 : Choose a customer journey map
You can take ours (see next subchapter) or a different map (that you found in the additional materials section of chapter 4.2, like in this article that lists different customer journey maps) - if it seems more appropriate to your situation or business. Yet, remember that any map is just a starting point and you will probably ned to adapt it to your needs.
No matter which map you choose you first wanna look at the different stages of the buying process (in the horizontal axis), second you wanna look at the vertical axis (in our case: The critical elements).
Step 3: Since we can´t upload a paper, you might wanna solve the „matrix issue“ like this (we take our map as an example):
Awareness phase
A) Feelings, thoughts and actions:
B) Triggers & Influencers:
C) Touchpoints (offline & online):
D) Customer experience:
E) Opportunities:Research phase
A) Feelings, thoughts and actions:
B) Triggers & Influencers:
.....Purchase
....Usage
....Repeat purchases
....Refers new customers
PS: You might encounter the „problem“, that you can´t always fill in all the „boxes“ of the matrix/ map or you are unsure about the stage of the customer. And probably other issues that are unique to your situation.
That´s ok, because we are creating a theoretical model (our best educated guess) that can evolve over time. But it might also indicate that you missed to identify a critical step in the journey or critical elements that are vital to your business/ situation but are not part of your map yet.
And keep in mind WHY we are doing this: It´s to get familiar with the practice itself, which in the end is thinking from the customer´s perspective. Which is, of course, easier when you are the customer yourself
(By the way: You might be surprised by the analysis of your own behavior since we usually don´t think abut it.)
Who is the Customer?
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A customer is anyone who receives a product – either a good or a service – from an organisation. In most situations the customer will have to pay to obtain the product, but this is not always the case. For example, students are increasingly referred to as the ‘customers’ of the schools and colleges that they attend, but the majority of students do not pay directly for the educational service they receive.
Internal customers are members of staff or outside suppliers that contribute towards the service provided to external customers. They include:
Colleagues
Managers/supervisors
Staff in other functional departments
Good customer service to internal customers will help to establish good working relationships between colleagues, managers and staff teams. These relationships are important if the business is to function effectively. For example, working in a pleasant environment where staff are supportive of each other can keep staff turnover and absenteeism costs to a minimum.
External customers, on the other hand, are the people who we more usually associate with the term ‘customer’, i.e. the people that actually buy or use an organisation’s products and services.
A key point to remember is that there are many occasions in which a business comes into contact with external customers. It is not just about the moment a transaction takes place. Points of customer contact take place:
When a customer is enquiring about the product
Taking a customer order or payment
Delivering a product
When handling a complaint or problem
When making repairs or doing maintenance
Providing after-sales care
