Today’s savvy consumers look for more than just price or quality in the products they buy. Shoppers also want a positive and engaging user experience (UX) that spans the entire buyer’s journey and beyond.
It’s natural to focus on finding new leads and getting them to make a purchase, but there are many steps before, during and after the sale that can impact how the user feels about your brand. The goal is to engage with them in a way that leaves them walking away with such a positive impression that they tell everyone they know and sing your praises via reviews and social media posts.
How can you improve the buyer’s journey and turn browsers into loyal customers and current clients into raving fans?
1. Know the Phases of the Buyer’s Journey
Before you can create an amazing experience, you must fully understand the path a consumer walks before they buy. In general, there are three phases to the process.
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Decision
Within each of those phases are various touch points to focus on if you wish to create a memorable encounter. Walk through the sales funnel as though you are a user at each phase. Does anything make you want to leave the site? Is there anything unclear or that could be easier to use?
2. Get Personal
It’s particularly crucial during the awareness phase to create content that speaks to the audience. Create buyer personas based on pain points the user has that drives them to you for a solution.
Once you understand your audience’s demographics, you can address the emotions behind each pain point. Create content that relieves fears, makes them laugh or helps them overcome the issue at hand.
Videos are one tool to engage new users and begin to move them from the awareness to the consideration phase. You must first teach them about what you do and why it would help them.
3. Improve Checkout
Zippia reports that the average shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.82% across all industries. Anything you can do to improve checkout will improve your revenue.
Users entering your checkout process are likely already in the decision stage and ready to make a purchase. Prevent any reasons to bounce away. Test the system, retest it and simplify things until closing the sale is as natural as clicking a single link.
Add features such as a one-click checkout and integrate with third-party payment providers like PayPal and Google so information is already stored and the user doesn’t have to think before hitting the checkout button.
4. Onboard New Visitors
Many experts now recommend taking a total experience (TX) approach with users. With TX, you have to look at every tiny detail. The way the colors on the page impact users emotionally may seem minor but can make a difference in the way the audience perceives your brand.
Take the time to welcome new visitors and teach them how to use your website or software. Break things down until even a small child could understand the next step and why to take it. Ensure call to action (CTA) buttons are easy to spot and the result is clear.
Don’t forget how many mobile interactions there are, as the numbers increase annually. Many shoppers may visit your site from smartphones, tablets and other devices.
5. Create Interactive Experiences
When the buyer’s journey reaches the consideration stage, focus on creating content that draws the user in and engages them. You might add a flip card, where you ask a question and the user clicks on the card for the answer about your product or service.
You might also host a webinar, offer online product demonstrations or tap into the power of augmented reality (AR). Ikea takes AR and adds it to their app for an immersive experience that sells furniture. The user points their cell phone at the room and plops the item into place. Instantly, they can consider how it looks and if it is the right item for their needs.
People move very quickly from consideration to decision when you give them the tools to do so.
6. Build Customer Loyalty
CX is a roughly $641 billion industry and growing. Companies are starting to understand why the steps a buyer goes through to become a customer are so crucial to building a loyal fan base.
One thing you can do to better understand your customers and create positive associations with your brand is to build a customer journey map. A map is something you should build as you walk through your site or shopping experience. Write down every touchpoint.
Next, ask if each interaction is all it can be or you should ramp things up. If something isn’t working, change it. Talk to customers and find out what they love and dislike about their experience.
7. Improve Multichannel Communication
Have you ever gone online and engaged a chatbot to fix an issue with a product or service? Perhaps you phoned and explained the issue only to be transferred and have to explain it all over again.
If you want to make a good impression on the buyer, you have to lessen their frustration when something does go wrong or they have a question. The best way to improve your customer service is by integrating all customer service channels into a single database.
Let’s say John went into the chatbot and tried to troubleshoot his new flashlight. Unfortunately, no live agents were available, and the bot couldn’t help, so the system asked him to phone.
John makes the call but has to explain the entire issue once again. The agent he reached isn’t in technical support and apologizes and transfers him to the correct department. Once there, guess what happens? John has to explain the entire problem yet again and hope this person can help him.
If you’re frustrating your customers like this, stop now. Train agents to look up the chain of communication and already know what the problem is so they can hit the ground running. “Hello John, I see that you tried to resolve this with our online live chat but were asked to phone in. Your new flashlight you just bought isn’t turning on and you want to know if you should return it. Is that correct?”
John is now less frustrated and you’ve improved the CX for him, making his experience unforgettable in a positive way.
Follow Up for the Best CX Imaginable
Creating an unforgettable experience happens when you stand out from the competition. You must show customers you care about them as individuals and give them a reason to trust you with their hard-earned dollars.
Following up after you have their money is one of the top ways to signal you care about more than just profit. You want them to be happy with their purchase and trust you in the future. Send an email checking on them and make sure they’re completely satisfied. Most will ignore the email, but a few might reach out for help or with a complaint. If they do, you now have the opportunity to solve the problem and secure your reputation with them.
With a little added effort during each part of the buyer’s journey, you’ll wind up with a skew of loyal fans who tell others how amazing you and your products are.
Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.
