Customer Service

The Customer's Journey

Building Relationships and Acquiring Patients

Imagine your favorite brands: the shoes you wear, the car you drive, or even your preferred makeup brand. Why did you choose them over others? Your journey as a customer, from first hearing about a product to eventually buying and staying loyal to it, is the essence of the customer journey.

Understanding the Customer's Journey

The customer journey can be seen as a roadmap. It guides customers from becoming aware of a product to becoming loyal advocates for a brand. This journey includes five key stages for customers:

1.   Awareness: Recognizing the product or brand.

2.   Investigation and Consideration: Researching and thinking about the purchase.

3.   Choosing to Purchase: Deciding to buy.

4.   Retention: Staying loyal and continuing to buy.

5.   Advocacy and Loyalty: Promoting the product or brand to others.

On the flip side, businesses have their journey:

1.   Reach: Making potential customers aware of the product.

2.   Acquire: Gaining the customer's attention.

3.   Develop and Nurture: Building and maintaining the customer relationship.

4.   Retention and Service: Keeping the customer loyal.

5.   Advocacy and Loyalty: Turning customers into brand promoters.

Then and Now

In the past, businesses had limited competition. A town might have just one or two clothing stores, making it easy for them to gain loyal customers. Today, with vast online markets and numerous brands, businesses must provide stellar service to stand out.

CRM: The Backbone of Customer Relations

CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is a tool businesses use to understand and cater to customer needs, thus guiding them along their journey. Some key CRM concepts include:

·     Touchpoints: These are moments when businesses interact with customers. It could be as simple as an email or as significant as an in-store purchase.

·     Customer Relationship: The bond or 'friendship' formed between businesses and customers.

·     Churn refers to when customers switch from one product or brand to another.

·     Churn Rate: The percentage of customers a business loses over time. The goal is always to keep this rate low.

CRM in Action

Businesses utilize CRM software to capture customer details, track interactions, monitor sales and set up marketing campaigns. This software helps businesses analyze customer data to offer tailored solutions and enhance their overall experience.

Different Types of CRM:

1.  Operational CRM: Helps in tracking potential sales leads.

2.  Relational and Collaborative CRM: Engages customers through email and social media.

3.  Technological CRM: Uses advanced tech tools, like chatbots or search engine optimization, to engage customers.

4.  Analytical CRM: Analyzes customer data to predict trends and customer behavior.

Stages of the Customer Journey Explored

1.  Awareness (Reach for businesses): This is the stage where potential customers learn about a brand or product. Businesses reach customers through physical and digital touchpoints, like TV commercials or online ads.

2.  Investigation and Consideration (Acquire for businesses): Potential customers research a product before buying. Businesses use blog posts, reviews, or social media campaigns to grab their attention.

3.  Choosing to Purchase (Develop and Nurture for Businesses): Once customers decide to buy, it becomes the business's responsibility to nurture this relationship, ensuring customers continue their journey towards loyalty.

Every customer's journey, from mere product awareness to becoming its advocate, is intricate. Businesses must use tools like CRM to understand, cater to, and enhance this journey, ensuring lasting customer relationships. As you reflect on your choices and preferences, remember that every purchase decision is a step in your unique customer journey.

Customer Retention and Customer Loyalty

As customers, we often find ourselves sticking with particular brands or products. This loyalty isn't just random or by chance; companies cultivate it through strategies focused on trust and fulfilling customer needs. By the end of this lesson, you'll understand why you feel a stronger connection to some brands than others.

Stage 4: Retention

You're in the retention stage when you repeatedly choose a particular brand over its competitors. Businesses work hard to keep you engaged, continually meeting or exceeding your expectations. Interaction points, such as social media engagements, focus groups, or helpful customer service, ensure you receive value from the brand and remain a dedicated customer.

Stage 5: Advocacy and Loyalty

Reaching the pinnacle of the customer journey, advocacy, and loyalty means you're not just a customer — you've become a brand ambassador. Whether you're raving about a product to your friends or collecting points in a loyalty program, you've reached a stage where your trust in the brand leads you to advocate for it. For companies, this stage involves nurturing this advocacy, offering exclusive deals, early access to new products, or creating engaging loyalty programs.

Reflecting on Loyalty

Think about the brands you love. Which ones have you publicly praised, and why? Perhaps they offered exceptional customer service, high-quality products, or special promotions. Understanding your journey to loyalty can offer insights into how brands successfully navigate their relationship with customers.

Trust: The Cornerstone of Loyalty

Trust isn't just beneficial; it's essential. When you trust a brand, you believe they'll consistently meet your needs, value you as a customer, and act with integrity. Here's how companies cultivate trust:

1.  Effective Communication: A company that's transparent and straightforward in its messaging reassures customers of its reliability.

2.  Genuine Care: Demonstrating genuine empathy and concern makes customers feel valued and understood.

3.  Fair Treatment: Equal treatment of all customers fosters a sense of fairness and equity.

4.  Personalization: Tailoring experiences to individual customers shows that the company recognizes and values their unique needs.

5.  Owning Up to Mistakes: Companies that admit errors and prioritize rectifying them display a commitment to customer well-being.

6.  Keeping Promises: Trust is built when companies stay true to their word.

7.  Respect: Showing respect to customers and employees promotes an image of integrity and trustworthiness.

Trust and loyalty are two sides of the same coin in the customer's journey. Understanding the importance of trust as you navigate your consumer experiences can help you make informed decisions about which brands to support. By nurturing trust, companies retain their customers and turn them into passionate brand advocates.

Interactive Tasks

Please proceed with the following steps in your Work Readiness Skills learning module:

1.  Log in to the Work Readiness Skills module.

2.  Once logged in, click the 'view lesson' icon.

3.  Watch the Interactive Video provided.

4.  Go through and read the Lesson Transcripts.

5.  Complete all the Unit Questions and ensure you submit them.

If you have any questions or clarifications, contact your teacher.