The customer journey, also known as the buying path, refers to the various stages that the target customer goes through before making an actual purchase decision.
The world we live in is undergoing a digital transformation. This means that anything that can be digitalized will be digitalized. Nobel laureate Paul Krugman predicted this as early as 2008. This often-repeated quote remains relevant today. In fact, it could be said that today, Krugman’s prediction is more relevant than ever before.
Surprisingly, the global coronavirus pandemic further accelerated a trend where pioneering companies across various industries have long been striving to leverage the opportunities afforded by digitalization. One such opportunity is the digitalization of the customer journey, while also utilizing technologies at every critical stage of that journey.
Customer journey approach with Salesforce
Customer journey approach is all about looking at things from the customer’s perspective, aiming to provide the best possible customer experience across all channels at all times.
The customer journey is broken down into five stages in this article:
- identifying the need
- gathering information
- comparing options
- making the purchase decision
- behavior after the purchase
Understanding these touchpoints is absolutely crucial for crafting the best possible customer experience. However, in the mindset of customer journey mapping, it’s not just about understanding; this approach drives the entire business, sales, and marketing strategies of a company.
To support the customer journey thinking, a system is needed that can model the stages of the customer path, track the related touchpoints, and discern at which stage the customer is progressing in the purchase journey. The system also informs when and how the target customer was last contacted. This makes operations more predictable, and enables serving the customer effectively at the right stages with the right approaches.
Salesforce offers exceptionally extensive possibilities, starting from acquiring new customers to managing existing relationships. The capabilities of Salesforce go much deeper than just setting up e-commerce or developing mobile applications, as you might typically think.
Stage 1: Identifying the need
Identifying the need begins the moment a customer encounters you or hears about you for the first time. From the company’s perspective, this is about acquiring new customers, which these days is largely done through digital marketing methods – leveraging social media, search engines, and advertisements, for example.
In this first stage of the customer journey, the customer might not even realize that they need your product or service. The target customer may also not know anything about your company yet. However, they do have a problem or need that requires solution.
In this first phase of the customer journey, it’s crucial to increase awareness and hit those pain points of the customer. The goal is to get the customer to remember the problems they’ve experienced and the difficulties that arise from them.
An example:
In a fictional company focused on leasing negotiation spaces, the collaboration between marketing and sales is just not clicking. The Sales Director is frustrated because the salespeople are spending their time on the wrong target customers instead of focusing on those who are genuinely close to making a purchase and need the salesperson’s support to close the deal.
The Sales Director also feels that marketing isn’t bringing in leads, but rather focuses on something else. And this is no surprise, as it’s unclear to both the Marketing Director and marketing experts at what stage a lead should be handed over to sales.
This is an issue that needs to be addressed.
Stage 2: Gathering information
During the data collection phase, the customer actively searches for information related to your company’s products or services. Typically, the customer uses a variety of channels to gather this information, such as search engines, company websites, and social media.
At this point in the customer journey, a company must be able to differentiate itself from competitors, build trust with the customer, and convince with its expertise.
An example:
The Sales Director has identified a problem and is eager to solve it. No longer would he need to spend his time fretting over the minutiae; instead, he could devote his energies to crafting efficient processes, and aiding and guiding his sales team. The sales outcomes would improve, allowing him to present better figures at executive meetings.
The Sales Director heads to Google and starts searching for solutions to “sales and marketing collaboration” and “how to better manage sales”. He dives into related content and begins to realize that with a solid CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, the various stages of the buying process could be managed more transparently.
He understands that merely having the system won’t solve the problem; it also needs to be skillfully used and leveraged extensively. He discovers twoday Biit among the search results, a company specialized in CRM systems and their implementations. He explores the content twoday Biit has produced on the subject.
Stage 3: Comparing options
After progressing to comparing options, the client has already eliminated the competitors that haven’t met the criteria set by the client or haven’t impressed with their expertise.
At this stage, the customer is particularly interested in the details of the company’s product or service, such as quality, features, or pricing. Additionally, the customer is likely also keen on demos and references.
An example:
The Sales Director has explored various options and decided to favor well-known CRM systems and consulting firms with strong industry experience. He is keen on reading additional materials provided by the selected companies. He downloads twoday Biit’s Guide to the World of Salesforce and also reads a couple of customer stories to better understand how twoday Biit works with their customers.
Stage 4: Purchase decisions
The purchasing decision is that crucial moment when deals are either made or missed. At this critical stage, it is essential that the buying process is made as easy as possible and the customer receives the necessary support during the purchase process.
Since purchasing decisions nowadays involve multiple individuals, the support a customer may need can be related to presenting a proposal to the client company’s executive team. By supporting the customer throughout the purchasing process, we can ensure that they feel confident about the soundness of their decision at all times.
An example:
At twoday Biit, it’s been that the company in question has shown a keen interest in Salesforce as well as its efficient implementation and utilization. The Sales Director will be personally contacted and meeting booked regarding the implementation of Salesforce.
Stage 5: Behavior after the purchase
After a purchase, the customer relationship doesn’t just come to an abrupt end. Instead, it’s crucial to engage, support, and educate the customer—with the aim, of course, being to deepen the relationship and ultimately, to create opportunities for upselling.
An example:
Salesforce has been successfully implemented in the company, and the sales team has fully integrated it into their daily activities. The Head of Sales is pleased with this development but has already identified several other areas for improvement that could be addressed by making more versatile use of the system. These issues will be discussed after the implementation project, together with the experts from twoday Biit.
Nowadays, an increasingly significant portion of these stages occurs digitally. Customers move through the purchasing process much further on their own, which essentially means that sellers have fewer opportunities to influence customer choices. It also means that companies must be able to collect accurate real-time data about their customers and make sure that their customers can make purchases on their own or with very little interaction with the company.
A digitalized customer path helps meet customer expectations
At the same time, customer expectations on the B2B side have started to mirror the high expectations of consumers. Customers anticipate receiving consistent, personalized service in their preferred manner and through their chosen channel. Meeting this challenge has become one of the key indicators of success.
So, what exactly is digitalizing the customer journey about? In essence, it’s about a systematic approach, utilizing data, and increasing transparency.
From a business perspective, the initial stage of the purchasing process is all about acquiring and identifying new customers, which nowadays is largely achieved through digital marketing methods.
Digital marketing aims to reach desired target groups from the markets with messages and content that resonate with them, sparking their interest in the company.
The benefits of Salesforce in the initial stages of the purchasing process are numerous. With Salesforce, you can meticulously examine details like how a potential customer has come across the company and what kind of information they are seeking.
For instance, the system allows you to precisely see whether a potential customer landed on the company’s homepage after searching for information on Google, or if they stumbled upon a company blog post on Facebook and then followed the link to read more about the company’s services. All this data on customer behavior is absolutely golden for the business.
With Salesforce, potential customers can be quickly identified regardless of the channel, allowing them to be directed onto the desired purchasing path at an early stage and handed over from marketing to sales as leads in a mutually agreed manner.
To ensure this handover goes smoothly, the entire process must be digitized and managed through a single unified system. The benefits of a seamless customer journey are evident for both the company and the customer.
To ensure the entire journey is seamless, all customer touchpoints must be centralized in one place. Therefore, identify these touchpoints by digitizing the customer journey and start your journey towards delivering a superior customer experience.