Chapter 1
Know your customers
While it’s true that within the sector, the definition of a customer is as wide and as varied as the goods, products or components manufacturers create. It’s also true that whether B2B, B2C, B2B2C or D2C, all customers have things in common — and the first is simplicity.
The processes related to discovering a brand, evaluating its products and making a purchase must be friction-free and focused on meeting the user’s needs. Likewise, all customers expect the organizations they do business with to actively keep them informed in terms of order status, delivery times or inventory. And finally, customers increasingly want ongoing help and support as part of the ownership experience.
Irrespective of a brand’s business model or the maturity of its existing approach, there is always scope for improving CX efficiency and cost to serve, so you should always be searching for ways to make a positive change.
However, it’s impossible to make changes that will result in an improvement until you understand current performance — and this understanding means more than simply looking at any metrics. It means accurately mapping the customer journey.
Understanding the customer journey
Especially for organizations that are new to the B2C space, it can be easy to confuse the customer journey with the sales funnel. The customer journey goes beyond discovery and purchase. It is every touchpoint a customer will encounter over the lifetime of their relationship with your brand.
A customer journey map is a visual means of understanding how well your organization is aligned with customer needs and expectations as the brand relationship develops. With the right approach, customer journey mapping allows you to really see the business from the customer’s perspective and to identify where you’re getting things right and where there is a genuine need for improvement.
The map’s visual nature also means it’s easy for the wider organization to understand and as such, actively support and invest in any work needed to make improvements.
Key takeaways
The definition of a customer varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, but all customers share common CX denominators.
Aligning your CX delivery with customer expectations begins with understanding and optimizing the customer journey.