Customer journey mapping: The buyer’s path in a digital world
Build a net-new audience years before your product ever launches. Yep, understanding customer journey mapping and the real buyer's path can help you do that.
The need for customer engagement is clear. Simply put, when you engage your customers, they buy more – making a commerce community critical to future-proofing your company.
Fully engaged customers represent an average 23% premium in terms of share of wallet, profitability, revenue, and relationship growth. (Gallup)
The numbers don’t lie: customers expect – and need – to feel engaged with a brand:
- 70-90% of the buyers journey is complete prior to engaging a vendor. (Forrester Research)
- 45% of buyers require person-to-person contact in the buying process. (ITSMA / CFO)
But it’s striking to note that in the face of such irrefutable need, Gartner Research finds that 70% of online communities – one of the foundational means to engage and help your customers – will fail.
When you dig further into these inexplicably contradicting facts, it’s not hard to see why a commerce community might struggle:
- Monolithic communities are software design centric and do not align with the customers perspective of their journey
- The engagement modalities for a commerce community or a support community or a product innovation community are wildly different; the community must be purpose-built
- Finally, it’s extremely challenging to connect community activity and hard outcomes when transactions and community are not connected – and community managers are the biggest victims as they struggle to prove strategic value
The market clearly needs a refreshed approach to how community and commerce comes together if it’s to support every customers’ unique journey.
And with the coming explosion of software-defined goods, it’s only going to get more intense. Intel estimates that by 2020, over 200 billion internet and software-enabled devices will be in the market. As a result, the need to assist buyers at every step of their journey is going to increase exponentially.
Why commerce needs community
So, why does commerce need a community?
Because customers want it.
Mike Fauscette, GVP at IDC Research said, “Companies need a way to connect with prospects and customers in a trusted environment. Adding frictionless purchase options inside the community adds value for buyer and seller. In our 2016 Social Business Futurescape, we predict that by 2020, 30% of all purchases will be made through an online community.”
Because their customer journeys vary significantly, both in transaction and emotion.
If the goal of one customer’s journey is to buy a simple product such as a phone charger, you need to provide them with the quickest form of validation such as user ratings, and get them to the shopping cart, pronto.
If the goal of the journey is to get support for a more complex product such as a washing machine, throwing them into ratings may add anxiety and purchase uncertainty.
The right purchase is more important than a fast purchase.
A well-written expert blog post or even a Q&A facility baked right into the product page might be better.
If the goal of the journey is to learn and share experiences with other cancer patients or diabetics in a product community, they doesn’t want to be rushed into a purchase. They want to stay for a while and learn and contribute. And if they have beaten the odds, they most likely want to pay it forward.
Respecting these varied journeys is the essence of meaningful and sustainable community.
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Commerce everywhere: Creating sustainable marketplaces
Carsten Thoma, former President of SAPs Customer Engagement and Commerce business said it best:
“Every customer’s purchase experience is different. Todays digitally connected customer expects that you serve them not only during transaction but through the entire customer journey, and on their terms. Modern e-commerce entails hand-holding the customer, from awareness to consideration to purchase and advocacy.”
By rethinking the interplays between communities and commerce, we can truly begin to create sustainable marketplaces that respect how the consumer wants to engage and transact with us.
Welcome to community-powered commerce.
