Reimagining the Customer Experience Lifecycle

Over the past few years, brands have focused on encouraging customers to purchase products and services through mobile and online platforms. Strategies typically have taken an “inside out” approach, in which the brand defines a specific path to purchase and funnels prospective customers down that path. But the problem is that what companies think customers want and what they want are often two entirely different things. And this is critical because 76% of consumers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations.

Alternatively, when brands take an “outside-in” approach, they focus on understanding the customer experience lifecycle from the customer's perspective and create more meaningful and personalized experiences. This starts with reimagining the customer experience lifecycle and faster getting to that one-to-one conversation.

What is the customer experience lifecycle?

The customer experience lifecycle starts with a need. The customer has a pain point or specific need — and they’re looking for the best solution. The stages in the customer lifecycle evolve around understanding the customer’s journey from their perspective. It’s important to note that the lifecycle is not necessarily linear, and you might have many customers in different stages simultaneously.

Pre-purchase. This stage includes three factors: awareness, consideration, and knowledge. During this stage, you give customers the ability about what you’re offering, so they understand the value of your product or service.
Purchase and selection. Once customers have completed their research, they are ready to select your product or service. Here, the focus is on creating accessible, customer-centered experiences that generate positive emotions.
Post-purchase. This stage includes customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy. This is where you need to satisfy your customers and deliver on the brand promise that you introduced during the first stage. You can’t satisfy people unless you deliver on your promise. This stage is also the tipping point at which customers can become advocates.

Transforming customers into brand advocates

Most brands don’t have a clearly articulated promise on the brand level. Once you satisfy customers, you need to make them loyal. It’s the sense of “I’ve really enjoyed the experience,” and there is a strong emotional component. But so often, we focus too heavily on the transactional side, which comes at the cost of satisfaction and loyalty.

Loyalty is typically defined as repeat customers, but customer experience has become ever more critical. Is the customer emotionally connected to the product? Do they like it? Do they enjoy it? If the answers are yes, then you have a much stronger chance of transforming that customer into an advocate.

However, the actual role advocates play is completely out of your hands. For example, there is a tribe of Apple followers who can talk about Apple products all day long. The brand doesn’t drive those conversations — their customers do.

Adapting to the customer’s story

People are in all different stages of the customer lifecycle simultaneously — a challenge given that most brands message to one audience, regardless of where they are in that cycle.

Branding is a living element; it’s not static. So, when you define your position in the market, you need to continuously assess your point of differentiation. Measure how your audience is changing, how your competitors are changing, and how the market is changing — all of which are moving targets.

We’ve been trained to think about capturing greater market share, but oftentimes, markets are built on a historical perspective and antiquated business models. Leaders who focus on reinventing existing markets will automatically have a larger share of the market.

Data needs to become a supporting actor, not the main character Steve Jobs said, “People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.”

Initially, it was a big deal to be able to track customer behaviors. The market is a noisy place, and if we can predict customer behaviors, we can provide experiences that make customers safer, happier, and feel more connected.

But as powerful as data can be, it’s mistakenly become a main character, and it needs to step into a supporting actor role. Because if you allow data to drive and make your decisions, you can become too robotic in the way you approach the customer experience.

Get curious, ask more questions, and let the data support the strategy. For example, people spend a large amount of time online. Is there a more effective way that you can engage with them in this environment? How can you help a customer feel personally known in the exact moment of relevance? Tap into the right questions, connect with your customers, and leverage data to fill in the details.

Moving to a one-to-one conversation faster

The goal for brands is always to get to that one-to-one conversation faster. Companies that do this authentically and create positive experiences for customers will achieve a high level of loyalty.
But right now, the conversations are “brand-to-many,” and that doesn’t create more authentic and meaningful conversations with customers. People are in different stages of the customer experience lifecycle, and you need to identify and plan on how to move them — on a more personalized level.
Consider adding different elements to your story and value props to orchestrate a more personalized experience. Marketers have been very linear in their thinking, but relationships and emotions aren’t linear. And at the end of the day, what we’re really thinking about is how to have better relationships with our customers. Reimagining the customer experience lifecycle supports that goal.