How to Make Your Customer Journey More Data Driven

In today’s market filled with many brands and options vying for attention, getting and keeping customers has become more challenging than ever. On top of that, today’s customer is more sophisticated and has higher expectations than ever before.

These digitally savvy customers are quickly moving away from brands that don’t offer them a positive or valuable experience. A study found that 86% of consumers will leave a brand they were once loyal to after only two to three bad customer experiences.

To keep up with the competition and meet the expectations of their customers, marketers must have a thorough understanding of their needs and behavior across all channels. This level of customer insight can only be gained with clean customer data.

Fortunately, recent technological developments have made it easier for marketers to collect and use data to improve the customer experience.

7 Steps to Build A Data Drive Customer Journey

We all understand by now that customer journey mapping is essential to success in the modern market. Understanding how your customers interact with your brand before, during, and after a purchase is the process.

However, too often brands create customer journey maps without using data. This can lead to inaccurate assumptions about your customers, resulting in a less-than-ideal customer experience. Using data is the best way to create an accurate customer journey map.

Here are seven steps you can take to make your customer journey more data-driven:

1. Gather Key Data

There are some key data sources you’ll need to collect to create an accurate customer journey map. Website analytics, social media listening, customer surveys, and sales data are all essential.

But one of the biggest challenges marketers face is interpreting this data and understanding what it means for the customer journey. Raw data isn’t useful by itself. It needs to be organized, analyzed, and shaped into something presentable.

Let’s say you’ve obtained some critical data from your Google Analytics account. You know that your website’s traffic is down, and your bounce rate is up.

But what does that mean for the customer journey? This is where marketing analysts come in handy. They can help you understand your data and how it affects the customer journey. If you don’t have the budget for a marketing analyst, there are software tools that can do the job for you.

Investing in customer journey mapping software can help you organize and interpret your data so that you can take actionable steps to improve the customer experience.

2. Create Smart Segments

Once you’ve gathered your data and understand what it means, you can start to create segments. Segmentation is key to creating a personalized customer experience.

Segmenting your customers allows you to target them with the right message at the right time. For example, you might segment your website visitors by their location or the pages they’ve viewed.

You can also segment your customers based on their interactions with your brand. For example, you might create a segment for customers who abandoned their shopping carts or customers who haven’t purchased in the last six months.

Creating segments is only half the battle. You also need to make sure you’re targeting the right segments with the right message. This is where automation comes in.

Automation allows you to send the right message to the right segment at the right time. Use automation to send targeted emails, SMS messages, and push notifications to guide your customers through their journey. Tools like Mailchimp and Hubspot make it easy to automate your marketing campaigns.

3. Increase Conversion By Optimizing Your Site

Your website is one of the most important touchpoints in the customer journey. It’s often the first place customers will interact with your brand.

Here are a few steps you can take to optimize your website and increase conversions:

• Use heatmaps, lead generation funnel analysis, and user session replays to understand what visitors are doing on your website and identify user experience issues.
• Use A/B and split tests to determine what design and copy elements resonate most with your customers.
• Use customer engagement tools to keep visitors engaged and prevent them from abandoning your site.

Here’s an example of heatmap data that can help you understand what visitors are doing on your website:

(Source: Heatmap)

As you can see, the heatmap shows where users are clicking on the page. The redder the area, the more clicks it receives. This data can help you understand what elements of your page are getting the most attention and figure out how to optimize your design.

4. Put Your Analysis Into Action

Once you’ve gathered your data and created segments, it’s time to start putting your analysis into action. Use the insights you’ve gained to create a more personalized customer experience.

For instance, if you know that customers who abandon their shopping carts are likely to be interested in discounts, you can create a targeted campaign that offers a discount to these customers.

You can also use your gathered data to create a more targeted website experience. For example, if you know that a certain segment of your customers is interested in a particular product, you can make sure this product is prominently displayed on your website.

Use every resource available to turn your customer data into actionable insights. Only then can you hope to create a truly personalized customer experience.

5. Improve & Foster Collaboration

Recent tragedies have shown us that we need to do better when it comes to communication and collaboration, both internally and with our customers.

When it comes to customer experience, collaboration is key. You need to ensure that every team in your company is on the same page and working towards the same goal.

Whatever tools you use to manage your customer experience, make sure they’re easy to use and allow for real-time collaboration. This way, everyone on your team can easily access customer data and share their insights.

Tools like Slack, Asana, and Trello are great for collaboration. They allow you to create centralized hubs where you can easily share customer data, insights, and tasks.

There are a few more steps you can take to improve collaboration within your company:

• Encourage open communication between departments.
• Make sure everyone understands the customer journey.
• Create a process for gathering feedback and acting on it.
• Encourage transparency and give employees access to customer data.

You should also encourage collaboration between your company and your customers. JTBD interviews are a great way to get feedback from customers and understand their needs.

6. Map Customer Interaction At Every Step

The customer experience is constantly evolving. To keep up, you need to clearly understand how your customers interact with your brand at every step of their journey.

This means mapping out every touchpoint, from the first time they hear about your company to when they make a purchase.

Create customer journey maps to visually represent the experiences and interactions your customers have. Identify any customer experience gaps and ensure every touchpoint is optimized.

In sales, for example, you need to ensure you’re providing the correct information to customers at the right time. A journey map will show you exactly when and where to present that information.

7. Automate & Personalize the Customer Journey

Automation is one of the most powerful tools available for increasing conversions and creating a more personalized customer experience.

There are several ways you can use automation to improve the customer experience.

For example, you can use email automation to send targeted customer messages based on their behavior. If a customer is enquiring about a product, you can send them educational content about that product.

You can also use automation to create a more personalized website experience. If you know that a certain segment of your customers is interested in a particular product, you can make sure this product is prominently displayed on your website.

The goal is to minimize any delays or friction in the customer journey. Automation can help you make it easier to personalize the customer experience and provide the correct information at the right time.

Data is the lifeblood of a successful customer journey or lead generation funnel. Without data, it’s impossible to understand what your customers want or need.

But with the correct data, you can create a customer experience that’s tailored to their needs. You can use data to segment your customers, personalize the customer journey, and automate repetitive tasks.

If you’re not already using a data-driven strategy to improve your customer journey, now is the time to start. Data will help you understand your customers and give you the insights you need to create a better customer experience. So get started today and see how data can help you improve your customer journey.