Managing the New Customer Journey

By: Cavan Chasan, Director of Connections
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The last two decades have changed a lot for brands and more importantly for consumers. Access to information and information overload are real. And, for brands to be meaningful to their customers and prospects, they need to embrace the new customer journey.

The notion of linear customer journeys is no more. It’s just not that simple anymore. Consumers bump into brands in a myriad of ways as those brands insert themselves at different junctions of the customer journey.

The old school model of awareness-through-to-conversion has been digitally disrupted. Word of mouth has exploded as one of the most powerful tools for a brand that is looking to not only generate awareness, but to drive product trial, purchase and loyalty.

And that word of mouth can burn your brand just as fast as it can launch and sustain the power of advocacy. But the great news is that non-linear customer journey mapping is the perfect way to drive a brand to be a contemporary leader in the pursuit of the kind of personalized experiences that consumers now expect.

You might be thinking, “Great, you just told me how challenging the new normal is, and you illuminated the opportunity, but how the hell do I do this?”

The answer is:

• Embrace the intent of the customers and prospects you seek to build relationships with;
• Harness the power of your data intelligence to treat these folks as individuals and meet them where they are in their unique, customer journey;
• Watch their digital body language and marry it to their offline experiences.

While these recommendations are undoubtedly rooted in digital data and tools, it is increasingly actionable in the offline world due to the evolution of ad technology, and desire on the part of analog media platforms to stay relevant to the connected world we all live in today.

Successful communications and engagement planning starts at home. Sure, brands can buy targeting data to find relevant audiences and contexts, but best practice journey mapping has its foundation in the data a brand owns. This data comes from your customer relationship management tools, as well as your website and social media analytics.

It is not a quick or easy job to analyze, synthesize and leverage this data, but it is absolutely necessary to prioritize the maximization of these tools in today’s disrupted, non-linear customer experience.

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Learn more about Cavan here. To tap into his wealth of knowledge and experience to help you and your brand, organization or movement navigate the new customer journey, reach out.