Member Article

Opportunities and pitfalls of the new customer journey

The customer journey for the services and leisure industry is no longer linear. Customers don’t just walk into travel agents to book a holiday, or browse the Yellow Pages directory to find a local restaurant. Instead, they are greeted by a mass of touchpoints that engage and influence purchasing decisions.

The journey is now incredibly personal and unique, and despite all routes leading to the same end goal (the end service/experience), customers don’t all follow the same path. Every touchpoint on the journey is an opportunity to collect data that can be used to influence and shape the path to purchase and subsequent engagement activity.

Starting with research, customers may browse online, read reviews and check with friends and family. The level of research is influenced by the perceived risk and cost associated with the purchase, for example, signing up to a new gym membership, compared to booking a holiday.

In the browse stage, customers begin to hone in on the detail and narrow down their options. This is done by comparing prices, engaging with a customer service representative, checking value for money and assessing the services they will receive in return. However, this isn’t as simple as it sounds. Customers may flit back and forth between research and browsing and interact with as many or as little touchpoints as suits them. They may then book or sign up online or on-premise, regardless of where they carried out their research and browsing.

‘Receipt’ of their experience or service could be attending a concert, eating in a restaurant, staying in a hotel or experiencing a day out. In between their booking/sign-up and receipt, a customer can also go backwards on the journey, perhaps in anticipation of their experience they may decide to continue to browse for better deals or read reviews.

The journey doesn’t end here though; customers may share their love of an experience or service on social media or by writing a review. They may then be influenced by a brand’s follow-up communications to make their next booking, all of which could trigger further steps backwards along the journey, such as price comparisons etc.

The journey is not straightforward, but the opportunity it provides to engage customers at every step provides a raft of exciting possibilities.

Barry Smith, head of sales and marketing at retail data consultancy Ikano Insight

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Catherine Allen .