One of the biggest frustrations I hear from artists is when a potential customer approaches an artist and says they like an artist’s work, but the artist can never seem to be able to make the sale. Why is this the case? Why does it seem like you have to build an entire relationship with someone in order to make one sale?
Reason being that every customer is experiencing their own unique customer journey, and this concept has become the new standard in marketing for understand how customers interact with brands.
WHAT IS THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY?
The customer journey is the entire experience the customer goes through when interacting with your company and brand. The customer journey identifies the full experience that customers have during the decision-making process to become a customer, as well as after the purchase has been made.
Big corporations know that the customer journey is a great way to see the process that the customer takes when making a purchase. It helps companies better predict the experiences of future customers and how to get them to make the purchase faster.
CONSIDER THIS EXAMPLE
First the potential customer sees a friend share your art on their Facebook feed. (ding) The potential customer clicks onto your Facebook fanpage (ding), scrolls and likes a few of your posts (ding) before moving on. They do not “Like” your fanpage at this time until another friend of theirs shares a different post of your art and the potential customer sees it (ding). This inspires the potential customer to “Like” your Facebook fanpage.(ding) One month later they see a post from your FB fanpage (ding) that you will have an upcoming concert at a local charity event, and they go to see because the event is free. (ding) They talk to you for a bit (ding), and they really enjoy the conversation. They see another post even later (ding), a month after that, that you will be playing another concert in their town. This time they pay the cover charge to see you, thank you for a great show and talk to you for a bit, before buying your CD and some merch. (CONVERSION!)
In this example, it took the customer nine interactions before they became a sale. This is just one possible situation, and if you are not aware of the customer journey, you may not be putting the proper value in the entire customer experience. Every interaction matters and will be part of the experience that customers associate with you.
How Big Companies Use the Customer Journey
Big Companies use a Customer Journey Map in order to help track as many stages of the customer experience as possible. Now obviously bigger companies have access to more research and more analtyics than most people, but you can do something similar yourself.
How to Track the Customer Journey
Create a list of all the customer touchpoints, any time a customer might come in contact with your creative business.
Examples might include: Social media, your website, word of mouth from friends, at an event
Then break each touchpoint down into the actions, motivations, questions, and obstacles that might be associated with each customer touchpoint.
Actions: What is the customer doing at this stage?
Motivation: What will encourage or discourage the potential customer from moving to the next stage? Why are they particpating in this action?
Questions: What questions might a customer have? Where might they get stuck in their customer journey? (An example for a musician might be if a potential customer does not know the next time you have a show in their city) How can you answer these questions for the customer?
Obstacles: What is preventing the customer from converting? Is it the price point? Does your item seem more like a luxury and less like a necessity? What is stopping them, and how can you convert them?
When customers tell you about how they became introduced to you, WRITE IT DOWN! Make notes to yourself about as many customer journeys as you can so that you can better predict future customer behavior.
Big companies spend alot of money on the customer journey, but you can do this on a lower level by just keeping it in the back of your mind, and making notes when customers tell you about their experiences. Understanding that your customer’s experience is a marathon rather than a sprint should put your mind at ease and keep everything into perspective. You are in it for the long haul, but so is your customer.