Redesigning Users' Entire Digital Journeys
Forget about defining personas rotely and applying segmentation strategies from decades ago, which focus on the assumption that all the customers in the same segment follow the same linear path from awareness to purchase. Customer journeys are different depending on many factors and “digital customer journey” is now reshaping all the industries along the way. Unlike the traditional practices where redesigning the customer journey was on the back burner; now it is a profession, a full-time job. So where do you to start to redesign the entire customer journey?
Forget about defining personas rotely and applying segmentation strategies from decades ago, which focus on the assumption that all the customers in the same segment follow the same linear path from awareness to purchase. Customer journeys are different depending on many factors and “digital customer journey” is now reshaping all the industries along the way. Unlike the traditional practices where redesigning the customer journey was on the back burner; now it is a profession, a full-time job. It must be traceable, scalable and actionable. So where do you to start to redesign the entire customer journey?
1. Track your Customer Journey
The customer journey is the main map for understanding why your customers are taking actions, what motivates them, what their intents are, and it puts the customers in the centre of action dynamics. Tracking the customer journey requires the ability to look from multiple perspectives; and when we say multiple perspectives, we turn our heads to our good – and yet high-maintenance- friend big data.
When we talk about customer journey, we talk about the personalization of the customer experience. We all know that customers are likely to interact with a brand that recognizes them by their name, knows their behaviour, likes, purchase history, and recommends products based on their past purchases. But since you cannot go around and ask every user what they want because they usually don’t know it, and well, people also tend to lie; you need to track your customers’ digital journeys through big data analysis.
With the help of data mining techniques and big data analytics capabilities – don’t worry, we are not going to go into particulars and bore you, but just enough to make you look cool in small talks- such as Deep Learning* and real-time data analysis; you can track your customer journey, collect customers` patterns, behaviours and feedbacks from various sources in order to design the right strategy.
*Deep learning is as an Artificial Intelligence technique and branch of Machine Learning, seeking to imitate the neural activity of human brain onto artificial neural networks and are able to learn to determine characteristics of digital data.- WOW!
2.Extract Actionable Insights from Customer Data
After you determine your customers’ behaviour through the means of big data and machine learning;
- You can offer customers products/services that even they are not aware that they need;
- Or vice versa, you will see a product/ a service/ a feature in your app that you haven’t highlighted before, but apparently is very valuable to your customers.
So take advantage of big data analytics to unlock new insights and to redesign your customers’ journeys accordingly, as well as proactively offering services/products to them when they need you- or even when they are not aware they need you.
3.Remagine and Redesign your Customer Experience
As a brand, your job is not only to offer a product or a service. In this customer-oriented world, you need to provide also the most effective UX (User Experience) /UI (User Interface); also providing the best experience when they interact with your brand. That is what made Steve Jobs shine among others. He didn’t sell a product. He found a way to sell the experience, a lifestyle. And people weren’t even aware that they wanted that experience until it was presented to them. And with all the competition within the industries; what you offer will not be enough reason why customers prefer you, but how you offer can be.
You should understand how customer expectations have evolved with the digital transformation. They expect their relationships with brands to be personalised, accessible, and easy to use, therefore they require a new approach to their customer experience. When you are providing a digital experience, you should consolidate all parts of the experience: Your mobile app strategy, your UI design, the way you collect and utilize your data and even your employers’ interactions with customers must be conducted with the same goal in mind.
Don’t be afraid to experiment on creating better user experiences by evolving your design, approach and research methodologies. User experience is an important part of a holistic customer experience. Therefore it is important to create an effective UX strategy, create new user experiences and experiment and iterate as you build new products.
Original Article