What people really desire are not products but satisfying experiences.

October is customer experience month. Customer experience is a multidimensional construct focusing on a customer’s cognitive, emotional, behavioral, sensorial, and social responses to a firm’s offerings during the customer’s entire purchase journey.

Happy customer, thriving business

There is a shift in ease of implementing customer experience due to the current technological advancements. It is, however, important to note that no era of technology erases the basic principles of customer experience. We conceptualize customer experience as a customer’s “journey” with a firm over time during the purchase cycle across multiple touch points. This customer journey has stages

These principles are driven by these stages of customer experience.

Stage 1. Awareness

What’s important to know is that at this stage the customer is not ready to make a decision. Rather, they are becoming familiar with what is available. Your goal here is simply to communicate what you have to offer. To be discovered during this early phase, online visibility is key. Things like online reviews, blog posts, social media posts and optimizing your website for SEO can all help you show up in search results.

Stage 2. Consideration

This stage is where the customer begins to more seriously evaluate their options as opposed to casually browsing. They will be more specific about the features they are looking for in a product or service and will also begin to compare companies or products. Your goal here is to convince your target customers that your product or service can resolve their problem (ideally in a way that your competitors can’t). It’s a really important stage, because it’s one where you’re most likely to have your prospect’s full attention

Stage 3. Decision

The stage we’ve all been waiting for! The customer has now done the bulk of their research and is ready to take the plunge. But don’t get too excited just yet! It’s still possible to lose your customer at this stage. As a business, your role here is to make the purchasing process as easy and convenient as possible. This applies not only from a user experience perspective but also in terms of what you can offer your customer. Things like free demos, trial periods and introductory discounts can be enough to clinch the decision.

Stage 4. Retention

Remember, the customer journey does not finish as soon as they’ve made their purchase. Research shows that a 5% increase in customer retention can produce more than a 25% increase in profit. That’s why it’s essential to keep the contact going at this stage of the customer journey. But how?

To never lose a customer again, you must meet your customers (whoever they are) where they are in their emotional journey.

Stage 5. Advocacy

This is the stage where happy customers turn into brand advocates! They let others know about their experience by leaving online reviews and generate more business through word of mouth marketing. The core concept at the advocacy stage is creating a community around your brand and making your customers feel appreciated. Of course, not every customer will reach this stage, but those that do are invaluable to your brand. The advocacy stage should always include proactive ways of managing customer feedback. This means not just collecting customer feedback but also responding to it in a personal and timely way. In other words, show your customers that their opinions really matter! Incentives are also key here. Personalised rewards, offers and referral programs are all great ways to encourage customers to spread the word.

I will give a real life scenario

Your friend has a birthday so you’re looking for an eatery in Kampala to have casual birthday dinner.

Awareness

You begin by doing a basic online search for ‘Restaurants in Kampala’. You click on a few different links and become aware of some restaurant options. While searching, you also read a few articles on some of the best things to expect in that restaurant and the best neighbourhoods to check in.

Consideration

Following on from your initial search, you decide that you want want to have your simple Dinner at Café Javas. Ideally, they would like to have this dinner somewhere with a more casual approach yet professional. No wild expectations because you have noticed that there is no hotel bar. You begin to narrow down your options, comparing amenities, prices and reviews.

Decision

You find two restaurants that fit your needs. The prices are almost exactly the same, so you take a closer look at the reviews for each. Mama Joan’s restuarant has good reviews, but the latest is from several months ago and so you’re not sure how relevant it is. Café Javas, on the other hand, consistently gets good reviews, with one left as recently as last week. Because of this, the you make the decision to book Café Javas.

Retention

You have a great dinner with your friend at Café Javas. You can check in easily online, make requests to the front desk straight from their device, and the service and amenities exceed their expectations. Café Javas suprrise your friend with a birthday song just because in your booking you mentioned having a birthday dinner with a friend. You are offered a 5% discount on your next dinner and feel happy about booking again for your next dinner even when you do not know when.

Advocacy

When you get home you receive an invitation from Café Javas to leave an online review, which you do gladly. Back at work the following week, your colleagues ask them about their trip and they tell them all about Café Javas and how excellent it was. One particular colleague was thinking about planning to have a good lunch, you shared with them a link to the Café Javs website where she later make a booking.