Customer Journeys (Lecture 4)

Written by: Jonathan Briggs

October 17, 2006 [2583 views]

Contents

1. What are the journeys taken by visitors towards a goal?
2. How do we design customer journeys?
3. How do we monitor their effectiveness?

Need → Search → Landing Page → Call to action → Shopping Process → Sales Goal

Typical visitor/customer needs

1. Contact information
2. Product information
3. Comparing prices
4. Comparing availability
5. Location information
6. Researching a project
7. Looking for an image or technical spec
8. Complaining or technical problem
9. Finding an expert
10. Latest news or statistics

Starting points

1. URL
2. Search result (organic)
3. Directory listing
4. Link on review
5. Affiliate
6. Pay-per-click ad on search engine
7. Banner or picture ad
8. Shopping comparison engine
9. Email link
10. Link in RSS feed

Which of these starting points demonstrate the best matches between need and result?

Landing pages

1. Alternatives to the “home page”
2. Need to be an effective starting point for exploration
3. Highly relevant search results
4. Destination for advertising
5. Destination for email offer
6. Product or category pages
7. Can be optimised to meet specific needs (and search keywords)
8. Information landing pages “guides/how-tos” attract links
9. Need clear calls to action and visitor reassurance
10. Need to set up tracking to ensure that effectiveness can be measured

Key design features

1. Show me that I am in the right place
2. Show me the information that I am looking for
3. Show me how to take action
4. Show me alternatives and next steps
5. Reassure me about my worries

Customer worries

1. It is not secure
2. It is not the best price
3. It will not be delivered on time
4. I don’t know who I am dealing with
5. Who can I talk to if things go wrong?
6. What happens if I want to return it?
7. Is this really the best product for my needs?
8. Have other people chosen this product?
9. What did they think about it?
10. Will the process of buying be complicated?
11. Can I see this product?
12. Is this a reputable company?
13. What will they do with my information?
14. Is this company still in business?
15. Why are they asking me that?

Dealing with their worries

1. Strong brand
2. Basic company and contact information
3. Good prices
4. Clear delivery and returns information
5. Clear feedback option
6. Telephone number alternative
7. Customer reviews
8. Evidence of customer service
9. Decision support assistance
10. Security and privacy policies
11. Clear product images
12. No faults
13. Sense that the site has been recently updated
14. Detailed product information
15. Don’t ask them questions they don’t expect

Things to look out for

1. Monitor customer journeys using web server logs and analytics
2. Be clear about site objectives
3. Expressions of need in internal and inbound search and advertising
4. Entry points
5. Exit points – cart abandonment
6. Poor progress through shopping process
7. Repeat business
8. Feedback
9. Favourable and unfavourable comments online
10. Inbound links and reviews
11. Test alternative wordings, calls to action and promotions
12. Test sites as they are developed with typical customers

Recent comments:

What do you think?

Add your comments