Six Little-Known Customer Journeys

I wanted to share something I’ve been working on around some of the transformative but little-known customer journeys we’ve been setting up for some of our Retail and eCommerce CRM clients.

How many are you using already? Answers in the comments please.

Welcome, Cross Sell, Retention, Lapsed. We all know these journeys well, and those of you in the field of CRM work hard to craft competitor beating initiatives that follow these well-worn steps.

However, the journeys that can make all the difference when it comes to loyalty and LTV lurk in the background of these tentpole journeys you know and love

1. Post-Purchase Anticipation Journey

After a purchase, I’m sure you are sending delivery notifications, and maybe even a “your parcel is on its way” if you are feeling generous, but relatively few organisations tap into the excitement period between purchase and delivery.

The solution – a progressive reveal journey – for example, day 1 of shipping you send tips for how to utilise your purchase, day 2 shares the story behind the product’s creation, day 3 offers complementary items. This transforms waiting time from anxiety into engagement and can lead to follow up purchases before the original product has even arrived.

2. Treat the Returns Journey as a subset of Acquisition

Instead of treating returns as a necessary evil that happens to every eCommerce & Retail brand (where many companies tend to go silent, hoping to avoid the wrath of an unsubscribe & competitor purchase), be bold; Try designing them as discovery opportunities.

When customers return items, immediately show them curated alternatives, based upon their return reason to bring them back to the table. If a product doesn’t fit for example, that’s a huge opportunity to show them other sizes, if the product no longer needed, ask yourself what they are going to need instead.

Highlight any “try before you commit” offers to tempt in hesitant customers. A well-designed Return Acquisition journey can convert up to 40% of the returns into additional purchases.

3. Seasonal Transition Moments

Are you targeting customers during predictable life transitions based on how their data evolves? Moving house is easily tracked when they change the address on your site, speaking as someone who moved house this year and had to change my address with dozens of eCommerce brands, I can count on one fist the number of retailers that took that opportunity to tempt me into making a related transaction.

Even more interesting lifestage changes such as new job starts can be inferred through connected purchases such as new smart attire or stationery, and seasonal wardrobe shifts are often an upsell purchase trigger. A well-timed fresh start campaign during these critical moments can capture customers when they’re naturally ready to spend.

4. The Abandoned Basket Recovery – But for Browsers 

Yeah yeah, we all do abandoned cart. But what about abandoned browsing sessions?

You can get great uplift on conversions through tracking logged in users who spend significant time on product pages without purchasing, by retargeting them using outbound channels with social proof from other customers who bought those exact items, including photos and reviews.

This assumes you have the MarTech setup to capture such things, and are actively feeding the data through into your Marketing Automation, but if you’re not, you might be missing out on a significant avenue of abandonment recovery.

5. Community Validation Loops

Staying on the customer advocacy track, have you considered customer advisory panels?

Through simple surveys of digitally engaged customers you can create & curate “customer advisory panels” to garner new product feedback, then by taking on board the feedback where applicable, you can confidently re-market those products to your wider base under tags such as “customer-requested” or “community-designed.” products, which will have a naturally conferred trusted status.

This builds investment in the brand success and as a bonus, creates natural brand ambassadors without having to give anything away, since people love being asked for their opinion.

6. Micro-Personalisation Through Packaging 

Use purchase data to include tiny personal touches in packaging – a “handwritten note” referencing a previous purchase, seasonal packaging that matches their location’s weather, or care instructions specific to their climate or likely use cases will go a long way to building a positive brand perception.

For anyone still reading, the lesson here is, the most dramatic results that will drive loyalty & LTV come from making customers feel uniquely understood rather than mass-marketed to.

Do get in touch with me directly if you’d like to talk about how Purple Square could help your CRM function implement these or the many others that can transform a B2C Retail or Commerce brand.