Whether consciously or unconsciously, customers are always evaluating the experiences that they have with different brands. Everything they think and feel during the process of purchasing something from a certain business is called the buying experience. The buying experience is a subset of the customer experience, and it’s influenced by different elements through a period of time. These can range from different media channels to the customer’s own network.
There are three popular criteria that provide a good buying experience: the relevance of the product or service that’s marketed, how easy it is for them to get that product or service, and how in control they feel when they’re making the purchase.
There are several steps to creating a positive buying experience for the customers, which can drive consumer happiness and turn them into returning customers.
Pain Points
The first step, and the one that requires the most research, is recognizing the pain points of the customers. Learning about the target audience and listening to what they need is the best way to create a marketing strategy and products that they’re going to need. Assuming anything about the target audience is the worst thing a business can do in terms of marketing, and can make their entire buying experience worse in the long run.
Listening to the audience can be done by creating surveys that are aimed toward understanding the obstacles that consumers face during their search for a product that the business is offering, as well as what motivates them to buy certain products. Understanding the consumers can also be done through customer service conversations, as representatives in this department can best understand what the audience is looking for.
Customer Journey
After learning everything that’s available about the target audience, every business should learn where their buyers are. This is done through the customer journey. This is a bird’s eye view of all the steps a consumer takes, starting from the moment that they learn about a business or its products, to when they purchase the product, and following them beyond to turn them into a returning customer.
Based on the customer journey, the business can create a guide, also known as a journey map, where the marketing team can plan where, when, and how the business can reach the audience with its campaigns.
Guiding Customers
Potential leads can turn into paying customers through a customer journey, by leading them at every step of the way on that journey. The potential buyer should have a seamless road all the way from where they first become aware of the company and its products or services, to the consideration of what to buy, to finally making a purchase.
Simplifying this process and making it as easy as possible for the customer to make their purchase is the best way to create returning customers and an overall excellent buying experience for them.
