Having a good understanding of your client’s customer lifecycle is essential to making repeat customers and you guessed it – increasing sales and your brand loyalty.
Your client begins on their customer lifecycle the moment they get the idea that they need your good or service. The path is continued all the way through, until the purchase has been made.
There are many opportunities to create and land strategic messages that resonate with, help support and convert your clients in their different customer lifecycle stages. Note: A bad client experience can impact your brand and your sales cycles.
Why Client Lifecycle Management is Important
I’ve got an example: I had such a bad experience the other day… Have you ever taken your 6-year-old shopping? It’s rough so as a parent, you prepare. And that’s what I did. I scoured the internet until I found a place that had it all because, well he needed it all and I’m all about efficiency.
I went on Macy’s website and it was what you’d expect – useful. I found some pieces I thought could work and made sure they had sizes I needed at the location I was visiting. Then we went shopping in person shopping… and PLOT TWIST: Macy’s strong brand presence on their website that provided customer support did not get cascaded to their customer facing team members.
I paid $35 dollars to park, was never greeted, in fact – I didn’t see anybody at all until we finally found our department. That was an obstacle itself because the maps in the store were all outdated and some of the elevators were broken. Finally against all odds, we made it and couldn’t find any sizes we needed so we found close that were close enough to try on.
In this experience, Macy lost me in my customer lifecycle. In the dressing room I found all the items I could on Amazon and it was simple. After trying the clothes on, we eventually found our way to the register because when we tried asking an employee, we past, about sizing and all we got was, “I don’t work in that department,” from said employee. – This is why client lifecycle management is crucial. I don’t know for certain what the company’s goal is. However, I can guess that not providing any customer service for a customer who is literally asking for help is not a part of the goal.
Anyway, I then attempted ordering the pieces in different sizes and the employee said, “my computer doesn’t work like that.” I did what I could to suggest other options and it felt like I was selling the employee to sell to me.
While Macy made a sale, they missed many opportunities to create any positive touch point during my customer lifecycle. I purchased some of the pieces they had available and ordered the other things on different website.
Needless to say, I probably won’t be a repeat customer – the goal phase of the customer lifecycle – and I’m certainly not being a community advocate – because here I am, complaining via blog.
Missed or uncaptured opportunities in the customer lifecycle stages can affect your sales – Okay, we’ve got your attention? Be sure you understand your customers lifecycle. Implement client lifecycle management strategies so you can effectively create a positive customer experience which only further promotes your sales goals and brand image. Through community advocacy your brand’s awareness will also increase.
Client Lifecycle Management through Analysis
The reality is this same customer lifecycle and customer experience is shared in the B2B space across all industries.
At ZYNK30, our analysis collects over 500 data points through your client’s lifecycle so we can create a marketing strategy based on your business’ unique needs.
Your clients have expectations. We’ll help you identify and manage your customer through marketing communication techniques you can easily mitigate many unnecessary and unpleasant customer experiences.
We document your different potential customer interactions so we can understand all the opportunities to make resonating connections with your customers leading to a sale.
Here is a little warm-up exercise: Go through the customer lifecycle stages graph as your customer. Is your goal, brand message or support carried through to each of your customer facing team members who interact with your customers?
Work with ZYNK30 for a full Client Lifecycle Analysis here.