

To efficiently implement CRM (customer relationship management) one must first understand its history and its importance. Travel through time, and you will learn of a detailed background, its creators and evolution.
Where Thought Leaders go for Growth
With this era of digital transformation, it is important for businesses to invest in SaaS customer journey. It helps them stay updated and trendy for their customers needs. What used to be outbound marketing, has now been replaced by something much cheaper and a quicker version, called inbound marketing.
But of course, it is never enough. If further decision and new helpful tools can be used for conversions, to turn a lead into a customer or keep the customer loyal, then you have hit the nail on its head.
Hence, the appearance of SaaS, also known as software as a service, which gives you the opportunity to access certain service applications through the internet, without being bound by using the same computer. And it is followed with the beginning of customer journey. If these words seems unclear or even just unrecognizable, do not worry as it is thoroughly explained in the article. So, what is SaaS customer journey?
Customers are the shot callers, and a business can no longer only depend on a Marketing team to determine the next steps. Because they can’t speak for your whole customer base, and they are usually more focused on the creative part of promoting the product rather than truly answer to the customers’ needs.
And of course with the growth of technology and the multi channels that now exist, it proves hard to follow every single customer. This is why customer journey mapping process was born.
The customer journey map represents all the actions and interactions the customer has with your company, through different stages, from the reflection to the purchase, until the recommendation of the product or service.
It can be an in-store customer journey, a digital one, or even a combination of both (e.g. “ROPO”, Research Online purchase Offline).
The journey is a broader notion than the "Path to Purchase" because it takes into account the “pre-purchase” and “post-purchase” dimensions and focuses on the customer experience as a whole.
But with the development of the Internet and the uses linked to digital, the customer journey is richer but also more complex process to follow.
You have to be present online and offline, multiplying the points of contact, transforming the country road into a highway network, the classic customer journey into an omnichannel customer journey.
The main goal is always to create the marketing strategies for the best customer experience following the success of a good customer lifecycle. Truly understanding and mapping the customer’s journey & needs is key and if done right, could lead to extreme success.
Customer journey mapping is the action you take to map out a customer’s journey. It is no longer the definition, but the actions taken by the company to map a customer’s journey in order to understand the customer needs.
Firstly, a company should visualize the customer journey and make sense of all the information that has been collected. This method is that of SaaS customer journey mapping.
As previously mentioned, it focuses on key events and leads of your customer’s motivation, hesitation or even experience with your company’s product. It does not only involve relying on their digital footsteps, but also taking into account the customer’s emotions and needs.
However, this SaaS customer journey map is not a linear process, there are many stages. Which is why companies use multiple tools that can lead them to a clear picture of the stages of the customer’s journey.
Like with anything, it is important to have a direction of where you are headed, to be organized, otherwise you would end up turning around in circles.
Step back and think on what you want to achieve and the steps/ stages on your map. Determine the customer you want to attract and those you want to retain.
Do you want to create a whole new product, improve an existing product, or improve a customer’s experience by investing in their needs?
Once you have relatively got an idea, let us get to mapping and studying customers’ journey.
Awareness and information gathering: How the customer came to know of your brand and products. The different platforms such as a social post, word-of-mouth etc., they used to learn and get more acquainted with your brand.
Consideration: This where the customer considers whether to buy your product. It could be considered as the identification of need. It’s where they compare your product to others, i.e. your competitors, by researching what is on the market. And, to even get a better view of how your product works, some prefer to go in-store, if you have one.
Purchase: It is the stage where the customer finally purchases a or product(s) from your brand. The payment stage has been completed.
Retention: The stage where they are a recurring customer. Because customers are pleased with their purchase, they repetitively repurchase from your company. This is also called customer loyalty phase.
Advocacy: This where they organically become your brand’s advocate. Naturally, if a customer loves a brand and its product, they will refer it to their peers, friends and circle. This shows us the importance of customer satisfaction.
But first, what is it? It is a tool which gives you a visual representation of the interaction between the brand and the customer. It is the different stages, from the customer’s first introduction to the brand and product, to the possible first purchase and retention.
Furthermore, it is the close inspection of a customer’s journey and experience around your brand, product and figuring out the different stages of their interests, their need, the road blocks, and purchases.
Plainly, from the first touchpoint (interaction) of how they were informed about your brand and to why they bought such a product from your company’s brand.
Things to take into account for a journey mapping:
So why use a customer journey map? It’s simple because it gives you information of the customer that you would have naturally or intentionally neglected. With a growing business, it is important to keep in contact with your customer, especially with so many competitors and different options at their disposal. You should know where they come from, and predict their next move. There are many touchpoints, which are the ones used? Why and at what point did he or she abandon his decision to buy?
The customer journey and customer mapping with its analysis, its modeling and its adaptation over time and technological evolutions, leads to customer experience improvement.
And what is better is if you combine your inbound marketing strategy with intelligent software, you'll also be able to address each of your customers needs. Thanks to those intelligent software and their real time, up to par analysis and functionalities, you will get to personalize and automate your marketing actions for a better customer experience.
So, what methods and tools have you chosen to know and retain your customers?