Breaking down complexity and analyzing customer experience at all relevant touchpoints

Philipp Fischer: The customer journey can be divided into five phases. The awareness phase in which a customer is faced with a problem and is considering an appropriate solution (product or service). Then comes the information gathering phase, involving research, e.g., online or from friends and acquaintances.

The product or service is purchased in the subsequent purchase phase. Should this require additional setup, the customer can, if necessary, obtain support from the provider, e.g., through a service hotline or on-site support. In this usage phase, the customer also evaluates the performance of the products and services. This evaluation can be done using survey tools such as Qualtrics. In addition, this phase can also feature a particularly high level of involvement, which is valuable for the customer experience, the customer’s emotional perception when buying a product.

And it is exactly these experiences that are crucial for the retention phase. With a positive experience, the customer re-enters the information phase and/or makes recommendations to close friends and acquaintances. Negative experiences help the company to introduce appropriate improvements.

Philipp Fischer: We outline customer-specific customer journeys and then ask specific process-related questions for relevant strategic, professional, and technical initiatives. The focus is always on your customers’ needs. In practice, this can be a customer journey focusing on the initial online purchase through to changing the billing and delivery address in a customer account.