In the pre-purchase decision process, the average consumer uses three to five different channels. According to Google's research, more than 75% of adults begin a task on one device and complete it on another.

The customer journey is no longer a straight line from Point A to Point B. Online shopping is now inducing online purchasing behaviour. So you can do your research on the Internet and then buy it offline, or vice versa.

Customers are now searching for the product online while in the store to see what other customers think of it or if they can find better deals online. This situation is actually clear in the narrative, but it is still somewhat hazy to make a brand-based decision. Because he may not have mastered the skills required to analyse and detect it. In other words, the fact that a brand has a web page and an application, uses a chatbot, and so on indicates that the brand is multi-channel, but it does not indicate that it provides a multi-channel experience.

Building a single customer view (SCV) is the most critical core capability as retailers manoeuvre to compete and survive in today's digital environment, emerging from channel- and function-focused silos. This entails having a complete picture of the customer. Retailers can use this to provide personalised service, increase conversion rates, and increase brand loyalty. Brands are more vulnerable without these, and as long as this continues, the loss of brands that are unable to meet customer expectations will increase in all areas. All of these channels are becoming more integrated, and users expect to have the same positive experience regardless of which channel they use.

A seamless customer experience is...

All channels must work in harmony and complement each other to provide a seamless customer experience.

A seamless customer experience aligns value, information, and quality across all channels to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Trends…

You may have noticed that all of these examples mentioned have one thing in common: they all work towards one goal, which is to make the customer experience more positive.

It's really interesting to see how shopping is really changing and taking on new forms, with new trends emerging as a result of omnichannel customers.

Strategy development…

Putting today's businesses at the centre of everything they do is critical not only to the success of their marketing strategy, but also to the overall success of their company.

At the end of the day, customers are the driving force behind any business.

As a result, while this post falls under the purview of marketing, customer experience should be prioritised and relevant to all key departments within an organisation.

This strategy will include the steps and sections listed below.

Get to know your customer as the initial stage in your plan.

This was the most crucial department to me in this entire topic.

That would definitely be it.

The consumer should always be the primary emphasis.

So, basically, everything will be set up based on the customer's preferences, dislikes, behaviours, specific patterns, traits, and so on.

The consumer should always be at the forefront and centre of the entire organization's thinking.

And, in the end, it's all for your company's success, because the more information you have about your customers, the more concentrated and effective your marketing efforts will be.

As a result, you will be able to attract the most valuable potential customers, visitors, and consumers to your organisation, which is especially important today that omnichannel customers are prevalent.

It has never been more vital for brands to really grasp their customers' complex behaviour.

This section is about delving deeper to properly grasp the fundamentals of your clients, which will define your strategy and decipher the critical strategies required to move forward.

When I say "know your customer," I don't just mean demographics like age, gender, or employment position.

I'm talking about fundamental issues like what motivates them.

What makes them want what they want?

What are they so upset about?

What is their way of life like?

What irritates them?

What would make them happy?

What's going wrong with their agreement?

The following are some of the techniques you'll learn in this area.

The most fundamental method of getting to know your consumer is to ask them personally. This method is really straightforward and easy, but it should not be disregarded.

We'll then look at customer analytics and how you may utilise technologies that analyse user activity to comprehend your clients' online activities.

The usefulness of qualitative research in obtaining deeper consumer insights will be discussed next.

The fourth way teaches you how to create a strong buyer personality for your key clientele.

Not least, you'll learn how to use a crucial tool called customer journey mapping, which offers you a full 360-degree picture, and combine all the lessons and activities in this part into one comprehensive map.

The first way to learn more about your customer is to ask them what would change their preferences, what brought them to you and what would change in your business. What did they not like about the job you did? What keeps them coming back?

Customer satisfaction surveys, which are surveys and questionnaires that customers can fill out on their own, are a great way to find out what they think about your business.

Do you think it's a good idea?

What did you think about the product?

They know what the age group does, so you can find out what they do.

You can fill out these surveys online or in person. Like Survey Monkey and Survey Planet, it should be easier to use.

When we make surveys, we don't let our biases get in the way. We know our business best, and there may be things we're 100% sure are going right. However, in surveys, we have to ask questions about these things we're sure of.

These include asking questions that are not biassed and making sure that your answer choices don't lead to a specific answer or a positive answer. We take away the name and logo of the company and just focus on the survey.

Another great way to make sure your survey isn't biassed is to get an outsider's opinion on it. Show the survey to someone you trust who works outside of your organisation and knows about your business, and ask them what they think.

When reading your customers' answers, it's also important to get rid of any bias you might have.

So, try to stay away from fancy or technical industry terms that the customer might not understand. Try to keep it as clear and simple as you can.

You can't do everything in one survey, so each question on your survey should have a clear goal and an action you can take later.

For instance, you might do a private survey to try to find a better way to get paid. So, the point of all questions should be to find out what is wrong with the way payments are made now.

Now, not only does this help you learn more about your customer and get a better idea of them, but it also helps build a relationship with them because it involves a personal touch and personal communication.

The third way to find out how your customers feel about your business is to ask your front-line employees.

Find out what questions and problems the sales team hears over and over again. Train your staff to ask specific questions to find out more. When you talk to your customers face-to-face, tell your staff to ask these questions and start these conversations.

So, based on what your customers say, you should always update, improve, and change your services and the way you do business as needed.

With the help of tools like Google Analytics, you can get a better idea of how your website really looks from the customer's point of view. By studying this, you can learn a lot about how your customers use your website.

Like the amount of time they spend on each page, the bounce rate, what they click on, and what they are interested in.

How long do your visitors stay on your site?

What pages do they look at most often?

What do they click on the most, and what content don't they care about?

When you use these tools to track your customers' behaviour, you should be able to figure out what they don't understand about your business, what they like and don't like, and what they're not interested in.

For example, if a page has a very high "bounce rate," you need to find out why people are leaving that page.

So, if people are having trouble getting to a certain page, make it easier for them to get there. This will make their online experience easier. Also, if you think that a lot of your customers spend a lot of time on a certain page, you should really find out what they like about that page, look at the content of those pages, and see what draws people to them. what gets their attention, and why.

Find out what you're doing right, do more of it, and use it somewhere else.

Now, we've talked a little bit about research in other ways, but when we talk about making customer satisfaction surveys and even tools that track how users act, we're talking about ways to collect research. because qualitative research is a great way to learn more about your customers, such as what makes them act and make decisions the way they do.

Now, before we talk about qualitative research and how you can use it to learn more about your customers, let's talk about what quantitative research is so you can see how it differs from qualitative research.

In fact, we've already talked about quantitative research when we talked about customer satisfaction surveys and customer analytics.

Basically, quantitative research is done by collecting numbers, which can then be turned into usable statistics and used to measure the problem.

So, quantitative research can tell you important things, like that 75% of your customers are on social media or that 60% of your customers don't know about your current promotion.

Qualitative research gathers information that isn't based on numbers and is very exploratory. It's a great way to learn more about the customer's feelings, attitudes, goals, challenges, etc., which, as we've already said, is hard to learn from quantitative research alone. When qualitative research methods are used, it is very easy to find out about these things.

Focus groups, one-on-one, in-depth interviews, and observational research are all popular ways to gather qualitative data. In qualitative research, the sample size is usually much smaller, and people are chosen to meet a certain number of requirements.

So the people in the example are meant to stand in for your customers.

There will be fewer people, but the answers and findings you get will be much deeper and more insightful.

So, figure out where online your target audience hangs out.

Go there and start watching how they act.

Read and pay attention to what they say and what they write. Say, for example, that you run a business that makes baby food.

You can find a section of Reddit that is all about baby food, and thousands of people share their feelings and thoughts about it.

This means that when it comes to the baby food market and the baby food products out there, you put your customers' real opinions, frustrations, and experiences first. You can use all of this information to your advantage to really understand what your customers want and make changes to your strategy to meet those needs. The first paid method is focus groups. In focus groups, you choose a small group of people who are like your customers to represent your whole customer base or target audience. You then get them all in one room and lead a conversation. Them. The second method is one-on-one, in-depth interviews, also called "ideas" for short. These are a way to collect qualitative data in which participants talk to each other one-on-one to get more thoughtful answers. It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours and can be done in person or over the phone. With this research method, you can talk to specific and hard-to-reach groups of people.

When you combine quantitative and qualitative data findings, you often get the best, most reliable, and most insightful results.

Now that you've completed all of your research and have all of the necessary insights and data about your clients, it's time to create your buyer persona. A buyer person, by definition, is a semi-fictional figure who symbolises your average or ideal consumer. A persona might also reflect your current consumers. Customers you wish to attract but haven't contacted or targeted yet might be represented by those who make up the great bulk of your client base or a personality. Buyer personas are essential because they help you target your marketing and sales efforts and educate you how to reach your target clients. As a result, people serve as guides in a variety of ways.

The first stage in creating your buyer persona is to sketch up an overall picture of your consumer. This outline will be a brief overview of who you believe your average or ideal customer is. Oh, my primary clientele consists of ladies.

They are in their forties.

They lead a busy life.

As I already stated, this will be pretty generic.

The second stage in creating your buyer persona is to do research with your colleagues and on your consumers. Even if you think you know who your consumer is, this is where you'll delve into all the important aspects about them. If you have a basic notion of who your average client is, research can help you fill in the gaps and obtain more insightful, accurate, and helpful information about your consumers and their characteristics. Investigative clients can utilise customer analytics, perform customer surveys, or sit down with your consumers to acquire insights through focus groups or in-depth interviews, using any of the tools we've discussed in earlier lectures.

The next stage in developing your buyer persona is to identify the group of clients for whom you want to establish a persona.

After you've finished your research, decide which group or groups of clients you want to construct a buyer persona for. Research should have told you which consumer segments are most significant or make up the majority of your business. It's critical to note that you might have many buyer personas.

In other circumstances, a company will have a single set of clients that are really essential and account for the majority of their revenue, and this is who they are primarily targeting.

In other circumstances, a company will have many large groups of clients.

Different interests, behaviour patterns, and priorities ensure that the ensuing receptive personalities will look radically different from one another.

Typically, the features that emerge from your study fall into two categories: demographics and psychographics.

Your quantitative research yields demographic information such as age, gender, and income; your qualitative research yields psychographic information such as attitudes, objectives, beliefs, and so on.

And, as I mentioned at the start of the post , a buyer persona serves as a guide that instructs you on how to best satisfy the demands of your specific client groups, how to connect with them, and how to please them.

Buyers vary with time, and the market is continuously developing, therefore your buyers must as well. As a result, the individuals you develop today may no longer reflect your clients in three or five years.

Thank your for your time, see you at the next post!