Customer Pathway

What is your customer's pathway? Does your customer have a pathway? How do they find you? How do they get to your product? How do they purchase from you? How do they feel about you? What's their experience with you after they've purchased? Regardless of your product, your customer's pathway is generic but it is not linear or one-dimensional. Your customer looks at your product as well as looking at you. Does their pathway touch every piece of your business?

The customer wants to know more than your product. What's the quality of your business and what's the quality of you? Your customer wants to know if you're going to fulfill their request, what quality will the product be and what support is there if the product doesn't meet their expectations or needs? People want to know if you will deliver, whether you'll deliver on time, and will the quality match the price. There are lots of options for other people or companies that do what you do and offer what you offer. People choose you, not just your product. The pathway applies to the product, the storefront, the answering system, etc.

The customer's pathway includes the following five steps:

1. First Contact- Them finding you and becoming aware of who you are, what your business is, and what you offer. This means you must be consistent from the beginning about who you are and the culture of your business. This is where you're training your customer about what to expect from you and what you're going to deliver. This can happen via social media, your website, or your blog.

2. Customer Investigation- This is where the customer has an interest and investigates using social media, reviews on websites where you sell, or videos about you. People are purchasing a relationship with you, not only your product or service. 

3. Purchase- This is where they've decided your product or service will deliver and be supported if they have any problems. They've begun to trust you and you must now keep up your end of the promise you made to them.

4. Delivery- Is there a consistency of message and integrity of what you offer them? Will it be shipped or does it need to be picked up? Have you done the work before they get to this step, to teach them, how they can expect to receive what they've paid for? Focus on keeping your promises, they've committed to you and now you must perform for them.

5. Follow-up Service/Customer Support- Can you and will you follow through? What's the process for them to return the product? What is their interaction with the return? If you make the promise consistent all the way through, you'll have a much better match between your customer and your product and your reputation will remain intact. Being consistent with your performance.

Evaluate all the assets in your business from the point of view of those 5 steps above and you will gain the trust of your customers and potential customers. You will only know after it's all done so you have to evaluate, after the process is complete.