This post is the second in this series. Learn more about the buyer’s journey and what it entails in ‘The Buyer’s Journey: Awareness’. Learn how you can address your buyer’s concerns in ‘The Buyer’s Journey: Consideration’.
The final stage of the buyer’s journey is decision.
The first stage of the journey began as your potential client recognized a need or want. This stage is tied in closely to their ‘pain points’, or places in their lives where they are experiencing friction.
The second stage began as the possible purchaser contemplated solutions to resolve their issue. You, in return, offered your brand and it’s unique selling proposition as the answer.
Decision is all about making buying easy.
Return to your products and services. Review both the results and the user experience of making the purchase. In this stage of the buyer journey, you want to ensure the customer will be emotionally comfortable purchasing and that they’ll find the purchase convenient and simple.
To remove objections, set expectations for results. Help your customer walk into this purchase with their eyes open. Outline the process; remind them of typical results.
For an event, this may be sharing an agenda and speaker profiles. If your service is massage, you’ll want to talk about headaches and drinking water and just how naked they’ll be on your table.
Other examples include:
- Create a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ section, page or document to share.
- Outline your guarantee – will you give a credit or money back if it doesn’t work?
- Include images that visually explain your product and its benefits.
- Post reviews as social proof.
To make the process easy, explore the user experience. At the October 2019 SocialEast conference, a Facebook representative shared the average number of clicks to complete a purchase is a whopping 22. Yes, 22 mouse clicks to navigate one single purchase.
The Facebook representative also said that 60.9% of potential buyers abandoned their cart because the sites had errors or crashed, resulting in a mindblowing $213 BILLION in lost opportunities. And that 1 in 2 Canadian shoppers base their purchase on convenience over price.
As you review your purchase process, look at:
- How many clicks does it take to pay for a product?
- How easy is it to find your payment portal?
- How long does it take you to answer potential purchaser’s questions?
- Is your site and purchase process intuitive?
- How quickly does your site load?
- Are you piling on paperwork that a simple call could cover?
Help your customer decide if they’ll buy AGAIN.
Customer experience is a tagalong on this customer journey. It shows up in how well you know your customer, how aware you are of their symptoms, how your unique selling position affects consideration, and how the purchase process unfolds.
It doesn’t end when the credit card is processed, however. There are opportunities to surprise and delight your customer now that they’ve gotten on board with your brand. Whether that’s the quality of the product or service, after purchase care, or a sweet treat slipped in as a signal of appreciation.
You can also use this part of the process to seek feedback in the form of surveys, opportunities to leave reviews or by requesting a testimonial after use.
Again at the SocialEast conference, both Facebook and LinkedIn said that loyalty neither guarantees nor drives growth. Their data has shown that, instead, growth drives loyalty.
Travelling the buyer’s journey isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it exercise.
Review and revise your concept of the buyer’s journey regularly. If there’s a change in the market, review. If you add another product or service to your portfolio, review. If you’re uncertain what content to share in your next article, social media post or podcast, review.
Wouldn’t it be handy to have this Buyer’s Journey exercise all in one downloadable document? We think so, too! Subscribe to the Prairie Telegraph to get your complimentary copy!