4 Strategies to Simplify the Customer Journey

4 Strategies to Simplify the Customer Journey

The customer journey from beginning to end is an important component of your business. If your customer is confused about what value you provide with your goods and services, they are less likely to make that sought-after purchase. You need to simplify their experience with your business, but how do you go about doing that? 

If your company knows they need to simplify the customer experience, here are four key tips that will help you to do just that. 

What Is the Difference Between User Experience and Customer Experience? 

Before you can figure out how to simplify the customer journey, you need to be able to answer one important question: what is the difference between user experience and customer experience? While the two terms are often used interchangeably, they do have different meanings that should set them apart. 

User experience focuses primarily on the end-user of your product. In some cases, this is the same person who is the customer. However, that is not always the case. Customer experience details how a particular consumer experiences and interacts with your brand. Even if they aren’t the end-user, how do they feel about your products and services? 

How much does customer experience matter? Almost 75 percent of consumers say that they are more likely to buy based on experiences alone. To simplify the customer journey, we will be taking a closer look at the customer experience. 

Simplify

Customers are inundated with decisions they must make when interacting with a company. Simplifying your shopping experience and your company mission can make things easier for the customer. 

Reduce your business to its bare bones and let customers know what you can offer them. This will help you set priorities for your business and eliminate some of the overwhelming choices for the consumer. This is why companies such as Apple tend to limit the number of products they come out with.

Get Used to Complexity

Figuring out who your customer is and what they need from you is one of the most important strategies for doing business, but it does not come easily. While it may sound contradictory, you need to simplify your business for customers but get more comfortable with internal complexity. Finding out what customers want can be a challenge, and your business needs to rise to meet it. 

Your internal systems will likely be far more complicated than what your customers experience on their end. 

Don’t Lose Sight of Customer Experience

Many businesses lose sight of what is truly important to their bottom line: customer experience. They spend so much time focusing on building a better product or offering, but they don’t keep in mind the customer experience. You should be asking yourself a few key questions about how your customers interact with you. 

For example, here are some questions your company should consider: 

  • What can you do to make it easier for the customer to understand what you are offering them? 
  • How can you be more transparent about your pricing or business practices? 
  • How can you make the purchasing process easier? 

These are important questions that every business owner must answer if they want their customers to have the best experience possible. 

Simplicity May Not Be Everything

While it is crucial to make your business model simple for customers to follow, simplicity may not always be the key to success. If your customer is new to the industry, they may need more information before deciding on your company, goods, or services. Only offer services that provide value to the customer and fill a niche that you otherwise couldn’t. 

Embracing Simplicity

Coming to terms with simplicity in your company may take a bit of time. It might mean that you need to restructure how customers interact with your business. This is where a digital marketing agency can come alongside you and help simplify the customer journey. 

Joe Cantu

Joe is a digital marketing strategist and media buying/planning leader with 13+ years of expertise in marketing strategy and program management, omnichannel campaign delivery, brand building, data analytics, and customer experience/UX optimization. He has helped drive growth for industry-leading clients, including F500/F100 firms.