From the first contact to the final purchase decision, customers follow a path. This happens via various touchpoints such as websites, social media presences and offline channels. As a company, it is essential to understand this path and accompany it with targeted marketing measures. Which stages significantly influence the customer's decision, which points of contact are there and where do customers drop out again? Tracking this is the task of the customer journey social media.
What relevance does the customer journey have?
The customer journey is used for alignment and optimization in marketing and helps to understand the needs of the customer as fully as possible. The observations are not limited to the company's own website or social media presence, but are also extended to include behavior at all direct and indirect touchpoints. A touchpoint can be the company's website or an advertising banner, a tweet or a product photo on Instagram. Only by adding these is it possible to capture and evaluate the customer's decision journey almost completely.
Companies gain insight into which phase they should best address customers with which messages.
This approach should enable companies to trace and analyze the customer's brand experience along the customer journey. This makes it possible to address and support customers appropriately and to imbue their interactions with positive emotions. This leads to a reduction in customer churn.
In the customer journey, the entire purchase decision process of the customer is presented as a kind of journey. A need is created at the beginning and the final purchase decision and customer loyalty and support are at the end. For many potential customers, the customer journey now mainly takes place on social media, where the first points of contact with the brand or the company occur. It is important that the customer comes across this point of contact while searching for specific information about their request.
AIDA model: Four phases to the purchase decision
The customer journey takes a holistic approach to tracking the customer's path from the first point of contact (touchpoint) with a product, company or similar to the final purchase decision. This path is divided into individual phases based on the four-stage AIDA model. AIDA stands for:
- Attention
- Interest
- Desire
- Action
The first phase (Attention) of the customer journey describes the orientation of the customer, with the first points of contact often being in the area of social media in the form of ads (ads). However, this phase can just as easily be initiated by videos, images and texts (advice texts in blogs, forums and social networks) and thus set the research in motion. The transition to the specification phase (Interest) is fluid. Images on Pinterest or Instagram open up the range of alternatives on offer to customers as they search for a specific type of product.
This is followed by the provider selection phase. The customer now searches for more detailed information in order to decide on a specific product on this basis. In this phase, well-researched content is required, whether in the form of videos or guide texts, to dispel any remaining doubts. High-quality content is all the more important as the customer carries out comparisons at this stage. At this point at the latest, good ratings and reviews of your own products on social media pay off.
In the last phase (Action), contact is made with the provider. The conversion from user to customer usually takes place on the company website or in the online store by registering and completing a purchase. However, shopping offers on social media mean that purchases can now also be initiated directly on social media.
Sales funnel and customer decision journey
The sales funnel model is often used to play out the phases of the customer journey. This funnel illustrates how the number of interested parties decreases with each phase. This means that fewer customers actually make a purchase than there were initially interested parties. The representation or analysis of the customer journey using the sales funnel ends with the conclusion of the purchase.
The Customer Decision Journey developed by management consultants McKinsey goes a little further. Here, too, the customer initially weighs up different brands to decide which one might be right for them. They initially limit themselves to the brands they know. Then their own preferences are taken into account in order to make a pre-selection. They determine which of the products on offer is the most likely solution and then make the purchase in the next phase. At this point, the user becomes a customer. The experience gained with the product is incorporated into future purchasing decisions.
Moment of Truth
One of the best-known models today comes from the company Procter&Gamble and is called Moments of Truth. This model divides the purchase decision process into three phases: Stimulus, First Moment of Truth and Second Moment of Truth. The customer becomes aware of a product through the stimulus. This can be an advertising banner, a blog post or social media content such as a picture on Instagram, a tweet or reviews on YouTube.
If the customer decides in favor of a brand or product based on the stimulus, this is referred to as the first moment of truth. The second moment of truth is not long in coming: the customer consumes the product and makes their own experiences with it.
In the literature, the individual terms are now interpreted differently. According to Alan George Lafley from Procter&Gamble, the First Moment of Truth is the moment in which the customer first perceives the product. The Second Moment of Truth is the moment in which the customer checks the quality promise of a product after purchase.
In addition, a third moment of truth has also been established, which is particularly relevant in the field of social media. This refers to the moment at which the customer makes a judgement about a product or brand, i.e. expresses a positive or negative opinion about it. In practice, this happens, for example, via comments under certain entries, images of the product, video reviews or tweets. This content can in turn become touchpoints within the customer journey of other customers.
Ultimate Moment of Truth and Zero Moment of Truth
Experience has shown that statements from customers can achieve a very high reach. This is of great importance for online marketing, especially in the area of social media monitoring. Whether as a review or rating in e-commerce, as a comment under company posts or entries in forums. The third moment of truth plays a key role in the implementation of campaigns as part of the customer journey through social media.
In this context, the Ultimate Moment of Truth should also be mentioned. This refers to the moment in which consumers share their experiences with other users on social media without necessarily including the company's presence. It should be noted that one user's Ultimate Moment of Truth can lead to another user's Zero Moment of Truth and thus start their customer journey.
It is important that you comprehensively monitor these activities on social media in order to both spread positive feedback through sharing and respond to criticism in a timely manner in order to invalidate or limit it.
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