We are operating at a time when customers have tremendous power. Today’s consumer is equipped with more access, knowledge, choice, and voice over the brands with which they interact. In addition, they are more informed, connected, and influential over the many crucial touchpoints across the average buyer lifecycle. As a result, many companies have become focused on delivering frictionless customer experiences that leverage the latest technologies to drive “speed” or “simplicity.”
The risk? Delivering an unremarkable customer journey that lacks differentiation, personalization, or relevance in an attempt to streamline clicks and touchpoints.
A branded experience reminds customers why they prefer one brand over another. It also reinforces the promise that companies make to them. Each customer interaction is a really valuable opportunity to gain relevance, connection, and commitment. However, organizations miss opportunities to create truly signature moments across the customer experience when they don’t leverage those crucial touchpoints that can shift a customer’s perception, influence their decision-making process, or affect their loyalty to a particular brand.
Whether its product discovery, delivering personalized recommendations that address a specific need, or providing exceptional service, brands need to design and orchestrate deliberate interactions within the customer journey that are designed to be special and create an unforgettable impact.
Signature moments are those branded interactions that matter most. They’re ownable, repeatable, and memorable. They also aim to elicit specific, positive emotions that relate to a brand’s positioning, deepen the relationship with customers, and remind buyers why they’ve made the right choice. By focusing on getting these moments right every time, companies can significantly boost their customer engagement measures and drive positive business outcomes.
While simply recognizing the importance of signature moments is a good starting point, designing and optimizing these moments is really the next crucial step to boosting customer lifetime value: identifying signature moment opportunities.
Develop a Customer Journey Map
By mapping your customer journey from initial discovery all the way through post-purchase advocacy, you will be able to define what customers are doing at each stage, what they’re thinking at each stage, what their expectations may be, as well what primary assets they’re engaging with (web sites, social media, sales reps, etc.) throughout the customer journey. Along the way, you should be able to illuminate key touchpoints (human or digital) that profoundly impact the customer’s actions and decisions.
Gather Customer Insights with Real-Time Data
It’s crucial to leverage the power of data to detect customer patterns, trends, and gather insights related to signature moments and the factors that influence customer decisions, next best actions, and engagement. Being data-driven allows organizations to tailor strategies, adjust approaches, and align teams with agility.
Consider Customer Feedback
Leveraging research and customer feedback can provide critical perspective on what resonates with customers – or what’s missing. Organizations should analyze customer opinion surveys, online reviews, customer service cases, or social media channels to better understand customer frustrations, satisfaction, needs, and gaps around the moments that influence their overall experience with a brand.
Focus on Measurement and Optimization
Brands can’t improve what they don’t measure. Given the major changes in buyer behavior and shifting market dynamics, organizations need to adopt a comprehensive approach to value measurement and optimization. This includes focusing on buyer engagement, conversion, and satisfaction measures. This also includes measuring internal productivity and efficiencies related to managing overall customer lifetime value. These results are invaluable for refining your approach, introducing new processes, and improving the customer journey as a whole. It’s important to understand that yesterday’s approach may not meet today’s expectations and continuous improvement is essential for continuous differentiation and sustained success.
Integrate Your Customer Engagement Technology Stack
In order to deliver exceptional omnichannel experiences with signature moments powered by intelligence, organizations need to invest in a technology stack that spans the business and aligns key areas like marketing, sales, and customer service. This technology also needs to factor for data integration, platform integration, automation, cross-functional workflows, scalability, and security. This will help organizations avoid data silos, automate tasks, and streamline processes that enable consistent customer engagement and repeatable signature moments.
Mastering signature moments connects customers in ways that last beyond a single transaction. It’s fundamental for promoting positive engagement, eliciting desired responses, and driving perpetual demand across the customer lifecycle. When companies design a distinct customer journey, consider ongoing customer feedback, gather insights with real-time data, focus on measurement and optimization, and integrate their customer engagement technology stack they can more easily define those signature moments that attribute to conversion and brand loyalty. When organizations focus on these activities the result is a competitive differentiation that drives brand preference, loyalty, and overall long-term growth.