Customers are constantly changing the way they make purchase decisions as well as when and how they contact their chosen suppliers. And this is not just a BtoC phenomenon but now also characterizes the behavior of BtoB buyers.
It presents an enormous challenge: how can you know which touchpoints your customers prefer for interacting with you? How do your customers come to a purchase decision, and do you know if your messaging even reaches them before they’ve made up their minds?
Applying the principles of the Customer IMPACT Agenda, savvy organizations can:
- Develop a clear picture of the most important touchpoints that customers use before, after and while they’re making a purchase decision
- Target interaction strategies to meet these customer needs
- Refocus resources on key interactions with customers and prospects
Idea in brief
Championed best practice:
Organizations experience more success with CRM programs and direct marketing when they embrace Customer Experience Management as an extension of their current customer centric programs.
Challenged by customer reality:
But customers have seized control over their decisions, utilizing more information sources. Social media in particular contributes to the trend that customers are increasingly making purchased decisions before traditional marketing techniques ever play a role.
An agenda for IMPACTing the customer:
We have developed an approach and framework for extending the concept of customer experience to include the entire decision-making process, making it possible to explore the various stages thereof – and the associated touchpoints – that may have previously gone unaddressed. Focused on differentiated customer needs and touchpoints, this structured understanding further presents five levels of sustainable engagement via those touchpoints, including social media. The resulting Customer IMPACT Agenda helps organizations to take a critical look at all the steps of their customers’ decision-making journeys in order to meet their needs at each stage.
