Crafting a B2B customer journey map highlights the interactions between one business with another from beginning to end.
Measuring these trends and details allows businesses to see what makes other businesses choose to work with them.
Think of it as an outline to better understand and improve upon current customer experience strategies in place.
What is a B2B Customer Journey Map?
A customer journey map in the B2B space is a visual representation of touchpoints and interactions between brands doing business.
Customer journey maps can be used in tandem with:
- Marketing strategies
- Customer experience and customer satisfaction surveys
- Related operations
This handy market research tool will gather pain points, helping to improve the customer experience outreach of a brand. As a result, businesses can make decisions based on accurate data.
Lastly, customer journey mapping allows businesses to look at how their company functions as a whole unit instead of a single aspect.
How Can a B2B Customer Journey Map Help?
Journey maps are great for evaluating current customer experience/outreach systems.
The main benefit is that these journey maps pick up on different points that are often missed with quantitative surveying.
As you know, customer journey maps help put an image to customer interactions. The visual component makes it easier for businesses to understand how their customers engage with products, services, and so on.
Lastly, a journey map will help businesses identify areas of improvement within their customer experience strategies. It will locate these areas so businesses know what they can do to work on current issues.
Tips for Creating a B2B Journey Map
Set Goals For Your Company and Journey Map
Based on the findings of the journey map, businesses can create a set of realistic goals to meet.
Say the map delivers insights on customer experience--and they're less than ideal. From there, the company would move forward on improving its customer experience measures.
Another great goal to set when journey mapping is optimizing the customer lifecycle. From acquisition to retention, brands can make specific goals based on this important aspect of the customer journey.
Customer journey maps also allow businesses to get a bigger picture of their goals. This wider viewpoint can help them determine and prioritize what needs to be focused on.
No matter how you spin it, journey mapping is a fantastic way to meet and continuously create goals for your team and customers.
Define Buyer Personas and Segments For Your Business
Buyer personas are fictional shoppers based on a brand's customer data. Basically, the "ideal," standard customer of a business.
Segments refer to a group of customers that share similar characteristics.
The more businesses understand who their customers are, the better their journey mapping strategy will be.
First off, both buyer personas and segments will allow businesses to create content relevant to their audience.
This is essential for keeping customers engaged and interacting with a brand. If a brand continuously puts out tailored content like this, they can expect high rates of customer loyalty.
Secondly, personas and segments can help businesses target the specific needs of their customers.
These tailored experiences at each touchpoint of the journey will ensure customers are catered to based on their needs.
Buyer personas and segments are also fantastic for targeted marketing strategies while crafting a customer journey map.
When it comes to marketing, brands need to be sure they're targeting the right audience--or it could cost them. Personas and segments ensure the right customers are seeing the right campaigns.
Lay Out Each B2B Customer Journey Stage
Below are the stages that should be considered when crafting a customer journey map:
Awareness
The awareness stage is when the customer first becomes acquainted with a brand - it's the stage where they discover how a product or service will help them. At this point in the customer journey, marketing strategies will be crafted to promote brand awareness.
Consideration
During this stage, customers are engaged who have expressed interest in a brand. It's here that customers will begin to research the brand's offerings in-depth.
Decision
After expressing interest, customers are encouraged to make a purchasing decision. This is often in the form of incentives, special offers, and so on.
Onboarding
The customer is guided through the decision stage to becoming an active customer. This includes the business offering any relevant materials and resources to the customer for a smooth transition.
Support
Assistance is given to customers to help them with any snags they may encounter. The support stage will include services like troubleshooting help, customer support channels, and so on.
Retention
Repeat purchases and visits are encouraged. This can look like the customer investing in upgrades, add-ons, or similar items. Customer loyalty programs also play a role in the retention stage.
Advocacy
Lastly, the goal here is to turn satisfied customers into brand advocates who will spread positive messaging about the business. This includes leaving good reviews, word-of-mouth marketing, and so on.
Collect Feedback with Customer Surveys
The best way to collect feedback during customer journey mapping?
Customer surveys! As we've covered, this tool is the best way to collect customer data that can be used in many ways to aid the customer journey mapping process.
In fact, customer satisfaction surveys are typically the first step to creating a journey map. By doing this, businesses can have direction on how they want to craft the journey, and how they can create the ideal buyer persona.
How to Analyze the Success of the Customer Journey
The best way to effectively measure and analyze the success of a customer journey is by using both quantitative and qualitative research tools. Typically, this includes several customer satisfaction metrics such as:
- Customer Effort Score (CES): Measuring the CES delivers insight into how easily users can navigate through their shopping journey. The lower the CES, the smoother the experience.
- Benchmarking: Benchmarking refers to comparing customer journey metrics to competitors. This allows businesses to assess how they can gain an edge over competitors.
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Tracking CLV refers to the total revenue a customer brings in throughout their time with a brand. Positive CLV results indicate a brand is effectively creating a customer loyalty experience.
These KPIs are essential in understanding the customer journey process and how brands can best reach their target audience.
Contact Our B2B Market Research Company
Ready to revolutionize your B2B strategy? Contact us now to conduct a customer survey and craft a tailored journey map that propels your business to new heights.
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Lark Allen
As a Content Marketing Specialist, Lark has a strong background and passion for creative, professional, and journalistic writing. She is also a self-proclaimed music freak and 90s enthusiast.
Learn more about Lark, here.
