The Customer Journey: A Holistic Approach

JAN 2024

By Cassidy Coleman

Some people (read: too many people) think that customer retention is only about sending emails and SMS. 

News flash….

It’s not.

Each customer has a unique journey, and the only way to successfully nurture customer retention is to make sure that at every step of that journey, they’re met with thoughtful, timely, valuable content that supports their next move. Sure, much of this is delivered via emails and SMS. However, you need to think about the entire experience and how these touchpoints interact with each other and with a customer’s on-site experiences as well. 

Think about the experience of a prospective customer visiting your site. Better yet, turn on incognito browsing on desktop and mobile and give it a try for yourself as if you’re a brand new visitor. You’re likely your brand’s most frequent website visitor, which means that unless you start fresh, your day-to-day site experience might be different than it is for someone who’s new. Take the time to really explore your website and think about questions like: 

  • Is it easy for someone to find the right products for them? 

  • Do product pages have all the information someone who knows nothing about your product might need?

  • Are reviews clear and easy to access? 

  • Is there any friction in the checkout process? 

If the answer to any of these questions is creating potential for a negative customer experience, start there. You can send the most beautiful, engaging content in the world, but if it’s driving users to a website that creates a poor shopping experience, those clicks won’t translate into conversions. 

Once you’re satisfied that your website is delivering the best experience possible, it’s time to start thinking about the content that’s going to keep driving users back to it. 

Site Popups

On-site popups are an important source of list growth - but it’s equally important to recognize that you’re asking visitors to give you their personal information. Make this decision a no-brainer for them by showing value and a reason why they should give you their email address and phone number. 

Showing value can mean offering an introductory discount, but too many brands make the mistake of only showcasing a discount in this important space. This is also a key opportunity to show the quality of your products through beautiful imagery and to reassure potential subscribers that you’ll be respectful of their inbox and only deliver content that they really want to see.

Welcome Messages

Congrats, you’ve made it to the inbox! 

Time to deliver - use the first email touchpoint to welcome new subscribers to your brand and community, and tell them why you exist. Keep your language customer-centric; you want to focus on what you can do for your subscribers, not what they can do for you. 

Use subsequent messages in your welcome series to give subscribers a crash course on your products, your brand, and why they should care (in other words, what problems you can solve for them). 

If they signed up for SMS as well, deliver a brief (we can’t emphasize this enough) welcome to the program. Sign up for your own SMS list and see how many messages you get right off the bat. Sometimes if you’re sending a double opt-in, introductory discount, welcome message, and contact card all together, that can amount to the customer receiving 4+ messages as soon as they sign up, which can be off-putting and lead to a quick unsubscribe. 

Abandonment

The good news? People are shopping. The bad news? They’re not whipping out the credit card just yet. Now’s a perfect time to capture that on-site activity and follow up with some content tailored to each stage of the consideration process. 

For those that browse the site but don’t visit specific product pages, you can send an overview of your best sellers and categories that reiterates your key value proposition and encourages them to check out your products further. 

For those that browse specific product pages, you can send content tailored to that product or category to help make the decision even easier. 

Users that added products to their cart but haven’t started checkout yet need a reminder to come back to their cart, with some extra cross-sells in case they just haven’t found the right product for them yet. 

Those that start checkout but don’t finish are the most primed for purchase - and your abandoned checkout content should focus on reducing friction that might be preventing that final click to “Place Order”. Research shows that shoppers most often abandon their checkout because of sticker shock once they see the final price with taxes and shipping, or because they have reservations about the product and ease of returns if needed. Address these concerns with details about your return policy, customer service team, and even potentially a tailored discount to help nudge them over the finish line. 

Post-Purchase

Congrats, you’ve got an order! 

The first post-purchase message is not just an order confirmation, use this as a place to connect with your new customer, welcome them to the inside, and engage with them about why it matters. 

Post-purchase messaging is also a great place to educate customers about the product that’s on its way to them - talk to your customer service team and learn why products are most often returned, and use this space to get ahead of those issues and make sure the customer has a smooth experience once the product arrives. 

Make sure your post-purchase content is tailored for new versus repeat customers so it doesn’t feel repetitive every time they place an order.

Post-Purchase Transactional Emails

Transactional emails are an oft-overlooked moment in the customer journey. They have some of the highest open rates of any content you’ll ever send, but so many brands use default templates and don’t take advantage of the high engagement these touchpoints can receive. 

While it’s important to keep these emails focused on the order and not make them too promotional, they’re still a key part of your brand experience and you’ll want to make sure they reinforce your brand’s look, feel, and tone of voice for a purchase experience that’s beautiful and engaging from start to finish.

Subscriptions

There’s no better way to drive repeat purchases than with a subscription program that’s a delight for the customer and makes their life just a little bit easier. Make sure the language promoting your subscription program is tailored to your product and focused on how it increases convenience for the customer. 

For shoppers who buy the same product more than once, send content letting them know that subscriptions are an easy alternative so they don’t have to remember to keep placing orders. 

For existing subscription customers, make it easy to select one-time add-ons with a single click in an email or SMS so they can try new products alongside their old favorites (and drive up your AOV while they’re at it). 

Reviews

Nobody makes a better advocate for your products and your brand than a happy customer! Time your review requests to arrive shortly after the product has been delivered, once the customer has had a chance to use it a bit but while it’s still fresh on their mind.

For new customers, send the request a bit later and make sure your review requests include an easy way to contact customer support so that if someone’s experience has been less than perfect, they have an easy course of action other than writing a negative review. 

Send the most proactive review requests to repeat customers - they’ve proven they’re fans of the brand and product and are especially likely to leave great feedback.

Loyalty

A points or rewards program can be an amazing way to keep your loyal customers coming back to rack up rewards - and to give thanks to those that are most frequently purchasing from you! 

Give customers goals to hit in order to unlock new benefits, and deliver engaging reminders when they’re close to a new reward or have reward credit to use. This can also be a great way to get repeat customers to branch out into trying more of your product line. 

Sunset Flows

We all know that list hygiene is one of the most important aspects of running a successful retention program - make it even easier to make sure your content is hitting the most relevant inboxes by automatically sunsetting your least-engaged subscribers after a few opportunities to re-engage.

Focusing on your most engaged customers in your day-to-day content and sunsetting inactive users makes it easier to identify those customers that are likely to drive LTV, and ensures you’re less likely to hit old inboxes that increase bounce rates and may have even been converted into spam traps. 

Unsubscribes

It’s tempting to think of unsubscribes as a negative, but in reality it’s your subscribers doing your list hygiene for you! 

Make sure that it’s easy to unsubscribe to avoid your emails being marked as spam, and offer flexibility for those who are trying to maintain a cleaner inbox by adding a preference center where users can opt for less-frequent communications from you - often this can appeal to a user who might have unsubscribed otherwise. 

If you’re seeing high unsubscribes across the board or even on specific campaigns or automations, that’s a great indicator that it’s time to reconsider your mailing cadence and segmentation.

Sales & Promotions

Think of promotions as a reward for your loyal customers, and an easy entry point for new ones - but be sure not to overdo it! Keep a careful eye on your AOV and LTV to ensure you’re not discounting so frequently that customers won’t buy your products at full price. 

You can also use your onsite popups and other site messaging to build excitement around your email and SMS programs by offering early access to sales or new products exclusively for your subscribers. 

Need help strategizing your 2024 customer journey? Schedule a discovery call with us at hello@fluencyfirm.com!