Customer journeys are complex things. As marketers, we dedicate a lot of energy trying to track and influence our customers interactions with our business. We gently guide them towards touchpoints and actions that will deliver on commercial objectives. We’ll draw out pretty and sleek diagrams and tables detailing the interactions at each stage of the funnel. We do this knowing full well that these are idealised versions of what’s going on. No journey is so linear or neat, that there are influences and touchpoints (especially those offline) that we cannot track. We know that the journeys we shape and track are more complex, and that’s OK.
What’s not OK is creating journeys around what you think the customers should be doing. You need to consider and analyse what they need to be doing or are ready to do. This is especially relevant in prop-tech. A lot of prop-tech customers are in some stage of moving. After death of a loved one and divorce, this is the most stressful life event. So being aware of that isn’t only good business sense, it’s also something of a moral requirement.
What does this mean from a practical point of view? Well, the reason moving is so damn stressful is because there’s a whole load of emotion wrapped up in our homes. There’s a host of logistical and administrative checklists. There is also the physical pain in the arse of shifting your belongings from one place to the next. It has a high financial impact and there’s a lot that can go wrong, resulting in a heap of worry. And in the midst of all this, you, dear prop-tech vendor, want to sell these people something, or at the very least have them use your service or tech? You must be mad.
Maybe not. Not if you’re offering something that can make their life easier, but you’ve got to get through all the beforementioned noise and then, for the love of God, make sure you are actually making their life easier, not harder. Part of that is really making the effort to understand their needs, resources, and timelines. Too many companies have a “get them to the site and get them to buy” attitude. Sure, they’ll have FAQs, a chat bot perhaps and maybe something akin to comms nurturing (often just a “Hey you’ve haven’t bought from us yet”), but a person’s awareness of their need for your product and the time they have to purchase are often months apart in the prop-tech space. Understanding their pain points, their stressors, is key. They’re worried and financially stretched. The companies that will win in these circumstances are those that design their journey’s not just being aware of this but being centred around it completely.
As mentioned, this isn’t just about being nice to your fellow humans, it’s about creating experiences that mean your visitors are more likely to become customers and your customers become loyal advocates. The first step is to speak to them.
The number of businesses we encounter who rely solely on their first party data to make decisions. Web data, CRM data, transaction data is all useful, but actually speaking to your customers is critical. Now that’s not to say its without its flaws. Humans are notoriously unreliable, especially when it comes to predicting their own actions. But what they are is emotional. And emotion drives commercial decisions. Yes, there are other motivations, but all of them are linked to trying to put ourselves into a physically and emotionally pleasing state. Even the most logical of purchase motivations answer a deeper, more basic need. Going for the cost saving device is a very logical purchase, but the satisfaction and saved money (which can be used elsewhere to scratch even more psychological itches) are highly emotional.
As previously discussed B2C prop-tech customers are in quite an emotional state. Home related activities tick off pretty much every level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
So, if you are in the prop-tech space, that means you can be doing everything from helping someone answer the most basic physiological and safety needs; a home keeps us warm and safe and provides a place of rest, to helping them feel they are achieving their full potential with the pride and satisfaction of home ownership.
Do you think your Google Analytics data will give you the depth of insight required to understand this?
That’s why you need to speak to them, evaluate your changes with them, be truly customer centric. Yes, you want them to use your product or service, but the more you support them, understand them and shape the experience around their requirements and emotions, the more likely they are to have positive sentiment on a conscious and unconscious level, and more likely to buy.
When you have a strong understanding of your customers needs and wants and how they relate to their journey, you can then overlay this to your first party data. What’s the buying cycle? What are the seasonal trends? How do journey habits differ per buyer persona?
Answer these then you can understand how they interact with you, when and for what reasons. This means you can design messaging and contact strategies that reduce stress and deliver information and guidance at the right time. Your journey will be in sync with the property journey your prospects and customers are going through.
