Five Steps To Improving Sales And Brand Loyalty In An Omnichannel Environment

1. CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPPING
FIVE STEPS TO IMPROVING SALES AND BRAND
LOYALTY IN AN OMNICHANNEL ENVIRONMENT
Lenati LLC. 1. 800. 848. 1449 1300 Dexter Ave N #100, Seattle, WA, 98109 lenati.com

2. TACKLING COMPLEXITY
In a world where channel options, shifting media
habits, product and service information, product skus,
social media influence and search tools are all
proliferating at a staggering rate - understanding your
customer has become more important than ever.

3. How do your
customers find what
they are looking for?
How do different customers
choose between “their” brand
and competitors’ products?
Which information channels do
your customers trust most?
How do your customers share
their experiences with others?
How do product and service
interactions affect a customer’s
loyalty to your brand in the long term?

4. OLD MODELS LEAD TO BAD CONCLUSIONS
Most marketers now recognize that customers rarely
progress linearly through the stages of a “marketing funnel.”

5. THE PATH TO PURCHASE IS SELDOM A STRAIGHT LINE
In a true omnichannel environment, the linear path to
purchase gives way to a network of possible channels -
some physical, some virtual - with the possibility of the
customer navigating more than one channel at a time.

6. CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPPING is a technique that can help
you build a better understanding of how your customers
interact with your company and your brand. When used
properly, it forces you to consider every channel, product and
touchpoint in the context of your customer’s experience.

7. IT CAN HELP SOLVE MANY BUSINESS CHALLENGES:
• Failure of existing touchpoints to drive purchase decisions
• Failure to translate initial sales into repeat purchases
• Customer disinterest in a retail or online environment

8. PLOTTING A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC VIEW OF YOUR COMPANY
• Customer needs, objectives, perceptions and motivations
• The network of paths to purchase open to your customer
• Potential barriers and pain points in your customer’s experience
• Customer interactions with touchpoints, brands and products

9. A FRAMEWORK FOR DRIVING KEY BENEFITS FOR YOUR COMPANY
• Prioritizing investment in developing loyalty and customer base
• Streamlining the purchase process by understanding customer pathing
• Visualizing a common direction for internal project teams
• Aligning marketing tactics to targeted points in the customer’s journey

10. FIVE STEPS TO BUILDING A CUSTOMER
JOURNEY MAP FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION

11. STEP 1: DEVELOP FRAMEWORK, BUILD TEAM CONSENSUS
• Frameworks can include lifecycle, scenarios, touchpoints, path
to purchase, AIDA, physical pathing etc. - establish which of
these lenses are the most relevant to your organization’s goals.
• Engage all stakeholders to align on objectives and inputs
through workshops and participatory design concept sessions.
• Determine how much new research is needed to build the map,
and what can be derived from existing data.

12. STEP 2: GATHER INTELLIGENCE
• Start with what you already know - your company may already
have transactional data, past surveys, focus groups,
ethnography, analyst reports, competitive reviews etc.
• Conduct additional research to fill in the gaps - customer
interviews, online analytics, in-store observations, social media
sampling, mystery shopping online and in-store.

13. STEP 3: MAP THE CURRENT STATE
• Visualize the journey from the customer’s perspective - avoid
using operational language - focus on what the customer is
actually doing, feeling, thinking, interpreting and buying.
• Profile key “moments of truth” - describe interactions at each
touchpoint in detail from the customer’s side including
perceptions, needs, goals and path.
• Diagnose painpoints, barriers, soft-spots and opportunities
for better engagement with the customer.

14. ONLINE SPHERE
INSTORE SP
STEP 4: DEFINE THE FUTURE STATE
• Imagine the ideal journey for your customer, smoothing the path
and improving their experience throughout.
• Ask questions like “where are the opportunities to enhance the
experience? to acquire more customers? to convey our brand?
• Consider multiple possible paths between touchpoints. Don’t
focus on a single linear model.
• Engineer the ideal touchpoints online, in-store, and beyond. -
Consider how they relate to each other and your brand.

15. STEP 5: DEVELOP A PLAN TO MAKE IT REAL
• Socialize and land the Map and its insights with key stakeholders
• Identify business requirements and approximate retrofit costs
• Conduct a gap analysis between current & desired state and prioritize
according to level of investment and expected impact
• Develop a roadmap for short-term, mid-term and long-term
improvements – which may span many different parts of the
organization, e.g. Marketing, Sales, Operations, Customer Support etc.

16. KEY CONSIDERATIONS: CHOOSING THE RIGHT PATH
Start with a clear destination in mind. Are you looking for input on
specific touchpoints? customer acquisition? retention? brand alignment?
product mix? store layout? social media strategy? all of the above?

17. KEY CONSIDERATIONS: FINDING YOUR WAY
Is your organization ready to put changes into action? This isn’t just
about investment - how far is the culture of your company willing to go?

18. KEY CONSIDERATIONS: MEASURING SUCCESS
Design the framework based on clear objectives - and align all
co ordinates and points in the framework to contribute to those
objectives. Establish clear measures of success for both the
process and the end result based on clear goals and KPIs.

19. KEY CONSIDERATIONS: SHIFTING PERSPECTIVE
Teams tend to conceive the customer journey from the
perspective of how the company touches its customers –
instead of looking through the eyes and walking in the shoes
of their potential customers. This exercise is about shifting
perspective, to see things from your customer’s point of view.
• Consider your customer’s real thoughts, needs, emotions,
choices, influencers, and alternatives to your offerings -
many of which are outside of the company’s direct influence.
• Base your thinking on real observations - not imagined or
idealized personas.

20. KEY CONSIDERATIONS: DON’T ASSUME A COMMON JOURNEY
There is no single customer journey - it may vary significantly
from customer to customer, from segment to segment, from
location to location, from category to category.
Differentiate groups of customers based on their observed needs,
attitudes, motivations, behaviors and pathing. This doesn’t mean
mapping every possible journey - that will be too complex to be
useful. But it does mean building a map of key forks in the road
and brand touchpoints for each customer group.

21. IN STORE FOLLOW UP
ENTERING
ORIENTING
LOCATING
SEARCHING
DISCOVERING/
SELECTING
TRYING
PURCHASING
PRODUCT ENGAGEMENT
SELECTING
PURCHASING
ONLINE
ANATOMY 101
THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF
CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPPING

22. CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE
In this highly simplified example, we will walk through
the basic components of a customer journey map.
Actual maps go into a great deal of detail for each
item shown, and can become much more granular for
the total number of items represented.

23. ENTERING
ORIENTING
LOCATING
SEARCHING
DISCOVERING/
SELECTING
TRYING
PURCHASING
SELECTING
PURCHASING
Start by considering the experiences the customer engages
in along their journey, as observed in the research.
Base this on real-world findings, not on imaginary personas.
Keep your focus on the customer’s POV and use language
that emphasizes the subjective, the active and the personal.
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCES
PRODUCT ENGAGEMENT

24. ENTERING
ORIENTING
LOCATING
SEARCHING
DISCOVERING/
SELECTING
TRYING
PURCHASING
SELECTING
PURCHASING
Build the pathing from experience to experience.
Repeat this for each customer group observed. Many
paths will be non-linear, or may loop back on
themselves. Consider how the customer will repeat the
process next time - what is driving them to return?
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCES
CUSTOMER
PATHING
PRODUCT ENGAGEMENT

25. IN STORE FOLLOW UP
ENTERING
ORIENTING
LOCATING
SEARCHING
DISCOVERING/
SELECTING
TRYING
PURCHASING
SELECTING
PURCHASING
Now consider the operational zones that enable these
experiences - online, in-store, etc.
ONLINE
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCES
CUSTOMER
PATHING
OPERATIONAL
ZONES
PRODUCT ENGAGEMENT

26. IN STORE FOLLOW UP
ENTERING
ORIENTING
LOCATING
SEARCHING
DISCOVERING/
SELECTING
TRYING
PURCHASING
SELECTING
PURCHASING
An additional layer can be added showing product
and service offerings involved at each step.
ONLINE
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCES
CUSTOMER
PATHING
OPERATIONAL
ZONES
PRODUCT and
SERVICE OFFERINGS
PRODUCT ENGAGEMENT

27. IN STORE FOLLOW UP
ENTERING
ORIENTING
LOCATING
SEARCHING
DISCOVERING/
SELECTING
TRYING
PURCHASING
SELECTING
PURCHASING
Service intercepts can also be added. (In fact, the whole journey
can be re-calibrated from the staff point of view to help visualize
operational frameworks. But we’ll leave that for another time...)
ONLINE
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCES
CUSTOMER
PATHING
OPERATIONAL
ZONES
PRODUCT and
SERVICE OFFERINGS
PRODUCT ENGAGEMENT

28. IN STORE FOLLOW UP
ENTERING
ORIENTING
LOCATING
SEARCHING
DISCOVERING/
SELECTING
TRYING
PURCHASING
PRODUCT ENGAGEMENT
SELECTING
PURCHASING
Additional layers can be added for key touchpoints, affordances, brand cues,
messaging - any physical or digital enablers in the customer’s journey.
ONLINE
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCES
CUSTOMER
PATHING
OPERATIONAL
ZONES
PRODUCT and
SERVICE OFFERINGS
TOUCHPOINTS AND
AFFORDANCES
BRAND CUES AND
MESSAGING

29. IN STORE FOLLOW UP
ENTERING
ORIENTING
LOCATING
SEARCHING
DISCOVERING/
SELECTING
TRYING
PURCHASING
PRODUCT ENGAGEMENT
SELECTING
PURCHASING
Each one of these items tells a story - one that should be
told from the customer’s point of view. For each step in the
journey, identify the painpoints, the moments of positive
connection, the opportunities for better engagement and
the soft-spots in the customer’s experience.
ONLINE
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCES
CUSTOMER
PATHING
OPERATIONAL
ZONES
PRODUCT and
SERVICE OFFERINGS
TOUCHPOINTS AND
AFFORDANCES
BRAND CUES AND
MESSAGING

30. ENTERING
ORIENTING
LOCATING
SEARCHING
DISCOVERING/
SELECTING
TRYING
PURCHASING
SELECTING
PURCHASING
Alternate methods can also be layered in, depending on the
business objectives defined at the beginning of the project.
For example, a path to purchase model can be added to
clarify customer habits, behaviors and motivators.
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCES
CUSTOMER
PATHING
PRODUCT ENGAGEMENT

31. ENTERING
ORIENTING
LOCATING
SEARCHING
DISCOVERING/
SELECTING
TRYING
PURCHASING
SELECTING
PURCHASING
Consumption chain models focus on underlying
customer needs throughout the cycle, and can help
identify opportunities to radically reinvent or
differentiate product value propositions.
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCES
CUSTOMER
PATHING
PRODUCT ENGAGEMENT

32. ENTERING
ORIENTING
LOCATING
SEARCHING
DISCOVERING/
SELECTING
TRYING
PURCHASING
SELECTING
PURCHASING
CX/UX maps distill functional, emotional and contextual
elements of the journey and are a great tool for
informing service design and brand experience work.
Touchpoint analysis focusses on existing customer
interactions points and operational tactics.
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCES
CUSTOMER
PATHING
PRODUCT ENGAGEMENT

33. The key to choosing the right methods for your organization
lies in the business objectives laid out in the first step, and
knowing the questions you need to answer in the project.
IN STORE FOLLOW UP
ENTERING
ORIENTING
LOCATING
SEARCHING
DISCOVERING/
SELECTING
TRYING
PURCHASING
PRODUCT ENGAGEMENT
SELECTING
PURCHASING
ONLINE
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCES
CUSTOMER
PATHING
OPERATIONAL
ZONES
PRODUCT and
SERVICE OFFERINGS
TOUCHPOINTS AND
AFFORDANCES
BRAND CUES AND
MESSAGING

34. CONTACT LENATI TO LEARN ABOUT HOW TO
CREATE A STRONGER CUSTOMER CONNECTION.
THANK YOU.
Lenati LLC. 1. 800. 848. 1449 1300 Dexter Ave N #100, Seattle, WA, 98109 lenati.com info@lenati.com