Ever go on a vacation you were really looking forward to…and have a terrible experience?

Maybe your flight got diverted and they lost your luggage…

…or you checked into your hotel only to find water damage on the ceiling and cockroaches in the bathroom…

…or the dinner reservation you were looking forward to got lost, and now your kids are crying because they’re hungry….

and you’re on the verge of calling customer service and unleashing the full fury of your frustration.

There’s nothing like setting off on a journey you were greatly anticipating…and never really reaching the destination of a satisfying experience.

But if you’re a business owner…the real question goes a lot deeper than this.

What kind of journey are you sending your customers on?

Are you guiding them along a sturdy road that leads them toward exciting success with your product or service…

…or is the road paved with half-built bridges and dangerous death traps…ultimately leading to failure and abandonment of your brand?

We don’t have to ask you which of those two roads your company wants to send your customers on. But the truth is…

…if you want to succeed at getting more customers and making more sales…

…you need to make sure you’re taking them on the right adventure.

And The Customer Value Journey is the ultimate strategy to do it.

How The Customer Value Journey Transforms Your Customers (And Your Business)

First of all…let’s talk about what good marketing actually looks like.

It’s not flashy, in-your-face ads. It’s not taglines screaming for people to buy your stuff.

Good marketing follows the natural course of human relationships…

…and a relationship is an adventure.

You buy someone a drink, get their phone number, go on several dates…& hopefully lead up to engagement, marriage and a long term commitment that pays off for both of you.

Now imagine that you walk up to someone in a bar &—without even buying them a drink first—you straight up ask them to marry you.

Sound bizarre? It should. It’s something most people would probably never do when they meet someone…

…but this is exactly what most businesses are doing when they communicate with customers.

So how do you do it? How do you create a seamless journey that takes total strangers and transforms them into raving fans of your product or service?

You build an adventure.

 

But before we talk about how…you need to understand one thing…

Nobody finishes this journey alone.

Without you as their guide, they’ll get lost, hit walls, get stuck and ultimately never reach their destination.

 

Setting the course for a great customer adventure means ensuring that you craft the perfect route through all 8 stages of the journey to ensure that you create more satisfied, loyal customers who will buy from you again and again.

How The Customer Value Journey Works

The Customer Value Journey unfolds in 8 stages—8 bridges your customer must cross to make it from learning your brand exists to becoming a passionate advocate who can’t wait to tell all their friends about you.

It’s all a part of executing our Customer Value Optimization system—a way to naturally move prospects down the continuum of becoming your customers.

So just to give you an overview…here’s a map to illustrate just how the journey unfolds.

Awareness

Before they can go on the journey, customers first have to know there’s an adventure to take to begin with.

This happens when they first learn about your business—whether it’s through a Facebook ad, a referral, word of mouth from a friend or reading a review.

Regardless of how…they see your product or service as a possible solution that they have…that they may even be realizing exists for the first time.

Engagement

When you go on an adventure, you need a way to travel—be it by plane, bicycle or car.

 

Your website is the vehicle your customers travel in on their journey…and the Engagement stage is where they actually climb in.

They may watch a video, read a testimonial or blog post or consume any other content that can deepen their interest in your business.

Subscribe

This is where the adventure really starts to build—for both you and your customer.

 

It’s where they consent to receive more information from you by providing their email address.

Nothing is more valuable to a business owner than a list of leads because each one represents a person who could become a paying customer.

A lead magnet—something free given in exchange for contact information —is usually the customer’s ticket to continuing the journey as you guide them across the next bridge to success.

Convert

Right now, you’ve asked your customer to  take the step of giving you their email address. That’s a big step…but you still haven’t made any sales.

The Convert stage is where at least 1 of the 2 most valuable  resources we have—time or money—change hands.

You ask customers to take a small microstep through a tripwire offer—an inexpensive offer that exists purely to turn leads into customers.

Excite

Once your customer makes a small purchase through the tripwire, the adventure really starts to build momentum.

Buying generates a dopamine rush in our brains, and most customers will ride those natural good feelings right into the Excite stage, where you build enthusiasm and anticipation about using your product and buying more.

Remember…at this point, you’ve had 2 successful transactions with your customer. Maybe neither generated a massive amount of profits, but that isn’t the point.

The point is that you’ve taken someone who had never heard of you before and gotten them excited.

Ascend

Obviously, your goal is to get your customers to buy your core offer. Because you’ve crossed some bridges and made several stops in the journey to get there, you now have buyers who are not only completely psyched to buy your product…

…but to make additional purchases.

That’s why it’s critical that you have profit maximizers—additional products they can buy so you can continue to build their adventure.

Advocate

By this point, your customer is so excited about your product or service and the journey they’ve gone on that they start talking about how great it’s been.

They leave reviews for your business, post about you on social media and begin getting the word out so other people can climb aboard as well.

But the spreading of enthusiasm about your product or service doesn’t stop there.  In fact, this is just the beginning…

Promote

Your customer has finally done it. They’ve found the exciting success they set off on this adventure looking for…and now they want to invite other people to try it for themselves.

Promote is different from the Advocate stage because customers begin taking dedicated action to generate awareness of your business.

They’ve got a story to tell about the adventure you just took them on and want to share it with everyone.

They’ve just become the hero of their own story of transformation…

…a journey they couldn’t have taken without you as their guide.

So…Where Does The Customer Value Journey Leave You?

How are you doing with building an adventure for customers? Are you guiding them through each of these stages, showing them the ways of the Force?

Or…are you pushing them to buy something they may not even realize they need, trying to persuade them to make a commitment when they have no idea who you or are why they should trust you?

The Customer Value Journey is your roadmap to success with your product or service…but if you aren’t already taking customers on this adventure, how do you start?

Or…if you already have the pieces in place….how can you make the adventure even greater?

We want to help by giving you a complimentary Growth Audit—a 30 minute strategy session to show you 73 ways to grow your business and take your customer’s journey to the next level.

Click here to find out more and learn to create the adventure of a lifetime for customers in need of transformation.