Why mapping the customer journey might not be the best way to understand your customers
Bloomreach is a Business Reporter client.
The concept of the customer journey intrigued marketers long before the invention of the internet. A customer’s journey doesn’t just consist of a single transaction, but comprises the complete picture of everything they experience when interacting with your brand.
Much has been written about the best ways of mapping the customer journey, with many different takes on the important stops along the way. But have we considered that mapping the customer journey may no longer be the best way to understand your customers?
Bloomreach co-founder and CEO Raj De Datta believes the future is brightest for those who can adapt to a new way of thinking about the journey. In fact, maybe the customer journey never really was what we thought it was to begin with.
“In many ways, it is really an artificial construct,” says De Datta. “We have been told over many years that customers behave in a very linear fashion, when, in fact, when we all think about our own shopping experiences, it’s anything but linear.”
The fact that consumers and their demands and behavior are perhaps more complex than brands would like is hardly breaking news. Human beings are complex, and human communication can be messy. Companies never truly know how a message might be received.
Where brands set themselves apart from the competition is not only by understanding the complexities of their customers, but knowing what to do about them. This is where artificial intelligence comes in.
“With the emergence of data science as a category, and data present everywhere, machines can play a much more significant role in distilling where customers are and what they might be seeking,” says De Datta. “That’s something that would not have been possible without technology taking giant leaps forward.”
Whether it involves the customer journey or artificial intelligence, digital commerce is an ever-changing marketplace.
To learn more about the future of commerce, check out The Digital Seeker, a book by Raj De Datta. You will learn the importance of having ample amounts of both product and customer data, how personalization can make all the difference and much more.
Don’t miss this opportunity to ensure that your company isn’t left behind in our new digital-first world.
— Carl Bleich, Content Marketing Manager, Bloomreach
This article originally appeared on Business Reporter. Image credits: Courtesy of Private Bloomreach gallery
