Understanding the importance of a well-based online user journey
Have you ever wondered how a user got in touch with your brand? The user journey is the answer. In fact, it’s a key point for businesses to understand the user journey, to know more about their consumer and their engagement with the corporate’s channels. All this information can help companies to improve their buying processes and conversion rates, online and offline. In this article, we will focus on online channels and try to understand their importance and how to optimize them.
First, the term “user journey” can be separated into two fields of application: offline and online channels. For the offline version, it is about the welcome that the customer from the salesperson and the help they will give them. For the online version, it’s about the multiple touchpoints the user will be in contact with - email, social networks, website, and mobile applications. The online user journey can be seen as a map with the different steps that organize the journey:
- Awareness: The user becomes aware of a need or desire and starts to seek solutions online by using social media, search engines or directly on the website. They will go through your channels to find a product and brand information that meets their real needs.
- Consideration: Once information is collected, the consumer begins to look at different options and compares products or services. They can visit multiple websites, read comments, and make price comparisons.
- Decision-making: The consumer limits their options and decides which product or service to purchase. They may also take into consideration factors like delivery times, return policies, and customer service.
- Purchase: The consumer completes the purchase, either by purchasing the product or service directly or by adding it to a shopping basket and checking out.
- Delivery and use: The customer is provided with the product or service and starts using it. They may also provide initial reviews and comments.
- Post-purchase and loyalty: According to their experience with the product/service, the consumer may return to make further purchases or recommend their purchase to others.
It is crucial to understand why the user journey is important for businesses and to keep in mind that it’s a source of growth. Indeed, improving the user journey allows businesses to improve online conversion rates. For example, if it is an e-commerce site and we notice that the purchase phase is long, we can try to improve the loading time of the checkout or the number of boxes to be filled in order to purchase a product. This will make the process easier for the user and therefore increase the number of items added to the shopping cart, which will have a positive impact on the turnover.
The theory is great, but what about the practical area? The main concern remains what concrete actions can be put in place in our business to improve the user journey. The key is the user journey map.
The process of creating a map begins with the identification of the personas and the audience that the company wants to target. Then it is a matter of making the different stages of the customer journey visible through drawings or visual aids for each persona. Once we can visualize this journey and the different touchpoints involved, we can identify the points of friction or blockages that the user may encounter. Then the last point will be to improve, rework or remove these blockages to ensure the smoothest possible consumer journey.
The creation of a customer journey map has many benefits for a business, including improving the customer experience, identifying opportunities for improvement, aligning the business with its objectives and finally gaining a better understanding of customers.
It is important to remember that the online user journey is a key element of a company’s customer experience and reputation. It provides a better understanding of the steps and interactions that customers have with a company through its online channels, such as website navigation, product search and purchase. A successful online user journey should therefore be intuitive, personalized and meet the needs and expectations of customers. Companies should optimize their online user journey by using customer data and feedback to continuously improve the customer experience, increase satisfaction and loyalty. This improvement in their online customer journey can lead to increased conversion, a better customer experience and an improved reputation for the business. Businesses should keep up with all the latest developments, and that includes the ever-changing technologies and the complexity of personalization. in order to meet the unique needs of each customer.
The online user journey is a crucial element for modern businesses, offering considerable benefits but also requiring constant attention to maintain a high level of quality.
You are now one step closer of understanding the theoretical aspect of user journey. If you want to go further you can try to make your own user journey map to help improve the overall experience of your consumer.Please share some of your insights in the comments below about the actions you have put in place and let’s continue the discussion!
About this article
This article has been written by a student on the Grenoble Ecole de Management’s Advanced Masters in Digital Strategy Management. As part of a content creation assignment, students are given the task of writing articles based on their digital interests and disseminating the articles online. Articles are marked but we make minimal changes to the content. Thanks for reading! James Barisic, Programme Director, MS DSM.
