The footsteps of the digital customer
The ability to read the behaviour of the customer is a must-have in the startup toolbox
This is the fifth article of our Monday session series where we share our intern’s experience from Red Brick Accelerator’s weekly coaching sessions.
Find the previous articles here:
- What I learned about startups in just one evening
- The mindset of an entrepreneur and methods of experimentation
- Why do we want to hack growth?
- The power of branding
This week the Red Brick team and I met with Delfin Vassallo of Uponor who hosted a session about digital customer journey. In recent years, understanding customer behaviour has become more essential to the success of a startup than the product or service it offers. Therefore, the ability to dive into the mind of a customer must be in the toolbox of every startup entrepreneur.
Digital customer journey
Business moved online. So did customer behaviour. And it changed a lot. This shift is warranted — the sale of goods and services is moving online faster than it was generally expected. According to Delfin himself, 75% of customers are influenced by information they find on social media, and I think that this figure is no joke. In many ways it was a blessing for marketing experts, as they now have better reach of customers. As a result, there is a lot more room for customer behaviour research.
Delfin’s session concentrated solely on digital customer journey. Its main idea was that the journey of a customer has to be broken down into several steps that happen alongside sales and marketing processes. Depending on the individual startup, the precise scheme can vary. In the workshop, we considered four marketing stages and at least seven customer journey steps. My overall impression of this approach was that the study of customer behaviour is more precise and detail-oriented than I had initially expected. My instinct tells me that this technique can be trusted.
How to approach customer behaviour research
What makes our sessions different from conventional learning is that particular emphasis is placed on approaching the new knowledge making it applicable. In that sense, Delfin’s workshop was particularly interesting. He has worked in the area for decades and shared his experience with us. In essence, Delfin’s approach depends upon setting very concrete goals, objectives, and indicators and sticking with them.
There is a lot more to that, but the main idea is that nothing is being done just because it would be good, each step is aimed at producing some outcome, whether it be a piece of information, an improvement of some kind, etc. This also means that we need to have a clear understanding as to how we will measure the outcome. This may appear strict, but I think Delfin is right in trying to test our readiness to go an extra mile at every turn. From my own experience, it is amazingly easy to take the wrong turn during the process of any research. Considering how precise the study of customer journey has become, sticking to the plan is essential.
My takeaways:
My main conclusion is that the study of digital customer journey requires more precision and planning that many would expect. It is more difficult than the overall study of customer behaviour, but it produces reliable outcomes. Also, it is important to see the precise correlation between our actions and customer response.
- 75% of customers are influenced by information they find on social media
- Research of digital customer journey is objectively more important for modern startups than the other areas of the study of customer behaviour
- Successful research of digital customer journey requires concrete goals and KPIs
Red Brick Accelerator offers intense coaching and mentoring for your idea and early-stage startup. Go see here when the next application period starts!
