Why Shopper Insights need Customer Journey Mapping

Most businesses know it’s important to do some research about their customer base. Understanding how a potential customer thinks and acts during the brand determination and shopping experience is critical information for product development and marketing teams.

However, many businesses are making a common mistake when it comes to getting the complete picture. To save money and time many companies are using only narrow research tools and approaches - instead of a more comprehensive research approach.

To be clear, the popular research options like shopper intercepts, checkout surveys and online pop-ups surveys are popular for a reason: they provide information quickly, are focused, and they are easy to implement. However, taken individually they do not give you the entire picture. Think of it like dental x-rays versus an MRI. There’s nothing wrong with getting a dental x-ray. It’s good for the health of your mouth. But, if you want to know what the entire body is doing, an MRI offers a more comprehensive picture. The individual research tools you like to use are great, but you need more.

There are three primary reasons we tell our clients that they need a customer journey perspective of shopper insights:

1. Customer Journey integrates multiple Research Approaches to provide a complete view

The best objective of shopper insight is to provide a comprehensive view of how your product is performing and/or how a customer reacts to your product from the beginning of the process (when they first realize they need what you sell) to the end, when they consider how your product worked in their life. Single tools only look at certain points on the Path to Purchase. Shopper Insights look at the entire picture.

The risk with using only your favorite research tools is that you could get results that are incomplete and sometimes even contradicting. An integrated approach to research & analysis sees shopping behavior from multiple perspectives.

2. Touch-Point Specific Approaches are efficient, but less effective

Good shopper insight does more than look at specific sections of the path to purchase process by expanding the scope of research to allow for a more complete analysis. While touchpoint specific research (like advertising or packaging feedback, checkout surveys or online intercepts) can provide valuable insight, they are narrow in scope. Customer Journey mapping allows you to look at the entire process from the shopping trigger to repurchase and study the entire shopping experience from the moment a customer recognizes they have a problem to their experience with the product they chose to solve that problem afterward.

3. Moments of Truth and Pain Points easier to Identify with Customer Journey Mapping

Shoppers experience a range of emotions during the entire purchase process, and not all of them are positive. For example: One person may experience anxiety before they go shopping for clothes because they are afraid they won’t find anything that fits. Others feel overwhelmed with their choices in the aisle, making it hard to choose a product (and making them more inclined to shop online), while some don’t know a solution to their problem until they are in a store and see the full set of options available to them. Further, some customers experience a moment of truth after purchasing the product and realizing that it either works as well or better than they thought, or it doesn’t work (or they don’t know how to make it work).

The only way to truly understand what is driving customer satisfaction is to look along the entire journey and identify possible pain points and moments of truth along the entire path to purchase. Focusing on single instances or perspectives are not as helpful for the long term because they provide limited detail.

Do you want to know more about a better way to understand your customers?


Original Blog

Interested in learning more? Call us at 1-800-549-7170 or send us an email for a free 30-minute consultation on this topic.

Gold Research Inc. has extensive experience in deploying customer intercepts, in-store interviews, and mobile surveys for concept testing, marketing testing, satisfaction research, shopper insights, mystery shopping, and journey mapping or path-to-purchase research. We can also act as an extension of your research team in helping with data processing, analysis, report development, and survey programming. 

www.goldresearchinc.com

To Chart Your B2B Customer Journey, Pay Attention To These Three Stakeholders

It’s no secret that the lifecycle for typical B2B purchases is drastically more complicated than it was a decade ago. According to Forrester, 74% of business buyers are now conducting more than half of their research online before making an offline purchase.

Decision makers are much more informed prior to engaging with a salesperson. Not only has the internet made this path-to-purchase more complex; several different stakeholders across different functions are now involved in decisions, each one is looking for something different. As the number of people involved in a decision increases, the likelihood of purchase decreases.

Many B2B companies are looking for the best way to navigatethis changing landscape in order to sell and deliver their products and services to their target customer base. The most crucial first step in asserting your company’s place in the new B2B ecosystem is to create a customer journey map.

A journey map is a popular tool in many B2C companies - however, people don’t often think of it as a key resource in business-to-business transactions. The reality is that to keep up with changing consumer expectations, the consumer journey map is even more valuable to B2B companies than it is for the B2C space. However, the map must look a bit different to account for the several different parties involved in your decision process. For each group, you must factor in their end goals, how they gather information, and the content that resonates with them.

B2B decision making groups include three different roles: the decision maker, the decision influencer, and procurement.

The Decision Maker

Many B2B companies make the mistake of only going after the key decision maker - after all, by definition, they’re the person that makes the decisions. However, this approach alone is a mistake. The key decision maker is typically a C-Suite or VP-level executive. They are busy people - they don’t have time to explore online channels and forums for what products and services best meet their company’s needs.

Decision makers are basing their evaluation almost solely on input from internal subject matter experts, their IT team, and their procurement group. Their decision process is based on the organization’s priorities, policies and what will integrate the most seamlessly with their existing systems and business processes.

Your journey map should clearly indicate whaich subject matter experts are most influential to your key decision maker, and the critical integration factors that executives consider when they’re evaluating solutions.

The Decision Influencers

Decision influencers are all about features. These are the people with the most skin in the game, so to speak - because after a decision about a purchase is made, they’re the ones that have to live with it. Influencers will carefully vet options on websites, forums, and by word of mouth to find the product/solution that best fits their needs from a functional standpoint.

These subject matter experts are typically one of the groups that will have the most sway when the decision maker is evaluating his or her options. Roles could vary from middle managers, VPs, or even more junior-level employees. When you’re constructing your journey map, be sure to do your due diligence to uncover who the real organization influencers are, and what they care about.

This also includes the IT team who ensures the data and interfaces of the products / services can “plug-and-play” with existing systems.

The Procurement Team

Procurement isn’t concerned with your product’s functionality, or its ease of integration - they’re looking at logistical information like contract terms, pricing, and vendor stability. But just because this team’s needs are more cut-and-dry doesn’t mean you should ignore them in your journey map. Members of the procurement team are key stakeholders in your B2B path to purchase.

To win over the procurement team, you must demonstrate why your company is worth the money - and the risk. Is your product or service scalable? Does it provide quality customer support? Will your current customers provide a referral regarding every important aspect of your solution? These are the questions procurement will ask, and your B2B customer journey map should reflect these key parts of this team’s vetting process.

A quality B2B journey map must chart the different purchase paths for all three of these stakeholder types. Customers that do this see a 50%+ improvement in revenue per account, and 40%+ reduction in customer acquisition costs. When you understand the challenges, needs, and motivations of your B2B customer via a journey map, you’ll also be able to reap the rewards.


Original Blog

Interested in learning more? Call us at 1-800-549-7170 or send us an email for a free 30-minute consultation on this topic.

Gold Research Inc. has extensive experience in deploying customer intercepts, in-store interviews, and mobile surveys for concept testing, marketing testing, satisfaction research, shopper insights, mystery shopping, and journey mapping or path-to-purchase research. We can also act as an extension of your research team in helping with data processing, analysis, report development, and survey programming. 

www.goldresearchinc.com

The Retail Path to Purchase

Understanding the journey a shopper/consumer (consciously or subconsciously) goes through on their path to buying a product is a helpful way to tailor marketing efforts and spending for the greatest impact. Companies should view shopper insights as potential actionable content. Using what we know about shopper behavior can help increase revenue per customer, reduce revenue attrition, and create more effective advertising and promotional budgets.

The Five Stages of the Retail Path to Purchase Journey

Our research identified that there are five stages of the Retail Path to Purchase journey that shoppers take.

Pre-Store Experience

Customers go through 2-3 steps in this stage starting with the “shopping trigger” and pre-store research.

Our research identified that the two biggest shopping triggers are replacement and product effectiveness. Either the customer runs out of the item and they need a “refill” - or it breaks or doesn’t work the way they hoped it would. An estimated 60 percent of triggers qualify as worn out, ran out, or broken. Sorry to say, advertising falls far down the list of factors that impact a purchase, triggering only 15% or so of shoppers.

Family and friend recommendations largely influence pre-store research. This could be as simple as a conversation with a friend over lunch or asking friends and family on Facebook for recommendations. With the retail path to purchase, online research is not a major influence.

To Store

This stage of the path to purchase includes trip planning, retailer choice, the shopping trip and predetermination. While many companies think that getting customers to the right store is the major goal, they may not have much impact. Typically, customers shop at a place that’s convenient to them and are even willing to switch brands to accommodate the convenience factor.

Additionally, about 60 percent of the time, a customer will just add the product they need to their shopping list and purchase it when they go for other items. That’s not to say that customers don’t make special trips for a specific item, it just doesn’t happen as often.

It’s worth noting that about 80% of customers that search retailer websites (Walmart.com, Target.com, Home Depot.com, etc.) make their purchase in store (20% will buy online). Great news for store managers, bad news for the e-commerce division.

In-Store Navigation

Once customers get to the store, they need to find the items on their shopping list. While most manufacturers worry about this, our research shows that few consumers do. What manufacturers SHOULD worry about is what the shoppers do when they find the product. Roughly ¾ of all customers will pick up an item and read the label before adding it to their cart, and the average consumer spends about 3 minutes in the aisle, which means there is enough time to study the items briefly. The “grab-n-go “routine companies worry about has very little impact on the overall shopping experience.

In-Store Selection

Surprisingly, our in-store research shows that shoppers are far less brand-loyal when they’re in the store than if they were making a purchase online. In fact, about 70 percent of shoppers” switched brands in the aisle.” Most of this brand-swapping relates to product quality and packaging content, not problems with availability or out-of-stock products. In-aisle merchandising also has a negligible effect on this stage.

While shoppers consider all of the following seven decision factors when making a purchase at a retailer location:

• Product functionality
• Price
• Previous use
• Type of product
• Design/style
• Brand
• Retailer Selection/Merchandising

Our research found that Product Functionality was the #1 decision factr in the aisle, followed by price. Brand and Retailer merchandising were dead last in the decision sequence. In addition, our research showed that about 90 percent of customers will pay full price for something they want or need but they are not likely to overpay for a product.

Post-Store Experience

The post-store experience is far less eventful for retailers – but far more impactful for consumers. Individuals who purchase an item from a physical store are less likely to interact with a specific company regarding their purchase. The consumer will consider their satisfaction with a product, but are less likely to leave a review of the product or contact the company to give feedback if they purchased retail vs. online (which affects their loyalty to said product). Ease of use, durability, and product performance are the most important factors for customers once they take the product into their home.

The retail path to purchase is, for the most part, straightforward, and common sense, but focused changes at key moments of truth along the journey can result in major shifts in shopper behavior. In order to fully understand the end-to-end path to purchase, a mix of online and in-store research, both quantitative and qualitative is essential.


Original Blog

Interested in learning more? Call us at 1-800-549-7170 or send us an email for a free 30-minute consultation on this topic.

Gold Research Inc. has extensive experience in deploying customer intercepts, in-store interviews, and mobile surveys for concept testing, marketing testing, satisfaction research, shopper insights, mystery shopping, and journey mapping or path-to-purchase research. We can also act as an extension of your research team in helping with data processing, analysis, report development, and survey programming. 

www.goldresearchinc.com

3 Reasons Why Qualitative Customer Conversations Must Be Part of your Customer Journey Map

Big data is one of the most prevalent buzzwords in technology, marketing research, and design - and for good reason. Quantitative, data-based research is an imperative part of any customer journey map to truly understand your customer’s path to purchase, as we’ve discussed in a recent blog post. With the proliferation of high-speed WiFi, smartphones, and free survey tools, quantifiable data has never been easier to collect and analyze.

However, many companies that are looking to gain a better understanding of the motivators, barriers, and detractors in the purchase cycle often overlook a critical part of the customer journey map: real conversions with their customers. Quantifiable, numbers-based data will only tell you half of your customer lifecycle story. To truly capture an end-to-end view of your customers that will help uncover valuable insights to move your bottom line, you must conduct real, in-depth customer interviews via methods like interviews, focus groups, or shop-alongs.

Read on for three reasons why this qualitative research is so vital to your customer journey.

1. You’ll uncover insights that wouldn’t be gathered through quantitative research. During interviews for one retail client that was interested in their customers’ path to purchase, older women let us know that they often have trouble purchasing clothing that they feel fit their personal style. Not only do they frequently only see younger models wearing clothing, but they feel judged by the young retail staff. They feel that if they had access to retail staff that would help them find clothing that made them feel good and would give them candid, real-time feedback, they would buy more and be more brand loyal. This was a powerful insight that could have never been uncovered via quantitative, numbers-based research. To truly understand your customer, you must conduct these conversations and hear their stories
2. Pictures are worth a thousand words. When you have qualitative, candid conversations with your customers, you give them the opportunity to use images and videos to full illustrate their points. Things that are difficult to express in numbers - like how people store a consumer good like cleaning supplies or the hard-to-clean-up situations that require a specific map, or accessories they typically wear with a certain blouse - are accessible thanks to smartphone photos your customers provide. Having images or videos to back up their feelings or thoughts on a certain item can help convey ideas that are difficult to decipher and can better tell their story across your company
3. It’s efficient. The same reasons that quantitative research has grown so easy - smartphones, WiFi, and survey tools - can also be used to power cost-effective qualitative research. High-quality focus groups can be set-up, recruited, and conducted online quickly, easily and affordably.

Original Blog

Interested in learning more? Call us at 1-800-549-7170 or send us an email for a free 30-minute consultation on this topic.

Gold Research Inc. has extensive experience in deploying customer intercepts, in-store interviews, and mobile surveys for concept testing, marketing testing, satisfaction research, shopper insights, mystery shopping, and journey mapping or path-to-purchase research. We can also act as an extension of your research team in helping with data processing, analysis, report development, and survey programming. 

www.goldresearchinc.com

Online Path to Purchase (P2P)

A consumer has many options for locating the products they want and need, and the internet plays a vital role in the behavior of consumers both through research and easier access to a supply of products. The ability for businesses to understand the difference between online and retail P2Ps, allow a company to do more with their online marketing strategies.

The online path to purchase for consumers, in general, is a more linear approach to customer behavior than the retail path to purchase and the online shopping experience has fewer steps. The differences between both aren’t numerous, but it is vital to consider these differences when creating marketing tactics.

Pre-Shopping

The pre-shopping experience for retail purchases is simple: there’s a trigger that pushes the consumer to buy and they add the item to their shopping list. Most of the time this purchase does not require the planning of a special trip.

The pre-shopping experience for online buyers differs from the retail because online buyers may do more research before making a purchase. When they do conduct research, most buyers rely on other customer reviews (about 60 percent of those from Amazon). Family and friend recommendations account for 40 percent or online shoppers research.

Online Shopping

When the customer begins the online shopping process most of them (60%) go to a preferred shopping site. And if your customer is like 60%-80% of other online consumers, they’re making their purchase from Amazon who averages 2/3 of the customer share for online purchases. Consumers also heavily consider convenience, shipping costs and reviews.

Online shoppers do not have to navigate store layouts or negotiate endcaps and other marketing techniques. However, they are susceptible to targeted advertisements based on their previous purchase history.

Online Purchase

It’s interesting to note that despite their access to more immediate information and customer reviews, online customers are less likely to switch brands than those in the retail path to purchase track.

When making an actual purchase online the cost of shipping is important to consumers, a consideration that retails purchasers don’t even consider.

Both customers in the retail and the online P2P consider tool function as a top priority. Whereas retail customers place more importance on the design and style of a product, consumers making online purchases are more likely to consider saving money a priority in their purchase. However, they are also much more likely to remain more loyal to a brand no matter the cost savings.

Post Shopping Experience

The post shopping experience is the area that shows the biggest difference between the online and retail P2P. Customers who make a purchase at a retail location are less likely to interact with the manufacturer or company. Consumers in the online P2P look at and submit more product reviews. They are very concerned with durability, ease of use, product performance and the delivery service.

Businesses should note that strong user reviews can affect the online sales of a product. Companies with good reviews should focus on making this a focal point. If you have bad customer reviews online, engaging with dissatisfied customers to address the issues causing their negative reviews can greatly impact online sales in a positive way.

The online path to purchase is similar in many ways to the retail path to purchase. However, despite their similarities and the shorter path to purchase for online shoppers, there are key differences that will influence the way a company targets their customers.

If your research isn’t comparing the two journeys and addressing the differences, Gold Research can help inform your insights. Call us or fill out an online information form today and let us help you take your market research to the next level.


Original Blog

Interested in learning more? Call us at 1-800-549-7170 or send us an email for a free 30-minute consultation on this topic.

Gold Research Inc. has extensive experience in deploying customer intercepts, in-store interviews, and mobile surveys for concept testing, marketing testing, satisfaction research, shopper insights, mystery shopping, and journey mapping or path-to-purchase research. We can also act as an extension of your research team in helping with data processing, analysis, report development, and survey programming. 

www.goldresearchinc.com

The Challenge and Opportunity of B2B2C Journey Mapping

In the world of journey mapping, industries like consumer packaged goods (CPG) can present a unique challenge. CPG brands - essentially, any product that is sold in a supermarket or big box retailer - are known as B2B2C, meaning they must keep the needs of both their retailers (businesses) and their end users (customers) in mind.

Take Proctor & Gamble, the parent company of brands like Charmin toilet paper and Crest toothpaste. P&G’s customer is a retailer like Walmart or Target, and their end consumer is the person actually buying the product. Therefore, they must consider the challenges of two different groups when they think about their product design as well as their path-to-purchase journey. When CPG brands think about retailer needs, they must think about the volume of inventory, logistics of delivery, how the product will be displayed on the shelf, and price differentials. When they consider the needs of their consumer, they’re taking into account things like the features of the product and the way it’s packaged. A B2BC journey map must factor in these different needs to display an accurate picture of the customer path.

For B2B2C industries like CPG, it’s necessary to diagram the consumer journey both in and outside of the store. Not only does this provide the most insight into customer experience, but it also gives the brand leverage with their retailer. By doing qualitative and quantitative research into the shopper journey, they’re also able to surface insights to retailers like Walmart and Target that may help merchandise their product. Since these retailers have so many product categories, it is difficult for them to do their own in-depth consumer research – so they depend on B2B2C brands and vendors to research this information to inform their product strategies.

One great example of a CPG brand doing this well is O-Cedar. They sell cleaning products in retailers like Walmart, Target, Home Depot and Lowes. Not only did they map out the consumer and retailer journeys - they also gathered information on the ways that the consumer experience between retailers differed.

There are many benefits to a well-structured B2B2C journey map like this one. A brand like O-Cedar could provide valuable competitive insights across retailers, showing them how to effectively compete with other stores to merchandise their product. This research-driven journey map can also change category managers’ beliefs about their product design and where investment should be focused. Mapping consumer purchase paths can show why they should spend more on improving packaging, for example, or how to stop “brand switching” within the store.


Original Blog

Interested in learning more? Call us at 1-800-549-7170 or send us an email for a free 30-minute consultation on this topic.

Gold Research Inc. has extensive experience in deploying customer intercepts, in-store interviews, and mobile surveys for concept testing, marketing testing, satisfaction research, shopper insights, mystery shopping, and journey mapping or path-to-purchase research. We can also act as an extension of your research team in helping with data processing, analysis, report development, and survey programming. 

www.goldresearchinc.com

How to Tell if You are Really Ready for Customer Journey Mapping or Path-to-Purchase Research?

With the variety of products and services available to customers, many companies are interested in identifying how their customers find and select them and their products & services. Many try journey mapping and market research, many times with limited success due to the complexity of turning awareness into a purchase. However, some companies are highly successful at this – turning this insight into accelerated purchase journeys, eliminating the “friction” in the shopping process, improving their marketing program impact and driving accelerated growth and profitability.

Is your company interested in knowing the following?

• What segments and customer personas exist in the market – and which should be focused on?
• What are the triggers that initiate the customer’s journey to identify and select just the right product for them?
• What are the various factors that influence them along the journey? Which are most impactful for each segment / persona along the way?
• Are online reviews and personal recommendations more important than your advertising and merchandising programs?
• Where are the “pot holes and detours” along the journey that cause customers interested in your product to get lost and end up with a competitors product or not purchasing anything?
• What would be the impact of streamlining and paving the “Path to Purchase”? And what is the ROI of the investments necessary to implement the plan?

Original Blog

Interested in learning more? Call us at 1-800-549-7170 or send us an email for a free 30-minute consultation on this topic.

Gold Research Inc. has extensive experience in deploying customer intercepts, in-store interviews, and mobile surveys for concept testing, marketing testing, satisfaction research, shopper insights, mystery shopping, and journey mapping or path-to-purchase research. We can also act as an extension of your research team in helping with data processing, analysis, report development, and survey programming. 

www.goldresearchinc.com