Reinforce Customer Relationships: Making Sense of The 6 Stages of Customer Lifecycle

Knowing your customers may sound a like a big work but nothing is too big if it’s your business’s future that is at stake. Understanding who your customers are and building a strong relationship and connection with them is crucial in ensuring business growth and the overall quality of your customer base.

But those important connections don’t just happen overnight. It is an ongoing process that builds up as you come in contact with them through your business. If building customer relationships is one of your business’s weaknesses then you’ll need to reinvent how your business is trying to build up on it by looking into the 6 stages of the customer lifecycle.

Years of study has revealed that each customer goes through a lifecycle as they go through the overall journey of dealing with a particular business and as a business owner, you’ll need to be able to find ways on how you can make sense of each of these phases so you can use it to your advantage and make your business evolve into an entity that not only sells products and/or services but also cares about how customers feel.

How can you ensure that your customers feel that you care about them? Is your business able to show care, concern, and empathy whenever they fall into certain problems and try to solve particular issues in their order? Reinventing customer relationships takes effort and in this article, we will look into each stage of the customer lifecycle and see how you can nurture that all-important connection with your customers. So let’s go to the very first one.

1. Discovery – Love at First Sight

This is where your customers try to find solutions to particular issues that they have in the form products and services and this is where you need to showcase your business as one that can provide such needs or solve such problems for them. Customers start out as happy ones as right after discovering our business and the goal is to make that happiness last even until they’re done with the purchase.

As a business that seeks to establish a strong relationship with its customers, you need to have that strong presence and get your name known without being too enforcing. Try to get your products known by showing them the experience that it is able to produce or result to once they choose to use it. Doing so will create the thirst and drive curiosity on their part which will lead them to eventually try what you’re offering to them.

2. Evaluation – Inform Them Thoroughly

After discovering your product or service and seeing what it can offer to them, the next stage is where customers start to look into the deeper details of the offering and this is where they will start forming that decision whether or not they are going to make that purchase.

As a business that cares for its customers, your job in this stage is to provide them with facts and bring them some additional information that they won’t find in your competitors. Give them something that can become a subject for evaluation. For instance, if you’re selling eyeglasses, give them some research-based information that shows how eyeglasses are better than contact lenses.

Start feeding them information that will enhance their knowledge on your product and the benefits they would get if they choose to make that purchase from your shop. This will build trust and confidence in your brand which are important ingredients toward keeping customers loyal to your business or brand. Try not to sound boring here but instead, inject some fun and try to be human in every step of the way.

3. Purchase – Make Them Happy

This important process needs to produce satisfaction. Your customers need to feel that they were able to get something of value but paid less when compared to having the product purchased from one of your competitors. It will not hurt if you offer an early-bird discount for your new products or a first-time customer voucher just to establish that “I care” atmosphere between you and your customers.

Always remember that customers are purchasing your product because they want to satisfy a need or solve an issue with the help of the item that you are offering. But they’ll be happier and tend to establish a strong relationship with your business if they feel that you care about their finances and you’re giving them the best savings possible.

4. Product Use Experience – Show Them You’re There

Show care on this stage by making sure that your customers are well-informed about the product specifications and use. Go an extra mile and place those important download links to product specifications sheet and user manual. Most people want these things on their devices instead of reading in from a printed material.

Provide them with all the available methods for contacting your business or customer support agents in case they need assistance. You can also build social media groups for your customers so they can communicate with others who also made the decision of purchasing your product. The goal here is to provide customers with an avenue where they can air out their experiences and find the much-needed help every time trouble comes to the surface.

Always be proactive and think ahead of everyone so you can foresee every pitfalls and danger that can create those fine line cracks that will eventually cause disaster and total breakage on your business reputation if left unsolved.

5. Bonding With Other Customers

If your customers are to remain loyal to your brand, they will need to find other people who share the same experience as they have. A customer that feels a close bond with other customers and your business will most likely stay and even turn into your very loyal brand ambassadors. This will then translate to better retention rate and overall customer satisfaction.

Loyal customers are a great source of authentic endorsements and product feedback that can effectively attract prospective ones towards your brand. So be sure to offer all possible avenues for customer bonding as more and more customers are making their way to this stage in their overall journey in dealing with your business.

6. Advocacy – They Become Your Business Partners

This is where customers who were able to complete the lifecycle start to become not just mere customers but your brand ambassadors as they influence friends, family, and even people they don’t personally know to start doing business with your brand through their honest reviews and recommendations.

This might be the sixth stage but definitely should not be the last. Treat this as the part where customers become your business partners and it is here where you need to start rewarding them more than ever because they truly deserve it. You can offer them referral discounts or commissions for every new purchase that they are able to pull-in for your business.

This way, you’ll be able to make them feel rewarded and being cared for. Be sure to take their honest reviews and product recommendations into channels where prospective customers can see so everything doesn’t go to waste.

Stronger Customer Relationships, Stronger Business

Consider customers are one of the most valuable assets of your business. Without them, you are nothing so definitely invest time and much effort to make them feel loved in every stage of the customer lifecycle. Be consistent with every action that you make and you’ll see how your business would start to grow.

Establishing a strong customer relationship builds up your brand into a trusted one so make that important move and start reinventing your overall customer-facing marketing strategy and apply what you’ve learned above. With it, you’ll be able to pave a sure way towards overall growth and development plus a bright and beaming future for your business!

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