Customer journey mapping | Step 5 – The Look Back

So you’ve converted that prospect into a customer. Congratulations! Now what? Well, it’s time to move to Step 5 of the customer journey mapping process – Review.

Your prospects have gone through a complete buying process. From identifying their problem/need (Step 1) to discovering a way to address that problem/need (Step 2) to evaluating their options (Step 3) to making a decision (Step 4). Now they are ready for the fifth and final (sort of - I’ll get to that in a minute) step. Here are all five of those steps:

• Problem/Need
• Discovery
• Evaluation
• Decision
• Review

Step 5. Review or The Look Back

At this point of the customer journey mapping process, your prospects are reflecting on their decision. This is the stage where that infamous buyer’s remorse can rear its ugly head. It’s your job to squelch it before it even becomes and inkling.

Let’s go back to the example that we’ve been using throughout this series of posts - the gentleman who has financial struggles that leave him short of money at the end of each month. You’ll remember, in Step 1 he identified that this was his problem. In Step 2, he looked at addressing it by either getting a better checking account or enrolling in a personal financial management course. In Step 3, he decided to look at checking accounts and started to evaluate his options. In Step 4, he looked for validation that the checking account he had settled on was the right solution for him. Now, he is at Step 5 and asking himself whether or not he made the right decision.

This is the look back. He could use a little interaction and affirmation that he made a wise decision. If you’re a bank, this would be a great time to be sending a welcome message, or better yet, a full-on welcome kit. Additionally, there is nothing wrong with telling your new customer that they were smart for choosing you. You can also give them a feeling that they are not alone in this smart decision making. You can use testimonials from others like him, or share the number of people like him who have made the same decision. This fulfills a need for risk aversion (a principle called “herding” in this case) that can mitigate buyer’s remorse.

You complete your customer journey mapping by documenting what he's doing and the questions he's asking at this last stage. And don’t forget to list the channels he’s using to answer those questions. This information will enable you to design the right kind of help and interactions that will allow you to deftly sidestep any buyer’s remorse.

So you’re done, right? Well, sort of. You see, the thing about customer journey mapping is that it’s all about customers. And the funny thing about customers is that they have this pesky tendency to change. But that’s a good thing, because that generates continuous opportunities to re-engage with them. So, you should be iterating. Learn from the questions they have. Develop great help from those questions. See how they respond to your help. And then refine your map (at least once a year). It wii guide you to success.