Any industry and business can have a broken customer journey. In fact, I would suggest that most industries and businesses have broken customer journeys, and this is what creates the mistrust and fear in people. Discover How Broken Customer Journeys Create Mistrust and Fear…
To understand the concept of the mistrust and fear, you only have to look at an industry such as Real Estate. Here in Australia this industry has a perception of it being untrustworthy and there is fear associated with dealing with it.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, ask someone who recently purchased a house and how they felt about dealing with the Real Estate agents and the process overall. Ask them if they felt valued and respected, and if their needs were met at all times?
Mostly you will hear people say that they got squeezed for every last cent and that the agents played tricks to jack the sale price up or coerce buyers into spending more money, all to benefit their own pockets.
Unfortunately, the Real Estate industry is filled with broken customer journeys, and this is what creates mistrust and fear. People do not feel valued and think they are being manoeuvred to extract the highest possible amount of profit from them. There are the rare exceptions of course, but we are talking about the general rule here.
So, let’s examine what the broken customer journey is, and how that creates the mistrust or fear.
Firstly, the fact that customers go through a series of steps to buy a house means there is a journey. There is a process they go through to reach their end goal of purchasing that house.
Secondly, the fact that a customer can still achieve their end goal of buying the house but end up with a sense of not being valued, mistrusting of the industry and more, means there are gaps in the journey.
There are many possible paths that we take in life to achieve our goals, and it’s not dissimilar to this example. We could choose Real Estate Agent A or Real Estate Agent B to achieve our goal of buying a house. We may go on very different paths with either of these Real Estate Agents, but the end goal is the same.
Which path (or journey) to achieve our goal is the best one? And what makes a journey a ‘more successful’ one if we still achieve our goal of buying the house?
This comes down to the human element of the journey. The person who is experiencing the process is guided and moved along the touchpoint in that journey by their Real Estate Agent, and others involved. If their experience is one that doesn’t honour or value their needs as a human – instead of the profit machine – then the journey will not be as successful as it could be.
Furthermore, and this is really crucial; if a person can go through a journey and reach their goal of buying a house AND feels valued throughout that journey – then not only are they going to be happy about the end goal, but they are going to want to share their good experience with others. They may even recommend the Real Estate Agent to others! And – they are going to remember them and may also go back to them if they want to buy another house.
When someone’s expectations are not being met, and they are feeling undervalued and treated as a small cog in a large profit machine, then their journey is broken. This causes the mistrust in the industry and the feelings of fear in an individual.
Can you imagine what this does to each person who goes through a journey like this? And if there are hundreds and thousands of people experiencing similar journeys and feeling the same levels of mistrust and lack of value?
This situation creates the industry-wide perceptions that we have today. And without people pointing out the gaps (and the issues) with these journeys, it becomes a stagnant elephant in the room that we all know is there – but nobody’s doing anything about it.
Until I came along and started writing about it!
Hopefully, this example has highlighted for you what it means to have gaps in a customer journey, and how those gaps contribute to mistrust and fear.
Let me ask you a few questions:
Think about your own business and your industry. Do you operate in an industry that carries a similar level of mistrust and fear?
Is your own business operating in a way that doesn’t value your customer beyond the amount of profit they’ll make you?
Are you pumping a lot of money into buying new leads and filling your funnel – because you have a high turnover of customers?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you definitely should be looking at your customer journey, mapping the gaps, and fixing it.
The sustainability of your business and your industry deserve it. And most importantly, so do the important people who come into your business and go through your customer journey.
Hopefully, you can now understand how broken customer journeys create mistrust and fear, and why you should do what you can to fix it now!
Not only would you be creating a positive change in your business that will benefit you in many indirect ways (including your profits), but you will be setting a new standard of differentiation and excellence in your market and industry.
Now that’s something worth working towards, isn’t it?
If you need expert’s advice on customer journey mapping, contact us now!
