How Behavioral Science Optimizes Customer Journey Stages

The core customer journey stages — how customers discover, research and decide to purchase a product, and their behavior afterward — have more or less remained the same for decades. What has changed, however, are the touchpoints and technology throughout the journey.  

More marketing and sales channels exist now than ever before, and consumers use a multitude of them through each of their customer journey phases. At the same time, marketers have more tools at their disposal to help track which channels consumers are engaging with at each point in their journey, as well as more technology to effectively tailor messages for each shopper. 

By grounding their customer journey stages in behavioral science principles, brands can optimize their messaging and media, deepen customer relationships and drive bottom-line growth. 

What Are the Traditional Customer Journey Stages?

Marketers have long broken down the path to purchase — also known as the marketing funnel — into five customer journey stages.

1. Awareness 

In the first of the customer journey phases, the consumer has a need but doesn’t know how best to meet it. Here’s where the brand works to get the consumer’s attention and make them aware that it can satisfy their requirements. Search engine optimization (SEO), generative engine optimization (GEO), social media, content marketing and paid ads are common top-of-funnel marketing channels. 

2. Consideration 

Having become aware of a brand, consumers are now assessing not only whether it will meet their needs but also whether another brand can do so more effectively. As with the first phase, search engines and social media are important here. Blog posts, infographics, white papers and other types of content marketing can educate shoppers as to why this brand is more worthy of their money than competitors. Word-of-mouth, referrals, ads, sampling and in-person activations also help build trust and provide valuable information at this stage. 

3. Purchase 

Also known as the decision stage, the third of the customer journey phases is where the consumer becomes a buyer. While physical stores, sales professionals and e-commerce sites are typically where shoppers make their purchases, live chat, social media and email have also become purchase channels. It’s especially important at this point to make the buying process as effortless as possible and to meet the shopper at their preferred touchpoint.   

4. Retention  

Given all the effort they’ve put into the customer journey stages so far, brands shouldn’t settle for a one-and-done buyer. The more repeat purchases a customer makes, the more ROI the brand reaps. Positive post-purchase support — quick customer service responses to product inquiries or delivery complaints, personalized emails suggesting complementary products, exclusive follow-up offers — foster customer retention, as do loyalty programs. 

5. Advocacy 

Not all customer journeys end with shoppers touting the brand to others, but all companies certainly want them to. Brands can encourage advocacy by rewarding customers for posting about their experiences on their social channels, writing reviews and referring others. And of course, the brand needs to continue offering exceptional products and experiences.  

How to Measure Performance Across Customer Journey Stages

It might be tempting to simply measure brand performance by overall metrics such as year-over-year sales, ROI and churn rates. But doing so can hide problems in one or two customer journey stages that could hurt the brand in the future, even if they’re not doing so now. For instance, downward trends in the awareness phase might not be influencing current sales, but they will likely result in fewer shoppers considering and purchasing products six months or a year down the road.  

The most effective KPIs, like the most effective marketing channels and messages, vary across the customer journey phases. 

• Awareness: Website traffic, SEO rankings, branded search volume and share of voice are important metrics here. Social listening helps track mentions of a brand or product across digital channels, as well. 

• Consideration: Measure click-through and engagement rates, how much time people spend on your website, which pages they visit and response to lead generation vehicles such as white papers. 

• Purchase: Conversion rates, average order values and time from initial interaction to purchase are primary KPIs here. 

• Retention: In addition to tracking repeat purchase and customer churn rates, the net promoter score (NPS) and customer satisfaction score (CSAT) can assess whether your brand is at risk of decreasing customer loyalty.  

• Advocacy: Once again, tracking NPS and CSAT helps identify the effectiveness of your advocacy efforts. It’s also important to track online reviews, referral program performance and social media engagement. 

How Customer Journey Stages Are Evolving

The steps of a customer journey are more or less the same as they were before the Internet. But because the journey now involves more channels, it has become less linear.  

For example, after becoming aware of several brands, then researching them thoroughly, a consumer might see on a social feed an influencer promoting yet another brand they’d not considered, sending them back to the awareness stage. Or a shopper might have sailed through the first two customer journey stages online, then found they needed to go into a store to make the actual purchase, at which point they go back to considering alternatives. Or maybe they do head to the store, but, once there, they use their smartphone to compare prices or features of other brands.  

This last example points to another way in which the customer journey stages are evolving: They’re becoming increasingly mobile-first. Research from PwC reveals that 55% of consumers consider online search their top source for pre-purchase information; an NRF/IBM study found that half of consumers used mobile apps during the discovery phase; Emarketer expects mobile commerce to account for more than half of all retail e-commerce sales by 2028.  

AI is also influencing customer journey phases. For one thing, the technology’s ability gives brands greater control over the marketing funnel narrative: Not only can they now meet shoppers in the channels of their choosing, but marketers can also personalize to an exceptional degree the messaging within each channel. In turn, AI raises consumer expectations regarding the relevance of the brand messages, while giving shoppers access to a greater wealth of information. 

The most important takeaway when it comes to how customer journey stages are evolving: Don’t underestimate the complexity of the path to purchase and advocacy, and be sure to account for every consumer touchpoint. Customer journey mapping, which must include a digital component, will reveal all the channels that play a role and help you determine how best to optimize them. 

Applying Behavioral Science Principles to Customer Journey Stages

Understanding the behavioral science behind the customer journey phases is a brand’s secret weapon for improving performance. For instance, to command consumers’ attention and make them aware of your brand, brands need to understand what is relevant to them and their identity. Tapping into their motivation is also critical to moving them onto the consideration stage. Appealing to emotions as well as needs and wants will encourage further consideration on their part, while crafting enduring positive memories can spur not only an initial purchase but also retention and advocacy. And understanding human habits enables brands to develop ways to embed into customers’ lifestyles and identities to further foster retention. 

At Material, we integrate behavioral science into our customer journey services. This enables us to fully understand the audiences a brand is trying to reach, how best to appeal to them and how to optimize each stage of the journey. Organizations worldwide have grown their audiences, sales and customer loyalty with the help of our dynamic approach.  

Start the conversation to learn how we can do the same for your business.