For B2B fintechs wanting to thrive in 2023 and beyond, becoming more client-centric is critical.
Customers and clients expect more control over their experience. And if their expectations aren’t met, switching providers is easier than it’s ever been.
All this combined means platforms are less “sticky” than they used to be. Platforms can’t lock in customer retention like before, which means there’s no room for subpar customer experiences.
We had a detailed look at why client-centricity is vital for fintechs in one of our previous articles. But there was one thing we didn’t cover: the customer journey.
The customer journey refers to all the interactions a customer has with your business; from pre-sale to post-sale.
The better your customer journey, the more likely you are to attract customers, and eventually convert them into loyal brand advocates.
For any fintech to thrive, their customer journey must be smooth, seamless, and pain-free.
There are 4 key pillars to this. Read on as we examine what they are…
1. Remember who you serve
This first step here isn’t about any particular process, method or task.
But nevertheless, it’s vital.
Because without the right attitude to streamlining your customer journey, you’ll fail to put any of this article into action.
The reason lots of fintechs burn out—particularly in the B2B sector—is because they want to perfect their product or service in the dark. Without letting anyone see the messy side of things.
But to develop the best possible customer experience, you have to be brave and build your offering in public.
That means accepting and embracing the reality that you will get things wrong. It’s just a necessary part of making something exceptional.
So don’t be worried about being seen to fail. Remember who you serve: it’s not about you. It’s about your customer.
Keep this in mind at all times as you refine your customer journey.
2. Map your customer journey
A customer journey map is a visual representation of how a customer interacts with your business.
And as you might have guessed, customer journey mapping is pretty much the blueprint to streamlining your customer journey.
You can’t rush this process, it takes a lot of time and effort. But if you get it right, it will form the scaffolding for your development for years to come.
The goal of a customer journey map is to accurately visualize the current process your customers go through, from the first to the final interaction with your business.
At each touchpoint along this journey, you must judge whether your customer is reaching their goal as intended.
If not, you need to figure out what the sticking point is, and what to change in order to eliminate it.
With a detailed understanding of this journey, and how each touchpoint affects your customers’ emotions, you can refine and reshape your journey as needed to create the smoothest process possible.
The goal is to make your customer journey easy, efficient and effective.
Different parts of the customer journey map
Every customer journey is different, but as a starter for ten, you want to ensure these elements are included and clearly marked on your customer journey map…
1. The Buying Process
Your map should include all the key milestones in your customer journey, and the path you want your customer to take to reach each particular goal.
Start with the typical stages of the buyer’s journey, then add more specific details and touch points depending on your unique service delivery model.
2. User Actions
Add details of what a customer does at each stage of the buying process.
For example, they might confer with colleagues before moving further, or apply for a demo with you before finally getting on a sales call and signing a deal.
The main thing here is to explore all the routes your customers may take to reach that end goal.
3. Emotions
Each point along this journey will make the customer feel a certain way.
Add these emotions to your journey map, so you can minimize the negative feelings experienced along the way.
This is how you craft a more positive customer experience over time.
4. Pain Points
Pinpoint and label the junctures where customers experience difficulty, disappointment or frustration.
Once you’ve done this, you can then look to deduce the reasons why, and address them.
5. Solutions
Your customer journey map should include all your ideas of how to improve your buying process and create a more positive customer experience.
These will inform the testing of any changes you decide to make.
6. Tracking and metrics
You can’t change what you can’t measure. So collecting and analyzing customer journey data is essential.
Tracking metrics at key parts of your customer journey will give you a evidence-based understanding of what’s working, what isn’t, and what changes you must make to refine and perfect your journey.
3. Collect customer feedback
Regardless of what form your customer journey takes, collecting feedback from customers and prospects is absolutely critical.
Surveys and forms are a good start, but if you want quality data you can act upon, then you have to go further.
Study the conversations your customers are having with your sales, support and customer success teams, and look for trends.
Issues that keep cropping up again and again are issues you need to fix.
Scour social media, reviewing sites and other professional communities for discussions about your service too.
And of course, ask your customers for feedback directly — both in public and in private.
In private, schedule feedback calls with your customers, such as once the onboarding process has finished, or at quarterly intervals.
You can also use NPS and CSAT tools to help you collate detailed and precise customer feedback at scale.
In public, openly ask questions on your social media channels asking for people’s opinions.
We know it’s scary, but just remember the first step and why you’re doing all this.
Once you’ve got all this data, the next big question is how to organize, segment and structure it—if you want more info on this, be sure to keep a close eye on our blog…
4. Collect and action feedback
Streamlining your customer journey is a science — it’s a process of constant testing and iteration:-
- Assessing your strengths and weaknesses
- Identifying opportunities to improve
- and working towards perfection, one little step at a time.
Before you make any changes to your service model, or any platforms, processes and tools you offer your customers, you must test them thoroughly.
The best way to do this is by using a control case and a test case.
Let’s say you want to update a landing page on your website that you use to capture and convert leads.
The control case is the version of the landing page as it currently exists.
The test case is a new version where a specific aspect has been changed. (For example, you might change the title, edit the body copy, or move the placement of the contact form.)
By methodically changing one aspect at a time, and gauging the response to these two different cases, you’ll gain a really precise picture of the impact your changes have, and whether they’re achieving the desired effect.
It’s a long process, but slow and steady wins the race.
Streamlining your customer journey: Key Takeaways
To recap, having a smooth and seamless customer journey is key for fintechs looking to adopt a more customer-centric approach.
By ironing out the kinks in your customer journey, you’ll create more consistently positive experiences with your brand.
This will boost the impact of your marketing efforts, and help you to build a tribe of loyal brand advocates.
Here’ are the 4 steps to streamlining your customer journey:-
- Accept that it’s a process of building in public. You will get things wrong before you get things right. Test, improve, and repeat.
- Mapping your journey is vital. Assess the emotions of your customers at each stage, and refine it until you have a completely positive experience.
- Go deep on customer feedback. Work with your sales, support and success teams. Look at social media. And ask for input directly.
- Action customer feedback using control cases and test cases. Change one aspect, then gauge the response. Be slow, be steady, be precise.
Need some help streamlining your customer journey?
Get in touch with one of our marketing strategists today, and we’ll help you identify what is and isn’t working for your brand.