How are brands exploring the customer journey to improve their experience?

To paraphrase ‘80s pop duo Eurythmics, customers are doin’ it for themselves. When it comes to accomplishing something, be it solving a problem, achieving a goal or making a purchase, they can definitely stand on their own two feet.

A customer journey has always begun way before (and gone beyond) the boundaries of a brand’s buying journey and now businesses must establish where they fit on the customers voyage, ensuring that its participation helps get them to their destination.

Now, a primary focus is on understanding the customers’ needs by delivering an optimal journey experience and there are many brands that have made great strides towards a more customer-centric approach, in many industries.

Finance

By digitizing traditional banking services, the introduction of financial technology (fintech) has transformed the world of finance by offering a more personalized and engaging experience in a way that traditional institutions could not.

Designed for a more tech-savvy customer base, fintech delivers services conveniently and on-demand, through a range of channels, with a responsive and user-friendly design. This includes personal finance monitoring dashboards, tablet-based point-of-service applications, online credit decisioning solutions and peer-to-peer lending marketplaces.

One example would be Canada’s TD Bank, which collaborated with money management service Moven to create the bank’s companion app, TD Myspend. Allowing users to track their spending habits and receive notifications in real time, the app was downloaded over half a million times in its first six months.

Airlines

Airlines have long prioritized loyalty and customer service, investing heavily into personalizing the customer experience. Even budget airlines have created experiences that enable customers to set their travel preferences and manage payments, with others going so far as to customize in-flight entertainment to a customers’ taste.

Dutch airline KLM, for example, has started to look at the wider customer journey by making forays into the realm of AI technology. A rapidly emerging trend for everyone from cosmetic companies to fashion houses, the KLM chatbot automates responses to customer queries through social media, as well as suggest services outside of its remit, like taxis and hotels.

Food and drink

With a commitment to create “the world’s greatest food community”, online food order and delivery service Just Eat has gone to great lengths to improve the customer journey. In September 2016, the company announced a £40m rebrand and tech revamp, incorporating a number of components. In addition to a Facebook Messenger chatbot – which allows customers to order their favorite dish and offer suggestions from alternatives – the company will also enable orders to be placed using Amazon’s voice-controlled device Alexa and the latest Apple Watch. In October, Just Eat also reveal a strategic partnership with mobile payment service FlyPay, so participating restaurants can incorporate loyalty, delivery and payment services into their own apps, and customers can leave reviews, in a single cohesive experience.

Retail

British videogame retailer GAME Digital has struggled with changing market conditions for some time and recently announced a new business strategy to create a more inclusive, multichannel experience for its customers. In October 2016, GAME Digital CEO Martyn Gibbs revealed a proposition where gamers will have “the opportunity to discover, buy, socialize, watch, compete and play in both physical locations and virtually.”

Building on a well-received ‘click & collect’ service and the introduction of in-store gaming zones, the retailer’s strategy includes an improved mobile app, expansion of its live, online and competitive gaming services and an enhanced loyalty scheme for a more enjoyable experience both online and at bricks and mortar stores.

While different industries, all share a similar goal: to facilitate and improve the customer experience, optimizing the route to their desired outcome and being present at relevant, valuable points of engagement. Brands may not be able to have influence over every stage of the journey but they can certainly strive towards being a part that customers choose to partake in.