Podcast: What You Should Know About the Customer Journey

They emphasize that the journey is rarely linear, often requiring multiple touchpoints before a customer commits. The discussion walks through the five key stages of the marketing funnel: awareness, consideration, conversion, purchase, and loyalty. Whether you're offering urgent services like plumbing or cultivating trust for long-term projects like remodeling, they offer actionable strategies to guide customers through each phase. Highlights of this episode include the growing influence of online reviews as modern word-of-mouth, the role of consistent branding in building trust, and the importance of integrated marketing across digital platforms. Dan, Sarah, and Ian also share tips on measuring and improving funnel performance, making this episode a must-listen for local business owners serious about showing up when it matters most.

[Transcript]
Dan, Sarah, Ian

Dan 00:06
Welcome to another episode of Small Business Small talk, I'm Dan. Joining me is Sarah. Here in studio.  We have Ian joining us remotely. How are you guys doing? Awesome. Good to hear. So today we are going to be talking about the customer journey and everything that small business owners need to understand about their customer journey, because I think we can all agree it's pretty important when you're trying to figure out your marketing strategy, that you understand how your customers are finding you and your business.

So, to start off, I think we just need to touch on the fact that the customer journey really isn't a straight line. As much as we want it to be, it certainly isn't that way. And I think there's a statistic that something like an average of seven touch points it can take for a customer with a business before they actually come in and do business, make a purchase with them. So, like when we say touch points that I want to make sure we're speaking the same language. You know what is a touch point, Sarah?

Sarah 00:59
Yeah. That's, I mean it's any way that a customer can interact with your business, right. So, depending on the industry that you're in, you're going to have different touch points along the way.

Seven is average. I've heard it goes all the way up to 11-13 depending on the buying cycle. And it's really just, you know, how often or how many times a customer is going to interact with your business or prospects or, you know, in any industry, before they actually decide to go with you as their option for whatever service that they're looking for.

Dan 01:32
Right. So that can be either through a website, through an ad, even looking at a review, leaving a review is a touch point. So, Ian, how do you, how does a business owner wrap their head around all of that? Because obviously seven touch points. That's not what a business owner wants to hear. They want to hear they went to my website and made a purchase. And that’s not how it happens

Ian 01:48
If you're, into this kind of thing as a business owner, you're probably asking people, “oh, how'd you find me?” They go, “your website.” And it sounds very, you know, nice and like, oh, it's just 1 to 1 ratio, right? The reality is they're probably seeing, you know, ads for your business in their feed. They've probably searched for the services you provide and seen you in the search results, maybe didn't even click you. But your name is there. It's that little kernel of like, oh, I saw them next to the person I did click on who you know wasn't available. So now I'm going to go back into research mode. So, it's you know, it's a very … I don't want to say drawn out process because all those touch points can happen pretty quickly. But it's not, you know. Oh yeah, I put an ad in the paper and you saw it and you came in that afternoon. You know, it's a much longer and to Sarah's point, you know, depending on the type of business. Dan, you were just talking about having your kitchen, you know, completely redone. You know, that's not you didn't hire the first person whose name you thought of or saw, you know, that's you've got to do your research, you get your quotes, you probably do some comparison shopping. You know, it's it can be a really that's probably when you get into those 11 to 13 touch points where it's like, all right, now I'm ready to ask this person to take the job. And that may be very different if it's, you know, there's a leak in your kitchen, right? Like you're going to call somebody pretty quickly. It's not going to take much for you to, to call someone just oh, they're available 24 hours. Got it.

Dan 03:19
Right. And I think it's important, you know, we're using the term “customer journey.” You know it can take other forms, “buy cycle,” “customer life cycle,” those types of things. One thing I definitely want to hit home is that you can't really skip parts of the journey. No one point is more important than another. It all works together, which just adds to the importance of that integrated marketing solution. That doesn't mean that you can't tailor your strategy to if you need more awareness because you're a newer business, so you just need to get your name out there. You can have strategies for that versus if you need more leads now, you can tailor a strategy for that as well. So, when we're looking at the customer journey, how are we analyzing and thinking through that journey? What's the, is there a method that we want to think through? Because I know a lot of times we think of it as a funnel. So, Sarah, can you walk us through that funnel and the different stages of the funnel and how they interact with each other?

Sarah 04:10 
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's really five stages, right? Your first one is awareness. The goal of this stage is to make people aware of your brand. Then you're going to trickle into consideration. That is somebody doing research on your business potentially consider you as an option, to do business with. From there, the customer decides they want to do business with you. They're going to enter the conversion stage. Fill out a contact form, give you a phone call, to get a quote. So, you know, then they're going to ultimately decide, hey, I want to work with you. They're going to move into that purchase phase. They're a customer. They are working with you moving forward, they're happy with the service that you provided. They're going to then be a solid promoter for you. Enter that final stage of, you know, offering referral business. They're a loyal customer to you moving forward.

Dan 05:02 
And that helps fill that top part of the funnel, again.

Sarah 05:04 
Absolutely.

Dan 05:05 
And then I think a part of this is to make sure we're all speaking the same language here. Funnel, reverse triangle. So, each stage you're going to refine your audience a little bit more.

Ian 05:14
Fly to the top to see.

Dan 05:15
Right. Yeah. So, you're here. You're going to see those numbers get a little bit smaller as you go by.

Sarah 05:21
Absolutely.

Dan 05:22
Now, Ian, how does that, how could somebody take a strategy. Because I mean, again, we just named what, five different stages of a funnel. How are we building marketing strategies to account for all of those?

Ian 05:34
Well I you know, it's interesting. I want to go back real quick to something you said earlier about, you know, you can't, there isn't really a shortcut. You can't skip any of these steps, which is true. I think the other way to look at it is you can not do some of these steps, but it's not a shortcut, you know? So, to go back to exactly what you just said, you know, when you're in that consideration stage, if you as a business owner haven't done a good job of kind of, you know, review hygiene, you know, you haven't, either haven't generated reviews, you haven't generated reviews recently. I mean, I'm not going to hire someone to remodel a kitchen who hasn't had a review in two years. Or, you know, you just don't bother with reviews and maybe you've got even one negative review that you haven't responded to. You know, that's the kind of thing that, you know, you can't really, you have to anticipate this journey happening. You have to anticipate what can happen to each step of that journey and make sure that what you're doing to promote and market your business is there to meet people along each of those steps. So, you know, going back to those five stages, right? Awareness, consideration, conversion, purchase, and referral or loyalty. It really matches up nicely with some of the marketing strategies that I think our typical small business owner would be familiar with. You know, when you're talking about awareness, it's having a website that looks professional. It's making sure that you know, your Google listing exists. First of all, and has a current, you know, phone number, address, etc., when you're moving into the consideration stage, it's what we've been talking about. It's reviews. It's your reputation. It's making sure that, you know, people who are still not sure if they're going to fill out your form or fill out, you know, that person's form, it's making sure that they have all the information they need about you to go. Yeah, they they're still in the running. I'm going to you know, they're on my short list. When you're talking about conversion, I mean, that's any number of things along that path. I mean, it's making sure that you have a website that has a form that someone can fill out. You know, there's, I'm sure I don't have this statistic in front of me, but I'm sure there's a generational plummet for folks who want to make a phone call. These days. You know? I don't. I'd much rather, you know, use the chat feature or fill out a form or send a text message or, you know, you name it. I don't want to pick up the phone and feel like I'm, you know, being pressured into something. Even though I'm the one initiating that conversation. You know, and along the way, too, as they're moving from awareness through consideration to eventually conversion, you're reinforcing what they've already learned, right? You've got ads running, you're retargeting them after they visited your website to say, hey, did you forget something?

Or maybe you're saying, listen, if you come back now, it's 10% off. You know, it's making sure that you are top of mind and that you're following them along that journey. Because whether it's a kitchen remodel or, trying to think of something that's more of, an impulse purchase.

Dan 08:41 
Even any need-it-now service.

Sarah 08:43
Right. Towing.

Dan 08:44
Right. Plumbing. But even then, even with those need-it-now's, if you haven't done the groundwork of awareness to get your brand out there. The first thought, if you can be ahead of the Google search, so to speak, and instead of waiting for someone to say, I need a tow truck, and they go, “Oh wait, I saw Tom's Towing for the last three years. I'm going to call Tom's Towing because…” Or look for them first. You've got the head start there. So really, even for the need-it-now’s these other steps are very important.

Sarah 09:12
Right. I mean I think about like that example with a display advertising. Right. It's an online billboard for your business. So, you know, you're driving by on the interstate, you see a billboard. It's probably likely not something you need right away. I mean, think about the types of businesses you see on billboards, but it creates that brand awareness. The same thing you're going to do online, right, is just kind of letting customers know and they feel comfortable with like you said, Tom's Towing. So, when they're on the side of the road, I'm searching “tow truck,” “towing,” anything near me in an emergency, Tom's pops up. That's going to be the choice you go with because, you know, subconsciously you've seen it. They're out there.

Dan 09:48
They’re comfortable with it.

Sarag 09:49
They’re comfortable with it. Right. So, you're not going to just choose, you know, somebody honestly, if you're on the side of the road, you're probably not going to choose the first tow truck that pops up that has a one-star rating where it says, “they never came.”

Ian 09:59
I think about, you know, the billboards I passed on my way to work this morning, right. And none of them are something that as I'm sitting in traffic, I'm going to really think about deeply or certainly I'm not going to, you know, get my phone out and look somebody up. But I can tell you, I can name two different marketing companies and a realtor because I saw them. And I see them every day that I'm passing those billboards. And, you know, I may not be looking for a realtor for another three or five years, but I can name two, and that billboard is one of them. So that kind of awareness, that constant reinforcement, you know, even if you're not right, a need-it-now service, you know, that can really pay dividends in the long run as folks move through that, move through that funnel eventually.

Sarah 10:43
Yeah. Right.

Dan 10:44
It's interesting, you never think about what sticks in the back of your head, because even if you're not even thinking like, “oh, I need a realtor now, what was that billboard?” You might just search for the realtor and you see that name, and then that triggers the “oh yeah!” exact moment. And then, you know, it's also a little bit of like, hey, they put in the effort. So clearly they care about their presence as well. So, then there's a little bit to be said there.

Sarah 11:07
Thanks for listening to this episode of Small Business, Small Talk powered by Hibu. Hibu is a leading provider of synchronized digital marketing for small businesses across America. With Hibu you get all the digital marketing your business needs, all from One Platform, One Provider. Visit us today at Hibu.com

Dan 11:25
And something that we also need to think through, and I know that we pay attention to a lot and the services we provide is that continual experience. So, you want to make sure that someone clicks a website. They have a user experience on that website. Okay, great. Now when they see a display ad, we have to make sure that their brand matches the display, that the display ad matches the website branding. And then when they go to a landing page, that landing page matches the website. Then the social presence … all of these pieces. It needs to feel like it's one brand, needs to feel like it's a continuous experience for the customer. And I think that's where having a single partner to work with can provide such big dividends.

Sarah 12:06
Exactly. I mean, and all of those pieces are going to have the same call to action, right? Like “call us today.” Call, you know, “get in touch with us,” “visit us,” things like that that are so important that you don't necessarily think about, but you want to tell, you know, we tell our clients, we want to tell your customers what you want them to do at every stage of the funnel, right? Check out a website, whatever the case may be. So, I think that's really important. Then you bring up a really great point of having one provider that can match all of that, and make sure that you are hitting all pieces of the funnel, and you're going to bring in those quality customers. Those quality conversions or leads. So yeah.

Ian 12:43
And ultimately, hopefully turn them into repeat customers, right? I mean, that's the last step in the funnel is listen, you've got…

Dan 12:48
Often forgotten last step.

Ian 12:50 
Right. Absolutely often forgotten. You've gotten the lead. You've gotten the job. You finish the job. They love the work. You know, remember to ask for that review. You know, if you're uncomfortable asking for it, maybe you, you know or you forget. I mean, perfectly easy to do that, you know, make sure you have mechanisms in place where there's a follow up email, there's, you know, somebody calling out, there's something to make sure that you take that person who had a great experience, you know, and they can now leverage that experience, you know, in support of your business.

Dan 12:21
Yeah. I mean, I think we said a million times at this point, but like reviews are the new word of mouth. No one's talking to their neighbors asking for advice. You may ask your family, but really they're looking at reviews probably before they even talk to anybody else. So, if you're not taking that extra step to showcase the work that you've done through someone else's voice, you really, you're really missing out on an opportunity to bring in more business.

Sarah 13:47
Yeah. I mean, consider like people saying like, “oh, well, word of mouth is how we get our customers,” but that word of mouth is turning into, yeah, I trust my neighbor, but do I trust my neighbor like, I'm going to still perform a search and I'm still going to, you know, do a check, right? I'm going to check what my neighbor is recommending me is the best possible option for me. So, I think we have to consider that too. You know, a lot of our business owners say, “well, we get a lot of our business from word of mouth. We don't necessarily need a huge awareness piece.” Right? But I think that that's something to consider because, like, you know, people are still going to look up your business even if somebody is recommending you. I think that's a really important call out too.

Ian 14:27
And that's just, you know, the one off review after someone's done a great job, I mean, the kitchen remodeling example doesn't work here. But imagine something where, you know, you need frequent service. Maybe your HVAC system, right. You're supposed to get service twice a year. You know, maybe you had your hot water heater replaced. And now as the business owner, you're like, “well, how do I get back into Dan's house?” You know, how do I say six months from now? Like, “hey, it's time for your, you know, fall duct cleaning” or whatever. You know, that's part of it too, is you need to have these mechanisms in place, these systems and these marketing programs so that, you know, even if you forget there's something that's sending out that email blast, there's something that so or even just reminding you, you know, hey, you know, open up your, you know, whatever the, the current version of a Rolodex is, I guess, the contact list on your phone, you know, and make sure you call these folks, because even if you know, one out of ten signs up for that seasonal repeat service, that's, you know, that's way easier than landing new business.

Dan 15:27
For sure. I think there's also a level of thinking through as you're going through the journey, thinking through the journey, there's a little bit of a cost of not doing business. Think about those business owners and those businesses where you aren't going to get a second chance to get them. I think, something like dentist. Like how often are you changing your dentist? So, like you need to really think through the cost of not getting that lead. And so, you really need to focus through on, again, casting that wide net on the awareness stage, making sure you've got then a strategy to support that awareness. Make sure that you can bring them down the funnel. Ask for the conversion. I know it's always hard when I say that I that's where I mean, those CTAs on the website. The form fills, make sure they're easy, accessible, make sure the phone number is always accessible. All of those things you really want to make it easy for someone to convert so you can keep moving them along their journey. So eventually they become a referral and a long lasting customer.

Sarah 16:21
Yeah, absolutely.

Dan 16:22
Last thing I really want us to touch on here is thinking through that performance element, because I know we talk about that a lot, having a dashboard, not just doing the marketing, but understanding its impacts and what it's doing for you. So, having that dashboard where you can look through all the stages, what are some of the things that maybe a business owner should look at when they're reviewing the marketing strategies to look for areas of improvement?

Sarah16:43
Yeah, I think I mean, if you're having and you're bringing a ton of business to your website, right, you want to consider is that business converting? Right? And so, you know, with our sites we make it super easy to convert for a customer. Right. Because you talked a little bit about the quickest path to purchase. So, you know, when somebody is going to our website, they want to be able to contact us immediately. So, things that you want to look at, right, is you're bringing a ton of traffic to your website. What is that, you know, rate of conversion. How many of those people are actually filling out a contact form? You know, if you have a custom built site and you're seeing a ton of traffic to your website, but no conversions, no contact forms, no phone calls, I think a simple thing to consider is how easy is it to get to that, right? Because I know if I'm doing my, even if I'm taking time to do research, I don't want have to take time to figure out how I contact a company, right? Scrolling, finding different pages. So those are some things to consider, right? And so that's really important when we are building out our sites for our customers, is making sure that a customer can find you, make it easy for them to find you.

Dan 17:50
And it's not always, it's not always on the side either, because, you know, sometimes you'll get the conversions, but maybe those leads aren't turning into purchases. So, then you have to look even maybe a little offline and see what's happening in your nurturing process there, which is a little bit harder. But I think what's nice about like having a unified dashboard is the way we present data at least is it is in that funnel. So, you can see where your awareness comes through. You can see how that turns into consideration, into conversion, into referrals, all of that. Now I want to make sure we're clear on this. You will have drop off. There is going to be drop off. Not everyone that sees your site will be a customer. And that's okay. You just want to make sure that you do have a simple path to create leads. That's a great purchase, but. So you will have drop off. You just want to make sure that it's not crazy where you have like 10,000 lead like clicks to your site, but three people convert

Sarah 18:49
And consider people like will go through the awareness phase to consideration, they might not even get to your website, right? Nowadays with Google, you have to make sure that, you know, your Google Business listing, everything is set up because sometimes people aren't even going to go to your website to make a decision with the, you know, with a zero-click searches or whatever they're going to search on Google. See you as an option. Read your reviews without even checking out your website, and then they might actually click to call you. So, considering some of that and seeing the awareness piece of your funnel and seeing that as still so important, even if it's not always trickling down to, a direct lead from your website, for example.

Dan 19:29
Yeah. But one thing that you mentioned there was that that path again, from awareness to consideration, but it's not always as simple as we talked, at the top. It's not always linear. You can have someone that goes awareness, consideration. Maybe they convert for somebody, not you, but they didn't like it. So, then they go back. They're back at the top of the funnel going back into awareness. So that's where that seven touchpoints comes through. You might be in your head, might be going or going well you only name five stages, how does that equal seven touch points. Sometimes they're going to be going back and forth between. They might not like what they see in a specific stage. So, they go back to the step one, especially for those longer buying cycles. 
I think this is a great topic that people want to dive in further. They can always go to hibu.com and get, we have tons of resources, a lot of information about the funnel and just general marketing strategies, over there. 

But thank you guys for listening. Or watching. If you're on YouTube you can always follow, like, comment, subscribe. If you want more of our content, we'd love to hear from you guys as well. And we'll see you next time.