Most businesses place too much emphasis on acquiring new customers. Their existing customers are often neglected. A customer timeline is a powerful tool for tracking customers’ activity and engagement with your business across all channels.
Using this tool, you can see how they interact with you, when they are most active, and what type of content they prefer.
Find out why it is essential and how you can implement
How Does a Customer Timeline Work?
Customer timelines document a customer’s interactions with a business, from their first contact to their most recent purchase.
The information can be used by businesses to improve customer service, target marketing campaigns, and even make product development decisions.
Setting Up a Customer Timeline
You can create a custom timeline for your business in the following manner:
Segment your customer base.
First, you should identify the different types of customers you serve. This will enable you to create separate timelines for each group of participants.
Analyze the customer journey at each stage.
Next, you should map your customer’s journey from awareness to purchase. Think about your customers’ needs and goals at each stage.
Create strategies for each stage of the process.
You can begin developing strategies for each customer journey stage once you have identified the steps. In the awareness stage, the content might be created to educate customers, or discounts might be offered to encourage purchasing in the decision stage.
A Simple Customer Timeline View
Your customer timeline must be accessible to the following individuals:
- Representatives of customer service
- Sales representatives
- Managers of marketing
- The product manager
How to Get the Most from Your Customer’s Entire History
There is an opportunity to create value with every contact your business has with its customers.
It is essential to recognize and capitalize on these opportunities to convert a one-time customer into a lifelong advocate.
Identify the customer journey and develop a complete understanding of it.
The report you will create from that process should include all information regarding the customer’s initial purchase through the most recent interaction.
Analyze patterns and trends in your business operations to improve them
A company may decide to improve the quality of a particular product if agents notice that customers who purchase it are more likely to return it. It is also possible to invest in ensuring that customer service interactions are positive if agents see that customers who interact with your customer service team have a higher lifetime value.
Timeline Examples of Events to Track
Customer events, also known as customer acquisition events, allow brands to leave a lasting impression on customers during their customer journey.
Purchasing for the First Time
When a customer buys your product or service for the first time, this is an excellent opportunity to make a good first impression.
Registration for a Free Trial
Free trials of your product or service are the event that starts the clock ticking. If you want customers to stick around after the free trial expires, you must ensure that it is high quality and easy to use.
Interactions with Customers
Your customer service team has the opportunity to improve the customer’s experience every time they contact you. Keep track of these interactions to identify patterns and make improvements.
Returns of Products
Even though a product return is never a good thing, it can be an opportunity to learn more about the wants and needs of your customers. You can use this information to make changes to your product to reduce the number of returns.
Churn in the Customer Base
The moment when a customer ceases to do business with you. The purpose of tracking this event is to understand the full context of the event and to take steps to prevent it from recurring.
Conclusions
To unlock the value of your customers, you must understand their history. You can improve your business operations and establish a lasting relationship with your customers by tracking customer events and identifying patterns.