As a business owner, you know how important it is to maintain good relationships with your customers. So it’s essential to invest time and effort into acquiring the expertise and tools necessary to cater to ever-changing consumer demands.
To build customer loyalty, you need to be familiar with the stages a customer goes through. Understanding the customer lifecycle will assist you in establishing mutually beneficial connections with customers, thereby increasing the value of your existing clientele.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the basics of a customer lifecycle, including a detailed definition, the three customer lifecycle stages, and the software for tracking each stage. Let’s get started.
What is the customer lifecycle?
The customer lifecycle is the process by which leads learn about a product or service, decide to buy it, and ideally continue to buy from the same brand over time. This lifecycle has five stages:
The customer lifecycle provides a structure for your marketing team to consider their objectives at each stage, map them to essential success metrics, and create the relevant material and initiatives to drive success at each stage.
Using the customer lifecycle, your team can provide engaging content for lead acquisition and stellar service at every touchpoint.
What are the customer lifecycle stages?
Earlier, we mentioned that there are five customer lifecycle stages. Customers often float between them and even repeat certain ones—for example, when a client considers the value delivered by a new product offering despite having purchased other products or services from you in the past, this is the evaluation or acquisition stage.
Let’s go over each stage in more detail below.
1. Awareness
Your relationship with a customer begins at the awareness stage of the customer lifecycle. This is the stage at which your business first interacts with a potential customer through an online search, a social media ad, or a recommendation from an existing customer.
The consumer is often in a research mindset throughout this customer lifecycle stage, looking at various options for resolving their issue with no particular brands in mind. At this point, you’re not attempting to sell them anything. Instead, you’re trying to get their attention, start a conversation, and build rapport.
2. Acquisition
After establishing contact with a potential client, the next step is to start a conversation and provide them with some helpful information. In this stage, you recognize their difficulties and provide them with content that solves their issues.
Once a client reaches this point in the customer lifecycle, they have realized the issue’s significance or the solution’s potential. They are more likely to check you on social media, look at your company ratings online, and compare you to your rivals.
At this point, you need to demonstrate how your product or service is superior to the alternatives and highlight why they should choose you by using content marketing strategies like blog posts, videos, testimonials, and podcasts.
3. Conversion
The conversion stage is when a potential client has learned everything they need to know and is satisfied with their interaction with your brand that they decide to become paying clients.
At this point in the customer lifecycle, it’s crucial to emphasize the value you are delivering because they’ve committed to more than simply a transaction—they’ve engaged in a relationship with you. However, it doesn’t end there—you still have to keep them happy to retain their loyalty. That’s where the next stage begins.
4. Retention
Finding out the customer’s perspective and understanding their feelings is the first step toward customer retention. In this stage, you get in touch with them to see if they’re satisfied with the service or product they received.
You can also conduct customer satisfaction surveys, calculate your client retention rate, and launch a “customer’s voice” initiative to get sufficient information to sustainably enhance your offerings and the quality of your customer support.
This customer lifecycle stage is where you can provide your consumers with exclusive benefits unavailable to the general public. The ability to reach an expert at any time, price reductions, and rewards for referring friends are all incentives that may transform a buyer into an advocate for your business.
5. Advocacy
The end game is to have satisfied consumers willing to sing your praises. At this point, you want to ensure that your customers are happy with your products or services and are eager to spread the word about them through social media recommendations or online reviews.
Providing excellent customer service is a proven way to convert satisfied clients into raving fans who will spread the word about your business. You can also set yourself apart from the competition by selling better quality products or services at affordable prices, responding to their comments on social media, and providing a tailored service.
Track different customer lifecycle stages with Nutshell
Nutshell has everything your business needs to manage leads, streamline sales processes, and complete more transactions. In addition, our tools are user-friendly and intuitive, allowing your staff to focus on sales instead of learning the platform.
Nutshell maintains a centralized database to record prospect data and actions at each customer lifecycle stage. It features a client contact card where you can view details about a customer’s online behavior, communication preferences, and contact details.
Plus, when you become a part of the Nutshell family, we take you under our wing. We will do all it takes to ensure your success with Nutshell, from assisting you in optimizing your sales processes and revenue with every feature it offers to resolving any issues that may arise.Try it out for free today and see why Nutshell is one of the best customer lifecycle management CRMs to help your business grow!
