Customer life cycle; find out what this is and all about its phases
Customers change over time, like butterflies. By this we do not mean that they are first worms, then a chrysalis and then a colorful butterfly, only that they will go through several phases in their relationship with a brand, changing the way they perceive it and their behavior over time.
Understanding these phases and what the next cycle is can be very helpful. It can help us better understand our customers and to know what kind of actions we should take at any given time. And in order to learn about them, experts have developed methods and models, such as the customer’s life cycle. Don’t you know what that is? Well, that’s what we’re here for. Let’s take a closer look at this.
What is the customer life cycle?
The customer life cycle is a theoretical model that describes the different phases that a customer goes through in his or her relationship with a company. The knowledge of it will provide useful information at various levels, such as, for example, in order to carry out marketing actions according to the relationship that is being established with a user at any given time.
In other words, dealing with a customer who has just purchased one of our products is not the same as dealing with a customer who has been a customer for decades or who was a customer for decades but has not purchased any of our products for years now. The relationship is not the same and, therefore, our actions will not be the same.
What are the phases of the customer lifecycle?
– Acquisition
It is the first phase, in which customers make their first contact with the company.
This includes several moments that have one thing in common: to make our products or services known in order to awaken the interest of our future users.
In terms of the type of actions involved in this phase, the more traditional marketing efforts could be included: making the product known, investing in advertising, answering questions from people interested in the product, etc. At this point the person is not yet a customer, but is on his or her way to becoming one.
– Conversion
This is the phase in which you try to turn the person who is interested into a customer. It is identified as the “sale” phase in its most classical sense. Throughout the acquisition phase, the person who is interested has known about one of our products or services and now it is time to close the sale.
The actions corresponding to this phase are easy to identify and are sales-oriented: once the person is already informed, it is a case of turning him or her into one of our customers.
– Growth
So far we have seen the two phases in which companies usually invest more money and effort, but the following ones are equally important.
In the growth phase we find those people who are already customers of the company, because they have purchased some of our products or contracted our services. At this point, it is a matter of extending the relationship that the user has with the company, by proposing the acquisition of new products or services.
– Retention
In this phase you will find customers who are highly valued by the company. We want to continue to have these customers on our side, and that is why the actions we take will be aimed at increasing their loyalty and preventing them from abandoning us to our competitors.
Loyalty actions are highly identified with this phase. It’s about generating an extra interest and appreciation for our brand that makes the user feel they should continue to count on us.
– Reactivation
This is the phase of those people who were users in the past but have not purchased any of our products or services recently. Every company has this type of customer and knows that it will often be easier to get new sales from them than from non-clients.
However, when carrying out actions to reactivate these users, it will be necessary to consider the effect of these, since some people will often react very positively, but others will continue to ignore our suggestions.
The importance of customer service
Now that we know what the customer life cycle is and what its phases are, it is important to be aware that there is an aspect of our company’s relationship with our customers that will be relevant in several of these phases: customer service.
Customer service is essential, especially when it comes to customer loyalty and retention. But not only that: good customer service increases sales and is an excellent source of indirect advertising, which can generate new users for our brand through the recommendations of well-served and satisfied users.
And now you might think, “This is fine, but it takes a lot of effort and a lot of resources to provide good customer service”. And this is true, but the benefits are well worth the effort and there are also tools that can make it easier for us.
Will you let us show you ours? This is Integria IMS.
Integria IMS is software that has, among other features, an incident management system (help desk software) based on tickets (ticketing) which is capable of helping with the management of customer service for companies or organizations.
Do you want to know what the Integria IMS helpdesk tool can do for you? Take a look, here: https://integriaims.com/en/product/help-desk-software/
Or you can also send us any queries you may have regarding Integria IMS. You can easily do this by using the contact form at the following address:
https://integriaims.com/en/company/contact/
And don’t forget to leave a comment at the bottom of this article, this way other readers will be able to read your comments. What do you think of the customer life cycle?
And don’t forget to take a look at the other articles on this blog, which cover topics very similar to those of this article and we are sure you will love them.
The Integria IMS team will be happy to help you!