What is the customer decision journey?

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, understanding the customer decision journey (CDJ) has become key for companies seeking to thrive in competitive markets.

The CDJ refers to the path that customers take from initial awareness of a product, technology or service to the final purchase decision and beyond. Gaining a deep understanding of the CDJ for your specific set of customers, can generate valuable insights into their behaviour, their decision-making drivers and even the barriers that are stopping you secure the sale. It can also help prioritize where to focus your strategy and your budget spend.

There are multiple stages of the CDJ

There are various definitions of the customer decision journey, but I typically use awareness, consideration, preference, and loyalty as the key categories.

Each stage of the CDJ has multiple touchpoints and in complex B2B industries such as medtech, the stages can hold varying levels of significance to the different stakeholders within your decision-making unit. It’s also not always a linear journey.

Today’s customer decision journey is very different to what it was in the past. In the last decade, there’s been a shift from traditional face to face sourcing of information and physical demonstrations to a multi-pointed journey where your customers have additional access to many informational platforms, from social media, to e-commerce, to user groups. This has transformed the way even B2B buyers research, evaluate and make decisions. It also means that your customer is potentially looking for data on your solutions 24/7, and from a variety of devices.

They are forming opinions on your capabilities when you are not even in the room.

Having said that, in medtech, as with other complex industries, face to face interaction whether that’s with your sales team or at a society event, still plays a very significant role in positioning your company as the most trusted advisor.

CDJ vs CX

While the customer experience (CX) and CDJ are closely related, they focus on different aspects of the customer journey. CX encompasses the overall perception that a customer has with a brand from initial contact to post-purchase support. The CDJ also looks at engagement points throughout the entire lifecycle but it delves deeper into

interactions that specifically influence the customer's decision to buy. This can include factors like pricing, features, and vendor reputation, where customers may make decisions even before they have directly experienced the product or company.

Different Stages of the Customer Decision Journey

Let’s look at the different stages of the CDJ, from awareness, to consideration, to preference to loyalty.

Awareness traditionally means the period in time when your customers become acquainted with your product and brands. For B2B and medtech, I would argue that awareness is better divided into two phases, especially as it relates to new technology. Often with very innovative solutions, your customer will not even be aware that there is a new way of doing things, let alone be aware that you are the company to help them transform. In this initial awareness stage, priority is given to shaping and educating the market first, followed closely by, and in some cases going hand- in- hand with creating awareness of your brand and solutions. Its important to separate the two as it can be a wasted effort to create brand awareness if there is no real demand for or understanding of your innovations.

The next stage of the CDJ is consideration. In the B2B world, this is when customers research the different options available to them. This can be as part of an exercise to develop tender specifications, or part of a request for information where the customer wants to get a broader understanding of potential solutions to help them meet their goals. It can also just be their own independent research. At this stage, the evaluation teams may not even have a solid description of exactly what they want, but are open to ideas and interested to educate themselves on the latest innovations. The further along the consideration stage your customer is, the more formed their ideas will be and the more barriers you’ll have to overcome. It’s therefore important that your technology is top of mind and clearly differentiated early on.

The preference stage is where brands strive to be the preferred provider. Depending on your situation, this can mean that you are seen to have the technology which best meets your client’s current and future needs, and that it’s so unique that no other supplier will even be considered. It can also mean that you are viewed as the most competent company over the longer term. Of course, pricing, business models, reputation and other factors play a role in this stage as does ensuring that all key stakeholders understand the benefits of working with you over and above anyone else in the industry. In the preference building stage, your aim is to be your customer’s number one choice, this is when they buy.

Finally, the loyalty stage focuses on retaining customers, and ensuring they are wowed with your solutions and your service, after your products have been installed. Happy customers more readily buy from you again, will purchase additional services during the lifetime of their products and will hopefully become advocates, recommending you to their peers.

Importance of the Customer Decision Journey in Business

In the next article we will look at the impact of understanding your customers’ decision-making journey, from developing insights for more targeted marketing campaigns, to delivering exceptional customer experiences in the moments that matter and beyond. As the business landscape continues to evolve, embracing the CDJ as a cornerstone of strategic planning is not just a competitive advantage but a necessity for long-term success.

For further ideas on optimizing the customer decision journey and using it as basis for your marketing plan, reach out to Unplain Jane. We’re here to help you unlock business potential.