It is given that customers are scanning the web for every shred of evidence on products that will augment their lifestyle. Potential buyers are well researched. They are only looking to confirm their research with the brand’s promises. Even before swiping their cards, there is an emotional involvement attested with purchases. Customers are in search of value. So value creation should be on top of the pyramid.
What is the Moment of Truth?
Moments of truth are highly interactive touchpoints that involve emotional and critical decisions of a customer towards a brand. This provides valuable insights on customer’s needs, expectations, previous interactions with other brands, buyer’s anxiety and emotional involvement.
Moment of Truth is a critically intense moment that can cement or crush a relationship of a brand with its customer. Different points of a customer’s journey can determine their moments of truth. Buyers are constantly comparing these three fulfilment metrics while they are on a purchase journey. Moments of truth will be what they think or see at that touchpoint.
Most purchases that people make, move through three stages of fulfillments.
One is the functional fulfilment that the product is primed to do.
Second is the emotional fulfilment where the user will feel certain emotions from using the product. Third is the social fulfilment where customers will map their social standing from using the product.
Three touchpoints of Moment of Truth
There are three main touchpoints or Moments of Truth in a commercial setting.
Stimulus:
This is the moment where potential leads become aware of your products or services. This awareness stems from online or offline advertisements. Ideally, this is the first awareness stage that potential leads will come to learn about brand’s offerings and how it can solve their problems. This can happen via TV ads, print ads, newspaper leaflets, outdoor ads, sponsored search results on Google, emailers and social media promotions etc.
First moment of truth:
This is the ultimate decision to buy a product or service from the organization. At this point, a lead or a prospect becomes your customer after their first financial transaction with you.
Second moment of truth:
The experience every customer undergoes while using the purchased product or service. During the post-purchasing phase, people will share their reviews and customer feedback online or offline. All this information makes for social proof for the brands.
Second moment of truth will also determine if a customer will be disappointed or will become a loyal buyer to the brand. Researchers introduced a critical touchpoint, Zero Moment of Truth (or ZMOT) a little later.
What Is The Zero Moment Of Truth?
Researchers at Google introduced a new critical phase called Zero Moment of Truth that caught on among marketers like wildfire. This phase falls in between stimulus and first moment of truth.
This turned into a meeting point (melting pot) for many organizations that began to look at customer touchpoints differently (or in a similar fashion).
Before making a financial transaction, people are scanning the internet for more information about their next purchase. How an organization represents themselves at the ZMOT will determine how prospective buyers will perceive them. Content is important at this point. Brands positioning themselves as trusted advisors rather than a ‘buy me’ label have more chances of engaging with a dialogue with customers.
One person’s second Moment of truth becomes a new prospect’s ZMOT. Product recommendations, social proof, online reviews and other customer’s post purchase feedback are a part of this phase.
All of this information is highly relevant for an incoming buyer. This helps them make a decision at their zero moment of truth. They want to be well informed about the company from sources and compare it with that company’s promises. Customers will want to know how the information at ZMOT will be in line with their value fulfilment system.
It is good to note that people at ZMOT may not necessarily convert to become your customers.
4 Ways To Prevent Customer Churn At Different Touchpoints
Your potential customer wants to be nurtured the moment they come in contact with your brand. Statistics mention that 86% of buyers are willing to pay more if they have received a memorable customer experience.
1. Providing takeaway values at each touchpoints:
Let’s face it. The only time we consider looking deeper into a product is when there is adequate information about the brand. Keeping information at a buyer’s finger tips by means of FAQs, interactive website chatbots, open channels to talk to customer executives and product demonstration at offline stores. Plenty of organisations are investing in marketing by being visible to customers at their ZMOT. For some service based organisations, teams can offer trial sessions before customers opt to purchase.
2. Engage with customers during the onboarding process:
Many subscription based models work on providing trial sessions to every potential lead. This is done to avoid hassle based commitment in case consumers change their mind midway. Wellness centres and branded gyms offer trial sessions for potential leads. The ‘try before buy’ method improves conversion rate and enforces confidence in your offerings. This allows prospects to sample your features and engage with the experience.
3. Collect feedback throughout the relevant post purchase journey:
The only time a customer will give feedback is when they are prompted to share their feedback, intentionally. Curate feedback mechanisms at every touchpoint to understand their experiences throughout the customer journey. Deploy surveys via relevant real time mediums of messenger platforms. At these mediums, the feedback captured is relevant, in-moment and gives immediate insight. Feedback mechanisms can also be automated at touchpoints after certain interactions.
4. Make customers feel heard by offering actionable solutions:
Brands that actively assess all negative feedback and close the feedback loop will continue having an advantage in this competitive market. As an organization scales, it can get hard to track every conversation or review. Fortunately, an omnichannel presence to track real time reviews and grievances can bridge this gap. Conversations happen even when we are asleep and word of mouth is a potent form of feedback.
Organisations can use Merren to gain personal insights and offer customized experience in 2023
➧ Capture customer’s immediate feedback via our messenger based surveys. Deploy feedback mechanisms using Whatsapp, Facebook Messengers, Instagram Direct Messages and RCS
➧ Automate your survey systems to have them published at specific intervals of customer interactions. This is truly a hands-off process and makes processes easier.
➧ You can pre test every single survey before publishing them during the final process. Every published survey will track data in real time.
➧ Moments of truth also involve soliciting data in media rich formats. Seek for responses in audio, video, texts and pdf formats.
➧ Choose from a variety of conversational templates and formulate your own questions. Every survey created is visible on the dashboard.
➧ Segregate intimidating data in simple graphs and charts using specific filters. Working with respondent data has never been easier!
Its time to find out the moment of truth from your consumer base! You can schedule a free consultation with us to give a live demo of how Merren works at scale. You can also try our 14 day free trial here, no credit card needed.