Take a moment to think about the steps your customers go through before they even make their very first purchase from your company. Perhaps it begins when a potential customer opts-in to your company newsletter and then eventually when they decide to make a purchase. And then hopefully over time, they will turn into repeat customers and brand advocates for your company. This is what is known as the customer lifecycle and it is the process your customers go through when they are building a relationship with your company. 1. Reach - This first stage is the point when you first make contact with your potential customer. This contact could come from a Facebook ad, a coupon delivered in the mail, or even a referral from a friend. For this stage to occur, your business must be marketing in places where the right people will see your content and become aware of your company. It is important to have the right metrics in place so you can see which of your marketing efforts paid off the most. 2. Involvement - At this stage, the main aim is to attract the attention of the customer and invite them to your product’s platform. The key elements that work towards this is the showcase of your Value proposition, USP and the practice that you want to inculcate. 3. Acquisition - Once you’ve attracted the customer towards your product platform, what you need to do is acquire them. If the consumer is convinced with brand’s USP and value proposition, they will enter their data like email ID and contact number. Now this customer is acquired. 4. Consideration - This stage is closely linked to the next stage, which is conversion. What this stage entails is providing a sense of urgency or a compelling reason for the acquired customer to convert to a paying customer. The success of this stage is measured by the percentage of customers being converted after being acquired. If this percentage is small, you can look at giving out special incentives and offers to urge the customer towards conversion. 5. Conversion - This is the stage where your lead turns into a paying customer. The best way to convert your leads into paying customers is to focus on providing value and building the relationship rather than simply selling the product. Your customer should feel welcomed and valued; if this happens, the sale will happen on its own. 6. Retention - Now that you have gained a new customer, your goal should be to figure out how to keep that person as a recurring customer. This means finding ways to upsell or cross-sell to that person. During this stage, you need to continue to build and maintain your relationship with that customer. This means maintaining contact in some way and continuing to bring value to that person so they will think of you every time they need your product or service. Customer retention should be a top priority for businesses as studies have shown that reducing customer churn by merely 5 percent can increase your profits by 25-125 percent. It is much more profitable for businesses to continue to sell to the customers they already have than it is to find and market to all new customers. 7. Loyalty - This stage is to do with converting customers into loyal friends so that they stick with the brand and continue to purchase from it. This will maximise the lifetime value of a customer and generate more and more revenue for a business. This might be done through Loyalty Point programmes and discount coupons given to repeat customers. 8. Advocacy - The ultimate goal for any brand should be to have a loyal customer who recommends your product or service to anyone who will listen. This will only happen if the customer is emotionally invested in the brand and completely satisfied with it. Advocacy is achieved through building relationships with consumers and focus on customer success. When the customer is happy we will recommend the product or service to someone who is likely to become a customer as well. Thus a cycle is created. Hence, with a fully thought out customer lifecycle you not only maximize the lifetime value of your customers, but also organically add new clients. Case Example - UBER 1. Reach - Your friend Your friend tells you about their favorite ride-sharing app, Uber, and asks you to try it out 2. Involvement - You download the app and you like the value proposition of getting access to affordable ride-sharing options to commute anywhere 3. Acquisition - You’re convinced that this app solves a need for you, and you create an Uber account giving details like your name, phone number and email address. 4. Consideration - You see a coupon for 30% off on your first ride and thus are incentivized to go to conversion and book a cab. 5. Conversion - Taking advantage of the coupon code, you book your first ride, converting into a paying customer. 6. Retention - You like your first ride experience, and you’re tempted to use it again.You get the option to add cash onto your Uber wallet to make the payment process hassle-free, and you opt in. Here you’ve become a recurring customer. You also see driver details like number of trips completed, driver background, photograph on each ride that you book, increasing your time spent on the app. 7. Loyalty - You get coupon codes from time to time, and also the option of a ride pass. This increases your satisfaction and loyalty towards the brand. 8. Advocacy - Finally since you’ve become a regular user of Uber, you recommend this app to your friends and family, and urge them to try it out. With the help of this example, try to visualize the lifecycle of your customer, and fill in all of the 8 stages accordingly!