home buying customer journey

June 15, 2021 in Thought leadership 3 min read

A consumer perspective on the homeownership journey

The journey of homeownership is difficult for everyone. Potential homebuyers contend with a relative lack of knowledge about the process, and they often find that each new phase of the journey leads to more questions and more stress. Within this problem lies an opportunity for trusted advisors to help guide consumers. To find out where the current pain points were, Blend engaged Aite Group to survey consumers and examine consumer interest in a more streamlined homeownership journey.

Most potential homebuyers start online

For most (58%) prospective homebuyers, the journey begins with an online search on websites such as Zillow, Redfin, or OpenDoor. Another 23% of respondents began their process by looking for a real estate agent who can help them look for homes. Significantly, only 8% shopped for a mortgage as their first step in the homeownership process.

Many consumers lack vital education on the homeownership process

The survey results were particularly clear on one issue: throughout the process, potential homeowners’ lack of education is a consistent barrier. Many, and especially first time homebuyers, simply lack the education they need to feel confident purchasing a home.

Homeowners were least knowledgeable about home warranties and the real estate agent’s commission and incentives, but they also showed a concerning lack of knowledge around the appraisal (and its implications) and closing costs.

Potential homebuyers struggle to find their dream home

When asked specifically about the house hunting phase of the homeownership journey, consumers reported that finding the home they wanted was the biggest challenge. They also found it challenging to understand all the potential cost components in the process, the nuances of selecting an agent or lender, and the intricacies of making an offer.

As the purchase process winds down, confusion continues

Once the potential buyer finds a house, the real journey begins. Many potential homeowners have trouble navigating the nuances of purchasing the required insurance, understanding timelines, and other aspects of the closing process.

Coordinating post-purchase activities was just as vexing for consumers

Once closing is complete, a new phase begins. Historically, this has been where lenders disappear from the process. However, while the house may have been purchased, the work is far from done. From organizing the move-in activities and hiring contractors for repairs, to learning about the property and the community, there’s a lot for consumers to tackle.

Reframing the homeownership journey

The results noted above highlight potential homeowners’ key knowledge gaps and the demand for an advisor to provide guidance throughout the process.

Because consumers lack in-depth knowledge about the often confusing homeownership process, they often find it challenging to figure out what services they need and how much they should pay. These gaps make an already difficult process even more stressful for consumers.

Understanding these pain points can be a helpful guide for lenders aiming to provide a  customer experience that will keep them top of mind when the next big purchase comes along. Providing education for consumers on the various aspects of the process could reduce their stress while improving their experience. There is an opportunity to increase customer satisfaction and create operational efficiency by creating a lending experience that more tightly integrates all the activities related to homeownership while remaining centered around the consumer.

Consumers are looking for trusted guidance

When asked whether they would be interested in a homebuying experience centered around them and provided by the lender, consumers expressed significant interest. They indicated the highest interest in a one-stop shop for all of the services involved in homeownership, but they also showed interest in getting cash offers for their current homes, assistance moving, education surrounding the entire process of purchasing a home, and information on how to manage that home as an asset.

• Read the full Aite research paper

Methodology The survey was conducted in Q1 of 2021. Aite Group surveyed 2,010 U.S. consumers who purchased a home within the past five years and financed this purchase with a mortgage loan. Additional insights were gained through interviews of 21 U.S. mortgage lending professionals. This research was sponsored by Blend.

• Case studies
• Expert advice

Using a customer journey map in real estate: Guiding dreams home

Buying a dream home is like stepping into a rare and weighty adventure, one that doesn't come around often in life. And making a mistake in this journey can cost a pretty penny. Remember how you forget a bad cup of coffee by evening? Well, a misstep in the world sticks longer and could be way costlier. So, let's focus on giving potential customers a smoother ride, using a real estate customer journey map in real estate as well-oiled gear.

• 1 Why craft a customer journey map in real estate?
• 2 Ready to build a customer journey map in real estate? Do research!
• 3 Personas for a customer journey map in real estate
• 4 Customer journey map in real estate’s skeleton
• 5.1 Stage 1. Mortgage pre-approval
• 5.2 Stage 2. Before buying
• 5.3 Stage 3. Buying
• 5.4 A customer journey map in real estate: end-result
• 6 Home buyer journey: Wrapping up

Why craft a customer journey map in real estate?

Real estate customer experience matters for a bunch of good reasons. To begin with, it directly impacts customer satisfaction and their level of engagement. When people have a good time with you, they're more likely to tell others about it and come back themselves. 

For example, if you walk into an agency to inquire about home options and instead of discussing what's available, they attempt to push a contract on you, binding you to exclusively collaborate with them, it's definitely not the kind of customer experience you'd want to relive.

Next, having a really great customer experience helps you stand out in a crowd. Imagine you're in a big race, and by giving awesome service and making things personal, you get a head start. For instance, some real estate agents offer more or less suitable options, while others first inquire about their customers' preferences and pre-filter choices, ensuring their clients see only the ones that match perfectly. After all, wasting time or falling in love with an apartment, only to later discover it doesn't allow pets, can be disheartening.

Also, when clients have a happy experience, it builds up your reputation and contributes to the good reputation of the real estate agency where you work. Happy homebuyers often leave nice reviews and talk about you positively, which makes other people trust you, too.

And here's the coolest part—the customer experience stuff can actually boost how much money you make. When folks are happy with what you do, they're okay with paying a little more for the good service, which means more property sales.

So, focusing on making the real estate customer experience great fosters success in the long run, leads to more growth and profit, and lots of loyal customers who keep coming back.

For instance, within each step of your home buyer journey, there's a specific set of interactions, emotions , thoughts, and conclusions—all of which contribute to the overall customer experience. But when viewed as a whole, it's challenging to discern the nuances and transitions. That's why it's crucial to take a closer look at individual points along the home buyer journey.

Now, let's break down the real estate customer journey mapping process using the example of a young person who moved to another country for work and decided to settle and now wants to buy their own home.

Ready to build a customer journey map in real estate? Do research!

We're all set, and our hero is fictional, but if you're in the real estate business, you'll need to put in some effort first to gather relevant info about your customer base—their behaviors, buying habits, communication channels, past experience, and more.

So, what should you do before building a customer journey map in real estate?

• Customer interviews. Talk to your customers directly. Ask about their experience in the real estate sector, challenges, and preferences when it comes to buying or selling a home.
• Surveys. Create and spread surveys to gather information from a larger group of customers. Ask about their interactions with your or similar business, what challenges they face, what things they pay attention to when choosing a real estate business, and so on.
• Online analytics. Use web analytics tools like Google Analytics and Mixpanel to monitor interactions on your real estate website. Analyze Website traffic sources, social media engagement, and reviews on real estate websites to better understand your customers’ behavior. 
• Past transactions. Review past real estate sales to identify patterns in customer behavior, preferences, and pain points.
• Feedback forms. Ask customers for feedback after communicating with you to gain insights into their satisfaction levels and areas for improvement.
• Competitor analysis. Study your competitors within the industry to understand what they're doing well and where you can differentiate yourself.
• Focus groups. Organize customer focus groups to discuss their real estate experience and gather qualitative insights.
• Third-party data. Take advantage of housing market research, demographic data, digital marketing insights, and real estate industry reports supplementing your understanding of customer preferences.
• Observations. Observe customers in action, either physically or online, to see how they interact with your services. Maybe do some task analysis . 
• Feedback from employees. Gather insights from your sales and customer service teams, as they often have valuable frontline perspectives on a real estate customer journey.
• CRM and customer data. Leverage your CRM system (like Wise Agent , LionDesk, or Realvolve) to access customer interactions and preferences data.

By merging these techniques, you can develop a well-rounded home buyer journey map in real estate.

Personas for a customer journey map in real estate

Let's imagine that we have all the information at our fingertips, and you've gone through the Persona creation guide (or not, that’s fine). To identify our persona(s), let’s go with behavioral segmentation because we're not just setting up online advertisements—we want to dive deeper into understanding our customer experience.

After considering all the attributes, we discovered a persona we'll call the "Foreign settler." Imagine this person as a foreigner, unfamiliar with the local market's intricacies but eager to establish a long-term life in a new country.

 This individual boasts an above-average income and places high value on comfort and well-developed infrastructure. A convenient commute from home to work is essential for him. There might also be a language barrier to contend with. 

If you decide to create a persona in UXPressia’s Persona creation tool , it will guide you on what other details you can highlight in your persona's profile. For instance, the channels through which you can reach them, the technologies they're familiar with, the skills they possess, and other things that might impact their interaction with your business.

Here's the persona profile we've come up with for this particular journey:

Using this information as our starting point, we will embark on crafting a homebuying journey map in real estate.

Customer journey map in real estate’s skeleton

To begin, it's crucial to accurately identify your journey map stages and understand which sections you'll be filling in for each of these stages. These stages and sections will serve as the framework for your journey map. Each one will include important information for understanding the individual's experience at this or that stage.

Let's explore the typical stages for someone who doesn't have the full amount to buy a house outright and will be getting a mortgage:

• Mortgage pre-approval;
• Before buying;

A bit too broad. Let's dive a little deeper into the second and third stages.

For instance, the "Before buying" stage will encompass some substages:

• Deciding on the location;
• Researching options;
• Hiring an agent;
• Finding a home;
• Making an offer.

And the “Buying” stage will be divided into:

• Sale contract draft;
• Finalizing the mortgage;
• Signing the contract.

As for sections of a customer journey map in real estate, we're going to follow our persona's actions at each stage and substage of their customer journeys. We'll look at their homeownership goals, add quotes reflecting their thoughts and feelings, the communication channels they prefer, problems they encounter, and suggestions to incorporate into our strategy and real estate marketing activities.

You're absolutely welcome to unleash your creativity and explore various aspects of the journey. For instance, you can incorporate infographics to enhance the visual side of your artifact, add journey-specific touchpoints, upload relevant documents, identify interactions between different journey participants, and so forth. 

Filling out the customer journey map in real estate

What's next after the skeleton of the map is ready? It's time to move on to filling it out.

Stage 1. Mortgage pre-approval

During the “Mortgage Pre-Approval” stage, the persona, André, begins by gathering detailed financial information like income, expenses, credit score, and work history to share with the mortgage lender. They then submit a mortgage application along with the necessary documents to the lender.

The lender assesses the persona's creditworthiness through a credit check, which helps determine the interest rate they qualify for. If André's application is approved, they receive a pre-approval letter that specifies the loan amount they're eligible for. This pre-approval letter becomes a nice asset when André’s ready to make an offer.

With the pre-approval amount determined, André can plan their budget and go on the journey of searching for properties that fall within their price range. 

However, there can be challenges and problems that the persona might face during this stage of a real estate customer journey :

• A low credit score or negative credit history affects their eligibility for a favorable mortgage.
• Gathering and providing the necessary financial documentation can be time-consuming and sometimes overwhelming.
• Delays in the approval process could affect the persona's timeline for making an offer.

At this stage, André hasn't even reached out to any real estate companies yet. But here's where you can already make their customer experience smoother. 

• You can utilize your website to showcase stories of other customers who successfully went through the mortgage pre-approval process, giving a sense of encouragement and relatability.
• You could also arrange online or in-person workshops covering important topics like budgeting, deciphering mortgage terms, and making well-informed financial choices. 
• Create a checklist of the required documents and share it on your social media platforms, helping André gather and submit the necessary paperwork promptly.

By doing this, you will enhance your customer journeys right from the beginning, building a positive connection before they even officially engage with your real estate company. And make sure they will seek your assistance later, remembering how your information helped them here. 

Stage 2. Before buying

André evaluates various factors, such as proximity to work, schools, amenities, and overall neighborhood vibe, to determine the ideal location for their new home. Then they delve into real estate listings, and online platforms and maybe even visit open houses to explore the variety of properties available within their chosen location. 

Not everyone succeeds in finding something on their own. That's when André engages a real estate agent. They do this to tap into the agent's expertise, get access to special house listings, and receive helpful guidance every step of the way. With the help of the real estate agent, André narrows down options and conducts property visits to identify a potential match that meets their requirements and preferences.

Once a suitable home is found, André works with their agent to formulate and submit an offer, which may involve negotiations with the seller.

Sounds smooth? Wait for it. Here are some obstacles that may arise during this stage, and you certainly should include them in your home buyer journey map in real estate:

• The persona might struggle with selecting the right location that balances convenience, lifestyle, and budget.
• André can feel overwhelmed by the vast array of home choices and may struggle to differentiate between them.
• Finding the right agent who understands their needs and preferences can be challenging. And there's a chance that the agent might not be able to accomplish the task.
• If competing with other home buyers, the persona's offers could be rejected, leading to disappointment and prolonged search times.

On your end:

• You can provide personalized consultations to assist André in narrowing down their preferred locations and home choices. 
• You can also pair the persona with a knowledgeable agent who grasps their requirements, streamlining the process. 
• Offering virtual house tours can help save time and effort during the home hunt. 
• By arming André with negotiation tactics, you enhance their offer and boost the likelihood of a successful outcome.

And then, together, you can move on to the next step.

Stage 3. Buying

Here, André, often with the assistance of their agent and legal counsel, reviews and drafts the sale contract detailing the terms and conditions of the purchase. André works with the lender to complete the mortgage application process, ensuring all necessary documentation is submitted for final approval. Once the sale contract is agreed upon, André signs the contract, solidifying the commitment to purchase the home. 

That would be great, but here's what could happen before:

• André might find the sale contract's legal terminology confusing or overwhelming and spend much time trying to get through it.
• Delays in finalizing the property mortgage or securing funds could lead to delays in the overall process.
• Unexpected problems or damages were discovered during the home inspection, leading to negotiations or even reconsideration of the property purchase.
• The seller could make changes in the home-buying contract or requests during the final stages, causing uncertainties and potential delays.
• Unforeseen costs, such as additional home repairs or fees, could arise during the finalization process.

But any problems you specify in your home buying journey map in real estate can be anticipated and addressed proactively or fixed:

• Provide your customers with the opportunity to communicate with legal professionals who can review and explain the contract, ensuring the individual's understanding and comfort.
• Offer expert help throughout the signing process, addressing any questions or concerns.
• Maintain open communication with the persona, keeping them informed about progress and addressing potential delays promptly.
• Assist in negotiating repairs or concessions with the seller based on inspection findings.
• Educate the persona about potential hidden costs and fees associated with house purchases.

A customer journey map in real estate: end-result

Bringing all the information together, we end up with a map like this:

And you can be sure that yours will be even cooler and way more actionable since it will be based on research.

Home buyer journey: Wrapping up

In the real estate industry, amazing customer experience is not just a transactional milestone; it's the art of turning dreams into reality. This article has spotlighted the transformative power of seamless customer journeys, where every interaction, decision, and solution becomes a brushstroke on the canvas of satisfaction. 

Amidst the landscape of choices, a remarkable customer experience stands as the compass guiding real estate companies toward lasting success. It's a symphony of understanding, guidance, and support that not only shapes transactions but also forges lifelong relationships, where each stage is a chapter in a person's pursuit of a new home or property. 

So don’t hesitate to try the methodology, improve customer experience in real estate and, thus, your business operations.

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This article hits home (yeah :)) for anyone in the real estane business! Thanks for a customer journey map in real estate example. Can’t wait to try the methodology myself.

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Why understanding the homebuyer journey is key to nurturing real estate leads

Are you nurturing leads at the right time and in the right way? Here's what you should know about the journey your clients take when buying a home.

The needs of today’s homebuyers are changing, so it’s more important than ever to understand the journey your clients take when it comes to buying a home.

In a perfect world, the process of guiding a potential client through a new home purchase goes something like this: You capture a real estate lead through your website (or get a referral), you make contact with them within a few minutes, and qualify them as an opportunity. Next, you set up a few showings you have something under contract within 30 days.  

Unfortunately, it’s not that fluid. Nurturing a relationship with a potential home buyer requires much more time before they convert. Your lead nurturing plan could span several months or years (the homebuying journey takes around 11-27 months ), so it’s important to build a foundation for a long-term relationship. Here are the different stages of a real estate lead lifecycle and what you should know about nurturing leads at the right time and in the right way to maximize your pipeline ROI. ‍

Consideration (2+ years before closing) ‍

At this stage, home buyers are thinking: What type of home do I want? What areas do I want to consider? Is now a good time to buy? Leads in this stage have likely not actively pursued an agent. So, your first contact should be an introduction, letting them know you’re available to answer questions without pressuring them to make a decision. Let them browse, but make yourself known. Remember, the first agent to make contact with a real estate lead is 238% more likely to convert, per a Market Leader report.

‍ Online Research (1 year before closing)

At this stage, home buyers are thinking: What can we afford in our area(s)? What are the demographics, schools, etc. like in the area(s)? Leads in this stage have started to browse listings, but are not yet ready to buy. 90% of all home buyers start their home search online , according to NAR. They’re also more likely to communicate via the web. Make sure your website is up to date and communicates your brand ( you ) and the unique value you offer. Once they’ve made contact on your site, send them relevant, helpful information to establish a connection and start building trust.

‍ Active Search (4 months before closing)

At this stage, home buyers are ready to start touring homes with an agent. They want to know: How many homes have you sold this year? How well do you know the area(s) of interest? How will you help make this process easier? Real estate leads in this stage are aware of what they want and can afford, and want specifics about the buying process. As an agent, you need to make yourself available for showings and offer recommendations based on their criteria. Timely response in this stage is crucial, so be prompt in your communications.

‍ Transaction (1 month before closing)

At this stage, home buyers need an agent to negotiate contracts and guide them through the purchase process. They are thinking: How much should we offer for this home? What are the contingencies? Are we competing with other buyers? This is your chance to shine. Provide exceptional service and guidance, resources, and referrals. On average it takes 23 days to negotiate a home purchase, so be upfront about the timeline and logistics. By establishing trust, you are giving them a reason to work with you again and refer family and friends. ‍

Post-Sale (2+ months out)

At this stage, home buyers want to know about changes in their home’s value and what’s trending in the marketplace. Keep in touch with your clients by sending information about the local real estate market and their home’s current value. This helps to ensure repeat business and referrals when the time comes to sell or buy again, or when a friend is looking to purchase a home. Connect with them on social media and use automation tools to stay in touch via email and text. NAR reports that 90% of buyers would use the same agent again or recommend their agent to others , so put effort into generating repeat business.

The important thing to remember about lead nurturing and the home buying journey is to engage in the whole journey, not just the transaction. Part of an agent’s playbook for lead management should include using a tech platform like kvCORE, which automates lead nurturing, so you’re always engaging with clients and ensures you never miss an opportunity to convert. Because when it comes to engaging with homebuyers, trust and speed win. 

Another great way to engage potential homebuyers? Dust off your SOI. Real estate pros never stop networking, but growing your sphere doesn’t equal success without engagement. Here are 3 tips to boost your SOI now .

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REAL ESTATE

• The Phygital Evolution of a Home Buyer Journey

• Real Estate

March 2020 came with a rude shock and brought the whole world to a standstill. Real Estate was one of the worst-hit sectors; the demand slowed and subsequently, the property prices came crashing down. However, the housing market has now been showing signs of recovery and sales increased by 51% in Q4 compared to Q3, 2020.

Knight Frank and industry bodies like FICCI and NAREDCO report* that the current market sentiments look optimistic across regions.

(*Source: http://www.naredco.in/notification/pdfs/jll-residential-market-update-q4-2020.pdf)

Another trend has emerged too. Homebuyers are more accepting than ever to complete their home purchase process completely online – from inquiry to payment. (Source: NAREDCO). That is what we will discuss in this article today – the transformation of the home buyer journey , and what real estate marketers can do at each step to steer them towards closure.

While speaking to leading realtors from TATA Realty, Mahindra World City, and more, we uncovered what realtors need to keep in mind as they transition to a digital model. The conversation also unfolded new digital touchpoints in the home buyer journey.

“Developers were late to the digital transition. Design, project management, and property management did use some technology in the last two decades. But, lead generation, artificial intelligence, sales & CRM, virtual tours, digital marketing, online applications, and customer onboarding were only added recently to the digital transformation mix.” – Mr. Sunjay Dutt, MD. and CEO of Tata Housing Development Company Ltd.

Let us understand how these digital additions are helping the home buyer journey evolve in the present times.

Stage 0: Slumber

Slumber is the first stage of a customer lifecycle where the potential customer sleeps through even the most prominent ads. They passively take in information by listening to peers, reading the news, and subconsciously absorbing advertisements around.

Slumber is one of the most critical stages in a home buyer journey. At this stage, customers form an opinion about different developers.

From a developer’s perspective, this stage mostly entails biding time and ensuring that you receive only good publicity. Developers must focus on their relationships with customers and offer a smooth buying experience to prospects. They must also take care of the visitors’ safety on sites and highlight the same in the marketing campaigns. 

Also, several prospects who were in the later stages of their home buyer journey before the pandemic have now fallen back into this stage. Hence they will need some more time and possibly nurturing to move further along the funnel.

Stage 1: Awareness

The home buyer reaches the awareness stage when he/she starts to consider buying a property. They start noticing the various options around them. Earlier, developers relied more on offline strategies to create awareness about their properties. But the pandemic has made digital marketing the go-to method for reaching out to potential customers during this stage. 

Mr. Dutt adds , “Digital strategy in the residential segment has moved from being a component to being a critical component for growth. Developers are spending nearly 70% of their sales and marketing budget on digital strategies. It is important to note that even customers have responded well to digital solutions given the health and safety constraints of the pandemic and the lockdown. The explosive growth of social media and cloud-based solutions has created digital footprints that have been extensively monetized by social platforms and search engines.”

To own a home is everyone’s dream. Thus, even in the absence of offline marketing and housing events, developers must ensure brand visibility. 

You can achieve this via retargeting ads through the right channel at the right time to stay on top of their minds. Use social media and Google ads retargeting to keep in touch with prospects along their home buying journey. Tune your content to stay relevant to the platform and audience. For example, market on LinkedIn to target people with reliable income streams, who are possibly open to investment. 

Stage 2: Active search

The prospect is yet to enter your sales funnel. But they have started their search for relevant properties. 

In this era of the internet, information is available to everyone – in no time. Thus, we can say, the buyer might be already aware of the developers, projects, and more. 

At this stage, the homebuyer focuses on their financial health and the trends in the current market. They must be looking at finance options, returns, and the best time for investment. Therefore, developers have an opportunity to build themselves as a go-to source for property and investment . Newsletters, articles, online PR events are some of the ways to go about it. It will help them build trust in the minds of the customers. 

Before the pandemic, real estate marketing involved both – ATL (Above The Line) and BTL (Below The Line) channels. But the pandemic has shifted marketing activities from BTL to ATL channels and mass targeting for brand visibility. 

Where should you focus?

To increase your brand visibility, focus on newspapers, hoardings, social media channels, and radio ads.

ATL media are great for mass targeting. Usually, developers mention their contact information while advertising on these channels. It helps the home buyer to reach out to the developer (if they are interested in the project) – bridging the gap between online and personal interaction. And the phygital engagement has now begun between the developers and the home buyers.

“The real estate sector has its ups and downs. Especially, the residential asset class is going through a cyclic turn. And now it is gradually moving up. People have started feeling that they need large houses because they have started working from home. So, the trend will change now. We have done a residential project in Chennai, and we have seen a rise in the velocity of demand.” Mr. Anuj Bindal, Head-Business Development, and Marketing at Mahindra World City, Jaipur

How can a developer capture this engagement and improve the home buyer journey?

Use tools such as chatbots to respond to the queries on your website and real estate sales execution CRM to track every interaction. Using real estate CRM software, you can track all interactions – from the time a buyer inquires about your property to the final sale. 

Now you must be wondering, what if the lead enquires about the property on two platforms – say MagicBricks and Google Ads. 

Well, your CRM software can figure out that the inquiry is from the same lead, and instead of creating multiple records, it will add it as a lead-activity. Thus, ensuring that you capture the interaction smartly. Moreover, the software will automatically segregate inquiries based on their interest. For example, there will be buckets for commercial, residential properties. Also, it can segment leads based on location, investment budget, and other parameters. 

Next, you can automatically distribute the inquiries to the telesales agents and notify them to follow-up the lead along with relevant details. You can also integrate telephony/ cloud calling with the CRM system to allow calling/following-up with prospects from the portal itself. 

Attending the lead in time will ensure that the buyer does not swing to the competition. 

Stage 3: Weighing options

The buyer has moved on from Stage 2 to 3 and is more informed now. They are now searching for specific items on their list and have entered a comparison mindset. A property with all the items on the checklist will be their ideal deal.

Now, why should they invest in your property? 

There is an opportunity for developers to differentiate themselves from the competition. Be proactive and get ahead in the list by highlighting the unique aspects of your projects. Publish focused online material around the key differentiating features such as project, location, amenities, and more. It will help the home buyer make a more informed decision about what fits their wants. It can also tip the scales in your favor. 

Understanding the digital footprint of the home buyer is another aspect that is important while pursuing an inquiry. Artificial intelligence and machine learning play an important role in the phygital evolution of a home buyer journey by offering many new insights into potential customers. Developers can now push relevant properties and localities based on their search inquiries directly on the website via such tools. 

Stage 4: Gathering Experience

Gathering experience is a very delicate stage. The developer must deliver a consistent experience until here for a successful conversion. Site visits and in-person discussions with the home buyer are crucial in cementing a deal.

This stage was one of the key reasons why real estate sales had slowed down. Many developers are now leveraging the phygital experience by giving a choice to the buyers. For instance, the buyer can choose between a site visit and live video sessions, digital walkthroughs, augmented reality, and more. 

Usually, the telesales agents are the ones who interact with the buyers first. Based on the disposition, they pass the lead details to the field sales agents. Field agents then take care of the site visit experience. 

Now, developers must think of ways to improve this experience. For instance, instead of calling the prospect many times to confirm the visit, send a calendar invite to schedule the site visit. If the site visit is canceled, send an automated notification to the field rep and reschedule the meeting. 

How to enhance customer experience during site visits?

With their permission, record the interaction. If you are giving a virtual tour, it would be easy for you to record the conversation. If it is a site visit, take feedback, and make notes. Use this information to understand their sentiments and send relevant nurturing campaigns. 

Also, equip your field agents with mobility apps (for example, mobile CRM ) to record disposition, add meeting notes, and more on the go. There has been an increase in demand for mobility/field apps in the real estate industry. It helps the field reps and managers with data management, attendance management, geo-tracking, chat support, and more. Such tools can help with data-driven insights that can improve the home buyer journey further.

To further cement his beliefs about your services, the buyer will reach out to existing customers and consult his peers. Thus, be ready with testimonials and contact details of happy customers who can influence your prospect in his buying journey. A healthy offline and online connection is a must to improve your odds.

Stage 5: Purchase

The Purchase stage is about signing the sales deed and any related documentation. Therefore, all the stakeholders must be in sync to avoid any confusion at this stage.

Try to simplify this stage as much as you can. Use paperless processes such as e-sign and eKYC or video KYC verifications. It also helps overseas investors to buy your property easily. The point is – a home buyer journey will always help you increase sales. 

The bottom line

Real estate was one of the worst affected segments in India due to the pandemic. The government is now trying to incentivize new investments in real estate. With Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and extending benefits on affordable housing for another year, the government aims to revive the real estate sector. 

The combined effect from the government initiatives and the rising investment intent of customers indicates a better future for the real estate sector. While the physical site visits are prone to get back their momentum, digital trends are there to stay. Thus, realtors must adopt the phygital model and leverage different touchpoints of the home buyer journey. 

Find out how LeadSquared Real Estate CRM can help you map a seamless home buyer journey. Sign up for a demo now!

Mayank is a Product Marketer at LeadSquared. He is always on the lookout for the latest financial trends that influence the global lending market. You can connect with him on LinkedIn or write to him at [email protected].

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Homebuyer Journey Map Series: Inspiration & Discovery Phase

Mapping out your customer journey is a valuable step towards understanding your homebuyers’ thoughts, actions, and objections, so you make their experience with your business better.

If you haven’t had a chance to read our article Homebuilder’s Guide to Creating an Effective Customer Journey Map , we recommend starting there to learn the basics of journey mapping.

In this article series, we’ll be diving deeper into each phase of the homebuyer journey, offering tips to successfully put yourself into the buyer’s shoes and draw critical insights.

Inspiration and Discovery Phase

One of the easiest ways to understand a customer’s thought process when they first discover you is to shadow one or a few target customers. Find people who don’t work for your business that can offer a completely transparent and unbiased account of their experience as they go through the process of learning about your company in search of a homebuilder. An easy way to find a few participants is to ask your online audience and offer some sort of gift in return. Remember, this is a huge service to your business so make it worthwhile. 

Tips for nailing the inspiration and discovery phase of homebuying

First impressions will make or break a homebuilder, so let’s walk through each step of the first phase of the homebuying journey and discuss why it’s important and how to enhance it for your potential buyers.

Online research

The first phase of the homebuyer journey is all about research. Potential buyers are just starting to gather information about the homebuying process and figure out if building a home is the right choice for them. They may not know who you are just yet, so you want to make sure they come across you on social media and in local Google search.

Here are a few tips to figure out what your audience is searching for so you can optimize your online presence:

• Have your trial customer do a google search, writing down the terms they searched for and which terms your company showed in search results for.
• Use the Google Trends tool to find out what terms homebuyers are searching.
• Use Answer the Public to search terms and find out what questions people are asking about it on search engines.
• Search trending topics for your audience on social media to learn what they’re engaging with and searching for.

Knowing what your audience is looking for online will help you tailor your content and SEO to those keywords and phrases, ensuring you show up in those search results.

Location search

Location search is specific to Google local search. When a customer searches for “homebuilders near me,” a similar phrase, or your company name specifically, you want to show up on that first page of Google results. Check to see if your company shows up in local listings and make sure it shows up in the top results when searched by name.

If your company website isn’t showing up you have a problem and should check to make sure your Google My Business listing is up and running and there are no other issues with your website domain. You can also optimize your Google My Business listing to improve your online presence.

Agent or no agent

The only way to find out if your target audience prefers to use an agent or not is to ask! If you don’t have any customer feedback in your database on this topic the best thing to do is run a poll on social media and find out the preference in your specific market.

If market research indicates your target buyers lean towards using a real estate agent, then it’s a good idea to build a partnership with realtors in your area. Maybe this means paying real estate commissions for buyers, listing your new homes for sale through the MLS system, or even contracting realtors to list and sell your homes. 

If market data shows your buyers like to leave agents out of the process, then it would benefit your business to have a skilled set of in-house salespeople to work with them.

New home or resale

The resale market is a builder’s biggest competition. In fact, 64% of homebuyers consider building a new home, but only 9% actually go through with it. It’s crucial for you to understand the key motivators for your target buyers to choose a resale over new construction. These might include:

• Quicker closing date
• No stressful decor decisions
• Landscaping already done
• Finished basements
• Established neighborhoods

It’s also important to understand the motivations buyers have for building new, particularly in today’s market where cleanliness, multipurpose spaces, and comfort are key:

• Everything new and clean
• All products new under warranty
• Personalization to fit needs and preferences

The motivators of buying resale are the fears of building new. Knowing why your target customers are worried to build helps you develop strategies to overcome those objections while accentuating the positive motivators of building new.

Brand awareness

Brand awareness refers to what your customers find when they search for you. Have your trial customer click on your website and social media sites and make notes of their first impression. Was the website easy to navigate? Did it clearly define who you are and what you do? Was contact information visible? Did you have a nice gallery of example homes to look through? Were your social profiles complete, professional, and on-brand? Did they find relevant and engaging content?

The second a potential buyer comes to your website or social media pages you want them to be instantly intrigued to learn more about your company. If your website is outdated, cluttered, or even a few seconds too slow to load it can turn away a lot of people. Today’s buyers want builders who are modernized and provide convenient experiences.

Read More: Housing Professional’s Guide to Making a Website Mobile-Friendly

Related: Guide to Facebook Business Page Best Practices for Housing Professionals

Drive communities/development areas

You might not think about this step, but driving through your communities is a huge part of the discovery journey. When a potential buyer deliberately visits or stumbles upon one of your communities what do they see?

Undeveloped areas, unlike established neighborhoods, don’t have amenities like schools, parks, stores, or restaurants already built, which makes it more difficult for a homebuyer to imagine what a community will look like once complete. This is why having an “informative marketing trail” is key to helping homebuyers visualize the area they may call home.

An informative marketing trail includes materials like “coming soon” signage, master plans for schools, shopping centers, and parks. As simple as it may seem, the more information you can provide at your development site, the better chances you have of attracting potential buyers. And don’t forget to cater to buyers who may be driving your communities at night after work. Make sure signs are large and lit so they can clearly see what features would be available to them. If the area doesn’t have power, solar lighting is a great option.

To ensure you have enough visual assets in your community, have your target customer drive around one and voice record what they see or don’t see; bringing up concerns or positives, and explaining their overall experience.

Model room or sales office visit

The last touchpoint of the inspiration and discovery phase is the model office or sales office visit. At this point, the homebuyer is starting to move into the decision making phase and is looking for information about your company by interacting with your staff and viewing model homes or show floors in-person.

To understand initial buyer reactions and thoughts at this step have your trial customer follow your current protocol for office or showroom visits, without alerting staff of who they are, and report back about their entire experience. 

This should include their impression of staff, the physical appearance of the space, how they were treated, what kind of information they received, among other things that might be more specific to your company. Getting a real customer in the door is a big step – you don’t want anything to off-put them or turn them away. After one bad experience over 50% of customers will never do business with a company again, and chances are even slimmer a homebuyer will return after a poor experience with your sales team regarding their biggest investment.

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Seven Steps to Driving Outstanding Customer Service in the Home Buyer Journey

There are many reasons why new home sellers should prioritize achieving high rates of customer satisfaction. Satisfaction means happy customers, more referrals, less stress, and a stronger reputation. It also means they can charge premiums easier and typically get harder-to-sell homes off the market faster. Especially in a slow market, reputation matters — and putting the time in to build strong bonds with buyers pays off.

As we discussed in a previous article, determining what a happy customer looks like can be done through close listening. Is the customer saying things went well and as planned, or are they saying the process was beyond what was expected? Are they going to tell people about their home, or are they going to brag about their home? We want the latter.

At New Home Star, we like to visualize the home buying journey and track customer satisfaction through a full customer experience journey map. 

Each customer experiences a rollercoaster of positive, neutral, and negative emotions while buying a home before reaching the final stage of the home buying process: the move-in. We usually see an initial dip in the graph through the mortgage process, then a spike when the customer gets to the design center and starts picking out unique aspects of their home. Feelings might dip down again as the customer experiences the disappointment of hiccups such as a broken window or a shower shelf installed where it’s not meant to be placed. Every customer will go through neutral or negative points during the journey, so it’s not about trying to avoid them — it’s about how sellers interact with customers in those moments and how they take advantage of the positive ones that matter. 

Here are seven ways to achieve exceptional customer service during every step of the journey, regardless of any external factors getting in the way.

1. Focus On What You Can Influence

Many new sellers make the mistake of trying to keep the customer over the moon happy at every twist and turn of the home buying process. They don’t consider that some elements of the process are inherently not fun — and as mentioned above, it’s unavoidable that customers will dip into the neutral to negative range at some points. 

Instead of keeping everything in the high positive range, sellers should recognize that some things are out of their control and instead do what they can to boost the positivity that they can control. For example, consider the mortgage process — instead of trying to make it a positive experience (which it won’t be because it never really is), think: how can we get this from a -4 to a -2 experience? What expectations and actions could we take and set to make that process as smooth and positive as possible? Then, spend more energy on making the highs even more memorable.

2. Be Upfront About the Not-So-Good Times

In the first stages of the home buying journey, let customers know about some of the possible upcoming downturns. What can you tell them about the process now to set reasonable expectations and ensure they don’t experience any unwelcome surprises down the road? As we discuss in this post on best practices for managing construction delays with buyers , it’s important to bring a plan B into the picture to show buyers that processes can slow down or go sideways, but it’s not the end of the world — it’s part of the journey, and the new home they’ll walk into at the end of the building process will be well worth the wait. By painting a picture of what could go wrong now, you’ll curb disappointment and leave room for unexpected positive points along the way.

3. Leverage Data to Find Places for Improvement

We like to keep a pulse on customer satisfaction through consistent surveying done throughout the home buying process; this helps us learn where we can improve and avoid as many negative dips in the home buying journey as we can. Sales teams should gather overall team data from the whole region, individual sales team data, and individual performance data. Then, study the trends for the sales-related questions and scores. Where are you scoring consistently high? Capitalize on those areas. Where are you scoring consistently low? Make a point to improve upon those points in the buyer journey. Analyzing the trends for each salesperson and community means you can personalize points of improvement and note what’s going well for both individuals and broader teams.

4. Teach Your Team How to Talk to Customers About Surveys

It’s critical to teach your sales team to talk to customers about the survey in an appropriate and helpful way. Encourage them to share why you conduct the surveys in the first place ( “this is how we learn and improve” ) and open the door for both positive and negative feedback. We like to try to get in front of any negative feedback that comes our way by telling our customers that if they ever feel they can’t rate us at a nine or a ten, please let us know as soon as possible so we can help with the situation. We also reiterate how much we care about their home buying journey (“ It’s very important to us that you have an amazing experience… this is how we assess it.” ). Importantly, never pressure customers to take a survey. If for some reason they’re hesitant to fill one out, don’t force it. Luckily, we find most customers are more than happy to share feedback.

5. Take the Buyer’s Temperature (Many Times)

Along with surveys, we recommend our agents check in with customers multiple times during the home buying journey and ensure proper touchpoints are in place and executed. As noted in a previous article on managing backlog delays, we like to say it’s best to share updates (or non-updates) with buyers at least once a week. If no notable updates are worth sharing that week, agents should get creative — one option is to share happenings in the buyer’s community or upcoming neighborhood events to get the customer excited about move-in day.

6. Make Neutral Points More Memorable

There are many moments during the home buying journey that aren’t particularly memorable, and new home sales teams have an opportunity to move these neutral moments on the scale to positive experiences. It’s not about pouring substantial time, money, and resources into pleasing your customer — it’s about being thoughtful and showing them you care through small gestures. 

For example, we recently brainstormed ways to make the pre-drywall experience more of an interactive and memorable point on the home buying journey. What if we could find a way to personalize it? We came up with the idea to have each family member write a personal message on the studs in their home that reflected what the new home meant to them. This was a way to bring the buyers closer to each other and unite during this typically routine process, creating a family memory that positively influenced the buyers’ perspective.

7. Close Out Strong

One of the best ways to cement an overall positive home buying experience with customers is through follow-up after closing. It’s best if you can make it as personal as possible. Visit the homeowner after they move in and check in on how they like the space and neighborhood. Ask specific questions about how the move went and their plans for improving the yard, decorating, etc. 

We also often like to provide new home buyers with a personalized closing gift. One of our team members recently worked with a gentleman who wanted to propose in his new house after it was built, so we helped him. We tricked his girlfriend into coming to the house at the right time, bought decorations, and spray painted ‘congratulations’ all over the dirt for that extra impact. She was definitely surprised! And the memory created another very positive association both with the new home and with the New Home Star team. 

Of course, customer service is constantly changing — new technology comes onto the scene to make customer interactions more seamless and give us more ways than we could imagine to stay in touch with buyers. At New Home Star, we’re always on the lookout for ways to make the home buying experience better. Still, we’re also realistic and prioritize setting buyer expectations from the start, fully knowing that those negative points do happen. The home buying journey map is an excellent tool to reference to get buyers, sales agents, and builders on the same page about what to expect during each step of the process and beyond.

Originally published Nov 3, 2021 under Explore the latest topics , updated March 4, 2024

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Customer Journeys for Real Estate

Customer journeys are about understanding the situation your customers find themselves in (both physical and emotional) to build empathy and make better decisions about how to talk to them. For a homebuyer, the customer journey of buying a home can be a scary one. The biggest purchase of your life, some say, with all the paperwork that goes along with it. Buyers concern themselves with questions like: 

You get the idea. It's important to understand customer concerns. You likely know a lot more about the process than they do. The customer journey starts there.

But at the same time, the homebuying process is also exciting. The “fantasy-phase” that buyers begin when looking for a home, before they become discouraged with showings and disappointing offer rejections and worse inspections, is key. It’s critical to tap into this excitement early and often.

When developing customer journeys for real estate it’s important to understand each of things things. Understanding customer concerns while not forgetting to “feed the dream.”

Buying Cycle vs Building Cycle

The typical home buying process takes anywhere from 45 - 120 days once started. A development, however, could be anywhere from months to years to complete:

Think of other long term marketing strategies. Blockbuster movies, product announcements—these, too, can happen years in advance. They plant the seeds of excitement and start to build awareness early, long before the final product is ready.

With such a long timeline, it can be difficult to market effectively through the entire process. It may be tempting to save marketing dollars for closer to when models are in place, but what about the year leading up to that?

Start Small    

So how do we start taking advantage of a customer journey early? The second you have branding, renderings, a name, whatever, it’s time to get a website out there. It might be all inspiration photos and copy, maybe a rendering, but it’s job is to once again address buyer concerns and generate excitement. Explain what the property will be like, how it will be different. Give those banners you’re buying somewhere to go to. But most importantly, it’s to get visits and email addresses.

With visits, you can start targeting with awareness campaigns. Keep that awareness going as users browse sites during their research phase.

Emails give you the ability to start marketing early. But avoid the spam! Tell a story. Let potential buyers into the design process. Talk about, or better yet, have your architect talk about the approach to the materials. The key is to get people interested emotionally long before they are ready to buy (and you’re ready to sell). If done well, they’ll wait for you!

Build on What You Have

As your development takes shape and grows, so should your website. That’s why Elevated Third builds websites using Drupal, a content management system designed to grow and change over time.

Your website should adapt to new media, such as 3D models, floorplans, material lists—everything you are already doing but not sharing soon enough (if at all). That’s how Drupal can help and allow you to put your content out there sooner. But don’t just throw it up there, tease it through your email list.

One small taste can be more tantalizing than everything all at once. Share content to your email list, and to social before adding it yourself to your Drupal site (no IT required). This kind of publishing helps you stay top of mind of potential buyers and differentiate your development from the one next door and the one down the street (hey, that’s Denver). If you want followers, you need to give them a reason to follow you.

Find the Right Moment

Once your renderings, floorplans and media are complete, it’s time to start taking advantage of the list you’ve cultivated. Start teasing early showings. With marketing automation integrated into your Drupal website, you can segment your growing email list by lead score (an indication of your most interested potential buyers based on their website activity and email interactions).

Email these highly-scored leads for a VIP night beforehand to preview your model. Add them to your remarketing list for additional awareness. You know they’re interested, now it’s about getting them in the door.

Follow Up on Showings

As the development nears completion, your Drupal website should be in full lead-generation mode, tightly integrated with your marketing automation platform. Showing requests are followed up on with automated drip campaigns. No one should come for a visit and disappear! Send buyers a materials and options brochure, or school scores in the area. Back to the customer journey mapping, address concerns and excitement—over and over and over.

Your marketing automation platform will also notify your sales team of the warmest leads to reach out to directly throughout the process to prioritize your time and make the most of the staff you have.

No Free Lunch

Customer journeys aren’t a magic bullet for real estate developers, but they can provide valuable insight for more effective, long-term marketing, especially when paired with the strategic know-how of an experience digital agency. Your agency should be able to guide your marketing in tandem with the phases of a project to produce valuable customer insights and high conversion.

A dot-bomb survivor, Judd learned the trade of a designer as a high school intern and has been doing it ever since. Expanding into design strategy, copywriting, architecture and analytics over 16 years, he’s evolved into a strategic design leader with the ability to think big and go wide.

Intent Thinking

September 07, 2023

Elevating The Home Builder Customer Experience

If you look at the historical data for online mentions of "customer experience", you'll find a steep curve climbing up and to the right.

For most, this isn't much of a surprise. Customer experience—for home builders or otherwise—is something that continues to become top-of-mind. A recent study found that 81% of companies cite customer experience as a competitive differentiator and 45% of businesses state customer experience is their top priority for their business. 

The truth is a great customer experience will often go further than any other brand-building effort. It's the difference between simply selling a satisfactory product and creating a lasting brand-to-buyer relationship. And today, it can be the difference between success and failure.

Home builders must consider customer experience throughout all touchpoints of the home buying journey to establish strong brand awareness, increase brand engagements and differentiate the business from the competition.

Let's take a look at what the customer experience is, why it matters and how it applies to the home buying journey.

“The customer experience is the next competitive battleground.”

Jerry Gregoire

What is a Customer Experience?

Customer experience is the collection of touchpoints your home buyers have with your home building brand throughout the home buying journey including their path from searching for their new home, purchasing their new home and all interactions with your entire home building team. From first discovering your homes and communities to closing day, your customer experience essentially refers to how frictionless and rewarding or frustrating and underwhelming it feels to purchase a new home from your company. 

More simply, the customer experience is exactly what it says – what it's like to be your customer and ultimately a homeowner in one of your communities.

Of course, you want the home buying experience to be a positive one, including an experience that is as easy and stress free as possible. Customers who are enjoying their home buying experience know where they are, where they are going and how to get there. A good customer journey strategy directs them along the way and ensures their satisfaction at every touchpoint. Developing an exceptional customer experience is understanding that people desire to feel seen and valued by the brands they like and finding ways to demonstrate that your brand does just that.

As with most experiences, people want to have an idea of what to expect and where the finish line is. This minimizes confusion and builds confidence in your brand and your home building team. It’s important to consider customer expectations for the brand and become present on every medium where potential home buyers engage to increase reach, establish strong credibility and build brand loyalty. Doing so is highly beneficial because it both boosts your customer’s confidence in their purchase decision and leads to future recommendations.

There are more opportunities than ever to provide home buyer experiences that go beyond typical expectations. Don’t settle for the bare minimum within your brand marketing strategy, seek to impress your home buyers and set high standards for the customer service they receive.

Before we move on, let's think about a couple of factors that make the real estate and home builder customer experience unique. 

Home builders face two unique dynamics:

• Relatively long sales cycles
• A high-ticket purchase (perhaps the highest most people will ever make and one they do not make often)

Naturally, this means the customer journey takes longer and matters more. It also means you have increased opportunities to make the experience an exceptional one. Rather than a short-lived sales cycle, home builders have a significant period to connect with their home buyers and realtors, deeply understand their needs and build long-lasting client relationships. It also provides home builders the perfect opportunity to earn referrals from their home buyers, homeowners and realtor partners. 

Why Does it Matter? 

A predictably positive customer experience is essential. But why? Let's go through a few reasons:

1. Competition

There are a lot of players in any given industry. And as you know, home building is no exception. Because businesses exist as one of many choices, customer satisfaction is key. A recent study shows that 86% of buyers are willing to pay more if they receive a great customer experience from a business. Research also shows that 73% of consumers view their experience with the brand as a highly important factor of their purchasing decisions, even more so than price and quality. This means relying on the exceptional quality of your homes or great price points to make sales isn’t the best strategy. While those also make strong selling points, there’s no denying the impact of providing a positive customer experience to strengthen home buyer trust and confidence in purchasing a new home with a specific home builder.

Here are some compelling stats for you:

• The number one reason customers change to a new brand is because they feel unappreciated.
• An upset customer will tell at least 15 people about their negative experience.
• 73% of companies who are ranked “above average” for customer service financially outperform their director competitors.

The takeaway here is that among everything you can be doing to reach your sales goals and earn market share, developing a great customer experience is one of the strongest tools available.

And without it, poor performance will come quickly and grow rapidly.

Tip: Think about a brand you’ve had positive interactions with. Let’s say you discover another brand with similar, maybe even better, products, but their customer service is poor. Would you be tempted to stop purchasing from the first company and switch to this new brand? Our guess is probably not! That’s why it’s important to focus on the customer experience as that is always a top consumer priority as they make purchase decisions.

2. Expectations

Social proof, crowdsourced info and customer reviews that are available to home buyers and realtors at the click of a button mean the curtain is drawn way back on every brand out there. Today, the average consumer can go anywhere and find anything – or stay home and find anything by simply utilizing the power of the Internet.

The output of this connectivity, coupled with huge gains in brand-to-buyer relationship tools, is customer expectations set at an all-time high. Although this may seem like a challenge, it’s an opportunity for brands to creatively engage their customers, consider their desires and utilize that information to guide their strategy for a positive customer experience.

Because winning brands can and do offer overwhelmingly positive experiences, customers no longer have patience for the alternative. Prior experiences have shaped them. There is simply no longer room for disappointment. The bar for customer experience success is higher than ever, which means there’s no better time to find ways to improve the home buyer journey and discover where customer service can improve.

Most people who buy a home from you will have expectations about:

• The quality of your product or service
• Communication (frequency, style, and channel)

A great customer experience includes enough checkpoints through the right channels to empathize with and attend to a customer’s expectations. If you don’t plan for meeting implicit and explicit expectations, you’ll likely lose out.

Tip: Think about some of your favorite brands. What exactly did they do to win you over? What is it like to work with them? Today, there's no shortage of good experiences out there. So find them, and emulate them.

3. Education

Your customers have studied you.  And they've studied your competition. They have researched you extensively online, asked social groups about you and vetted you. All before ever blipping on your radar. This is both a pro and a con. 

If your branding and marketing are up to par, this works in your favor—potential home buyers come to you already knowing who you are and what you can provide during their home buying journey. Better yet, they arrive ready to trust you. 

The downside comes when they don't like what they find through research. Perhaps they didn't respond to the branding. Maybe the copywriting didn't land, or there was too much information left to be desired. It’s crucial to consider the entirety of the customer journey, even before consumer engagement with the brand begins.

The bottom line: we're all researchers now. If your customer experience doesn't account for all the time potential home buyers will spend researching your brand and your competition, you're likely missing something big.

4. Customer Reviews and Word-of-Mouth Recommendations

Satisfied customers are truly a brand’s best form of advertisement. By keeping customers happy, they’ll be more than willing to share their home buying experience with others and provide effective social proof for your home building brand. Even if a customer doesn’t independently provide a review, you can always ask your satisfied customers with whom your company and team has a strong relationship to leave honest testimonials about their experience. Not only does this provide a positive first look at your brand for consumers researching your company, but it also establishes brand credibility and forms a beneficial brand reputation.

Consumers strongly trust recommendations from others, this has been proven time and time again. Friends and family are often seen as the most credible source of information about brands according to 92% of consumers .

When brands provide exceptional customer experiences, this leads to positive reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations. Along with the power of word-of-mouth recommendations, 90% of buyers are influenced by reading positive brand reviews when making purchases. As more homebuyers recommend the brand, more new customers will be attracted and significantly boost sales.

Tip: Think about a time when someone recommended a brand to you. Most likely, it made you curious to learn more and look into the brand yourself. A simple recommendation goes a long way in boosting the brand awareness and attitude surrounding a company. That’s why it’s important to provide customer experiences that buyers want to share with others.

What is a Home Builder Customer Experience?

Now that we've covered what customer experience is and why it matters, let's take a more specific look at the home builder customer experience.

To elevate the home buying experience you offer, it can be helpful to first break down each phase along your typical customer journey.

Phase 1: Awareness

The first phase in the home buyer's journey is called the awareness phase. This is where the customer identifies their need for a product or service. This part of the home buyer journey describes the moment a customer decides it's time to look for a new home.

This decision is one of many that will happen before potential home buyers cross your path. In most cases, the home buyer will begin research with fairly specific parameters in place. These are typically rigid factors that set the expectations home buyers have for their new home and community such as price range, location, number of bedrooms/baths, square footage, amenities, etc.

While you don't have much control over home buyer preferences, you do have control over attracting the right type of home buyer for your homes . Consider the ideal home buyer, what are their needs, desires and expectations for their new home? Use this information to direct your content strategy and provide details about your homes and communities that will appeal to these potential home buyers.

Immediately after this phase, well-branded and reliable resources will win the home buyers' attention. Several home builders will be competing for home buyers’ consideration, so it’s crucial to find ways to differentiate the brand during this initial search for information. Because customers are just on the verge of starting their journey with you, you need to prepare for an excellent first touchpoint.

With a strong marketing strategy, this can be accomplished in many ways. But some of the most effective are offering a beautiful, easy to navigate and information rich website, digital collateral, informative copywriting, effective online assistance, engaging social media posts, podcasts and other forms of media that position your home building brand as a trustworthy expert.

Most of what we just listed leans heavily on your branding. In the first few seconds of interacting with your brand, customers start to form an opinion.  Great branding  guarantees it's a good one.

Now – let's earn prospective home buyers' attention and convert them into leads. This is where marketing takes the reins.

Phase 2: Consideration (Part 1)

Prospective home buyers are looking for home builders like you, so this means you need to broaden your pathways for exposure. The biggest mistake home builders can make is not advertising effectively or implementing routes for home buyers to discover the brand organically. By neglecting these touchpoints, the customer experience won't matter for a clear reason – it won't ever begin.

Most of the following marketing tactics act as a home buyer's first touch point with your brand:

• Paid search ads
• Landing pages
• Display ads
• Social media ads
• Traditional, offline advertising (e.g. signage)
• S treaming audio and CTV Advertising
• Your website
• Content marketing/blog

Whichever tactics you employ, a great home builder customer experience starts with a terrific first impression. How do the marketing tactics look, feel and resonate with prospective home buyers? How does the content read? Does it create an appealing vision of your new homes and communities? Does everything function seamlessly? Is there an appealing call to actions that pulls home buyers further down the marketing funnel? Do you have an online sales presence that effectively and promptly responds to home buyer inquiries?

Note: Today, it's especially important to  bridge the gap between digital and in-person  experiences. Online tours and vivid virtual offerings can capitalize on attention and set you apart.

For our home builder clients, we aim to create an overwhelmingly positive first touchpoint with their prospects. Developing a compelling brand is only one piece of the puzzle, but what’s also incredibly crucial is shaping the way customer relationships form with the builder. Take a look below at our branding and omnichannel marketing approaches we designed and implemented for several of our valued clients. 

• Tesoro Viejo
• Edgewater by True Homes
• Lyric at Ridgegate

Phase 3: Consideration (Part 2)

At this point, a customer has identified their need for a new home. Then, through research or word-of-mouth, they've encountered one or more of your branding and marketing touchpoints. At this stage, they have placed your brand under consideration as an option for finding their new home. But an important key to remember is that they have not made any clear decisions yet, so this is your chance to sway them and demonstrate the unique value proposition offered by your home building brand. Here, the goal is to convert them into a lead and nurture them through your sales funnel.

Hand Raisers

In some cases, home buyers in the consideration phase will love what they see enough to reach out directly. This can happen through your online contact form, live chat, a phone call, or perhaps an in-person visit to one of your communities. We call these leads "hand raisers" and consider them highly qualified.

But however the channel, it's critical these hand raisers have a rewarding and seamless experience while reaching out. They have made the first step of reaching out to your home building business, so it’s crucial to deliver an experience that values the home buyer’s time and attention and meets expectations. When done poorly, even something as simple as a contact form can create friction. For clarity, let's briefly run with this example.

Ask yourself the following:

• What questions are being asked on the form?
• How many questions are being asked?
• Which questions are "required responses" and how might that be too taxing?
• Does the form function perfectly?
• When it's submitted, is there a well-written thank you message?
• Is there an immediate, automated follow-up email that sets expectations for a response?
• What is the response?
• After the automated follow-up email, how quickly is a personalized follow-up sent from your online sale counselor?

The point is every little thing matters. Just as we did above, you should also ask yourself similar questions about  every other medium or channel  a hand-raising customer can use.

Non-Hand Raisers

For less qualified prospects, you'll need to do some nurturing. Aside from reaching out to you directly, there are plenty of other ways to capture and eventually nurture leads.

Because potential home buyers need a lot of information to pique their interest, a successful home builder knows to offer just that. The idea is to provide helpful, well-packaged information in exchange for basic contact details. The more value you provide to these homebuyers, the more likely they will be to continue their home buying journey through the marketing funnel with your brand.

For example, in exchange for an email address and phone number, a home builder could offer a downloadable digital brochure or a comprehensive guide to finding the right home. This entire concept is known as information-first marketing.

Nurturing Leads

Once a lead is captured, how do you positively nurture them? This is a crucial stage in the process and one in which many prospects are lost. The secret sauce is often a combination of components such as personalization, valuable information and strategic invitations—most of which can be automated to speed the process and create more efficiency.

The truth is,  lead nurturing is a massive topic on its own. But in terms of the home builder customer experience, we encourage you to audit every touchpoint in your nurturing process. More often than not, you'll find plenty of opportunities to empower and effectively move your leads down-funnel.

Phase 4: Decision

The point of purchase is emotional — especially for someone buying a new home. There can be moments of euphoria. There can be feelings of doubt. Sometimes all at the same time. Home buyer remorse is likely to set in.

But this makes it a huge opportunity to make them feel appreciated and looked after.

People buy a home for many reasons. But by the point of decision, the forest can be lost for the trees. It can be helpful to assume most new home buyers will at least unconsciously ask themselves, " Am I making the right decision? "

As the provider of their very own home builder customer experience, it's your job to delight home buyers even at the point of sale. When you deliver an amazing customer experience, home buyers will feel assured and remain confident in their purchase decision from start to finish.

Aside from securing the sale, improving your customer experience will increase the likelihood of referrals and turning a customer into a raving fan. 

If you're already mindful of your end-to-end customer experience, that's great news. But let's close with a final phase most businesses ignore or drastically underemphasize.

Phase 5: Post-Purchase

To wrap up, let's consider how a positive buyer-builder relationship can yield returns for years after the sale itself. While it may seem like customer service only matters during the home buyer’s purchase journey, high-performing brands know that providing an excellent customer experience extends well beyond the sale.

As previously mentioned, customers desire to know that they are valued and understood by the brands they buy from – especially when they’re making such an important purchase like a new home. That’s why home builders need to demonstrate their passion for their customers by continuing to engage these home buyers even after providing their new home.

Here are some post-sale tips for properly tying a bow on any given customer experience:

• Kindly ask for feedback
• Respond quickly and effectively to all inquiries
• Deploy follow-up sequences
• Send relevant and thoughtful newsletters and updates
• Add value through resources, advice, and guidance

The ultimate goal of post-purchase marketing is to remind the customer they were more to you than a sale. Continue the conversation. Help where you can.

If you are a welcome and familiar voice, you will have abundant long-term advocates who will promote your home building brand and your new home communities. Today, the people have the power. And what a great thing that is.

A Better Home Builder Customer Experience

Customer-centricity is an ever-evolving framework and the bar for exceptional customer experiences continues to rise. But by taking steps to improve, meet and even exceed customer expectations, you will grow your bottom line and stand out against your competition. It’s vital to shape customer experiences positively to form favorable impressions and create valuable home buyer, homeowner and realtor relationships.

If you're not sure where to start, that's where the Milesbrand team comes in. We are dedicated to branding and marketing in the home building and real estate industry, including partnering with our clients to improve their home buyer experience. 

Contact us to learn more about how we can help your home building brand and set you up for success. 

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Mapping the Home Buying Journey: Part 2

Inbound Marketing | Content Marketing | Strategy

Last month, we talked about how the way someone buys a home has changed, and how marketing a house should follow suit. How the digital age has vastly changed the landscape for today's home owners and the journey they take. 

This month, we'd like to take you to the next stage.

The following is the second excerpt from our ebook "A Builder's Guide to Mapping the Home Buying Journey".

Introducing Content Marketing 

If your marketing is still heavily focused on using traditional tactics like radio, print, display, and signage, you’re losing market share to your competitors that are putting their focus into digital marketing. And while content marketing isn’t a new tactic, it’s still relatively unused, or not used effectively in the homebuilder industry. 

You need to shift your focus to attracting buyers to your brand, getting their permission to market directly to them, and following them through each step of their buyer’s journey using relevant and helpful content. Furthermore, this content should be presented to your prospects through the mediums and platforms they’re already using to consume content.

Online, prospects are using search engines to find resources, consuming and sharing content via social media platforms, and more. Digital content, therefore, is at the forefront of people’s minds daily. The problem then, with attempting to market through these channels, is often the type of content being created by companies. 

Most home builders’ content fails to stand out above the noise and is either blatantly promotional or doesn’t add value to the home buyer. While the mediums and platforms have shifted away from traditional methods, the content has failed to follow suit.

This doesn’t do the home buyer any favours. They’re about to make one of the biggest purchase decisions of their lives and they have questions they need answers to that they’re looking for online. 

So how can you find your place in this, and have your content stand out above all the noise? 

The Home Buyer’s Journey 

Let’s first consider the buyer’s journey as it applies to home buyers specifically, and to the digital sphere. 

As mentioned, a basic buyer’s journey follows the stages of awareness, consideration, and decision, in which the following unfolds: 

• Awareness Stage: People have become aware of a problem they have and they are looking for answers, resources, education, research data, trusted opinions, and insight. 
• Consideration Stage: This is the “evaluation” stage, where people are doing research, exploring solutions, and comparing vendors to see whether or not their product or service is a good fit for them. 
• Decision Stage: This is the “purchase” stage, where people are figuring out exactly which actions to take to become a customer. 

Based on this model, a home buyer’s journey may look something like this: 

• Awareness: “My house isn’t working for me any longer...” The prospect is realizing they may be in need of a new home and is starting to explore their options. 
• Consideration: “I’d like to buy a new home in the SE quadrant of the city...” The prospect is now seriously considering or has decided to buy a new home. 
• Decision: “I’ve found the neighbourhood and narrowed it down to 2 or 3 builders I want to work with...” The prospect will finalize their decision to work with a particular builder. You want that builder to be you.

Of course, there will also be many smaller decisions made along the way as well. 

As we’ve pointed out, the decision to buy a home doesn’t happen overnight. Each decision they have to make about buying a home involves a series of questions and answers they have to find. And they’re spread out along their home buyer’s journey: 

What’s important and necessary for your business is going to be staying front-and-centre along their journey in order to establish rapport with your prospects in a new way. After all, if your prospects are not consistently finding your brand along their journey, you can be sure they’re finding your competitors. 

Reaching your audiences effectively can be done through content marketing, but again, the type of content you’re creating must also be adjusted to fit this new framework. 

Talking to prospects throughout the home buyer’s journey means defining the path, discovering how prospects are navigating it online, creating content that finds them when they want it, and adjusting it to the market. 

Paving the Path of the Home Buyer’s Journey 

With the blueprint of the home buyer’s journey, there’s ample opportunity to connect and interact with prospects through content marketing as well as social media engagement. 

Content and information, and how easily accessible that information is to prospects is more important than ever. Prospects are going to search for this information regardless, and whoever provides the best source of this information for them is going to build instant rapport and position themselves as a helpful resource. 

Shouldn’t that be you? 

As prospects move through each stage of their home buyer’s journey, their objectives, how they behave, the information they need, and the type of content that will resonate most with them, changes. 

A critical step in creating effective content that adds value is the process of mapping your marketing and your content to the different stages of the home buyer’s journey. The more closely you align your content to the buyer’s objectives at each stage, the more prospects you’ll attract into your funnel. 

See the following chart:

Keep in mind that the typical sales cycle for a home buyer can be anywhere between 5 and 18 months depending on the product you’re selling and who you’re selling it to. 

The better job you do mapping your marketing, the more you can speed up the home buyer’s journey and shorten your sales cycle. And this means more closings every year. 

There’s a major benefit to all this that’s often overlooked...

If you have a marketing system in place that will nudge your prospects from one stage of the buyers’ journey to the next, you can cut down the time it takes the prospect to do their research and get them out to your show homes faster and better prepared. 

Click here to check out Part 1 of this series and keep an eye on our blog next month for Part 3!

Originally published Nov 5, 2019.

About Velocity23

We help home builders and developers upgrade their marketing, sales and operations processes so they can grow and scale their business, and sell more homes.

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Customer Journey Mapping for Home Buyers & Sellers

Home buyer journey: A customer journey for estate agents

The home buyer journey - from the perspective of an estate agent.

Marketing during the buyer journey as an estate agency

The home buyer's journey

The home buyer's journey - from the perspective of the buyer.

While we focus mainly in this article on the home buyer's journey as a customer journey from the perspective of an estate agent, it's also worth considering how it looks from the perspective of a buyer/seller in today's market.

Here's a quick list summarising the process a property or home buyer goes through when making a purchase...

• Figure out moving costs and fees
• Establish how much they are able to borrow
• A search for the right property 
• Attend property viewings 
• Make an offer on the right purchase
• Confirm and agree the sale
• Find a solicitor, complete a mortgage application and mortgage valuation
• Conveyancing begins
• Contracts are drafted and solicitor confirms property details
• Searches done by solicitor
• Mortgage is confirmed and home insurance is purchased
• Contract is signed 
• Moving dates agreed and contracts exchanged
• Confirm the move with removals
• Get the keys and move in! 

As an estate agent, it's important that you use the above home buyer journey and place it within your customer's journey. Use it to time your marketing, advertising and automations, as well as improving your customer service once you've converted those potential customers into paying customers. 

If you're an estate agency looking to improve your overall offering, how your real estate business is run and increase instructions or sales, then book a Rezi estate agency software demo today! We'd love to hear from you...

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• Customer journey map: How to visualize ...

Customer journey map: How to visualize the buyer experience

El customer journey o recorrido del cliente es el camino que realiza el cliente desde que tiene una necesidad hasta que compra el producto o servicio. Mientras que el customer journey map es una representación visual de este viaje del consumidor. Sigue leyendo y aprende cómo crear un customer journey y utilizar un customer journey map.

If you skip to the end of a book, you’ll know where every character ends up. But without reading the middle, you won’t understand what took place. A story can’t occur with just a beginning and end—you need the journey between. The buying process is like a story. Analytics show you where each customer ends up, but to understand why they got there, you must examine the buyer journey. 

A customer journey map helps you visualize a customer’s experience from point A—their pain points—to point B—their purchasing decision. When you know what leads people to one decision versus another, you can tailor your business strategy accordingly.

What is a customer journey map?

A customer journey map is a tool that helps you track a customer’s behavior through the buying process. The map includes the customer’s thoughts and feelings about their problem, as well as the corresponding actions they take. 

Simply put, customer journey maps help you:

1. Identify and understand which customers are interested in your product or service.

2. Tailor your messaging so customers understand the benefits of your product or service.

What are the 6 components of a customer journey?

A customer journey map has six components that—when observed together—give you a clear picture of why a customer behaves the way they do. While these components are all relevant to a customer journey map, they don't necessarily happen in order.

The buying process: Start by outlining what you know about your customer’s buying process. How do they move from awareness to interest to eventual purchase?

Customer actions: Customer actions focus on the specific actions your customers take. This can include actions like reading an article, downloading an ebook, or requesting a sales demo.

Customer touchpoints: Different from user actions, touchpoints are company-focused. What does your company do to engage with your customers? These may include posting an ad on social media or distributing an email newsletter.

Emotions: For every action your customer takes, they’ll have a specific thought or feeling tied to that decision. Knowing these emotions provides the “why” for customer behavior. 

Pain points: Pain points drive a customer to purchase your product. They either have a problem to solve or want to fill a need in their life.

Expectations: Customers looking to fix their pain points will have certain expectations for what they’re seeking. This is how they narrow down their product search. 

When you analyze customer actions, make sure you’re taking all six elements into account. For example, emotions happen throughout the entire process, whereas pain points and expectations typically influence the buying process. 

How do you map a customer journey?

You’ll map the customer journey by working through each action your customer takes and assigning emotions to accompany them. Marketing and sales teams often use customer journey maps to assess their current strategies and improve them. You can also use customer journey maps when developing new marketing or sales campaigns. That way, your customer stays front of mind. 

Use the steps below to build a customer journey map. Consider the different stages of the user experience, from their first interaction with your company to their last. 

1. Set your map objectives

Any time you begin a new project or build a new tool, you’ll need to set objectives . When you know what you want to accomplish with your map, you can move through the development process with clarity. Your customer journey map objectives may include:

Determining why customers abandon their carts

Understanding what makes a customer commit to a purchase

Identifying areas where you can influence the customer journey

When setting objectives, pull together a cross-functional team to provide insight. Make sure to ask individuals on the sales, customer support, and marketing teams about how they perceive customer behavior. By incorporating everyone’s viewpoints, you can round out your goals and achieve greater success.

2. Create buyer personas

Buyer personas—also called customer personas—are fictional customers that represent your target audience . The persona profiles who the customer is, what they like and dislike, and their general motivations or frustrations. By looking at a buyer persona, you’ll have the information you need to tell your customer’s story. 

Target market: Women

Target audience: Mothers 

Buyer persona: Daniela Vargas, 32, married with one child.

The target market for your product may be women, but if you serve all women, you’ll still have various audiences. By building out a fictional persona, your team can more easily empathize with your potential customer and create messaging that’s relevant to them. 

Your marketing and sales teams likely have multiple buyer personas—one for each type of person who buys your good or service. After all, people have unique buying experiences depending on who they are. Therefore, you’ll need a unique journey map for every persona.

3. Label customer actions and touchpoints

Customer actions focus on every action the customer takes, while touchpoints are the vehicle for those actions. Touchpoints can include interactions before a customer finds your website or once they’re on your website. Use analytics from past customers to assess how the buyer from your target audience might interact with you online. 

Customer touchpoints outside of your website:

Social media posts

Email newsletters

Customer actions outside of your website:

Searches for your website on Google.

Navigates to your website from a paid ad on Google.

Clicks your website link from a social media post.

Navigates to your website from an email.

Opens your email but doesn’t take action.

Likes your social media ad but doesn’t go to your website.

Customer touchpoints on your website:

Website landing pages

Customer actions on your website:

Puts items in their shopping cart.

Stays on a page for a specific period of time.

Clicks an ad on your website. 

Leaves your website.

Abandons their shopping cart.

Completes a purchase.

Make a timeline of these touchpoints to use as the foundation of your buyer’s story. With this visual representation, write down each customer action associated with the touchpoints.

4. Map the customer journey

You should now have a timeline of how your customer got from their awareness of your product to their final action—whether they decided to purchase or something else. Divide the timeline into stages based on the buyer’s journey.

Stages of the buying process

Awareness: The customer realizes they have a problem that needs solving and determines that your product or service may be the solution. 

Consideration: The customer considers whether to buy your product or service.

Comparison: The customer may compare your product to others on the market.

Decision: The customer decides that your product is best. 

Purchase: The customer buys your product or service.

Retention: The customer likes your product or service and returns for another purchase.

Advocacy: The customer likes your product or service so much that they recommend you to others.

Your first three touchpoints may fall into the awareness stage, while the next two may move into the consideration stage. Not every customer will move through these stages seamlessly, but these transitions can show you where to improve. 

Fill in the story

To complete your journey map, write a step-by-step storyline to fill in the gaps between your touchpoints. Since you know the background of your persona, use what you know to explore what they were thinking when they initially searched for your product. If the customer abandons their cart, consider how they went from being interested to jumping ship. 

Add customer emotions

Your customer will have unique thoughts to accompany every action or situation of their journey. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and try to understand how they feel. Emotions are hard to determine, but with support from your buyer persona, their touchpoints, and your storyline, you can make confident assumptions.

5. Evaluate your marketing strategy

Your completed customer journey map will show you turning points where a customer hesitated to buy your product or abandoned it altogether. For example, a customer that goes to your website but bounces quickly has made it to the awareness stage but may not move into the consideration stage. 

Assess what customers need to move between these stages and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly. In this scenario, ask the following questions:

How long did they stay on our website?

Did they move past the homepage? If not, why not?

What are the weaknesses in our homepage?

How could we improve our homepage to engage customers?

If a customer bounces from your website after viewing the homepage, then the first impression you’re giving them may not be strong enough. It’s possible that your homepage design isn’t intuitive or your content doesn’t stand out. By examining the turning points in your map, you can find ways to make the next customer’s journey more linear.

Customer journey map example

In this customer journey map example, Sally’s pain points are that she struggles to stay organized at work. As Sally makes her journey from problem to solution, there are various touchpoints that guide her. For example, she decides task management is a good solution because she’s heard success stories from friends. She then sees a social media ad for a project management software company that influences her to consider the company’s brand. Sally’s emotions throughout the buying process explain how she processed each step.

Company: Project management software company

Scenario: Sally needs a task management solution to get organized and improve her work performance. 

Expectations: Easy-to-use tool, holds her accountable at work, affordable solution 

1. Realizes she has an organization problem at work

2. Determines task management can solve the problem

Touchpoint: Word of mouth, radio/TV/print

Corresponding emotion: “I need to solve this problem.”

Consideration

3. Sees social media ad for task management software

Touchpoint: Online ads

Corresponding emotion: “This product looks interesting”

Comparison:

4. Compares software to others on the market

5. Reads user reviews of software

Touchpoint: SEO, blog

Corresponding emotion: “What tool best fits my needs?”

6. Decides your product is worth trying

Touchpoint: Customer reviews

Corresponding emotion: “Did other users like this product?”  

7. Goes to software website and signs up for trial offer

Touchpoint: Blog, website

Corresponding emotion: “This looks like the best option, I’ll try it."  

Retention/Advocacy

8. Purchases software once trial period is complete

9. Recommends software to coworkers

Touchpoint: Email, website, word of mouth

Corresponding emotion: “This tool is worth the investment. I should tell my team.”

What are the benefits of customer journey mapping?

Customer journey mapping is beneficial because it gives you a new perspective on how customers act, think, and feel when interacting with your brand. Other benefits include:

Inform your customer service: When you can see your customer pain points clearly, you can use them to better support customers and improve their experience. 

Eliminate ineffective touchpoints: The customer journey map will show you which touchpoints aren’t working. If a customer interacts with your brand but doesn’t move forward in the buying process, then you may need to adjust that touchpoint. 

Focus strategy on specific personas: The customer journey map helps you find a strategy that works best for one group. When you create a map for each target audience, you can customize your strategies for each one.  

Increase understanding of customer behavior: Understanding your audience is crucial to selling products or services. The journey map shows you how customers behave and gives you insight into why they behave that way. 

You can make maps for the current state of your customers or a predicted future state. Both types of customer journey maps can help you learn the customer’s perspectives.

Use a customer journey map to better understand your audience

Your maps can serve as a resource for marketing and sales teams. Once you create one, store it in an accessible place so others can reference it. When you keep your map digital, you can also change it as your audience changes. 

Work management software provides a central source of truth for your team and stakeholders. Whether you’re sharing your customer journey map or putting your improvements into action,  Asana  will keep your team on the same page.

Related resources

How Asana uses work management to optimize resource planning

How Asana uses work management for organizational planning

Solve your tech overload with an intelligent transformation

9 steps to craft a successful go-to-market (GTM) strategy

AI and the Home-Buying Experience: How Technology is Enhancing Customer Experience

Table of Contents

Ai-powered search tools, virtual home tours, ai-enhanced communication, predictive analytics in investment and pricing, key insights.

AI technology has emerged as a transformative force in real estate, and the home-buying experience is no different. Its implications are profound, with the potential to redefine every stage of the buying process. For real estate agents and brokers, harnessing this technology is vital to meet the modern buyer’s expectations and stay ahead in the increasingly competitive landscape.

Today’s clients are tech-savvy and expect their home-buying journey to reflect the efficiency and personalization they experience in other aspects of their digital lives. They want relevant suggestions, instant information, and a visual feel of their potential homes without unnecessary legwork. AI is the answer to these evolving demands, and its adoption is a testimony to an agent or broker’s commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction.

Navigating the vast sea of property listings is no longer a daunting task, thanks to AI-powered search tools. These intelligent platforms offer personalized experiences, making property search efficient and tailored.

Tailored Property Searches: AI-powered search tools have revolutionized the way potential buyers discover properties. A retiree seeking a quiet neighborhood with access to community centers and healthcare facilities can receive personalized recommendations. AI’s ability to analyze specific preferences and cross-reference them with available listings ensures that suggestions are spot-on. The same technology can help a young entrepreneur find a modern apartment close to the city’s business hub, catering to entirely different needs and preferences.

Market Trend Analysis: Besides personal preferences, AI can analyze local market trends to predict property value growth in specific areas. For instance, a first-time buyer looking to invest in a growing community can benefit from AI’s insights into future development projects, school ratings, and infrastructure enhancements. These predictive analyses can guide buyers toward smart investment decisions.

Virtual reality is reshaping the way potential buyers view properties. With the help of AI-driven 3D visualization, virtual home tours are providing a lifelike experience, enabling detailed exploration without physical presence.

Convenience and Accessibility: Virtual home tours enabled by AI’s realistic 3D visualization offer an unparalleled level of convenience. A family relocating from one state to another can now explore potential homes without travel, getting a genuine feel for the space and aesthetics. Overseas investors can similarly tour investment properties without stepping foot on an airplane, saving significant time and resources.

Enhanced Decision Making: This technology goes beyond mere convenience. Virtual tours empower buyers to make more informed decisions. Consider a couple looking for a home with specific architectural features. They can now explore multiple properties virtually, focusing on the details that matter most to them. This deep engagement with properties, even from a distance, helps in making confident purchasing decisions.

In an age of instant information, real estate communication must evolve to meet the demands of modern clients. AI-enhanced communication tools are providing real-time responses, nurturing trust, and building long-term relationships.

24/7 Customer Service: Today’s buyers seek instant information and responses. AI-powered chat and automated responses provide this level of service. Whether it’s a first-time homebuyer with queries about mortgage options or a seasoned investor seeking detailed property specifications, AI ensures that their questions are addressed promptly, fostering a relationship of trust and satisfaction.

Building Long-term Relationships : These AI-driven communication tools not only address immediate queries but can also provide continuous engagement. For instance, an out-of-state buyer interested in local market trends can receive regular updates and insights, keeping them connected and informed. This continuous communication builds a long-term relationship and can turn a one-time buyer into a lifelong client.

Predictive analytics, powered by AI, is paving the way for informed and strategic investment decisions in real estate. From guiding pricing strategies for sellers to assessing risks for investors, AI’s predictive abilities are transforming the way we approach real estate investment and sales.

Strategic Investment Guidance: AI’s ability to analyze large volumes of data and predict future market trends is a game-changer for both individual buyers and real estate investors. By examining factors such as neighborhood development, school quality, public transportation, and economic indicators, AI can forecast potential growth in property values. For a young couple looking to buy a home in an area with promising growth, these insights are invaluable. Similarly, a real estate investor seeking lucrative opportunities can rely on AI’s predictive analytics to identify emerging markets and make strategic investments.

Pricing Strategy for Sellers: On the flip side, AI helps agents and brokers in developing intelligent pricing strategies for sellers. By evaluating comparable sales, market demand, local trends, and even the time of year, AI can suggest an optimal listing price. Consider a family selling their home in a competitive market. AI can analyze similar properties, local amenities, and current market conditions, suggesting a price that attracts buyers while maximizing return. Likewise, for a unique property with few comparable sales, AI’s deep analysis can help in identifying a pricing strategy that reflects the property’s true value.

Risk Assessment and Mitigation: Real estate investments come with inherent risks. AI’s predictive analytics can provide a comprehensive risk assessment, analyzing factors such as potential market downturns, changes in neighborhood dynamics, or shifts in economic policies. An investor eyeing a commercial property in a newly developed area can utilize AI’s insights to understand potential risks and make an informed decision. This level of analysis builds confidence in investment choices and helps in navigating the complex terrain of real estate investment with greater assurance.

• AI-Powered Search Tools: Personalizing property searches for diverse clients, from retirees to young entrepreneurs Analyzing market trends to assist in intelligent investment decisions
• Virtual Home Tours: Offering unprecedented convenience for remote viewing Enabling detailed exploration to enhance informed decision-making
• AI-Enhanced Communication: Providing round-the-clock customer service and immediate responses Facilitating long-term relationships through continuous engagement and updates
• Predictive Analytics in Investment and Pricing: Guiding strategic investments through insights into growth potential Assisting in intelligent pricing strategies for sellers Enabling comprehensive risk assessment to inform investment choices

The integration of AI in the home-buying experience is more than a technological advancement; it’s a strategic imperative for today’s real estate professionals. By offering personalized, efficient, and responsive services through AI, agents and brokers can transform the traditional home-buying journey into an engaging, satisfying, and forward-looking experience. The time to embrace this change is now, and those who do will likely find themselves at the forefront of the industry, leading with innovation, insight, and genuine customer care.

Customer Journey Maps: How to Create Really Good Ones [Examples + Template]

Updated: April 17, 2024

Published: May 04, 2023

Did you know 70% of online shoppers abandoned their carts in 2022? Why would someone spend time adding products to their cart just to fall off the customer journey map at the last second?

The thing is — understanding your customer base can be very challenging. Even when you think you’ve got a good read on them, the journey from awareness to purchase for each customer will always be unpredictable, at least to some level.

While it isn’t possible to predict every experience with 100% accuracy, customer journey mapping is a convenient tool for keeping track of critical milestones that every customer hits. In this post, I’ll explain everything you need to know about customer journey mapping — what it is, how to create one, and best practices.

Table of Contents

What is the customer journey?

What is a customer journey map, benefits of customer journey mapping, customer journey stages.

• What’s included in a customer journey map?

The Customer Journey Mapping Process

Steps for creating a customer journey map.

• Types of Customer Journey Maps

Customer Journey Mapping Best Practices

• Customer Journey Design
• Customer Journey Map Examples

Free Customer Journey Map Templates

Free Customer Journey Template

Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free templates.

• Buyer's Journey Template
• Future State Template
• Day-in-the-Life Template

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

The customer journey is the series of interactions a customer has with a brand, product, or business as they become aware of a pain point and make a purchase decision. While the buyer’s journey refers to the general process of arriving at a purchase, the customer journey refers to a buyer's purchasing experience with a specific company or service.

Customer Journey vs. Buyer Journey

Many businesses that I’ve worked with were confused about the differences between the customer’s journey and the buyer’s journey. The buyer’s journey is the entire buying experience from pre-purchase to post-purchase. It covers the path from customer awareness to becoming a product or service user.

In other words, buyers don’t wake up and decide to buy on a whim. They go through a process of considering, evaluating, and purchasing a new product or service.

The customer journey refers to your brand’s place within the buyer’s journey. These are the customer touchpoints where you will meet your customers as they go through the stages of the buyer’s journey. When you create a customer journey map, you’re taking control of every touchpoint at every stage of the journey instead of leaving it up to chance.

For example, at HubSpot, our customer’s journey is divided into three stages — pre-purchase/sales, onboarding/migration, and normal use/renewal.

1. Use customer journey map templates.

Why make a customer journey map from scratch when you can use a template? Save yourself some time by downloading HubSpot’s free customer journey map templates .

This has templates that map out a buyer’s journey, a day in your customer’s life, lead nurturing, and more.

These templates can help sales, marketing, and customer support teams learn more about your company’s buyer persona. This will improve your product and customer experience.

2. Set clear objectives for the map.

Before you dive into your customer journey map, you need to ask yourself why you’re creating one in the first place.

What goals are you directing this map towards? Who is it for? What experience is it based upon?

If you don’t have one, I recommend creating a buyer persona . This persona is a fictitious customer with all the demographics and psychographics of your average customer. This persona reminds you to direct every aspect of your customer journey map toward the right audience.

3. Profile your personas and define their goals.

Next, you should conduct research. This is where it helps to have customer journey analytics ready.

Don’t have them? No worries. You can check out HubSpot’s Customer Journey Analytics tool to get started.

Questionnaires and user testing are great ways to obtain valuable customer feedback. The important thing is to only contact actual customers or prospects.

You want feedback from people interested in purchasing your products and services who have either interacted with your company or plan to do so.

Some examples of good questions to ask are:

• How did you hear about our company?
• What first attracted you to our website?
• What are the goals you want to achieve with our company? In other words, what problems are you trying to solve?
• How long have you/do you typically spend on our website?
• Have you ever made a purchase with us? If so, what was your deciding factor?
• Have you ever interacted with our website to make a purchase but decided not to? If so, what led you to this decision?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how easily can you navigate our website?
• Did you ever require customer support? If so, how helpful was it, on a scale of 1 to 10?
• Can we further support you to make your process easier?

You can use this buyer persona tool to fill in the details you procure from customer feedback.

4. Highlight your target customer personas.

Once you’ve learned about the customer personas that interact with your business, I recommend narrowing your focus to one or two.

Remember, a customer journey map tracks the experience of a customer taking a particular path with your company. If you group too many personas into one journey, your map won’t accurately reflect that experience.

When creating your first map, it’s best to pick your most common customer persona and consider the route they would typically take when engaging with your business for the first time.

You can use a marketing dashboard to compare each and determine the best fit for your journey map. Don’t worry about the ones you leave out, as you can always go back and create a new map specific to those customer types.

5. List out all touchpoints.

Begin by listing the touchpoints on your website.

What is a touchpoint in a customer journey map?

A touchpoint in a customer journey map is an instance where your customer can form an opinion of your business. You can find touchpoints in places where your business comes in direct contact with a potential or existing customer.

For example, if I were to view a display ad, interact with an employee, reach a 404 error, or leave a Google review, all of those interactions would be considered a customer touchpoint.

Your brand exists beyond your website and marketing materials, so you must consider the different types of touchpoints in your customer journey map. These touchpoints can help uncover opportunities for improvement in the buying journey.

Based on your research, you should have a list of all the touchpoints your customers are currently using and the ones you believe they should be using if there’s no overlap.

This is essential in creating a customer journey map because it provides insight into your customers’ actions.

For instance, if they use fewer touchpoints than expected, does this mean they’re quickly getting turned away and leaving your site early? If they are using more than expected, does this mean your website is complicated and requires several steps to reach an end goal?

Whatever the case, understanding touchpoints help you understand the ease or difficulties of the customer journey.

Aside from your website, you must also look at how your customers might find you online. These channels might include:

• Social channels.
• Email marketing.
• Third-party review sites or mentions.

Run a quick Google search of your brand to see all the pages that mention you. Verify these by checking your Google Analytics to see where your traffic is coming from. Whittle your list down to those touchpoints that are the most common and will be most likely to see an action associated with it.

At HubSpot, we hosted workshops where employees from all over the company highlighted instances where our product, service, or brand impacted a customer. Those moments were recorded and logged as touchpoints. This showed us multiple areas of our customer journey where our communication was inconsistent.

The proof is in the pudding — you can see us literally mapping these touch points out with sticky notes in the image below.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Digital Customer Experience: The Ultimate Guide for 2023

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Customer Experience vs. User Experience: What’s the Difference? [+ Examples]

Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free customer journey map templates.

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The homebuyer journey is changing – So should you

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The 2021 RealTrends Gathering of Eagles real estate conference captured our attention when the role and future of the real estate transaction process for a homebuyer were lively debated.

Big players such as Zillow, Redfin, Compass… etc. claim dominance. We examine the need for complete vendor-provided software solutions vs. building in-house. We watch as consolidation transpires all-around. While addressing all of these issues is important, should we not have more stories and conversations about how brokerages can capture the most important stakeholder of all? The homebuyer.

Let’s dive into two areas that technology partners and independent brokerages can align to ensure that demand is captured and more at-bats are won.

Younger Generations Don’t Know the Process 

There are those on record claiming that brokerages would no longer exist – which can’t be further from the truth. Despite all the talk about tech and disruption, agents continue to play a large role in the buying process. Statistics show that anywhere from 88–90% of home buyers with an agent and use that agent as their go-to source for information.

However, the majority of home searches begin online. Plus, homebuyers are savvy, like really savvy. So while big players might be top of mind there is an opportunity for indie brokerages to capitalize. Why? According to the National Association of Realtors 2021 Home Buyers & Sellers Generational Trends Report , 84% of buyers 30 years and younger cite “helped buyer understand the process” as the most important benefit provided by real estate agents during the home purchase process.

In an age of abundant information, the broker can win. It behooves every brokerage to focus on demonstrating their expertise in the ever-confusing process of buying and selling real estate more than just being “the place” to browse the latest listings.

A beautifully designed website can be an amazing tool to drive demand and capture those all-important leads. But in a changing digital landscape driven mainly by privacy updates and homebuyer sentiment, a website that goes beyond a property search bar to illustrate a brokerage’s mission, community expertise, etc. will go a long way in attracting more clients and building trust.

Adept at sending the occasional market insights report? Try sharing advice on the hottest restaurant/bar tips, neighborhood updates, the area’s lifestyle, service vendors (think children activity centers, schools, garden centers, etc.). Provide compelling, unique reasons to work with you.

Integrating your website with a real estate CRM allows agents to immediately leverage the data collected to send these personalized marketing messages and updates about their client’s specific needs.

More Often Than Not Transparency & Speed Win

As the customer journey changes so must you. At Propertybase, we hear from clients and prospects concerned about how they can be more transparent with clients and process transactions more effectively. Why? When it comes to appealing to homebuyers, trust and speed win.

The capacity to handle fully compliant real estate transactions faster is a foundation for brokerage success. Software such as Propertybase Back Office , offering compliance-driven transaction management, is designed to do exactly this. The ability for an agent to share important due diligence dates, documents and send for eSignature with a click of a button satisfies that buyer’s hunger for more.

Homebuyers are satisfied by being more involved. An agent’s professionalism and trust factor skyrockets. Plus, when transactions happen in less time, more time can be turned to attracting more clients. The combination is the perfect outcome of a brokerage capitalizing on the available software.

So, as we enter the second half of 2021 let us all contemplate whether the abundance of conversations happening in real estate, even those with a hint of Zeitgeist, may take away from listening to the needs of the homebuyer and forming better ideas to capture their attention and win their business. Propertybase is here to help. For more information visit www.propertybase.com . 

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What is customer journey mapping for home builders?

If you're not sure what the hype is about, I'll break it down by answering the most common questions home builders ask us:

• What is journey mapping?
• What's the benefit?
• What types of builders do it?
• What do I do with the results?
• What can I expect as outcomes?

1. What is customer journey mapping for home builders?

Journey mapping is the process of aligning your processes with the customer's thoughts and emotions. There are two parts to that: first is documenting interactions your customers have with you during the home buying/building process. Second is documenting how those interactions make the customer feel along the way. As process-oriented organizations, builders are good at the first part: mapping the interactions (or touchpoints). It's the second part, understanding how the process makes the customer feel, that's a challenge.

As the adage goes: your buyers won't remember the things you said or did , they'll remember how you made them feel .

Think about why people write reviews and share them online. It's nearly always because of how a person or company made them feel. Most reviews, good and bad, are charged with emotion. And whether we like it or not, online reviews are the new referral, only on a larger scale to a broader audience . That's a scary thought.

So many things can go wrong beyond our control:

"The home price just went up."

"The completion date just got pushed back."

"A subcontractor peed in the bathtub (yes this happened)."

Building a new home in today's climate is not for the faint of heart. Even if you're building 100% spec, something is going to go wrong for every customer, and every customer has a megaphone called social media .

This is precisely why I define "customer experience" as the story your customers tell their friends. More about that here >>

2. What are the benefits of journey mapping?

The customer journey is like a roller coaster ride. And research shows customers are most likely to write reviews based on how you made them feel 1) at the end of the journey, and 2) at the highest peaks or lowest valleys. It's called the peak-end rule , and nearly every home builder review is influenced by it.

Mapping the customer journey allows you to take control of this emotional roller coaster, filling the pits, and building higher peaks, with more of them toward the end. It's important to keep in mind over 85% of customers who won't refer have issues at move-in: homes not delivered clean and complete, unresolved punch lists, surprises at the closing table, etc.

Another significant benefit of journey mapping is the cultural effect it has on those that participate. When you bring your teams together and ask them to empathize with the customer during the process, it creates a bond among those that participate, and sends the message "this company really cares." It will set you apart from the builders that only care about meeting sales quotas, instead of doing the right thing for the customer. This helps retain good talent and reduce turnover.

3. What types of builders are doing it?

If you're a small builder delivering 20 homes per year, it's possible to keep your finger on the pulse of every customer that builds with you. If you're that involved, you may find the process of creating a journey map unnecessary.

On the other end of the spectrum, many big builders have already created journey maps and have been using them for years on their path to maturity.

It's the builders in between that benefit the most, as many don't fully understand what type of experience they're delivering. They often have tons of data about their customers but have trouble translating it into meaningful actions. (If you're neck-deep in customer data and not sure what to do with it - ask about our customer data assessment .)

4. What do I do with the results?

With the process complete, you should easily be able to identify programs and initiatives to improve your customer experience both for the short and long term.

Done properly, with the support of quantitative and qualitative customer data, you make a strong case for investing in future experience improvements. Many builders want to start improving their experience but have no idea where to start. The customer journey map is a tool to help you prioritize, starting with quick wins, and moving on to long-term initiatives.

If you start to feel overwhelmed, just think of it as a pyramid of customer's needs.

At the base is delivering the product - if the home is wrong, nothing else matters. In the middle , you're creating a smooth process - provide a clear and predictable roadmap for the customer (journey mapping is key to creating that roadmap). The top is where you make it fun and personal. Challenge your team to come up with ways to connect with customers in a fun and authentic way. This can be the most rewarding part. For many builders, it means getting out of your comfort zone. But you have to trust your team. They know the customer best. 

For more on this pyramid approach check out: > Important Metrics to Track in Your Customer Experience Program > How Do You Measure the Customer Experience?

5. What are some journey mapping outcomes?

The long-term goal for many builders is customer reviews. But here are some other outcomes of journey mapping you can expect.

For the customer:

• They always know where they are in the process and what comes next.
• They see everyone in your organization as a unified team (because everyone knows exactly what they're putting the customer through).
• Regularly setting expectations and delivering on them builds trust. The message received by the customer is that you're organized. You talk to each other. And you care. The customer feels the genuine concern you have for them. 

For the builder:

• The team has a set plan that everyone has bought into. It's a great accountability tool. Everyone knows what's expected from their role.
• It should foster remarkable teamwork. When customers see great teamwork in action they know they are working with a special company. The antithesis are interactions with folks like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast. You call with a problem and repeat your story over-and-over. Totally disjointed: these people aren't listening and really don't care.
• Embody the Abe Lincoln quote, "The best way to predict the future is to create it." Your journey map allows you to create a blueprint for the future experience you want to be known for.

Why now is the best time to focus on mapping the customer experience

Right now, with supply chain shortages, builders aren't needing to fill the funnel like before. So marketing and sales are having to shift from their original goals of lead generation and conversion . The new goal (likely temporary) is to focus on the things we have always wanted to do, but haven't been able to because of limited resources. One of those things is the customer experience. Focus on this now (while there's the time and resources to do it) so that the experience is better once we start opening the funnel again. The best first step is journey mapping.

Getting started with journey mapping

There are a lot of resources on the internet for journey mapping. But it's not easy to apply them to the home building industry because the home buying/building process is so different. Not many other products take a year to personalize and create (in the field no less). And the home is one of the most emotional purchases a person will make. It's certainly the most expensive. 

Hopefully, this article has inspired you to take steps toward improving your customer journey. If so, let us know . You're the kind of builder we love to hear from. Whether you're the DIY-type looking for resources, or the type that prefers to work directly with the experts, give us a call. Our mission is to leave this industry a better place than we found it. And it starts with a conversation.

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We'll talk about the future of your company, your current initiatives, and that little thing that makes your company special. We want to understand who your best customers are and how we can act as an extension of your team to deliver amazing experiences.

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• Streamlining the home buying experience with a customer-centric approach

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Sarah Green, Client Partner of Mortgages at Capita, takes a look at how we can create a better home buying experience for customers.

Buying a home, especially if it’s your first, is one of life’s biggest decisions. 

Your home is a place of sanctuary, which you can personalise in any way you wish, somewhere your family will play and grow – and so investing in it is very much an emotional decision. 

However, as with any investment, it is, of course, also a financial decision. Practically, there are countless things to do – once you’ve found a desirable property in the right location you must then manage the finances required; arrange a building survey and household insurance; choose a broadband provider and utilities companies; organise postal redirects and removal companies... the list can seem endless. 

It often adds up to a complicated and time-consuming process, and while many lenders, brokers and technology providers have tried to streamline and accelerate this over the years, for first-time buyers in particular it remains a step into the unknown. More often than not, home buyers learn as they go with minimal support or guidance along the way, which can result in an unnecessarily challenging, stressful and lengthy home buying experience.

And yet, first time buyers represent about 25% of all residential house purchases in the UK (approximately one million property transactions per year). Nearly two-thirds (62%) of people living in the UK own a house, while out of those who don’t, 76% want to own a property. The government’s decision to significantly reduce stamp duty at the beginning of the pandemic has also driven up house purchases. 

So, the housing market is alive and well, with many first-time buyers taking the first rung on the UK’s property ladder. It’s therefore imperative then that we support our customers in what should be an exciting and gratifying journey – especially those who are new to the whole experience. 

Using technology to support home buyers through the journey

Typically, home buyers face three major challenges. 

The first is who to go to for the right advice so that you can make an informed decision. How much money can you borrow, what is the right type of mortgage to go for and what will it cost? 

The second is how to collate your personal information and provide it in the way required. Which payslips are needed and in what format? What information is critical for a full income and expenditure statement?

Finally, once your mortgage has been approved, how do you proactively manage the moving process to ensure that you can exchange and complete as soon as possible and start the next phase of your life? 

Collectively, the mortgage industry, financial services sector and its partners have a key role to play in streamlining the home buying experience. The most significant improvement we can make is to reassess this journey from the eyes of the customer. Are we leveraging the voice of the customer through focus groups, think tanks and social media in order to make improvements? Do we have someone who acts as the voice of the customer in our meetings, processes and system designs so that we’re solving problems through a customer lens? Are we listening to what our customers are saying and are we proactively seeking this out before a complaint, issue or loss of business arises? 

To be a truly customer-centric organisation, it’s also important to realise that customer behaviours are changing, impacted by external factors and influences such as Covid-19. Post-pandemic, consumers are more focused on health and wellbeing, human connections and empathy. At the same time, the pandemic has also accelerated the adoption of technology in the financial services sector, driving it forward several years in the space of just 18 months. This has provided more convenience for the customer through screen sharing, live chats, electronic signatures, digital documentation and through the use of data sources such as open banking. These also compliment the need for ‘hybrid’ channels, giving customers channel choice – the flexibility to, for instance, start a process face to face and to complete it with remote digital technology.

Technology can also be used to help demystify the home buying process. It can support personal objectives, reassure the customer that their mortgage application is progressing, and even provide nudges and support at appropriate points in the journey.

So, while being a tech-savvy organisation is imperative in today’s world, what’s even more important is how to harness this technology to become a customer-led, human-focused organisation – this is the key challenge for many of us to unlocking a more streamlined home buying journey.

At Capita, we’re passionate about creating the very best possible outcomes for home buyers. Find out how we can help you achieve this by balancing technology with the needs of your customers.

Sarah Green

Client Partner Mortgages at Capita

Sarah has joined as a client partner, with responsibility for our key mortgage clients, along with leading our growth focus in the mortgage business. Sarah has over 20 years’ experience in the mortgage and financial services outsourcing industry, across both growth, operations and technology. Having previously worked for Homeloan Management (now Computershare), Capita Mortgages and Sutherland Global and in more recent roles, Sarah has focussed on Digital Transformation and Customer experience, bringing well rounded experience for our mortgage proposition.

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The new buyer's journey: how to win over informed b2b customers.

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Anna Convery-Pelletier is CMO at Jumio, a provider of automated, AI-driven identity verification, risk assessment and compliance solutions.

In the ever-evolving world of marketing, reaching B2B technology customers and prospects has become an undeniably daunting task. The landscape is saturated—inboxes overflowing with emails, social media feeds flooded with content and targeted ads popping up everywhere we turn.

Buyers have become desensitized to traditional marketing tactics. It's a frustrating reality for B2B marketers and a reality I know all too well as the chief marketing officer of an AI solution provider: Having a fantastic product or a well-crafted campaign simply isn't enough anymore. Success now hinges on a strategic approach that not only cuts through the noise, but also engages today's savvy buyers.

The Empowered Buyer

The buyer's journey has undergone a dramatic shift. Gone are the days of passive information intake. Today's empowered customers leverage the internet to become informed decision-makers, actively seeking out trustworthy sources and conducting in-depth research. In fact, research found that 75% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free sales experience.

Think about buying a car. Unlike the past when a buyer would spend their Saturday going from dealership to dealership and test driving every car, the modern buyer conducts online research and knows their choice before stepping foot in a dealership. They identify their buying criteria, from budget to safety features and vehicle type. This research goes beyond brand websites and encompasses reviews, comparisons and independent sources to discern genuine value from marketing messages.

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To effectively engage with these empowered buyers, it's crucial for B2B marketers to shift their strategies. Here are actionable steps to begin that transformation:

• Conduct thorough market research to delineate and comprehend your buyer personas, enabling tailored marketing strategies that resonate with each unique segment.

• Leverage website analytics to monitor user engagement, page visits and interaction patterns, providing a foundation for content optimization and user experience enhancements.

• Implement machine learning algorithms to sift through large datasets, revealing patterns and preferences that inform broader, cross-sector personalized marketing initiatives.

Cut Through The Noise

Acknowledging the evolved landscape, marketers must pivot toward strategies that emphasize insightful, personalized content to truly engage modern, well-informed buyers. As skepticism toward traditional sales tactics increases in an era of information overload, the necessity for marketers to adapt becomes undeniable.

Offering relevant and engaging content at every stage of the buyer's journey—not merely at the point of sale—is crucial for nurturing trust and fostering open dialogue. Research found that 84% of B2B buyers find it very important to have easy access to technical content. The strategy should proactively address the buyer's challenges and guide them to solutions, potentially before they themselves are fully aware of their needs.

To navigate this new terrain effectively, here are strategic approaches that can help marketers foster impactful engagement with their audience:

• Develop a content strategy that addresses each stage of the buyer's journey, providing value that guides the buyer toward a decision.

• Implement SEO best practices to increase the visibility of your content, making it easier for your target audience to find the answers they're seeking.

• Harness social media analytics and AI to create dynamic, real-time content that resonates with evolving trends and preferences.

Navigating The Digital Landscape

Having established the need to understand our buyers and create content that resonates with them, it's clear that the battleground for customer attention has largely moved online. The shift toward online customer attention underscores the importance of a robust "digital front door" in modern marketing strategy. A strategic, comprehensive approach to online presence is vital for engaging today's informed buyers, from understanding their journey to delivering impactful content.

Throughout my career, I've learned that thorough digital strategy is essential for making a brand's online presence a welcoming point of contact and a pivotal decision-making element. Such a presence serves as today's storefront, retaining customer interest with quality content.

Understanding digital engagement analysis is crucial for fine-tuning interactions and ensuring a brand's visibility is impactful. Meeting customers in digital spaces where decisions are made is now essential. A compelling digital presence, supported by a nurturing sales and support infrastructure, is key to developing deep, meaningful relationships and successful conversions.

Incorporating a holistic digital strategy, informed by buyer behavior and targeted content creation, is crucial for meaningful engagement and conversion success in the digital landscape. This approach ensures brands can meet and exceed modern buyer expectations.

Looking Ahead

The B2B customer power dynamic has shifted—they now control their buying journey, informed and aided by a wealth of information. For marketers, success depends on understanding the customer's context and journey stage. Delivering relevant, authentic content is paramount. Building trust and fostering meaningful conversations throughout the buying cycle distinguishes successful companies in today's marketing landscape

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