Do you know how many potential clients you lose, day by day, because your online presence does not provide answers to the questions your clients have? Decision making has changed dramatically in the digital age. 

The clients are different today– they are curious, demanding, impatient and above all – they want to do the research across offerings themselves – 24/7 – when it fits their schedule. Time is precious and clients in the digital age act economically with their attention.  When clients search for an offering that meets their needs you have to be right at their fingertips with the benefits influencing their decision making.

So – how do you adapt to the changed customer decision making?

1. Understand who the client is and which need the client wants to fulfill

• Use market research, create personas of the most important client groups, match it with your company´s market strategy
• Understand what drives your clients´decision making – use internal (eg client feedback) or external sources    (client comments in forums, social listening etc)
• Understand who your competitors are – think beyond normal patters – look at disruptors, new enablers etc

2. Put yourself in the client shoes to understand the decision making process

• Test your competitions client journeys & value proposition
• Review your own client journey. Does it provide the decision drivers easily – does your journey cover all channels – use an outside in view with a fresh view of someone who does not know anything about your product – ideally your client should just need a or two clicks to find all relevant information
• Map your client journey & detect areas to change

3. Adapt to be sticky

• Simplify your client journey (just one or two clicks to find what you need)
• Offer something to remember – provide a USP
• Be easily approachable when you cannot meet an information need
• Use SEO tools to ensure you appear very prominently on the search results – for this understand the key words your personas are using to search for your offering