User stories, scenarios and the customer journey in sales

06.02.2023 12:42

Author and content analyst on trade automation

як використовувати історії та досвід користувачів для покращення продажів?

User stories, user scenarios, user/customer journey/user journey map - all these obscure terms refer to methods of organizing customer information, and they can be tools for an analyst or a store sales manager.

Let's try to explain with examples how these methods affect the increase in the number of satisfied customers and sales in an online store.

What are user stories and how do they help to sell

User stories are user stories in English. Marketers use them to create scenarios of user behavior when they choose a product.

User stories are a short, detailed synopsis - a description of the type of customer and their wishes regarding the product. User stories can become a prerequisite for the use of your product: knowing the basic needs of customers, you will determine the best way to use it.

Stories should be collected before the product is released or updated. Even if you already have a product, it will not be superfluous to go through the "stuff" again and understand the mechanism of user behavior on your website.

Let's take a look at a user story:

Let's say you run a sporting goods store. One of your target audience members, a 25-year-old girl named Marina, works as a beautician in a private clinic. All day long, she has to sit bent over a client, which is why she has constant back and neck pain. She decides to devote time to her health and signs up for a gym membership. To attend classes, she needs a mat. Marina enters a query in Google and ends up on your website. Her story doesn't end here, because she already has an image of the desired mat in her head and probably has certain requirements for the product: for example, it should be made of rubber, have a single-layer durable structure and anti-slip properties. You also know that Marina loves to travel and writes a travel blog in her spare time.

You have a detailed description of your target customer. However, in order to complete the picture, you need to collect as many stories as possible that would characterize your potential users.

You've made the descriptions of your target audience, written them down on stickers, and put them on a whiteboard. What's next? Next, you need to classify the collected information, i.e., group it into groups based on common features - create user scenarios.

What are custom scenarios for?

Scenarios summarize the information received about the needs and wishes of the client by simplifying it - eliminating unnecessary details and combining similar ones. User scenarios or legends are diagrams of typical situations your customers find themselves in. Since it's impossible to think through all possible lines of behavior, scenarios take into account the images and common motives of users.

Thanks to scenarios, you can understand the main motive of user behavior in achieving goals. Why they came to your website, what prompted them to choose a particular product, how they make purchases - by phone or online chat, etc.

User scenarios also help you design the interface of your online store to make it user-friendly and satisfy all customer needs, or identify the shortcomings of your current design, which is why sales regularly drop.

In addition to Marina's story, you may have dozens of other user stories about your users. Marina's type scenario is working women under 30 who periodically complain about health problems and want to get rid of them through a healthy lifestyle. They are used to choosing products online, via a computer, and prefer to communicate with the seller in a messenger.

After you've written the legends (yes, you've written them with a pen or on the keyboard), get ready to design solutions, i.e. develop a customer journey.

How to create a user journey map

A Customer Journey Map is a consistent and detailed description of all the stages that a customer goes through from the first contact with the store to making or rejecting a purchase. Based on the scenarios, solutions should be prepared to solve specific problems or needs of customers. These solutions should be systematized in a table or visualized in an infographic.

Important. Each user scenario should have its own user map, that is, its own sequence of steps that the user goes through when interacting with the product.

The process of finding solutions includes the following steps

First, analyze successful examples of your competitors' maps.
Think about the target actions of users before the purchase:

browsing the website and product catalog,
product selection,
registration on the site,
adding a product to the cart,
additional actions, such as watching a video, downloading an app, contacting a manager through an online form.

3. Write down the critical points - what can go wrong?

Your website may not make it to the first pages of Google search results.
If your online store has an unattractive interface, long page loads, unclear content structure, lack of photos and product descriptions, errors when opening pages or product cards - all this can put off customers at the first stage of the journey.
Long registration with many fields to fill in, no autocomplete, etc.

4. Summarize all the data in a table or record the points of customer interaction with the product in the Google Tag Manager service.

You can duplicate these events in your own CRM system, where you can indicate the needs for service improvement at each step of the customer journey.

By the way, analytical services, such as Campaign Manager or display ad trackers, can help you track user actions on your website. The latter, in particular, allow you to track a user's path from the moment they see an ad banner.

In the case of client Marina, her path could look like this:

Browsing the website with the store's product catalog → browsing the category "Fitness mats and mats" → studying the characteristics of the selected products → viewing the price of similar products from competitors → deciding to buy the product in your store → filling out the registration form → placing an order → receiving an SMS with order data → calling the manager to clarify the information.

Of course, this path is possible under ideal conditions, so you should consider other scenarios that deviate from the main plan.

5. Design a map or prototypes of the user journey. At this stage, you need to visualize the ideas that would best solve their needs. You can work with prototypes - templates of website screens that need to be changed. For example, with product order forms. For each step of the user journey map, develop your own prototype with branches - critical moments when something goes wrong.

Here's an example of a prototype of the user registration stage on a website:

User journey mapping is not a one-time process. To better optimize customer problems and solve them, constantly update the available data, test various hypotheses about the decrease in conversion rates on the site or gaps in attracting new customers. Conduct A/B testing of website improvement options on different customer samples, etc.

How to use user stories for online sales?

Listen to customer requests

Customers provide an endless amount of information about what product they need, what problem they want to solve. The easiest way to collect user requests is to use an online chat form on your website. The seller should answer all questions:

Keep a list of non-standard questions or tasks that your product should solve. These questions are your unique content. Using the example above: if the mat is suitable for beauty salon masters who sit over clients all day, add this description to the product characteristics and product description; explain why the product is suitable for this category of customers.
Clarify the details. If the product does not suit the customer, ask "Why?". The answer will help you understand whether the customer has not understood all the characteristics of the product or has not seen a similar one on your website, or whether their request will help you expand your assortment. If, for example, customers often ask about "laptop power banks," is this a reason to order several copies to expand your website's offerings, add customer wording to the product description, or create a separate category?
To satisfy all needs. It may sound pretentious, but, for example, many buyers of large household appliances refuse to buy because the store does not have the product or has not offered to deliver or install it. If you have additional services, make them sales impulses. For example, if you sell laptops from Europe with non-Ukrainianized keyboards, the only thing that's missing for the customer to make a purchase is an engraving service - offer a partner service center if you don't provide such services yourself. Help the customer complete their customer journey.

At what stage do customers abandon a purchase?

It's scary to face the truth, but in both offline and online sales, a good seller can clearly see where the customer "breaks away". This is your strategic development plan. Did you visit the product card and quickly leave? It is possible that there is not enough information, or the site is not trustworthy. What to do? Work on the site for real.

Did the customer enter the store, stand, look, no one approached him, and he left? Yes, maybe he was just passing the time and walking around the store, or maybe he was looking for a product that you have at another outlet. What to do: At the very least, ask what the customer is looking for and try to help.

There are many such examples. The main rule of building user stories is to use them to improve the product range and store service.

Програма обліку товару для інтернет-магазинів, крамниць, торгових точок, складів та виробництва

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