The Customer Journey in the hair business
It is easier said than done, to tell somebody who is passionate to start selling hair not to purchase hair. Because what is nicer than opening a box with beautiful, nice smelling and silky hair?
I can tell you what is better. If you can ship all that hair out to your clients, who just paid for your products. The saying is, it is better it is better to give than receive, right!
If you want to sell hair you need to understand your client. You need to understand the customer journey. In other words, what are the mental steps your Ideal Client is making before she buys hair?
Let us travel together to see how this works.
Define Your Ideal Client
Did you ever wonder, how people are capable to break a brick into two pieces, by using their bare hands only? It is all about focus. Bring all the energy together in one single point. The same goes for finding clients that need hair. A need you can help them with because you will be able to provide the hair they are looking for. You focus yourself on their problems, on the way of searching for answers they prefer and using the language they speak and understand. You sell more with the right focus.
If you ask people if they need hair extensions, they might answer confirmative. But they will not buy hair extensions. What they will purchase is:
“Raw Cambodian Hair, curly and 16 inches, natural color for $ 100 and free shipping.”
You need to understand how your Ideal Client is coming to this purchase decision. You must understand her Customer Journey.
What are the steps your client takes- the customer journey
The journey consists of a three-step process:
- Awareness Stage: Your ideal client realizes she has a problem. “She wants to prepare herself for the wedding of her best friend and she wants to look great. But how?”
- Consideration Stage: Your Ideal client defines her problem and research options to solve it.” She talks with her friends, scrolls through her Instagram account, and sees beautiful dresses and gorgeous hair styles. She only has a limited budget and needs it next week.”
- Decision Stage: Your Ideal Client chooses a solution. Your Raw Cambodian Hair, curly and 16 inches, natural color for $ 100 and free shipping!
Awareness Stage
During the Awareness stage, Your Ideal Client identifies her challenge or an opportunity she wants to pursue. She also decides whether the goal or challenge should be a priority. To fully understand the Awareness stage for your Ideal Client, ask yourself:
- How do Ideal Clients describe their goals or challenges?
- How do Ideal Clients educate themselves on these goals or challenges?
- What are the consequences of inaction by the buyer?
- Are there common misconceptions Ideal Clients have about addressing the goal or challenge?
- How do Ideal Clients decide whether the goal or challenge should be prioritized?
Consideration Stage
During the Consideration stage, Your Ideal Client has clearly defined the goal or challenge and have committed to addressing it. They evaluate the different approaches or methods available to pursue the goal or solve their challenge. Ask yourself:
- What categories of solutions do Ideal Clients investigate?
- How do Ideal Clients educate themselves on the various categories?
- How do Ideal Clients perceive the pros and cons of each category?
- How do Ideal Clients decide which category is right for them?
Decision Stage
In the Decision stage, Ideal Clients have already decided on a solution category. For example, they could write a pro/con list of specific offerings and then decide on the one that best meets their needs. Questions you should ask yourself to define the Decision stage are:
- What criteria do Ideal Clients use to evaluate the available offerings?
- When Ideal Clients investigate your company’s offering, what do they like about it compared to alternatives? What concerns do they have with your offering?
- Who needs to be involved in the decision? For each person involved, how does their perspective on the decision differ?
- Do Ideal Clients have expectations around trying the offering before they purchase it?
- Outside of purchasing, do Ideal Clients need to make additional preparations, such as implementation plans or training strategies?
How to find the answers?
Now you know what is going on in the mind of your Ideal Client before she buys your hair or decides to buy from the competition. But how do you get that information out of her head and on a piece of paper? You can perform an interview with people you consider your target audience, your ideal client.
You can also follow-on social media the hair companies you consider as your competition. Or the peers you want to beat. It is amazing how much you can learn from the comments left on Instagram, Facebook, Tok-Tok and other social media. Copy the text of the original post and the relevant comments. Skip the “I love this “comment but note when people tell they can not wait for the hair to be in stock again for example.
All this information will give you valuable insight in what is in the mind of people when they want to buy hair.
Group the comments into the three stages. “Do you also have this hair in other colors “, is typically a comment for the consideration stage for example.
Use it
You can use this information to write product descriptions, blog posts and other pages based upon the customer journey. When people land on your “Raw Cambodian Hair´ page, you know she is or just browsing, or considering all options or ready to buy. Answer her questions by writing about the questions she has in the various stages. Use the keywords you found in the interviews and comments. Write interesting stories that will give enough views during the customer journey. Be original so she will remember you. Give her the answers she is looking for. Try it and let me know how the journey goes.
