Written by: Mark Pearson
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Allocating the appropriate focus and resources to behaviours in the development stage is critical.
Scroll DownAlthough development is the second stage of the customer lifecycle, it is the
first real opportunity to cultivate brand loyalty. Allocating the appropriate focus
and resources to behaviors in this stage is critical. Not only does it optimize your
customer base from a financial perspective, it also builds a solid foundation for
longer-term relationship development, increased retention and ideally, advocacy.
Customer Development Behaviours
Development behaviours can generally be grouped into three categories –
continuity, onboarding and growth. These behaviours are universal in that they
apply to many different types of customers, including B2C and B2B2C.
Continuity behaviours focus on getting a trier to become a buyer, habitually
purchasing the product or service and in the long run, becoming a regular
customer. These may include:
• Making a second purchase
• Repeating or routinely purchasing
• Increasing frequency of purchases
• Increasing ticket average of purchases
Onboarding focuses on driving the behaviors of your best or ideal customers
from both a revenue and profitability perspective. Specific examples include:
• Optimizing purchase-related behaviors
• Driving profitable behaviors - e.g. channel migration and optimization;
online billing, pre-approval and auto pay; pre-orders and recurring orders
• Omni-channel activation — e.g. retail, online, mobile and social
• Initial relationship development — e.g. opt-in and channel preferences,
profile completion or enhancement, feedback
Growth behaviors focus on expanding beyond the initial product or service
purchased. Specific examples include:
• Trial across categories
• Up-sell or cross-sell
• Private label or higher margin alternatives
• Service enhancements
• New product/services