When a consumer chooses to travel to New York for example, his adventure starts long before the airport check-in or even before the travel package purchase. Lots of small stages previous to the official purchase moment are experimented, one good example is the frenetic searches on the internet related to the context of the trip: local information, temperature, equipment, local fun, restaurants and so on...
Many of those stages take place along with close people or family members, even if you are planning to travel alone. Those rituals of preparation are subject to a high word of a mouth impact and serve to build up the confidence and to provide the necessary support for the consumer to go on with his journey.
A good example of a ritualistic stage that shows up often on the beginning of the consumer journey in a large variety of service scenarios is what we call it "Preparation". Doesn't matter if you are planning to go on a business trip leisure trip, or to check yourself in a new Gym club this ritual is always there. It takes place sometimes long before the first interaction with the service provider, but it has such importance in the consumer choice as it helps to build up the interest on the journey that can end-up in your store.
Lot's of touch points connect to form the preparation rituals, but the Brand that is going to provide the service in the future is not physically included yet, at this point the consumer still does not exist in the Brand radar. This can make direct actions of usual channels as call centers or even the company website fall obsolete, as there is no "touch" yet.
Some brands already understood the importance of taking part in preparation rituals of its customers and established platforms to make that possible using mainly the social media. It is very important that those actions end-up being honest, relevant and not sales-directed.
In a recent intiative, Virgin Atlantic launched an iPhone App to help passengers that are afraid of flying. The App is a course that includes safety information and meditation classes. This allows the passenger to get in the mood of flying long before he steps into the airplane, this way he can be more relaxed and prepared to touch-and-feel Virgin amazing service offers.
How about your Brand? You company knows about and participate or can at least influence some of the preparation rituals involved in your business?
In a fast response spree you can say: Yes. Because in my Web Site I do provide information about how to "package for a leisure trip".
But think again. Remember: There is no connection at this point between you and your "future' customer. This implies that, unless your Web Site is on the first page of Google when i type :"How to package to New York City", or unless i am an old returning customer, your Brand influence will not touch me at this earlier stage.
It worth remembering that, despise Social Media is being of high importance to help extend the brand radar to the consumer earlier rituals, it do not represent the only way to create engagement in the Preparation stage. And that the consumer will note actions that are really RELEVANT to them at those earlier stages of engagement.
To really extend the brand radar until the preparation phase it is important to get deeply connected with the consumers and to be aware of the full journey that direct them to consume your services.
We will cover those topics in our next Service Design workshop that will take place at 23/11 in São Paulo.
