The updated sales-cycle model

GOAL
Where seller wants buyer “to be”
ADOPTION STAGE
Aware of seller + offering
Understand features + benefits
Interact + decide to try
Increase use + effectiveness
Advocate + influence others
Suggest changes + additions

ACTION What seller does SALES STAGE Publicize + advertise Inform + educate Close + transact Service + support Reinforce + reward Listen + adopt

MEASURE

What seller watches RESEARCH STAGE Recognition score + # of inquiries Reputation + quality scores Sales $ + % repeat purchases Usability scores + maintenance records Net promoter + satisfaction scores # of unexpected uses of product

[ 6] Schmidt, B. Experiential Marketing: How to Get Customers to Sense, Feel, Think, Act, and Relate to Your Company and Brands. New York: The Free Press,1999.

May + June 2008

[ 7] Csíkszentmihályi, M. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, New York: Harper and Row, 1990.

interactions

larger arc or path: the customer journey. The series of customer experiences aggregate to form an impression of the product or service in its context—developing an idea of what it does, what it means, and what it’s worth—what the customer thinks of the brand. Indeed, the impression (the sum of the experiences) is the brand [ 6].

Ideally, the experiences build a strong relationship between customer and producer. John Rheinfrank and others (including coauthor Shelley Evenson) developed a model of the ideal “experience cycle” as they worked on a usability design strategy for Xerox in the 1980s. They were searching for a way to describe a copier in its broader context—in its ecology—so that they could design the product to fit its context. The initial model had seven steps, but over the years the team refined it to five.

The experience-cycle model describes the steps people go through in building a relationship with a product or service: 1. Connecting (first impression)

2. Becoming oriented (understanding what’s possible)

3. Interacting with the product (direct experience)

4. Extending perception or skill and use (mastery)

5. Telling others (teaching or spreading activation)

Explicit in the experience cycle is the process by which customers become advocates and introduce others to the product, beginning the cycle anew.

This frame suggests a shift in focus from “the sale” as a point event or “trial” as a single interaction to nurturing a series of relationships in a continuous cycle that yields increasing returns.

The experience-cycle model suggests attributes for an ideal experience—criteria for evaluating experience or even key performance indicators (KPI)—which designers can address. A good product or service experience is:

1. Compelling (it captures the user’s imagination)

2. Orienting (it helps users navigate the product and the world)

3. Embedded (it becomes a part of users’ lives)

4. Generative (it unfolds, growing as users’ skills increase)

5. Reverberating (it delights so much that users tell other people about it)

In Csíkszentmihályi’s concept of “flow,” people are completely involved in an activity for its own sake. In peak flow experiences, people are engaged in discovery, transported to a new reality [ 7]. Though in most experiences we cannot expect people to “become so involved that nothing else matters,” addressing the facets of experience can make flow easier to achieve.

The experience cycle also helps designers reflect upon another important design consideration— what expectations people bring to the experience. At each stage, resources for experience must