Latest / Customer Journey with Fexingo: Touchpoints, Mapping, and Multi-Channel Marketing / The Brand Advocate Touchpoint Journey Maps Overlook
Transcript
- Lucas: So Luna, I was reading through a few journey maps last week, the kind that marketing teams bring to workshops, and I kept noticing the same gap. They all end at 'purchase' or maybe 'renewal', but almost none of them include the moment a customer actually recommends you to someone else. Luna: You mean like the 'advocacy moment'? I feel like that's the holy grail, but it's also the hardest to map because it often happens outside your control. Lucas: Exactly. And that's why it's overlooked. It's invisible. But it's also one of the most valuable touchpoints a brand can have, because it's the only one that brings in new customers at essentially zero acquisition cost. Luna: So what does that moment actually look like in practice? Give me a concrete example. Lucas: Sure. Let's take a B2B software company. Their customer, a product manager, is in a Slack community for, say, project management tools. Someone asks 'what do you use to track roadmaps?' And your customer types a two-sentence answer: 'We use Tool X, it's been great for our team.' That's it. That's the advocacy touchpoint. Luna: And that's not something you can see in your analytics. It's not a click or a form fill. It's just a person being helpful in a community. Lucas: Right. And because it's invisible, most journey maps just ignore it. But think about the impact. That one recommendation might influence, I don't know, a handful of people who are actively evaluating tools. And those people are way more likely to convert than someone who clicked a Google ad. Luna: So how do you even start mapping something you can't see? Is it just about asking customers afterwards? Lucas: Partially. But I think the first step is to recognize that advocacy isn't a single moment—it's a behavior that can be encouraged and enabled. And if you don't map it, you can't design for it. Luna: So what would a journey map that includes advocacy actually look like? Where would you put it? Lucas: I'd put it right after the 'delight' stage, after the customer has had a positive experience and is feeling good about the product. That's when advocacy is most likely. But the key is to add a branch that says 'advocacy opportunity' and then ask: what could trigger this? What could make it easier? What barriers might stop it? Luna: And what are the barriers? I imagine time is a big one. People don't recommend things because they're busy. Lucas: Time is one. But also, people don't recommend if they don't feel confident in their own knowledge, or if they're not sure the recommendation will be well-received. And sometimes they just don't think about it. The brand isn't top of mind in that moment. Luna: So how do you make it top of mind without being pushy? Nobody wants to feel like they're being used as a referral machine. Lucas: That's the balancing act. The brands that do this well, like the ones we've seen in B2B, they create what I call 'advocacy enablers'. Things like easy to share case studies, a quick link to a testimonial page, or even just a memorable product name that's easy to spell. Luna: I've seen some companies do a 'share your story' button in the app or a post-purchase email that says 'love us? Tell a friend.' But that feels a bit transactional, doesn't it? Lucas: It can be, if you're not careful. But it can also be genuine, especially if the customer is already happy. The trick is to make it about helping the friend, not about helping the company. So the messaging should be 'if you know someone who might benefit from this, here's a resource' rather than 'get a discount for referring a friend.' Luna: That makes sense. So it's more about giving them something useful to share, not just a nudge. Lucas: Exactly. And that's where measurement gets tricky. How do you track advocacy that happens in a private Slack group or a one-on-one conversation? You can't rely on referral links alone. Luna: What can you rely on? I'm guessing surveys, maybe asking customers 'have you recommended us in the last month?' Lucas: Yeah, that's one approach. But there are also indirect signals. If you see a spike in traffic from a specific community or a sudden increase in sign-ups from a particular region, that might be advocacy at work. You can also use social listening to catch public mentions, though that misses the private ones. Luna: So you're saying the measurement is more like detective work than dashboard reporting. Lucas: Exactly. And that's why so many companies skip it. It's not easy. But the ones that do it well, they build a culture where advocacy is expected and celebrated. They make it easy for customers to share their experience, and they acknowledge it when it happens—even if they only find out about it later. Luna: Can you think of a brand that does this really well? Maybe something we've talked about before? Lucas: One that comes to mind is a company called, oh, I'd rather not name-drop if I'm not sure about current specifics. But there are plenty of examples in the software space—companies that have built entire communities around their product, where advocacy happens naturally because users feel like they're part of something. Luna: So the community itself becomes the advocacy engine. That's a different kind of journey map—one that doesn't just end at purchase but continues into a relationship. Lucas: Right. And that's the point. A journey map that stops at purchase is incomplete. It ignores the most valuable thing a customer can do after they buy: bring you more customers. Luna: Speaking of which, if today's conversation has actually given you a new way to think about your own journey maps, the way we keep this show ad-free is through listener support. If that's something you've found useful, buying us a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo is a great way to keep these conversations going. Lucas: Yeah, and we really do appreciate it. It's what lets us stay independent and keep digging into these overlooked corners of the customer journey. Luna: So back to that B2B example—the product manager in the Slack group. What are some practical steps a company could take to make sure that moment happens more often? Lucas: First, I'd say identify who your most likely advocates are. They're usually customers who have been with you for a while, who use your product frequently, and who have had a positive support experience. Then, find ways to stay top of mind with them without being annoying. Luna: Like what? Regular newsletters or check-ins? Lucas: Maybe, but more importantly, give them something to talk about. That could be a new feature, a customer success story, or even just a piece of content that's genuinely useful. When they're in that Slack group and someone asks for a recommendation, you want your product to be the first thing that comes to their mind. Luna: So it's about being present in their minds at the right moment. That's a real challenge. Lucas: It is. And that's why mapping advocacy as a touchpoint is so important. Once you see it as a real stage in the journey, you can start designing for it. You might add a step where you ask customers for a review or a testimonial, but you'll also look for organic moments where you can say, 'Hey, if you know someone who'd find this useful, feel free to share.' Luna: And what about the risk of advocacy backfiring? What if a customer recommends you and then has a bad experience later? That's got to feel worse than never recommending at all. Lucas: That's a real risk. But it's also a reason to invest in the post-advocacy experience. If someone brings you a friend, you need to make sure that friend gets a great experience too, or you'll lose both of them. So the journey map doesn't end with the advocacy—it loops back into onboarding and retention. Luna: That's a nice full-circle view. So the map becomes a cycle, not a straight line. Lucas: Exactly. And that's how you turn a one-time advocate into a repeat advocate. It's not about a single moment; it's about a relationship that keeps giving. Luna: I think that's the key takeaway: advocacy is a touchpoint that deserves a place on the map, even if it's invisible. It's not just a nice to have; it's a growth driver. Lucas: Absolutely. And the next time you're in a workshop and someone says 'we don't need to map that,' push back. Show them the potential impact. One recommendation can be worth more than a hundred ads.