Figure 1 The Forrester Postsale Customer Lifecycle Framework This graphic depicts the four phases of the Forrester Postsale Customer Lifecycle Framework -- initiate, participate, actualize, and advocate -- and the corresponding phases of the Forrester Opportunity Lifecycle: deliver, develop, confirm, and activate. Each phase is broken down into detailed steps and activities related to customer expectations and company responsibilities.

The Forrester Customer Lifecycle Framework helps organizations align to the customer experience by showing all the phases of the customer-company relationship, from the point a buyer identifies a need and begins to investigate solutions all the way through purchase, use, value attainment, and renewal (see Figure 1). The Forrester Customer Lifecycle Framework This circular diagram depicts The Forrester Customer Lifecycle Framework.

In this report, we outline the Forrester Postsale Customer Lifecycle Framework, which customer-facing teams should use to strategize and plan programs around the four corresponding phases of the customer lifecycle and opportunity lifecycle.

Figure 2 The Customer Lifecycle Is An Ongoing Relationship This conceptual graphic illustrates the Forrester Customer Lifecycle Framework phases that customers go through during their journey as they discover, evaluate, buy, use and find value. These phases are: discover, evaluate, commit, initiate, participate, actualize, and advocate.

Align And Deploy Partner Incentives To The Customer Lifecycle Framework The Forrester Customer Lifecycle Framework helps companies move beyond intermittent transactions to sustained customer relationships with messaging, content, services, and other offerings to best serve the customer at each phase from need to value (see Figure 1).

Start Your Consumer Personalization Strategy With The Customer Lifecycle Companies list “personalization” as a business priority but too often start with channel-, touchpoint-, or device-specific tactics — a very inside-out approach. Instead, think outside-in and start with the customer lifecycle to define your personalization strategy.

The framework displays the four phases of the postsale customer lifecycle at the top. Organizations should plot each identified customer role along the framework’s vertical axis to coordinate who gathers what type of insight and when.

Marketing should establish a centralized, effective customer advocacy or reference program. While sales typically uses customer advocate relationships to win business, marketing should leverage these relationships to deliver peer references. As customer relationships move into later lifecycle stages, they’re more likely to demonstrate business impact. Sales contribution. Sales must connect peers from various accounts to reinforce the decision to remain a customer.

In this report, we describe the three elements that support the first phase of the postsale customer lifecycle, and the roles marketing and sales play in each.

Consistently delivered, high-quality, nonselling interactions reinforce the tight bond between company and customer. In this report, we describe the four elements that support the fourth phase of the postsale customer lifecycle, and the roles marketing and sales play in each.