Today’s market is buyer’s market. Companies are taking efforts to improve the overall customer experience. Customer buying journey is studied in details to find opportunities for better engagements and influence.
Moment of Truth (MOT) is a concept related to customers buying journey. These are critical junctures in relationship with customer where the brand has a chance to influence the customer.
The concept of moment of truth was first introduced by Jan Carlzon. Then A.G. Lafley, Chairman, President and CEO of Procter & Gamble, came up with his definition for first and second MOT. Now-a-days, this concept is widely being applied in sales, marketing, and customer service. From the point of view of Distance MBA in marketing management, these are very valuable concepts.
Zero Moment of Truth
ZMOT was introduced by Google in 2011. With internet booming, people started using online search for the product or service they are looking for. Today it is just impossible to imagine that someone will directly go to the store and buy something without searching it on Google. Zero moment of truth or ZMOT, is the point when customer starts searching for the product/service he is interested in buying.
Here he/she will encounter various things like review comments, review ratings, videos, information blogs and so on. It is important for seller to grab attention of the customer at this point to make the purchase happen.
First Moment of Truth
First Moment of Truth or FMOT is defined by CEO of Procter & Gamble. This moment is the first time interaction of the customer with your product and typically lasts for few seconds. FMOT occurs when customer is reading the product description written on package or hearing a sales pitch from a customer representative.
Ability of communicating your value proposition clearly is the winner here. Customer in a very short span of time should be able to judge if the product/service is going to fulfill his needs. This is the first impression which decides if the purchase will happen or not.
Second Moment of Truth
Second moment of truth is about actual experience of the product or service. After reading the description on the product package or listening to your sales representative, customer was interested to see the product, say vacuum cleaner.
SMOT can happen in two different ways. One way is customer sees the demonstration of how to use the vacuum cleaner and its features etc. and decides to go ahead with the purchase. Secondly, if the purchase is made online then customer would experience SMOT when he actually opens up the box and starts using the vacuum cleaner.
Ultimate Moment of Truth
Ultimate Moment of Truth or UMOT was added by Proctor & Gamble later. This is the moment when customer gives feedback about the product. This is regarded as ultimate moment of truth because the feedback will be based on the collective experience the customer has received. The feedback will be representation of emotional connect the company is able establish during the buying journey. It will be affected by how far the product/service was able to fulfill the customers need and how he/she was supported before and after buying the product.
If the customer loves the product he may end up giving your good ratings and nice review comments. He can become your brand ambassador and recommend you product/service to other customers.
This is very important in current market scenarios where before purchasing anything people turn to the internet and search for reviews and opinions of other people who have already used the product/service.
No doubt, these MOTs are important points on the customers buying journey and many companies create good strategies to influence the customer. However, there may be gaps occurring due to different real life situations. For example, you purchased an online package and it was shipped on time. Unfortunately there was a delay due to some issue with the shipping company. Now if you do not make sure that customer is well informed about the delays, there is a risk of losing the customer. Here your excellent product quality also may not act as a savior. Instead, it better to send some useful information about the product features, how to use that product effectively to the customer. This will not only keep the customer engaged but start building more affinity towards the brand.
Less than Zero Moment of Truth
This is a recent entry. Less than Zero Moment of Truth is defined by a company Eventricity. Their philosophy says that there exists a window of opportunity before ZMOT happens. Customer starts searching for something once the need arises due to an event in his life. Less than Zero Moment of Truth is before even the customer starts searching. If proactively you can track customers with potential need, you can engage him/her at very early stage even before anyone else knows about it.
MoTs for distance MBA
Someone like you who wants to pursue career in marketing management after your distance MBA need to very well understand these terminologies and their implications. Once you are put on the job, it would be your responsibility to create winning strategies based on various insights you have got on the consumer behavior and his buying journey.
