Funnels Are Cute. Relationships Are Profitable.

A reflection on the customer journey as a straight line

Reading time: 3 minutes Why read this: If your brand technically works but feels oddly forgettable, this will help you understand why and show you how to correct it without rebuilding your business from scratch.

Three Data Facts Before You Dive in...

1. 92% of consumers trust lived experience and peer recommendations more than advertising. Which means the way your brand behaves before and after the sale quietly outweighs the pitch itself.

   
   

2. Acquiring a new customer costs between 5–7x more than retaining an existing one. Yet most brands still devote the majority of their attention to attraction instead of relationship continuity.

   
   

3. Brands with intentional post-purchase engagement see up to 3x higher lifetime value. Consistency and presence outperform clever campaigns every time.

Most people picture the customer journey as a straight, orderly path that moves from attention to persuasion to transaction. It’s a comforting model because it suggests control and predictability.

The lived experience is altogether different.

"Perception is reality"

The customer journey is relational, not linear, and it’s forming long before anyone buys and long after the work is done. Research consistently shows that over ninety percent of people trust lived experience and recommendation more than advertising, which immediately reframes where real brand equity is built. What happens around the sale matters, but what happens outside of it carries far more weight.

92% of consumers trust lived experience and peer recommendations more than advertising. Which means the way your brand behaves before and after the sale quietly outweighs the pitch itself.

“Funnels capture attention. Experiences earn memory.”

Before the first conversation, people are already assembling a sense of who you are. During the conversation, they are paying attention to how grounded, clear, and coherent the interaction feels. After they say yes, the evaluation sharpens. And once delivery is complete, the story continues through presence, follow-up, and consistency. Every interaction adds texture to the brand whether or not it was designed to.

This is why retention quietly outperforms acquisition. It costs significantly more to win new attention than to maintain an existing relationship, yet many businesses still organize themselves as if the relationship ends at conversion. Brands that remain engaged after delivery consistently see higher lifetime value, largely because continuity builds trust and trust compounds.

Acquiring a new customer costs between 5–7x more than retaining an existing one. Yet most brands still devote the majority of their attention to attraction instead of relationship continuity

“People don’t remember how well you marketed to them; they remember how consistently you showed up.”

The real customer journey lives in the experience of working with you. It’s shaped by how you show up before the first conversation, how it feels to collaborate, how delivery unfolds, and whether your presence continues once the transaction is complete. These moments don’t register as tactics to the customer; they register as character.

Great brands understand this instinctively. They design for trust, continuity, and recall, knowing that people don’t remember funnels nearly as well as they remember how an experience felt over time. A brand that only feels thoughtful at the moment of sale tends to fade quickly, while one that feels coherent throughout the relationship stays with people long after the work is done.

Brands with intentional post-purchase engagement see up to 3x higher lifetime value. Consistency and presence outperform clever campaigns every time.

“If your brand only feels good at the point of sale, it won’t survive the point of reflection.”

When founders begin viewing their business through the eyes of the buyer rather than through internal intention, clarity sharpens naturally. Messaging becomes simpler because it has to land somewhere real. Positioning tightens because it’s anchored in perception rather than aspiration. Branding stops being abstract and becomes experiential.

Your customers already carry a story about you. The real work is deciding whether you are shaping that story with intention, consistency, and humanity, or allowing it to form on its own.

When you look at the data, the pattern becomes obvious.

Retention outperforms acquisition because clarity, trust, and coherence compound. Brands stall because the experience no longer matches the story they’re telling. Somewhere between who the founder has become and how the business still shows up, friction creeps in quietly.

That’s usually the moment when funnels stop working the way they used to.

The work, then, isn’t about louder marketing or better tactics, it’s about recalibrating the experience so what people encounter at every stage actually reflects who you are now and how you intend to show up going forward. When that alignment is restored, trust stabilizes, relationships deepen, and growth stops feeling fragile.

If that’s the work you know your business is asking for, there are three ways we can do it together.

Three Ways to Work Together

Brand Clarity Accelerator™ A focused one-day sprint to align your message, brand, and customer experience so everything feels clear, coherent, and grounded.

Becoming You Blueprint™ A deeper 6-week identity-to-brand rebuild for founders and leaders whose business no longer reflects who they are now.

Brand Therapy™ Intensives Single 60-minute brand therapy sessions (sofa optional) designed to name what’s off, stabilize the noise, and restore clarity without overcomplicating the process.

About Deevo

Deevo is the founder of The Brand Storyteller and Fusion Photography and works with founders, creatives, and leaders who are navigating growth, change, and the natural evolution that comes with building something meaningful.

His work focuses on helping people articulate who they are, how they think, and the value they bring, so their brand, messaging, and decisions make sense, feel accurate, and are easier to stand behind.

The result is clarity that feels grounded, usable, and immediately applicable in real conversations, content, and leadership.

Over the past decade, Deevo has partnered with entrepreneurs and organizations to bring coherence to moments of transition. His approach blends psychology, narrative, and practical strategy, creating space for insight without heaviness and direction without overwhelm.

He’s known for a thoughtful, light, and slightly irreverent style that keeps the work human and engaging. People leave his workshops clearer, more confident in their language, and better equipped to communicate what they do in a way that feels natural and accurate.