ba2015-session 2

Part II: Designing the Customer Experience Journey

Capturing the Hearts, Minds and Wallets of Customers

March 5, 2015

City Club Raleigh Business Alliance

ba-navigationseries.com

Big Think Innovation, Inc.

bigthinkin.com

BA Navigation Series 2015: Session 2 Designing the Experience Journey

Copyright © 2015, Big Think Innovation, Inc. bigthinkin.com

CREATE AN INTENTIONAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE In Part I, we talked about the role of experience for customers. In Part II, DESIGN, we will cover how to look at a customer experience as a journey, and to create an intentional journey, not just let it happen.

There are several reasons for creating a memorably great customer experience. Customers who have a great experience will:

• Buy more from you • Buy from you more often • Tip better • Express appreciation more often • Tell others about their experience, helping you get more

and better customers

Identify the Parts of Your Customer Journey Each company is different, but here are some fairly common parts of the journey:

1. Prospect contacts your company a. First impression (receptionist/phone folks are

critical) b. Helpfulness and ability to answer questions

2. Prospect purchases something a. Purchase process b. Payment types/terms

3. You deliver the product or service a. Packaging b. First impression c. Using the product/service d. Integration with other products/services

4. Support a. Wait time for support b. Time to resolve c. Complete resolution

5. Re-purchase process a. Maintain customer info, or re-entry required?



THE SERVICE BLUEPRINT FRAMEWORK For service companies, the Service Blueprint Framework can be a helpful way of looking at your business and the way you serve clients. It shows customer touch points as well as the activities needed to support a great customer experience.



Here is a Customer Journey Map for Craig’s church:



THE SERVICE BLUEPRINT FRAMEWORK The Service Blueprint Framework shown on page 4 is a way of looking at service from an onstage/backstage perspective. Physical Evidence is what a customer experiences through his/her senses. In the church example, it is well-manicured grounds, a clean, inviting interior design, and smiling people greeting people when they arrive. Guest/Customer Actions are the actions a customer takes. In the church example, parking may be the first action. Then entering the church. Onstage means the direct interaction with customers, such as a receptionist or salesperson. Backstage is the work that goes on behind the scenes to make the onstage people shine. Support Processes provide support to the Onstage and Backstage processes. This is often some form of productions, such as printing, manufacturing, or administrative support. Onstage, Backstage, and Support processes are important, and must be designed to work together for maximum impact and positive customer experience. As you look at the Blueprint, consider what touch points your customer will have with your company. Think about the interaction from the first touch to the last touch, including reorders and support. In the first pass, focus on what exists, not on what you want. Once you have your Blueprint for the existing condition, get your leadership team together to brainstorm ways you can improve, streamline, and Wow! your customers.



THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP A Customer Journey Map defines the overall experience and touchpoints of customers. Creating a Journey Map allows you to specifically target areas for improvement and innovation, and lets you control their experience from beginning to end.



THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP The Customer Journey Map describes the customer experience over time. Similar to the Service Blueprint Framework, the Journey Map focuses on what happens at each touch point. The main difference is that the Journey Map can also be used for product experience. In fact, any broad or specific set of activities you want to look at can be described with a Journey Map.

Building Your Journey Map

1. PERSPECTIVE To start, establish your perspective. Will it be the entire customer experience, or a specific piece of it? Some software products, for example, will create a journey map for each piece of functionality to streamline and optimize the experience. I’ve found it helpful to start broad and look at the big picture first. Once you’ve describes the overall experience in about 10 steps, then you can create a more focused Journey Map to deal with specific processes.

2. WALK THROUGH THE PROCESS If it’s a physical process, such as a store or restaurant, then physically move through the environment, taking note of what you do when you enter, browse, and purchase. If you have a service or product, then think through what steps a customer goes through when interacting with your product or service. The first pass is your hypothesis.

3. OBSERVE YOUR CUSTOMERS Once you have your hypothetical process, start observing what REALLY happens when customers engage with your business.

Write down what they do, their mood (perplexed, happy, upset), and even what else they have to do/use to get what they want.

4. MAP IT OUT 1. Draw a line across a piece of paper (landscape and larger

paper sizes works best) and put numbers across the top with enough space in between to write some brief comments.

2. For each number, title the step. 3. For each step, briefly describe what’s happening. 4. Identify the relative positive/negative feelings at each

step. This gives you the basic Journey Map of what the customer does. Now you’ll want to expand it a bit to add in the actions that your people take.

1. For each step, consider what interaction the customer may have with an employee, and describe it briefly.

2. Who is responsible for that interaction? 3. Are there supporting activities that are required in order

to deliver at that step? (Does coffee need to be made before it can be served? Do cups and coffee need to be ordered in order to be made? Think backwards as far as needed.)

5. IMPROVE YOUR CUSTOMER’S EXPERIENCE Now that you have a map of what is, consider what could be. For each step, brainstorm ideas on how to improve the customer experience. If you get stuck on how to improve a step, ask your customers what they expect at that point, or what they would like to see at that touch point.

BA Navigation Series 2015: Session 1 Understanding the Experience Journey

© 2015, Big Think Innovation, Inc. bigthinkin.com

REALLY DIGGING IN (BEYOND THE CLASS) If you want to get serious about designing a great experience for your customers, the approach used in the book Designing for Growth may be helpful.



RESOURCES FOR FURTHER STUDY/ENGAGEMENT Sometimes you just gotta have more. The resources below are our recommendations to dive deeper and get a fuller understanding of customer experience design.

Books Designing for Growth (Liedtka)

Consultants

The Service Design Group theservicedesigngroup.com Provides guidance in designing a great customer experience and fixing issues in service delivery.

Big Think Innovation bigthinkin.com Sees the whole picture of how the business impacts customers, and helps design a journey map that drives customer engagement at every stage.

BA Navigation Series 2015: Session 1 Understanding the Experience Journey

© 2015, Big Think Innovation, Inc. bigthinkin.com

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ba2015-session 2

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