Category: Customer Journeys

Why Customer Experience Is Confusing Your Business

6/23/2016

“60% of IT workers now identify improving the customer experience as their top digital goal, while the majority of marketers chose ‘integrating all platforms and channels’ as their main focus.”

The number one goal for most businesses all around the world is to become more customer-centric. According to McKinsey&Company over 50% of customer interactions now happen during a multi-event, multi-channel journey. Over the last hundred companies I have consulted with it seems they all have a different terminology of what they are after; so I wanted to take some time a put together a library of terminology. It depends on the view you are taking whether it be a macro or micro. Are we looking at the whole end-to-end customer lifespan with our business or just the micro moments which are being influenced by today's constant connectivity.

What is the difference between the customer lifespan, customer lifecycle, customer journey and customer moment? Let me explain going from a macro to micro perspective:

1. Customer Lifespan
> Usually measured in decades

Phases in the customer's lifespan where they may find value in a brand and it's offering.

For example setting up a savings account typically happens at the age of 7 through your primary school and family's support. Then by the age of 18 you apply for a credit card - then by late 20's early 30's apply for a home loan.

2. Customer Lifecycle
> Usually measured in years

A brand-centric view to map customer loyalty through acquisition, on boarding, engagement, conversion & retention overtime. May also be mapped to a sales funnel.

For example a potential customer may be acquired through a sign up form to receive email offers from your company, however doesn't make their first purchase for over 6 months.

3. Customer Journey
> Usually measured in hours or days

A useful view for process and experience design showing a contained series of brand interactions and customer experiences.
For example a traveler’s journey on an airline, a customer applying for a home loan or a patient visit to a hospital.

4. Customer Moment
> Usually measured in seconds

A view for designing individual interactions, services or touch points.

For example, a customer service interaction at an airport check-in or a purchase page on an Ecommerce site

[Source] Here is a great infographic illustrated by Lenati explaining the concepts in more detail: http://www.lenati.com/blog/2016/02/how-to-view-your-customers-experience-customer-journey-mapping-vs-customer-lifecycle-infographic/

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Voice of the customer

4/21/2016

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Every customer has a voice...yet not every company listens. Successful companies use their customer as their secret weapon. Accessing that secret weapon isn't difficult; create customer focus groups, conduct market research, invest in social listening or merely send out timely customer surveys across the customer journey via digital channels like email, web and sms. Sounds simple doesn't it, but why do most companies take a blind eye? Is it because it's too difficult, too expensive, too confronting? Most of the time it is just easier to keep doing what you have always been doing because it has worked in the past.

It is fair to say that most large Australian companies have a monopoly on the market so their is no real need to change. Until the competition sneaks up behind you and is starring you in the face i.e the taxi industry vs. Uber, hotels vs Airbnb and retailers vs Alibaba. All three companies don't carry any inventory, yet drastically improve customer service and provide new revenue opportunities for those willing to leverage their technology. Companies need to go from being brand centric to becoming customer centric.

Heinz are a perfect example of a brand who listened to their customer and implemented their recommendations. The sauce that they produce is of great quality, however the user experience of trying to get the sauce out of the glass bottle is extremely clumsy. If you make some subtle design changes like flip the bottle upside down and change the material (glass to plastic), the experience changes dramatically.

“People want what’s best for them, and they can switch on a dime, because there’s always a new disruptor disrupting the last disruptor. So companies should just strive to keep changing and adapting to their customers’ needs.”

Hearing the voice of the customer is essential for effective marketing, but also improving service. If companies are to be relevant to the consumer of tomorrow, they will need much more than an email blast engine and a call centre. They must develop a broad contextual understanding of the customer.

Voice Of The Customer Programs:
Many companies have embarked in creating seamless customer journeys across product, marketing, stores, call centres and sales. How do you now capture feedback to see if what you are doing is providing a positive or negative experience? Answer: set up a Voice of the Customer (VoC) program. Effective voice of the customer programs allow you to connect and engage with customers at key points in the customer journey.

The Voice of the Customer is a term used in business to describe the process of capturing customers’ requirements. It is a product development technique that produces a detailed set of customer wants and needs which are organised into a hierarchical structure, and then prioritised in terms of relative importance and satisfaction with current alternatives.

To enhance customer experience and increase business growth, many firms are developing voice of the customer programs. Successful VoC programs should support a cycle of five activities that make up a closed-loop process:

Identify: What is it that you want to learn?
Devise: What is the best way to collect the data?
Collect: Capture the data through the right channels
Analyse: Gather insights in real-time
Draw: Monitor results and take action

The most successful VoC programs help companies connect multiple types of feedback across data channels, provide collaboration across functional departments, incorporate voice of the employee and leverage dashboards and reports that allow you to visualise the information regardless of the source. The key objective is to help deliver clear ROI, business results and prioritise issues.

There are plenty of platforms now that allow you to implement VoC programs. Here is a quick snapshot of market leader Qualtrics' platform; capturing the customers voice & realtime reporting dashboard:

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."

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FINDING THE MOMENTS THAT MATTER

2/2/2016

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Harry Beck, a young draughtsman who drew electrical circuits for the Underground pioneered the way we visualise information today. You wont find his face on any coins or stamps, but his fingerprints are all around London. He is responsible for the most influential transit map created for the London tube, which has spawned similar designs across the globe.

Prior to Beck's design on the underground train map it was about as eligible as a dropped pizza. His designs have helped passengers get a better understanding of where they want to go, at a time that is extremely confusing for those new to transport or in a foreign country. To the passenger this was in essence a "I-want-to-go moment" and has become critical to their experience.

Here are some other key customer moments:

Check out Googles Micro Moments project for more on this, each one is a critical opportunity for brands to shape their customers decisions and preferences.

According to Google our mobile has forever changed the way we live, and it’s forever changed what we expect of brands. It’s fractured the consumer journey into hundreds of real-time, intent-driven micro-moments.

What Can You Do Today:

Make a moments map: Identify a set of moments you want to win or can't afford to lose. Examine all phases of the consumer journey to map moments when people want to find inspiration, learn about your products, make a quick purchase, or anything in between.
Understand what the customer needs in the moment: For each moment you want to win, put yourself in the consumer's shoes. Ask “What would make this easier or faster? What content or features would be most helpful for this moment?"
Use context to deliver the right experience: Leverage contextual signals like location and time of day to deliver experiences and messages that feel tailor-made for the moment. For example, let customers searching nearby your stores know when the products they’re looking for are in-stock or available for pickup in-store.
Optimise across the journey: People move seamlessly across screens and channels. Does your brand deliver seamlessly in return? Don’t let competing objectives or department silos stand in the way. To account for today’s complex, fractured journeys, anchor completely on the consumer and organize around moments.
Measure every moment that matters: You cannot afford to under-serve your customers while you're dealing with measurement gaps. While the return on investment for certain moments may not yet be directly measurable, train your team to use credible estimates to ensure nothing’s falling through the cracks.

I recommend all marketers sign up to the 'Think with Google' newsletter:
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/

Download the micro-moment case study

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WHat is the iceberg principle?

1/31/2016

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Imagine you're floating on the Titanic and about to hit an iceberg. It doesn't seem that big - actually it's only half the size of the boat. No big deal, our boat is much larger so it shouldn't be an issue.....actually what you forget to realise is that you can only see what's on the surface. The other 85% of the iceberg is below the surface and that will determine the size of the impact.

Anyways....enough about the Titanic - the underlying message here is called the Iceberg Principle or as Hemingway called it, the Iceberg Theory. The observation is that in many cases only a very small amount (the tip) of information is available about a situation, where as the 'real' information or bulk of operations and data are hidden. When Ernest Hemingway would introduce a character in one of his novels he would spend years crafting their persona, yet only introduce the bare minimum leaving the mysteries to unfold through his writing and the imagination.

How does this relate to marketing?
At its simplest form, most marketing teams spend majority of their time executing campaigns. The customer gets bombarded with marketing communications that have no brand consistency (due to the different departments sending the campaign) and more importantly, the content isn't particularly relevant. Marketing departments all around the globe are spending more than 8hrs a day executing tasks that require human interaction 9 to 5, 5 days a week. That sort of work ethic is not scalable and will only stunt your innovation and business growth. As a consultant, typically when you intervene with a framework or solution that will help, the response is quite alarming:

The thought of slowing them down and taking two steps back just doesn't sound like the right solution. However under the surface you can see there is no alignment, disconnected systems, broken processes and personal agendas.

The duck's legs move a million miles an hour underneath the water, yet on the surface they seem so calm and collected.

The Framework
The tip of the iceberg for marketing departments is the customer. The customer receives the communications and believe it or not can identify quite quickly whether you are actually listening to their needs and have all your ducks in a row.

The framework has four key areas of focus:

Customer: Explore the customer lifecycle by mapping out the current and future state customer experiences. Strategically define what’s working and what’s next?
Operations: Define current process for building, sending and measuring emails and workflow in other key channels.
Technology: Determine what data and systems you use that may require an integration. This will help drive automation.
Strategy: Understand your company's quantifiable goals, digital marketing vision and the value you bring to your clients. More importantly your priorities for this year and beyond.

Your customer only sees the output - yet what happens underneath the surface plays a big factor in whether it is considered successful or not!

If you create this sort of thinking internally it will give you a framework to work with, that will not only free up time but also align team thinking and collaboration. The end goal for every marketing department should be - connected technology, clear marketing strategies, loyal customers and more importantly being able to do more with less!

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It's Always Been About The Customer

1/29/2016

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Today’s marketer and every brand I come in contact with are focusing on putting the customer at the centre of their world. This is great news…but hasn’t this always been the case? Well in short the answer is yes, the difference now is we have technology that allows us to interact with our customers wherever they are, whenever they want. This technology like Salesforce Marketing Cloud gives marketers real time reporting and allows you to map your strategies across multiple channels and digital touch points. Prepare yourselves to hear this phrase a lot in the next 12 months; but this is the year of the customer journey.

Most designers would agree with me that the customer has always been the main focus. However for years companies have focused on trying to stay relevant by using the latest technology, creating a social identity and chasing the customer around the Internet using display advertising. Issue being that the ROI was never measurable, it was expensive and they never understood why they were doing any of these things in the first place. Steve Jobs was well known for how he pioneered the personal computer revolution and disrupted the music industry, but at the core was his design-driven customer approach. “You have got to start with the customer experience and work back to the technology – not the other way around” Jobs said. Design is not just about how something looks and feels but its about how it works, and the most successful designers like Tim Brown (CEO of IDEO) will tell you that most of their time is spent in the inspiration and ideation stages of their projects, where it is heavily focused on customer research and user experience.

As marketers, we need to harness the power of these tools available to us, we now have access to more data then ever before and the technical tools to engage with our customers in sophisticated 1:1 journeys. The customer journey has now become even more complex so in order to do this successfully we must stay true to the customer and our brand; here are some key things to think about when mapping out your customer journeys:

Use research: Deep qualitative research is the secret to discovering unmet customer needs. Start by understanding your customer, the market and even your direct competitors. Use the data you have available to you to make some clear actionable decisions, for example your online browse behaviour, purchase data, social data, in store transactional data and call centre data. Knowing how to tap into technology to uncover how individuals and groups really think and act is an essential part of innovation. Involve a broader team in the research phase also as everyone can provide different insights throughout the company like Sales, I.T, Customer Service and Marketing. It's also a good idea to send out surveys, conduct customer interviews and ethnographies to create powerful experiences.
Focus on the emotions: Every customer interaction is driven by an emotional decision. Understanding what the customer is going through at every stage of the buying or selling cycle with your brand will help you tailor content to make them feel comfortable and reassured. For example while shopping for property the customer is extremely happy, confident and optimistic. The moment they make a formal offer a sense of doubt, fear and anxiety comes over them as the decision they are making comes hammering down on them. Emotions are critical to any experience, whether B2B or B2C, and a great customer journey needs to communicate them.
Understand the lifecycle stages: Customer journeys and lifecycle marketing are not that dissimilar. It is still important to understand the different stages that a customer can go through with your brand. If I use my property example like before then here are six stages a homebuyer will go through when looking for a house:
1. Identify: We have out grown our home or looking to downsize
2. Discover: What suburb and what sort of home are we after
3. Select: Narrowing down the selection and visiting open for inspections
4. Transact: Making the offer or visiting the auction, succeed or keep looking
5. Move: Between the transaction and the big move
6. Post-Move: After you have settled into your new home
By understanding these stages, multiple journeys can be a mapped to help the customer through making their tough decisions and content strategies can be put in place to provide relevant information before they seek it.
Think about the different touch points: A customer that is engaging with your brand online compared to a customer that is engaging with your bricks and mortar store have similar needs, yet both require different attention. With access to email, social, web and now mobile a brand can provide assistance and experiences in many different ways. We want our online presence to have a 1:1 approach with a high level of service that most customers only get in store, and we want our in store presence to be as exciting and interactive as our online store. I call this blurring the lines between the physical and digital worlds…PHY-GITAL. Every customer has a preferred channel, however with technology like iBeacons, Geo location based messages and real-time data the power is in the hands of the brand to do some smart cross channel marketing that creates life changing customer experiences. Check this awesome mobile marketing concept from Meat Pack a shoe store in Guatemala.
Highlight the moments of truth and think about the red journeys: There are key moments in a customer’s lifetime where we have the opportunity to provide a service above and beyond. What happens when something goes wrong? A parcel never reaches it’s destination, or if it does it's broken, a flight is delayed or canceled, and your dinner reservation was accidentally double booked. Identify some of these critical stages (I like to call them red journeys) and find a way to make it up to the customer. “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the Chairman down, simple by spending his money somewhere else!” –Sam Walton, Walmart Founder.
Have a clear goal and stay true to your brand promise: Every journey or interaction whether small or large needs to have a clear measurable goal. This is the underlying strategy of why we are sending these communications and mapping out these journeys. Staying true to your brand promise will allow customer journeys to be the focal point for your entire business not just your marketing department. The customer touches every part of an organisation, learn from it and never stop testing or pushing the boundaries. Use tools like A/B testing and reporting to see how you are tracking against the goals you have set.

In 2015, marketing will mean delighting every customer — and building true brand loyalty across the entire organisation. Sharing a vision that touches every employee from the C-Suite down. 86% of senior-level marketers say that it’s absolutely critical to create a cohesive customer journey (source Salesforce: 2015 State of Marketing Report.) Don’t be scared to try something that has never been done before, learn from your mistakes as the only risk is standing still and doing nothing at all.

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LEND ME YOUR EYES

Why Customer Experience Is Confusing Your Business

Voice of the customer

FINDING THE MOMENTS THAT MATTER

WHat is the iceberg principle?

It's Always Been About The Customer

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