Customer Journey Mapping

Are you generating enough value for users net of the value to your company? Business value can only be created when you create so much value for users, that you can “tax” that value and take some for yourself as a business. If you don’t create any value for your users, then you can’t create value for your business. Ed Biden explains how to solve this in this week's guest post: Whilst there are many ways to understand what your users will value, two techniques in particular are incredibly valuable, especially if you’re working on a tight timeframe: 1. Jobs To Be Done 2. Customer Journey Mapping 𝟭. 𝗝𝗼𝗯𝘀 𝗧𝗼 𝗕𝗲 𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗲 (𝗝𝗧𝗕𝗗) “People don’t simply buy products or services, they ‘hire’ them to make progress in specific circumstances.”  – Clayton Christensen The core JTBD concept is that rather than buying a product for its features, customers “hire” a product to get a job done for them … and will ”fire” it for a better solution just as quickly. In practice, JTBD provides a series of lenses for understanding what your customers want, what progress looks like, and what they’ll pay for. This is a powerful way of understanding your users, because their needs are stable and it forces you to think from a user-centric point of view. This allows you to think about more radical solutions, and really focus on where you’re creating value. To use Jobs To Be Done to understand your customers, think through five key steps: 1. Use case – what is the outcome that people want? 2. Alternatives – what solutions are people using now? 3. Progress – where are people blocked? What does a better solution look like? 4. Value Proposition – why would they use your product over the alternatives? 5. Price – what would a customer pay for progress against this problem? 𝟮. 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 Customer journey mapping is an effective way to visualize your customer’s experience as they try to reach one of their goals. In basic terms, a customer journey map breaks the user journey down into steps, and then for each step describes what touchpoints the customer has with your product, and how this makes them feel. The touch points are any interaction that the customer has with your company as they go through this flow: • Website and app screens • Notifications and emails • Customer service calls • Account management / sales touch points • Physically interacting with goods (e.g. Amazon), services (e.g. Airbnb) or hardware (e.g. Lime) Users’ feelings can be visualized by noting down: • What they like or feel good about at this step • What they dislike, find frustrating or confusing at this step • How they feel overall By mapping the customer’s subjective experience to the nuts and bolts of what’s going on, and then laying this out in a visual way, you can easily see where you can have the most impact, and align stakeholders on the critical problems to solve.

Your research findings are useless if they don't drive decisions. After watching countless brilliant insights disappear into the void, I developed 5 practical templates I use to transform research into action: 1. Decision-Driven Journey Map Standard journey maps look nice but often collect dust. My Decision-Driven Journey Map directly connects user pain points to specific product decisions with clear ownership. Key components: - User journey stages with actions - Pain points with severity ratings (1-5) - Required product decisions for each pain - Decision owner assignment - Implementation timeline This structure creates immediate accountability and turns abstract user problems into concrete action items. 2. Stakeholder Belief Audit Workshop Many product decisions happen based on untested assumptions. This workshop template helps you document and systematically test stakeholder beliefs about users. The four-step process: - Document stakeholder beliefs + confidence level - Prioritize which beliefs to test (impact vs. confidence) - Select appropriate testing methods - Create an action plan with owners and timelines When stakeholders participate in this process, they're far more likely to act on the results. 3. Insight-Action Workshop Guide Research without decisions is just expensive trivia. This workshop template provides a structured 90-minute framework to turn insights into product decisions. Workshop flow: - Research recap (15min) - Insight mapping (15min) - Decision matrix (15min) - Action planning (30min) - Wrap-up and commitments (15min) The decision matrix helps prioritize actions based on user value and implementation effort, ensuring resources are allocated effectively. 4. Five-Minute Video Insights Stakeholders rarely read full research reports. These bite-sized video templates drive decisions better than documents by making insights impossible to ignore. Video structure: - 30 sec: Key finding - 3 min: Supporting user clips - 1 min: Implications - 30 sec: Recommended next steps Pro tip: Create a library of these videos organized by product area for easy reference during planning sessions. 5. Progressive Disclosure Testing Protocol Standard usability testing tries to cover too much. This protocol focuses on how users process information over time to reveal deeper UX issues. Testing phases: - First 5-second impression - Initial scanning behavior - First meaningful action - Information discovery pattern - Task completion approach This approach reveals how users actually build mental models of your product, leading to more impactful interface decisions. Stop letting your hard-earned research insights collect dust. I’m dropping the first 3 templates below, & I’d love to hear which decision-making hurdle is currently blocking your research from making an impact! (The data in the templates is just an example, let me know in the comments or message me if you’d like the blank versions).

You probably have more customer info than ever.⁣ So why can’t your team answer basic questions or make confident decisions?⁣ It’s because data lives in separate systems. Align your tools, insights & the people serving customers.⁣ ⁣ Here’s what that disconnect looks like every day:⁣ ✓ The agent answering the call can’t see the customer’s last chat.⁣ ✓ The supervisor reviewing performance can’t trace a customer issue from beginning to end.⁣ ✓ And service teams are expected to deliver great experiences without knowing what’s already been said or promised.⁣ ⁣ The path forward isn’t more tools.⁣ It’s fewer, smarter ones that are connected and accessible.⁣ ⁣ ❶ Start by mapping one customer journey with your cross-functional teams at the same table (in person if possible).⁣ ⁣ ❷ Identify where handoffs happen, where data gets lost, and where communication breaks — both internally and with the customer.⁣ ⁣ ❸ Then rebuild your systems so the right people have the right context at the right moment — without logging into five platforms or asking the customer to explain again.⁣ ⁣ That’s how you create Emotional Highs™:⁣ Not surface-level satisfaction, but a meaningful emotional lift that makes people stay, return, promote, and forgive when mistakes happen.⁣ ⁣ Loyalty isn’t driven by your tech stack.⁣ It comes from how people FEEL when every interaction is easy, efficient, and clearly built around their needs.⁣ Yes — feel. As in emotions. The thing that’s always driven buying decisions, even if companies pretend otherwise.⁣ ⁣ This isn’t a tech upgrade.⁣ It’s experience transformation.⁣ And it’s how you compete and win in today’s market.⁣ ⁣ Are YOU #DoingCXRight®?⁣ Need help with ❶ ❷❸ above? Message me. ⁣ 👉 Share + comment if you found this helpful so others can benefit.⁣ ⁣ #CX #TheFormula #Nextiva #CustomerExperience #CustomerService⁣

A gap analysis is one of the most powerful tools for a customer service leader. Use it to pinpoint exactly what your team needs to do. There are three steps: 1️⃣ Identify desired performance Get super-specific. Generic targets like "improve customer service" or "reduce complaints" are too vague and squishy. Pick a metric like customer satisfaction scores, customer retention rate, or something else that's measurable. For example, let's say your team wants to reach an 85% average on your customer service survey. 2️⃣ Identify current performance Determine where your team is right now, using the same metric you picked for number one. For example, if you're working on customer satisfaction surveys, perhaps your team's current average is 82%. Now, the picture is getting clearer! 3️⃣ Analyze the gap Measure the gap between current and desired performance. Analyze the reasons the gap exists. In our customer service survey score example, a gap analysis might reveal that first contact resolution is dragging down the score. Specifically, a second call within 24 hours or a second email within 12 hours. A closer look reveals customer service reps are missing opportunities to prevent the next contact. Now, you have insight you can use. A quick hit training session to help the team improve their ability to solve issues on the first contact might close the gap. Try doing a gap analysis with your team. I've created a worksheet you can use: https://lnkd.in/eUkjh8cs

Great journey maps start from the intersection of user touchpoints. A customer journey map shows a customer's experiences with your organization, from when they identify a need to whether that need is met. Journey maps are often shown as straight lines with touchpoints explaining a user's challenges. start •—------------>• finish At the heart of this approach is the user, assuming that your product or service is the one they choose to use in their journey. While journey maps help explain the conceptual journey, they often give the wrong impression of how users are trying to solve their problems. In reality, users start from different places, have unique ways of understanding their problems, and often have expectations that your service can't fully meet. Our testing and user research over the years has shown how varied these problem-solving approaches can be. Building a great journey map involves identifying a constellation of touchpoints rather than a single, linear path. Users start from different points and follow various paths, making their journeys complex and varied. These paths intersect to form signals, indicating valuable touchpoints. Users interact with your product or service in many different ways. User journeys are not straightforward and involve multiple touchpoints and interactions…many of which have nothing to do with your company. Here’s how you can create valuable journeys: → Using open-ended questions and a product like Helio, identify key touchpoints, pain points, and decision-making moments within each journey. → Determine the most valuable touchpoints based on the intersection frequency and user feedback. → Create structured lists with closed answer sets and retest with multiple-choice questions to get stronger signals. → Represent these intersections as key touchpoints that indicate where users commonly interact with your product or service. → Focus on these touchpoints for further testing and optimization. Generalizing the linear flow can be practical once you have gone through this process. It helps tell the story of where users need the most support or attention, making it a helpful tool for stakeholders. Using these techniques, we’ve seen engagement nearly double on websites we support. #productdesign #productdiscovery #userresearch #uxresearch

86% of Marketers Say a Connected Customer Journey is Crucial – Is Your Company Falling Short? We all know that understanding the customer journey is crucial for business success. However, there are some often-overlooked elements that can make or break the customer experience. Here are a few key areas that need your attention: 1. Sales Process Clear Communication: Ensure your sales team provides clear and transparent information. Ambiguity can lead to confusion and lost trust. Seamless Handover: Smooth transitions between sales and other departments (e.g., customer success) ensure the customer feels supported throughout the journey. 2. Invoices, Contracts, and Payments Simplified Invoicing: Complicated invoices can frustrate customers. Make sure your invoicing process is straightforward and easy to understand. Transparent Contracts: Ensure that contracts are clear, concise, and free of jargon. Customers should know exactly what they are signing. Efficient Payment Process: Offer multiple payment options and ensure the payment process is quick and hassle-free. 3. Renewal Signing Process Proactive Communication: Don’t wait until the last minute to discuss renewals. Start the conversation early and address any concerns the customer may have. Value Demonstration: Continuously demonstrate the value your product or service provides to make the renewal decision easier for the customer. Streamlined Renewal: Make the renewal process as simple as possible. Avoid unnecessary steps and paperwork. Tips for Intentionally Planning the Customer Journey Map Every Touchpoint: Identify and map out every interaction a customer has with your brand, from initial contact through to renewal or re-engagement. Gather Feedback Continuously: Regularly collect feedback at various stages of the customer journey. Use surveys, interviews, and direct conversations to understand their experience. Integrate Departments: Ensure all departments (sales, marketing, customer success, finance) collaborate and share insights. This integration helps in providing a seamless experience. Address Pain Points: Identify common pain points and proactively address them. This could include improving your onboarding process or simplifying contract terms. Use Technology: Leverage CRM systems and other technology to track the customer journey and gather data that can be used to enhance the experience. By intentionally planning and addressing these often-missed elements, you can create a smoother, more satisfying experience for your customers. Remember, every interaction counts! Is your company falling short in providing a connected customer journey? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Are you leaving money on the table? My bulletproof system to find out and fix it. I've spent the last 6+ years helping 100s of entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses grow faster. This is how I diagnose where they can quickly 2-3x profits. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗢𝗻𝗲: 𝗠𝗮𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 What are the steps someone takes to become a happy, paying customer? - How do they get to the website? - How do they become a lead? - How do they start a sales conversation? - How do they become a customer? - How do they experience value? - How do they refer a friend? - How do they churn? 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗧𝘄𝗼: 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀. Create a boring old spreadsheet with the conversion rates of each stage of the buyer's journey. 𝘋𝘰 𝘕𝘖𝘛 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘺. Then, track the numbers week over week for the last 6 months. You will instantly notice issues: - Bottlenecks - Huge drop-offs - Lack of progress Quantitative data helps spot patterns. Qualitative data tells you why they exist. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲: 𝗗𝗶𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗪𝗛𝗬 - Talk to your team to get their thoughts - Ask recent customers about their journey - Review it all from your buyer's perspective 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗿: 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 Plan them in 3 categories: 1. Low-hanging fruit Simple changes you can make in a few hours. - Add a Contact Us form to the website - Automate sales meeting reminders - Edit your LinkedIn profile 2. Process tweaks Changes you can make to things you are ALREADY doing. - Bring in legal sooner in the sales process - Send a custom video to new prospects - Templatize your proposals 3. Long term projects These will have the biggest impact, but take the longest time. - Rewrite your sales onboarding process - Create a new marketing funnel - Develop a new offer/product 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗙𝗶𝘃𝗲: 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗲, 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 Start putting your plan into action! But keep tracking your metrics to see how they change over time. Are they improving? If not, why not? If so, how can we double down? Simple, but effective as hell. Give it a try, and let me know what you find. If you want help, DM me or book some time. ♻️ Repost if this helped or inspired 🔔 Follow me, Kasey Jones for more 👇 Become your industry's go-to expert

People overcomplicate growth strategy. Listen, if you're below $1,000,000 a year: Avoid: - Testing 10 new ads per week - Tweaking sales script every call - Changing your landing page monthly Instead: - Clearly map your customer journey - Start collecting data on every step - Research industry 𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝘀 - Spot your biggest bottleneck - Fix it, then do a new one Focus on this until you get big enough so you have specific teams and departments. Here's how you can do it: 𝟭/ 𝗠𝗮𝗽 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 ↳ List all major steps people take from their first interaction with your business. 💡 Pro tip: Add steps after the sale, like activation, retention, referrals, etc. 𝟮/ 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽 ↳ Gather all metrics in a simple Google Sheet this will help you understand what's up. 💡 Pro tip: alongside conversion rates, track the time it takes to pass each stage. 𝟯/ 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝘀 ↳ Ask chat GPT, talk to people, spy on competitors, read industry reports, listen to podcasts... Find the data! You need to know what's considered a good CTR, good contact rate, good close rate in your space, for businesses of similar size and services. 𝟰/ 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗸 ↳ Compare the success of your user journey with industry 𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝘀. Find the most lagging. 💁♂️ Example: Your contact rate is 40%, the industry average is 60% while your close rate is 10%, the industry average is 30%. Your contact rate is 1.5 times smaller than 'average.' Your close rate is 3 times smaller than the 'average.' Rank all your bottlenecks like that and work on what sucks the most. 💡 Pro tip: sometimes your close rate is bad because you don't qualify prospects enough. Keep in mind that each stage affects the next one. 𝟱/ 𝗙𝗶𝘅 𝗶𝘁, 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 ↳ Now, when you lined up your bottlenecks, analyzed probable causes, and picked one to fix. Dive into tactics if you don't know how to do it. 💁♂️ Example: You figured that your close rate sucks, so this is your target to solve. Why tho? • Google how to increase close rate • Read a chapter from a book • Watch a YouTube video 1. Close the knowledge gap. 2. Come up with the hypothesis. 3. Implement the change and watch. Worked? — Great. ↳ Move to the next problem to solve. Didn't? — Great. ↳ Lesson learned. Try another way. This is about as complex as it should be before $1M. Good luck! P.S. Do you use benchmarks in your strategy? ♻️ Repost if this was helpful. ➕ Follow Lian for more like this.

Friday honesty: Customer-centricity is a lot harder to maintain than it seems. Even for those of us in Customer Success. The tendency is always to drift toward making our processes and focus company-centric rather than customer-centric. Don't believe me? Just look at one example of this: Customer Journeys. Many teams say that they have a defined Customer Journey. But rather than actually being oriented around the customer, for many the journey map is a list of activities from the company's perspective that are built around milestones the company cares about (contract signature, go-live, renewal, etc). I know about this, because I've been guilty of it in the past myself. I confuse my activity list with a customer journey and wonder why customers aren't as successful as they'd like. While important, that isn't a customer journey. It's an activity list. It's a rut none of us mean to fall into, but it's the natural drift because we live and breathe our own organization. So what do you do about it? How can you adopt a more customer-centric mindset in this area? TRY THIS APPROACH INSTEAD: 1. List out the stages your customers' business goes through at each phase of their experience with your product. Use these to categorize journey stage, rather than your contract lifecycle. 2. For each stage, list out what their experiences, expectations, and activities should be to get the results they want. Don't focus on listing what YOU do, but rather focus on listing what a customer does at each phase of their business with your product. List out the challenges they'd face, the business benefits they'd experience, the change management they'd have to go through, the usage they'd expect. Think bigger than your product here. 3. Then map what support a customer would need to actually accomplish these desired outcomes at each stage of the journey. Think education, change management enablement, training, etc. 4. Based on all of the above, you're finally ready to start identifying what your teams do to support the customer. ____________________________________________ Following a process like this helps build customer-centricity in 3 ways: 1. It causes customers to be the center of how you decide which activities are most important to focus on. 2. It empowers your team to become prescriptive about what customers should be doing for THEIR success. 3. It exposes what you don't know about your customers' business. And if you don't know something, just ask them. Don't make assumptions when you can instead talk to your customers directly. Avoid the company-centric drift, fight to maintain true customer-centricity however you can. This isn't just a nice to have in 2024. It's a business imperative that's important for any business to survive in this climate. But I want to hear from you! How do you guard your org from drifting to company-centricity? #SaaS #CustomerSuccess #Leadership #CustomerCentric