Column
1ST QUARTER, 2017
YAYU JAVIER
President & COO Avanza, Inc. yayu. javier @ avanza. ph
She was also the 2014 Philippine Marketing Association President. Avanza was the first to win in Asia-Paci c the 2012 Colloquy International Awardee in the U. S. A. for Innovation in Financial Services, for its client, Banco De Oro. It has also won the 2015 Philippine Advertising National Association’ s PANATA Marketing Exective Awards Gold Winner for Marketing Effectiveness Winner for Internal Programs.
Customer Journey Mapping: Finding The Treasures
Finding the right touch points in the sales process is like finding the gold treasures in building your business. at the pain points so that more focus can be put in those areas by the team. For example, if one of the key pain points for a car dealer is the aftersales service, such as not knowing exactly the status of your car, then an automatic sms update process can serve as one solution.
3. Recreating the Experience
Customer Journey simply understands the entire process a customer goes through from searching your product, buying your product, until after sales services. Many companies, specially the small ones, fail to do this exercise but it is key to understanding the areas you need to improve on to have a better customer experience.
A sales process does not start with a customer talking to a sales person but it starts when one is just thinking of your product. To start with your customer journey mapping you need to bring together all of your key people involved in the entire process, these would be your marketing, sales, operations, HR and Finance for your billing processes, and after sales. Basically all of the key operations people involved in each interaction with your customer.
Let us take a look at the basic steps. 1. Gathering Data on Customer Experience.
It is important to identify each step of the customer when searching and buying your product or in your store. Second, is verifying the steps and the experiences with a customer which may be through research, Focus Group Discussions, and even getting them involved in the process. The key focus is to know exactly what the customer is feeling, thinking, and doing during his / her interactions with the frontliners. Sometimes the customer experience does not always involve interaction with sales people but the store experience itself. An example is when a store wishes to project itself as a fun store then all displays has to have the fun atmosphere coupled with fun activities that the customer can engage with. In addition, the sales girls have to dress playful with a very pleasant and bubbly personality.
2. Drafting the Journey with Team in a Workshop
Get the team involved in layouting the journey of your customer. This should be in a form of workshop where all of the identified key people mentioned above will each be contributing to the steps. A good way to layout the journey is by grouping the experience by phases such as: Search / Discover / Buy / Re-Buy / Endorse. It is also important to look
14
Once the complete stepby-step journey has been identified, it is important to define the Customer Experience we wish to achieve. This has to be aligned with the brand image / positioning and experience that it wants to stand for. For example, if you want to define a new restaurant experience you may choose the path of using the“ farm to table” experience. This means that there should a feeling of freshness in the store from the look, the smell and aroma of fresh coffee, herbs, and the like. There should be information on where the raw materials are sourced and possibly even its support or advocacy for the farmers. The frontliners or store personnel must also wear“ outdoor, farm and garden” look and customer service that is very friendly and accommodating.
For each touch point, the team has to recreate and design a better experience so that there would be a seamless experience from start to finish. Key points to consider in designing the customer journey for each phase are:
• Touch Points( when and which channel like sms / email / web / store / mobile / social media)
• Objective for each Touch Point
• Current feedback or results of each Touch Point
• Challenges and Paint Points of Each Touch Point
• Persons Responsible for Each Engagement
• Results to Achieve( e. g. KPIs, sales, referral, etc.)
• Monitoring and Tracking
4. Planning Course of Action
An effective action plan should include deadlines, responsibilities, budget, KPIs and success criteria. There should be team heads for each action point and an agreed timeline in monitoring progress.
5. Tools for Customer Journey Mapping
There are currently available tools to help in the customer journey mapping which will make it easier for companies to study this important process in retaining their customers. Some of these examples are: realtimeboard, touchpointdashboard, and UX360 to name a few.
For an overview of Customer Journey, check out this video on“ How to Create a Customer Journey Map” https:// www. youtube. com / watch? v = mSxpVRo3BLg. For more information on Customer Journey Mapping in the CRM and Loyalty programs, you may email me at yayu. javier @ avanza. ph.
Happy hunting in your new journey!