openSAP: Understanding Your Customer’s Journey

 The Return on Investment of CX

your understanding of your customer’s expectations are critical to delivering a better experience for them

We take in stimuli like what we see and hear. 

We build perceptions based on emotions and understanding. The customer’s experience is based on what they believe will happen versus what is happening.  There's formula I like to use for this: 

• perception minus expectation multiplied by emotion. 

What does that mean? It means whatever your customer is perceiving about the situation is the truth to that customer. They are either happy to see you’re exceeding their expectations or they’re disappointed you are not meeting them. And all of this is wrapped in the very human experience of emotions.

 Here are three questions that are important to ask about your brand and your customers. 

• What is your brand promise? 
• What is the agreement you promise to customers before they even become a customer?
• What does your marketing say about what customers can expect? 
• What have your customers told you about what they expect? 

Look to your competitors and the overall marketplace to understand expectations as they change and evolve. 

The last several market disrupters have been focused solely on improving the experience, not necessarily the products. So whether or not you compete with Uber or Amazon directly, you are competing with the expectations they are setting. 

Customer Journey Overview

Th e real customer journey, that is, the one from your customer’s perspective, is about how they are interacting with your brand, your products, your service.

But really, their expectations are being set well before that can happen. The first thing that happens is awareness. This can happen as simply as walking by a storefront or seeing an advertisement. Next, they move into consideration. What happens when someone begins to think, "maybe I have a need"? This is early in their decision-making process.

So start thinking about what these phases look like for your business, and how you can create positive, proactive experiences throughout the entire journey.

Understanding Your Customer’s Journey

 What does it mean to really listen to customers? For many organizations, that means designing a voice of the customer program,  also known as VOC. Voice of the customer is a way to consistently, sustainably, and thoughtfully collect customer feedback at several points in their journey with your brand. To gather, evaluate, and act on your customer’s feedback,  you need to make sure you understand the goal

Moving from Intentions to Action

• Ideal State Journey Mapping
• Service Blueprinting
• Prioritizing
• CX Cycle of Action