ba2015-session 1

Understanding the Customer Experience Journey

Capturing the Hearts, Minds and Wallets of Customers

January 22, 2015

City Club Raleigh Business Alliance

ba-navigationseries.com

Big Think Innovation, Inc.

bigthinkin.com

BA Navigation Series 2015: Session 1 Understanding the Experience Journey

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

WE’RE IN AN EXPERIENCE ECONOMY People are used to getting their way now more than ever. It’s no longer enough to just provide a great product or service – now we need to wow our clients with an experience to differentiate our companies.

Creating an experience for our clients can be as simple as conducting an orchestra. Okay, so maybe that’s not so simple. With a little thought and consistent delivery, we can create buzz around our offerings. When we make people say, “Wow!” we get referrals, buzz, and positive press.

How Do You Define Experience? ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

Do any of these Define an Experience?

q Engages my emotions q Surprises me q Engages multiple senses q Makes my life easier q Brings joy q Fills a void q Feels more substantial q Provides more value than expected q Entertains me q Makes the mundane exciting

Experience is subjective. And it’s not about what you want. It’s about what engages, excites and wows your clients. Different industries and product types will have different wow factors.



THE VALUE PROPOSITION CANVAS The Value Proposition Canvas makes explicit how you are creating value for your customers. It helps you to design products and services your customers really want.

Company Perspective Customer Perspective

Gain Creators

Pain Relievers

Products &Services

Company Perspective

Gains

Pains

CustomerJob(s)

Customer Perspective



The Value Proposition Canvas helps you Create the core of your experience: A great offering. The Value Proposition Canvas is a tool designed by Alex Osterwalder, the creator of the Business Model Canvas, and author of Business Model Generation, a book that has sold over 1 million copies. The VP Canvas focuses on the first two parts of the Business Model Canvas, the Customer Segments (CS) and Value Proposition (VP). When you design a business using this canvas, you are more likely to:

1. Properly assess your customers’ true needs 2. Clarify what is most important to customers 3. Craft an offering that is specifically designed for your

ideal customer 4. Reduce the risk of launching a new offering

The VP Canvas helps you clarify what your customers want, and how you can design a solution for them. For a more in-depth discussion of the Value Proposition Canvas, see http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas/vpc.

Creating a Value Proposition Canvas

1. START WITH THE CUSTOMER PERSPECTIVE A. Define your ideal customer Clearly define your ideal customer using demographic, geographic, and psychographic characteristics.

Example Demographic: Middle class, business owner, Hispanic, with 2 or more children Geographic: In Triangle area of North Carolina Psychographic: Reads Wall Street Journal and Triangle Business Journal Action: Create an Ideal Customer Profile (Persona) that describes your ideal customer in as much detail as possible. It is often good to think about a specific person or company to start with, build the profile, and then modify it as you think about other customers.

B. Identify what job(s) they want done The job to be done can be anything: move water from one place to another (pipe), cook food (microwave), identify ways to grow revenues (consulting services). It is important to identify what they want done, and not assume they are looking for a particular product or service. The clearer you can be about the JOB, the easier it will be to build the rest of the VP Canvas. Action: List the job(s) to be done from your customer’s perspective.

C. List potential Pains and Gains Is your ideal customer looking for the solution to a problem (pain), or do they want to achieve something better (gain)? Action: List the various possibilities for Pains and Gains on the canvas.



2. FINISH WITH THE COMPANY PERSPECTIVE A. List potential Pain Relievers What ways could you alleviate the pains of your customers? Really push your self/team to think of ideas that go beyond what you offer or plan to offer. This is where you can create breakthroughs. You may find that to create a complete solution for your customers, you may need to partner with other companies. This is excellent. It means you’re thinking through the problem deeper than surface level. Action: List potential Pain Relievers.

B. List potential Gain Creators Sometimes customers want something better – to increase their standard of living, achieve a stronger feeling of success, turn heads when they drive by, etc. It’s up to you to think about how you can provide this for your ideal customers. Like the Pain Relievers, think deeper and try to uncover something that other companies haven’t surfaced – and then hit it hard to really provide a differentiated offering and experience. Action: List potential Gain Creators.

C. Identify potential Offerings Once you understand the Pain Relievers and Gain Creators you can potentially offer, get creative and craft some potential solutions by combining Pain Relievers and Gain Creators into one or more offerings. Try to solve 100% of your customers’ wants (pains gone and gains achieved). A 100% solution for a

smaller niche is better than an 80% solution for a larger market because you will create raving fans. Action: Design potential offerings (products and services) for your ideal customers.



THE BIG THINK 8 FACET EXPERIENCE MODEL There are eight facets of experience. The diagram below shows how they affect and surround your offering to provide an excellent customer experience.

EMOTIONS Emotions are among the most powerful of the experiences. This is the Wow! factor. Example positive emotions include: Fun, funny, surprise, intense, love, adoration, appreciation, valued, affirmed, connected, safe, unexpected, entertaining. There are hundreds more, and each one can help connect your client to you and your offering more effectively.

SENSES Engaging senses helps to brighten the richness of the experience. A store with soft music, a hint of fragrance, and pleasing artwork and lighting is very different than a store with loud music, strobe lights, and garish graffiti-covered walls. Both can be appropriate and engaging to specific audiences. Senses include: Sight, sound, smell, touch, taste.

INTRINSIC VALUE Intrinsic value is the perceived value of the offering itself. If you provide high-end services for a low-end price, the value may be great. Examples of intrinsic value include:

Environ-ment

Emotions

Offering

IntrinsicValue

Personal-ityProcess

Richness

Simplicity

Senses



Free, extra value, meets clients needs fully, performs as expected.

ENVIRONMENT Environmental experiences include the use of space to engage the senses. Examples of environmental experiences include: Space, temperature, décor, feng shui, “feel” of the space, openness, layout/organization, flow.

PERSONALITY Some companies differentiate based on the personalities/attitudes of their employees. Some companies that come to mind include Southwest Airlines, Chik-fil-A, and Nordstrom. All of which are highly successful businesses. Creating a culture that supports the positive attitudes is not easy, but it does pay dividends. Literally. Examples of personality experiences include: Genuine caring for your needs, walking you to another department and engaging you in conversation, helping you with something other than what the store offers - such as a recommendation, treating you like a special guest or friend, making you smile or laugh.

PROCESS Process experiences are tied to your company’s flow of business. Oftentimes, there are speed bumps for transitions, causing a momentary disconnectedness with your offering. Designing process experiences will help smooth out those bumps and help your client feel better about your offering. Examples of process experiences include: Remembered preferences, walking a client to the checkout, providing immediate follow-up to any requests or issues,

transitioning between project phases gracefully, clarifying what to expect with your process.

SIMPLICITY Google is a perfect example of the power of simplicity. Because they didn’t clutter their home page with everything Yahoo! has, they stood out because of faster page loads and rapid browsing. Simplicity can also mean the ease with which you get what you want from a company. Examples of simplicity in practice include: Making it easy to buy, limiting offerings to just those things people really need, clear steps in a process, adding in extra services that help the client start using your offering faster, integrating with other offerings to simplify implementation.

RICHNESS Richness is not necessarily the opposite of Simplicity, but it can be. Richness is a factor of the completeness and depth of your offering and everything surrounding the interaction with the client. Examples of rich experience include: Disney theme parks, wowing clients’ senses, providing a total solution for clients, providing more than is necessary in a way that is appreciated, creating feelings of connectedness.

Multiple Media Each of the experience facets can be displayed through multiple communication channels, such as visual images, spoken words, written words, staff countenance, and how everything is put together. Consider how each facet translates into each communication channel.



Examples

BUILD-A-BEAR WORKSHOP Build-A-Bear Workshop is a tremendous place for kids. They get to build their own stuffed animal, give it a heart, voice, and name. B-A-B Workshop engages all senses, have people who enjoy doing what they do, have a standardized process that’s clearly displayed within a lively, fun environment. The price of a new friend? About $25. A tremendous value as well.

Build-A-Bear Workshop Experiential Star Map

DISNEY Disney is widely regarded as one of the best experiential companies in the world. Walt and Roy took the theme park concept from a seedy establishment to a world-renowned household name. They focus on staff development and creating repeatable, enjoyable experiences for their guests.

Disney Experiential Star Map



Exercise Rate the following companies’ experiences on the star maps provided.

MCDONALD’S

McDonald’s Experiential Star Map

BEST BUY

Best Buy Experiential Star Map



Exercise Rate your experiences with another company below:

COMPANY: ______________________

COMPANY: ______________________



Pricing for Experience Value When you create an experiential offering, your price should reflect the additional value. Those who are drawn to premium offerings will be attracted. If you still want a lower price point for some of your market, you can reduce the price and experience accordingly. Charge for the value you offer so that you can keep your profits high.

Comparing Multiple Offerings You can use the chart below to draw in various offerings – yours or others’ – to show relative positioning in the market. This can help you identify holes you can fill. Market: _______________________________


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

CREATING A WOW! CLIENT EXPERIENCE Now that we know the various facets of experience, it is time for us to apply this knowledge to our own offerings to Wow! our clients.

Step 1 – Decide What You Want to Offer Use the following star chart to get a feel for what you want your experience to look like overall.

Step 2 – Think Through Each Facet

EMOTIONS What emotions do you want them to experience when working with you? ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

SENSES What senses do you want to engage? Sight: _______________________________________ Sound: ______________________________________ Smell: _______________________________________ Touch: ______________________________________ Taste: _______________________________________



INTRINSIC VALUE How can you enhance the intrinsic value of your offering (make it a better value for the price)? ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

ENVIRONMENT How can you enhance the environment to elicit some of the emotions you identified earlier? How can you use color, texture, sound, space, and décor to maximum effect? ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

PERSONALITY What personality/attitude characteristics do you want your staff to have when dealing with your clients? ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

PROCESS What processes can you improve for your client? How can you make it easier to do business with you, make order processing easier, or customize the process for their needs? ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________



SIMPLICITY How can you simplify the experience for your client? Think through clarifying steps, setting expectations, and de-cluttering your website. ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

RICHNESS How can you give clients a sense that they are having a richer, more fulfilling experience? What extras can you add in without much cost? How can you give the client the total solution to their problem rather than just a part? ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

Step 3 – Create a Process Diagram Use the space below to diagram your process flow, including the newly designed experience:



Step 4 – Secure Resources What else does your company need to provide this additional experience?

PERSONNEL Do you need more staff? Different staff? Training for your staff? ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

PARTNERS What partners do you need to connect with to provide this improved experience? ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

SPACE Do you need some space, more space, or different space? ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

ADDITIONAL ITEMS What else do you need to deliver this experience consistently? ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

Step 5 – Share with Your Team Share your ideas with your team and assure they are on board. Include them earlier in the process to garner additional buy-in.



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 Customer-Centered Products (Hooks and Ferry) What Customers Really Want (McKain) The Experience Economy (Pine & Gilmore) Re-Imagine! (Tom Peters) Designing for Growth (Liedtka) Customer Experience Crafting the Customer Experience For People Not Like You: How to Delight and Engage the Customers Your Competitors Don't Understand (McDonald) The Zappos Experience: 5 Principles to Inspire, Engage, and WOW (Michelli) The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World (Reichheld)

Consultants

Ward Certified Consulting wardcertified.com, customerservicesafari.com Customer service training that’s fun and impactful.

Intelligaia intelligaia.com Focused on user experience design for enterprise software.

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.



Life is a great big canvas… and you should throw all the paint on it you can.

– Danny Kaye



When you’re ready to grow,

think big

Big Think is like Miracle-Grow for businesses. We provide insights, strategies, and innovative solutions for profitable growth. From ideation to implementation, we are the single point of contact for all of your growth needs, with an incredibly talented team and network of experts able to solve nearly any growth issue. Let us know how we can serve you.

Craig Mathews, Chief Thinkologist 919.324-6650

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ba2015-session 1

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