BA2015-Session 2

Part II: Designing the
Customer Experience Journey
Capturing the Hearts, Minds and Wallets of Customers
March 5, 2015
City Club Raleigh Business Alliance
ba-navigationseries.com
Big Think Innovation, Inc.
bigthinkin.com

BA Navigation Series 2015: Session 2 Designing the Experience Journey
Copyright © 2015, Big Think Innovation, Inc. bigthinkin.com Page 2
CREATE AN INTENTIONAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
In Part I, we talked about the role of experience for customers. In Part II,
DESIGN, we will cover how to look at a customer experience as a journey, and to
create an intentional journey, not just let it happen.
There are several reasons for creating a memorably great
customer experience. Customers who have a great experience
will:
• Buy more from you
• Buy from you more often
• Tip better
• Express appreciation more often
• Tell others about their experience, helping you get more
and better customers
Identify the Parts of Your Customer
Journey
Each company is different, but here are some fairly common
parts of the journey:
1. Prospect contacts your company
a. First impression (receptionist/phone folks are
critical)
b. Helpfulness and ability to answer questions
2. Prospect purchases something
a. Purchase process
b. Payment types/terms
3. You deliver the product or service
a. Packaging
b. First impression
c. Using the product/service
d. Integration with other products/services
4. Support
a. Wait time for support
b. Time to resolve
c. Complete resolution
5. Re-purchase process
a. Maintain customer info, or re-entry required?

THE SERVICE BLUEPRINT FRAMEWORK
For service companies, the Service Blueprint Framework can be a helpful way of looking
at your business and the way you serve clients. It shows customer touch points as well as
the activities needed to support a great customer experience.

Here is a Customer Journey Map for Craig’s church:

THE SERVICE BLUEPRINT FRAMEWORK
The Service Blueprint Framework shown on page 4 is a way of
looking at service from an onstage/backstage perspective.
Physical Evidence is what a customer experiences through
his/her senses. In the church example, it is well-manicured
grounds, a clean, inviting interior design, and smiling people
greeting people when they arrive.
Guest/Customer Actions are the actions a customer takes. In
the church example, parking may be the first action. Then
entering the church.
Onstage means the direct interaction with customers, such as a
receptionist or salesperson.
Backstage is the work that goes on behind the scenes to make
the onstage people shine.
Support Processes provide support to the Onstage and
Backstage processes. This is often some form of productions,
such as printing, manufacturing, or administrative support.
Onstage, Backstage, and Support processes are important, and
must be designed to work together for maximum impact and
positive customer experience.
As you look at the Blueprint, consider what touch points your
customer will have with your company. Think about the
interaction from the first touch to the last touch, including
reorders and support. In the first pass, focus on what exists, not
on what you want.
Once you have your Blueprint for the existing condition, get
your leadership team together to brainstorm ways you can
improve, streamline, and Wow! your customers.

THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP
A Customer Journey Map defines the overall experience and touchpoints of customers.
Creating a Journey Map allows you to specifically target areas for improvement and
innovation, and lets you control their experience from beginning to end.

THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP
The Customer Journey Map describes the customer experience
over time. Similar to the Service Blueprint Framework, the
Journey Map focuses on what happens at each touch point.
The main difference is that the Journey Map can also be used for
product experience. In fact, any broad or specific set of activities
you want to look at can be described with a Journey Map.
Building Your Journey Map
1. PERSPECTIVE
To start, establish your perspective. Will it be the entire
customer experience, or a specific piece of it? Some software
products, for example, will create a journey map for each piece
of functionality to streamline and optimize the experience.
I’ve found it helpful to start broad and look at the big picture
first. Once you’ve describes the overall experience in about 10
steps, then you can create a more focused Journey Map to deal
with specific processes.
2. WALK THROUGH THE PROCESS
If it’s a physical process, such as a store or restaurant, then
physically move through the environment, taking note of what
you do when you enter, browse, and purchase.
If you have a service or product, then think through what steps a
customer goes through when interacting with your product or
service.
The first pass is your hypothesis.
3. OBSERVE YOUR CUSTOMERS
Once you have your hypothetical process, start observing what
REALLY happens when customers engage with your business.
Write down what they do, their mood (perplexed, happy, upset),
and even what else they have to do/use to get what they want.
4. MAP IT OUT
1. Draw a line across a piece of paper (landscape and larger
paper sizes works best) and put numbers across the top
with enough space in between to write some brief
comments.
2. For each number, title the step.
3. For each step, briefly describe what’s happening.
4. Identify the relative positive/negative feelings at each
step.
This gives you the basic Journey Map of what the customer
does. Now you’ll want to expand it a bit to add in the actions
that your people take.
1. For each step, consider what interaction the customer
may have with an employee, and describe it briefly.
2. Who is responsible for that interaction?
3. Are there supporting activities that are required in order
to deliver at that step? (Does coffee need to be made
before it can be served? Do cups and coffee need to be
ordered in order to be made? Think backwards as far as
needed.)
5. IMPROVE YOUR CUSTOMER’S EXPERIENCE
Now that you have a map of what is, consider what could be.
For each step, brainstorm ideas on how to improve the customer
experience.
If you get stuck on how to improve a step, ask your customers
what they expect at that point, or what they would like to see at
that touch point.

BA Navigation Series 2015: Session 1 Understanding the Experience Journey
© 2015, Big Think Innovation, Inc. bigthinkin.com Page 8
REALLY DIGGING IN (BEYOND THE CLASS)
If you want to get serious about designing a great experience for your customers, the
approach used in the book Designing for Growth may be helpful.

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
Designing for Growth (Liedtka)
Consultants
The Service Design Group
theservicedesigngroup.com
Provides guidance in designing a great customer experience and
fixing issues in service delivery.
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.

BA Navigation Series 2015: Session 1 Understanding the Experience Journey
© 2015, Big Think Innovation, Inc. bigthinkin.com Page 10
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
craig@bigthinkin.com

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