FEATURED POST OF THE WEEK

Our long-form article of the week. You can always view the current and past featured posts on the newsletter homepage or Empower’s blog.

Is your customer at the center of your business’s operations?

How confidently can you say that the customer is at the center of your business’s operations and major decisions that get made?

If you’re wavering on that question, there’s an opportunity for growth. Ensuring customer-centricity in every aspect of your operations is essential for achieving long-term success and fostering brand affinity. 

Being customer-centric isn’t just about stocking shelves with popular products or occasionally providing an incentive, like a discount, so your customers spend more money with you. It goes much deeper than that, requiring the integration of customer-focused strategies in every operational aspect of the business. For instance, Delta Airlines flight attendants receive notifications about Skymiles Medallion members on their tablets. At the beginning of the flight, they stop by Medallion member’s seats and thank them for their continued loyalty. It’s a small gesture that makes those passengers feel special and like they made the right choice by selecting Delta for their travels. That and, of course, it doesn’t hurt that you can always get the Biscoff cookies. 

The level of personalization exemplifies a customer-centric approach and demonstrates how the integration of thoughtful processes can optimize the experience a brand delivers. At Empower, we think about this a lot with partners in designing their businesses for better long-term success.  

In this post, I’ll provide more information about how to operate with your ideal customer top of mind, introduce the concept of a customer journey, explain how you can map a customer journey end-to-end and the value of doing so. I’ll also highlight other actions you can take to place the customer at the center of your business and operations.

Defining the customer journey

What is a customer journey?

In its simplest terms, a customer journey is the series of steps a customer takes in interacting with your business to make a buying decision. The journey starts with a customer’s initial awareness of your brand and continues through the lifecycle of them (hopefully) becoming a loyal, recurring customer. 

I’ve often observed that emerging businesses really dial in on the early stages of the journey, but then don’t pay as careful attention to the later ones. It’s important not to lose sight of what happens once a customer makes an initial purchase from you. A lot can be done through systems and automation to streamline ongoing engagement. Remember, it could cost your business up to 5x more to acquire a new customer versus retaining an existing one.

When it comes to the customer journey, there are typically five distinct phases that you’ll hear referenced.

• Awareness: A customer uncovers the existence of your business. In this stage, they’re searching for options to solve a distinct problem. For example, I may be looking for a nearby doggy daycare that I can trust to take care of my dog while I’m on vacation, so I use Google search to help me find a handful of options to assess. 

• Consideration: The customer may be contemplating your business as the solution to their challenge. They’re assessing your value proposition against alternatives in the market. For example, once I’ve narrowed down a list of doggy daycares, I may compare websites, reviews, service offerings, prices, hours of operation, etc. as I’m considering the decision. 

• Purchase: This is where the customer is making a buying decision. This doesn’t necessarily mean they’re choosing your business; but this is the stage in which they will either pick you, the competition or not take action. For example, after weighing the doggy daycare options, I chose one that best meets my needs and has the staff with whom I felt most at ease. 

• Retention: The journey doesn’t end once you acquire a customer. Then you need to keep that customer coming back for more. That’s what the retention stage is all about – maintaining quality customer relationships and driving repeat business. For example, after I chose the doggy daycare, it may take certain actions that drive me to select the business again. For example, I received daily updates and photos so I could see that my dog was enjoying herself, my dog was clean and happy when I picked her up and the daycare sent us home with a bag of branded doggy treats. Lastly, it offered a 10% discount on my dog’s next stay if we booked within the next 90 days. All these things make me more inclined to send my dog there again the next time I travel. 

• Advocacy: A customer is so delighted by their experience with you that they’re now spreading the word to their network. For example, the doggy daycare may find ways to continue impressing me. So much so that after a third experience, I may decide to tell more of my dog owner friends about this great place I found. The daycare also created more incentives by having a referral program that provided me discounts if friends sent their dogs for a stay. 

The customer journey map

Think of a customer journey map as the visual representation of the customer journey. It helps bring to life every interaction your business has with the customer and that the customer has with your business. This tool is essential for pinpointing successes, identifying areas for improvement and ensuring all operations align with customer needs.

The customer journey map should also flow like a narrative so that you’re able to see the sequence of interactions and more easily pinpoint where you’re succeeding, where there’s room for improvement and where there are just gaps. It’s also a forcing function to take you out of the mindset of what the business needs, and rather places the attention on the customer. This may initially feel counterintuitive, but if you put the customer first, the business needs and goals will likely follow, too. 

Another benefit of creating a customer journey map is that it helps build a shared understanding with your team. They can align to the end-to-end experience developed for customers, identify how they can contribute positively to the journey and provide input for continuous improvement.

At its core, a customer journey map is a powerful tool to analyze and improve your customer experience. It’s also helpful in assessing where there may be operational inefficiencies across the value chain. A 2022 McKinsey podcast cited that driving enhancements to the customer experience can result in a 2-7% increase in revenue and boost profitability by 1-2%.

How do you construct a customer journey map?

Now that you understand what a customer journey is and the value of the customer journey map, you might be wondering how to go about actually developing the journey map and effecting change.

If you want to collaborate, Empower can assist you with all of the above. We work with partners to understand their customer journey, map those interactions and provide recommendations for areas to unlock further value. 

If you prefer to tackle this yourself, you can take advantage of resources written on the topic. I’m not going to provide a long list of links, but you can get started with this comprehensive post from Qualtrics as one starting point. 

Always remember, this isn’t a one-and-done exercise. It’s important to build your baseline customer journey map and regularly assess from there.

How to be more customer-centric

A customer journey map is just one component of a customer-centric business. Here are additional points to consider when exploring integrating customer-centricity into your operations.  

The impact

Being attuned to your customers is crucial for business growth and loyalty. Don’t just take my word for it. Consider these data points:

• A 2022 study from Elastic indicated that 68% of digital shoppers made unplanned purchases based on product recommendations tailored to them. 84% of the respondents from the same study said that personalization impacts their buying behavior. 

• Twilio’s business Segment completed an analysis in 2021 that showed 60% of consumers would become repeat buyers with a retailer after a personalized experience, which was a jump from 44% in 2017. 

• McKinsey’s 2021 Next in Personalization report showed 71% of consumers expected personalized experiences. It also indicated that companies that grow faster drive 40% of their revenue from personalization as compared to slower-growth counterparts. 

Deep customer understanding is vital; it can differentiate your business or leave it in the dust.

Empowering the customer journey

Once you understand the customer journey, the next piece of the puzzle is orchestrating the experience(s). This is where strong business design, systems and processes come into play. At Empower, we work with partners to analyze the customer journey, identify improvement opportunities and introduce technology or stronger processes to enhance the customer experience. If your business needs a boost in these areas, fill out this quick form to tell us about your business and we’ll reach out to connect!

WEEKLY DOSE OF EMPOWERMENT

The weekly dose of Empowerment is meant to provide one weekly tip that’s both practical and approachable, to help drive incremental improvement to your day-to-day. We’re always open to your contributions as well. If you would like to submit a tip to be shared with the Empower community in a future newsletter, please reach out at [email protected] with the subject line “Weekly Dose of Empowerment Submission.”

Identify a problem’s root cause(s) with the Five Whys

Small businesses and startups consistently face complex problems that need to be solved quickly. Oftentimes, these teams don’t have the luxury of time and resources like larger enterprises, so being able to call on frameworks to make problem-solving more approachable is important. 

I like the Five Whys because it’s easy to remember and effective. It might not be the solution to every problem, but it does force you to be more inquisitive and thorough. Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota Industries, first developed the technique in the 1930s. The idea is that once you ask “why” for the fifth time, you have a much better understanding of the root cause than when the problem initially arose.

An example of how this works in practice

As you can see, by the time you get to the fifth “why,” you can paint a broader picture of what’s causing revenue to flatline. On the surface, there are numerous reasons why Jane’s fitness studio revenue could be falling behind her goals, but not all of them may move the needle. For example: If Jane sprang to action, driven by a firm belief the problem was caused by insufficient marketing, she may have decided to spend money on advertising, which may do nothing to change the results. None of this is to say that there couldn’t be multiple factors contributing to the problem. But, the Five Whys forces you out of the surface level and focuses your attention on the real drivers of the challenge.

Next time you’re faced with a complex problem, instead of diving in to solve it, I encourage you to pause, ask why, then ask again, and so on until you feel confident that you deeply understand it.

JESSICA’S READ, OR LISTEN, PICK OF THE WEEK

A little something that got my gears turning this week and might pique your interest as well!

Agency on No Mercy / No Malice by Scott Galloway

TL;DR

Scott Galloway is someone who I frequently listen to and read. He's got several podcasts, newsletters and other platforms, he doesn't shy away from confrontation, stays true to who he is and, generally, sticks to his guns. I'm sure to some, he's a controversial character. But, you can't please everyone!

One of his content platforms is his newsletter No Mercy / No Malice. A couple of weeks ago, the newsletter addressed new college graduates with a piece titled Agency. Galloway defines agency as "the capacity to take the actions of your choosing, and through those actions shape your future and the world you live in. More than that, it is the recognition that you have the potency to make it happen."

The post painted an optimistic picture of people's opportunity for prosperity, particularly in the U.S., which is a compelling narrative in what often seems like a negative news cycle with tons of uncertainty. Even though Galloway was "officially" addressing new graduates, the message hit me as someone who recently exercised agency to start my own business.

Enjoy!

JUST FOR FUN

Really, this section is just for fun. Who knows what will be in store each week?

This one is for all my Trader Joe’s fans. I enjoy cooking and always wish I had more time to do it. Several months ago, I was on the hunt for simple and tasty recipes that didn’t require obscure ingredients and could get on the table fast. I came across the Instagram account Trader Joe’s 5 Items or Less Recipes and it opened my eyes to the wonders of what you can do with just five items from there. I’ve made several so far and haven’t been let down yet.

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