With ever increasing complexity in our clients’ interactions it is more true than ever that a picture paints a thousand words. One of the most powerful techniques available to help everyone understand what is happening today with your customers and what is proposed is a Customer Journey & Experience Map. If you want to discuss this more or need help in producing these then Contact Us.
The sample diagram below tells the story of a multichannel, event based journey of a new customer of a gourmet foods company, “Hotfoodcoolrelationships.com” mapped against the various “device-centric” channels they use to interact with their customers and specifically noting the data that is gained from the customer at each step (you can also map event state transition options if so inclined). In reality this map was created in a team working session using post-it notes on a large sheet of brown paper affixed to a conference room wall. We then documented it in Powerpoint and accompanied each event by a “pop” sample of each user experience during the walkthrough (very impactful !). If you want to make it high impact and are all in the same room then review it on the “brown paper” that it was constructed on (with post-it notes) and simply print out the user experience samples and tape them to the sheet in the appropriate spot. For remote users have someone video the session or use video conferencing with an online white board. Or you can use good old Powerpoint, Pages, Keynote or Illustrator.
In this case we also mapped these channels against a Customer Results Radar to show the strength of each of these channels vs the best in industry and their desired goal state which is a whole different discussion. For more Contact Us
The Journey
“Hotfoodcoolrelationships.com” is an online retailing community selling gourmet food, wine and culinary vacations. As well as their online sales they also get paid by 12,000 local, subscribing, gourmet food and wine retailers and producers across the USA to guide new customers to them via special offers and information. These retailers and producers provide the products that Hotfoodcoolrelationships.com sells. Each retailer pays a $500 annual fee and Hotfoodcoolrelationships.com provides a method for local providers to gain a national and global audience. For goods sold through hotfoodcoolrelationships.com they retain 20% of the retail price. In less than 2 years hotfoodcoolrelationships.com has reached revenues of $20m via email campaigns and their website and their Facebook community and is now planning to launch a mobile app.
Hotfoodcoolrelationships.com has created a list of high-potential prospects by “mashing together” two purchased lists from a couple of online dating website (which tracks where its clients go for their dates so they can recommend great dating meal locations).
Hotfoodcoolrelationships.com has worked with some behavioral psychologists and identified that “dating event dining habits” are a major indicator of ongoing food preference. The lists they purchase also included some basic profiling and demographic information to allow message targeting.
The first step is to send a highly personalized email ?to the prospect based on the demographics featuring a few appropriate recipes, some featured wine reviews and a couple of vacation options to determine if there is any interest. If the customer opens the email rather than simply deleting it this indicates one level of interest but even better is when the customer clicks on one of the recipes or wines or vacations to see more and is redirected to the web. On the web she is invited to sign up with an email address and the opportunity to download an iPhone or android app.
To download the app requires a mobile number to be provided. ?. If the app is requested a text is sent to the customer who clicks to download the app and “accepts” the terms and conditions. When the app is downloaded the customer is given the chance to link to their Facebook account, as a result of which the company can gain permission to gain a view of their Facebook Friends. ? When the customer accepted the terms and conditions for the mobile app she also agreed to have Hotfoodcoolrelationships.com track her movements and locations through the mobile device.
Periodically hotfoodcoolrelationships.com pushes information about local gourmet stores with offers to the customer based on her location. When she signed up she asked for these by email in her preference center. ? Clicking on an offer results in more details and a street map with directions being pushed to the app on her phone ?. If she is really interested she can inform the retailer that she is likely to visit that day and offer to have her name and information provided to the retailer.
She visits the partners’ retail store and some of those partners provide uploads of items purchased (a way of reducing or eliminating their subscription fees) ?
Also on the app is an option to record a quick review video and post it to Hotfoodcoolrelationships.com’s Facebook page and the retailers’ Facebook page through her wall. Lifestooshort has found that these posts often go viral and cause additional Facebook Likes to occur which provides access to more potential Facebook customers. ?
The video posting Facebook template includes an opportunity for these new “Friends” to download the “Hotfoodcoolrelationships” app ? resulting in more prospects for Hotfoodcoolrelationships.com. ? The Facebook discussions give the basic demographic information for Hotfoodcoolrelationships.com to drive towards sending customized emails to these new prospects ?because they have found that Friends who have responded to a review of a gourmet food store will tend to have strong affinity with gourmet foods.
And the cycle continues.
Let us know how that works for you or for more samples and information. Contact Us
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