The ideal customer journey is so tempting. It’s so magical to start designing the beautiful, happy day journey for our customers.
On their best day, they fall in love with our products, they get excited at the unexpectedmoments of delight we offer, and they move on to become evangelists whose loyalty can’t be threatened.
But customers are real people with real lives and real frustrations.
Customer journey mapping can easily become an exercise in fantasy. It should be an exercise in reality.
How can you be sure you are preparing for your customer’s worst day with your company?
1. Start with why.
Why is a customer taking the action they are taking at any phase of the journey? What do they really want? If they want to achieve something, what are the barriers to completing the task?
2. Assume it all goes wrong.
What happens if it doesn’t work? What if they don’t follow the instructions you may have carefully laid out for them? Assume the worst! Ask what someone might do. Will they call for help? If not, is it because they can’t find the phone number?
3. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes – when they’ve already had a rotten day.
Don’t underestimate this step! If your customer arrives already frustrated, defeated, or angry, how much worse is the situation when it doesn’t go well? What can you do to provide moments of delight through meaningful microinteractions or simply being human?
4. Now solve the problem.
Once the customer resolves the issue they faced, how do they know what to do next? Are they directed to another part of the online experience? Do your contact center representatives pass them on to someone who lacks the full context of their situation? Consider the aspects of the journey that could cause further frustration.
5. Don’t forget to apologize.
Let’s say everything went wrong, but your customer is able to complete whatever they wanted to do with your company. Now what? Keep in mind your customer is still having a rotten day. Make sure your journey includes moments when customers hear an honest apology.
Customers are just going about their lives, and if your service or product meets their needs, that’s a great opportunity! It’s not realistic to design everything you offer around the perfect experience for a customer having the best day. Instead, consider your unhappy customers and see it as a chance to improve their day, even if just a little.
Making it easy to do business is just the tip of the iceberg. Investing in the details of each part of the journey is what leads to truly magical experiences.