Customer Experience Map Strategy To Storyboard Your Process

The Era of Automated Experiences

I’ve been in the automation space since 2008 and I’ve worked across industries and behind the scenes with a lot of the big players in their respective niches.

I’ve developed an almost philosophical approach to automation and the field of automated experience design. Automated experiences have been around for a while, I’m sure everyone’s used an ATM before or has done a self-checkout at the pharmacy. That’s what I’m talking about, but bringing it into your business.

What I’d like to share with you is how I break down customer experiences on paper and how you can do the same for different aspects of your customer’s journey.

This method works because we take our strategy that answers the question “What are we trying to do?” and blend with the tactical “How are we trying to do that?” to storyboard the entire process out like we’re working on a film.

For example, let’s say we’re trying to deliver a lead magnet to our audience. The high-level strategy part is that we’re trying to collect leads, the way tactically we’re going to do it is with the lead magnet.

But like a movie director looking at each shot, we’re going to look at each moment in the process. If we were to jump into our example of the lead magnet the first moment we jump into might be a landing page. Then next thing after they submit the landing page would be the thank you page and that’s when you notify them that the lead magnet is being delivered to their email. Finally, they get the lead magnet in their email and they can consume the content.

That’s 4 distinct moments for even a simple process like this! Most people think it just happens in 1 or 2 steps and they gloss over everything else.

I would recommend that over time you do this for every piece of your customer experience.

Mapping Out The Journey

1. 1. The Experience Layer

For each moment you want to cover five layers. The top layer is the actual experience that your customer is receiving. You have to be clear about what that is otherwise everything else will be off track.

1. 1. The Content Layer

The 2nd layer is what is the exact content that is needed to generate those assets. For our landing page moment that would be the images, the copy, and the web form to submit.

For the thank you page, the content is simpler we just need our logo and a message to go check their inbox for our lead magnet. This is how I’d break down each moment and I keep a list on my overall breakdown.

1. 1. The Tools Layer

The 3rd layer is the tools layer. This is where we go from strategy to being hands on. This is where we define what actual platforms and tools we’re using to host and deliver our moments. If you’re using WordPress then that’s your tool, if you’re emailing out with Infusionsoft then write that down. We need to get to this level of specificity so we don’t have to backtrack later on.

1. 1. The Skills Layer

Underneath the tools layer, you have the skills layer. Here is where you list out who has the creative and technical skills necessary to use the tools and execute on creating your customer experience. You may have all the required skills so you can put yourself on the list, or you may want to outsource some of the tasks to other members of your team. This is where you write down your designers, copywriters, webmasters, and anyone else who’s working with you.

1. 1. The Ownership Layer

The last layer describes who is the one person responsible for that particular asset and getting it up and running. This is where you can hold people accountable for what’s going on within your business. You can even add in a date when they need to be finished with their piece of the puzzle.

If you can go through this process and write it out for your team that’s an incredibly powerful tool for your business.

Action Steps

1. Break down your customer experience moment by moment and map them out on a piece of paper.
2. Underneath each moment breakdown exactly what content is needed to create it.
3. Write out what tools are necessary to use in order to create the content itself.
4. Further breakdown who on your team has the creative and/or technical skills required to produce the content.
5. Assign one single owner who can be responsible for each moment.

 

Result You Will Achieve

A storyboard which maps out your customer experience and a methodology for breaking down how to execute on each step in the process.

 

This article is based on an EHQ interview with the mentor.