This guest post is by Annie Stefano, head of education and enablement, and Emilia D’Anzica, managing partner, of Growth Molecules.
Companies that do not map customer journeys lose 15-20% of potential revenue growth as they fail to identify and act on conversion and upselling opportunities.
As a proud sponsor of Zero IN 2024, Growth Molecules™ embraced the opportunity to showcase our customer success training and advisory services in a packed workshop. More than 80 attendees were eager to learn about our advancements in customer journey mapping, how to turn moments of measurable impact into revenue growth using ChurnZero, and how to scale with organizational alignment through each phase in a journey from implementation through expansion.
If you missed the event in Washington, D.C, here is a guide for three areas to focus on as your go-to-market teams map the customer experience and hold each other accountable for its successful execution.
1. Define and apply your customer lens.
“We see our customers as guests to a party, and we are the hosts,” says former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. As hosts, party planning (or, in this case, journey mapping) is a critical process that combines a variety of criteria to review and plan for.
The fastest, most efficient way to increase revenue retention is by focusing on the customer experience, how customers feel while using your products, and what they can accomplish for themselves or their organizations with it.
The customer lens begins your team’s work on defining or refining your stakeholder personas, how you want them to feel, or the sentiment during that phase in the journey at a specific entry point in the process.
The results they achieve and the resources they have to support their goals are also critical. For example, at a 6:00 PM party, do you plan on serving dinner or appetizers? As 6:00 PM is usually dinner time, offering more than appetizers would result in happier guests.
With these criteria in mind, you can now define when they leave the party, or exit criteria, before moving on to the next phase (or evening event).
2. Define and apply your company lens.
Once the customer lens is defined, we can move into the internal or company lens of the experience. “Someone always owns the moment,” says Tom Boyles, who managed relationships at Disney Parks and Resorts. The outcomes we want our customers to achieve cannot be realized without internal ownership and process. It is as important to carve out and define.
We know what a successful party looks like or have a past example to set as what we’d like to recreate. Associating a success story, or client example of what each phase can ultimately look like, creates an organizational understanding of what can be achieved. This viewpoint also allows organizations to consider what would surprise & delight customers or at least meet their expectations.
From this story and surprising outcomes, you can now determine a list of activities or tasks that must be completed to achieve it. This includes establishing jobs that need to be done and assigning who on the team is responsible for them as the owner, which, when delegated clearly, can help to establish efficiency within your internal processes for your organization.
Part of this is also to recognize possible risks & consequences that can present themselves at this point, which helps with future training, support, or even product insights to consider for future roadmaps. Don’t forget to include your tech stack tools, such as ChurnZero, to support these outcomes, including a digital and AI overlay to continue maximizing efficiency to scale.
3. Assess where your customer journey differs.
Once your journey has been completed, you may notice that while this standard level of care is a start, it doesn’t quite fit all of your customers or all of your products.
This is where additional exercises from your baseline journey can help create differentiated product versions where they apply.
In the words of Mailchimp: “The goal of product differentiation is to create a competitive advantage or to make your product superior to alternatives on the market. In other words, you don’t just want to stand out from the competition; you want to stand above it.”
By assessing where the journey differs, you are creating a more personalized, customized, and unique experience for your customers—and they will appreciate it (so will your executives)!
This collaboration can highlight a lot of necessary changes that can feel overwhelming for any organization, and establishing where to start can be challenging.
Allow the contributing go-to-market teams to vote for what should be focused on first, second, and after that. Prioritizing the known work will provide all teams with an organization-wide plan with clarity and urgency to achieve the outcomes agreed upon by the teams.
Plan ahead to protect and grow your revenue.
At a minimum, an exercise like customer journey mapping enables full organizational alignment on what your products should help your customers achieve, and clarity within all functions in your organization.
If you ask us, that causes quite a ripple effect that can positively impact a thriving organization like yours. Give your teams a chance to become unified in your mission and vision for your customers, bringing the root of why your product is essential for them in the first place. Not only will this protect your revenue, but it will grow it too.
A certified ChurnZero Service Partner, Growth Molecules™ helps companies protect and grow revenue with proven methodologies, strategically planned solutions, and a team of award-winning strategists. Ready to drive retention and growth together? Contact Growth Molecules today to help you with your strategy and execution.
