It’s difficult for some of us to even remember life before Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) navigation saved us from that feeling many times. We listen as Bertha or Simon or whomever we have named as the voice in the machine tell us to calmly “Turn Left” and then inform us graciously we’re 15 feet from our destination. And yet, within expansive retail spaces, we hunt like the human animals we are for the elusive dish soap or vitamins or organic greens. In-store navigation can have a profound impact on the customer experience.

For years, the best retailers could do was to post a few signs way up above the aisles to inform us of categories.

As I hunted for quinoa in my local grocery store recently, I searched the shelves labeled “Pasta and Packaged” and saw all sorts of things in this category, including rice, beans, couscous and more. No quinoa. When I asked for help, a nice guy who had never heard of quinoa made a guess that it was in the paltry gluten-free/health food section. He was right. But that made very little sense to me.

In-store navigation can be so frustrating, customers have dedicated entire blog posts and Facebook pages to it! As we move into the era of omnichannel experience, creating in-store navigation that helps the customer on their terms becomes more and more vital.

Consider a few of the ways retailers and others can create a better in-store experience, and help customers find what they are seeking:

1. Updated and Detailed Signs

Target and others started putting more detailed signs at the END of the aisles for shoppers, where they will be walking by with the cart. This helps the customer move through the store without stopping at each aisle, looking up at the sign posted near the ceiling. Instead of just listing “Beverages” for example, Target lists the distinct categories like “Juice” or “Sports Drinks.”

2. Mobile Help

Several retailers have launched mobile apps to assist customers with in-store navigation. Home Depot’s mobile experience helps shoppers check the inventory of the item in that store as well as point to the correct aisle. Anyone who has wandered the vast landscape of a home improvement store can appreciate the help this could offer.

3. In-Store Guidance

In a recent panel discussion titled  Deliver a Better Shopping Experience: Consumer Products and Retail, Lauren Shanley, from the SAP Graduate Academy, stated how many Millenials shop:

She doesn’t want to buy groceries from a list; she wants to be guided through the entire process of making the delicious meal her best friend just posted to her timeline.

Tying in the navigation of an experience for the shopper could have powerful results.

My mom used to select an outfit she wanted for a gift, then draw my dad a map of where each item was in the department store. She was smart enough to know that if she just indicated “white shirt” and even included a picture and brand, my dad would most likely select whichever white shirt he happened to find first. Drawing a map was the best way to help him find what she wanted. Clever, right? Now think of the possibilities of doing this with wish lists, recipes, outfits, or experience shopping lists. Camping stores could put together in-store maps for “what you need for your first campout.”

In a way, registries for babies and newlyweds have been doing this for years. Bed, Bath and Beyond provides the hopeful couple with a scanner and a store list with what they most likely need. Anyone who has wandered into a Babies R Us as an expentant mother is handed a list of “what you’ll need” complete with aisle numbers.

Considering just how shoppers find what they need in your store is a big consideration.

And yet it’s ignored enough so that we, as customers, are often left to wander and hope for the best. THIS is where the phrase “I’ll just get it online” enters the discussion. And isn’t that with what in-store experiences are trying to compete?

Don’t discount the importance of in-store navigation. Your customers shouldn’t need to solve the riddle of a treasure map.

Photo Credits: fourstarcashiernathan, Lachlan Hardy via Creative Commons

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Math. Logic. GPS Directions. Customer journeys are often represented in the same way.

The sales funnel is so simple, in theory. We put the many prospects in the top, they travel willingly and orderly through the funnel, and POP! They exit into a converting customer. Bravo!

But customer experience travels on, past the prospecting and sales phase and well into the relationship with the customer. And while there are many ways to map out the journey – awareness through advocacy – many still rely on thinking the experience itself is linear. It is not.

When considering your customer’s journey, consider all the many ways they can leave you.

They leave without warning, without giving second chances, and often without you even noticing! They often leave without telling you, but are more than willing to share their reasons for leaving with whomever will listen. Consider how much effort is focused on acquiring new customers. Marketing, advertising, social media, and even the way we incentivize our employees are all focused on getting those new customers to walk in the door. And yet when they take that step and the door closes behind them, they are often left with nothing more than an invoice and a bad feeling.

The journey your customers take with your organization is full of potential ups and downs. And yet a satisfied customer is only loyal until they aren’t. If you aren’t paying attention to these ups and downs, you’ll likely only find out when your competitor woos them away from you. 60% to 80% of customers who defect to a competitor said they were satisfied or very satisfied on the survey just prior to their defection, according to an Eisenberg and Eisenberg study.

So How Can You Help Your Customers Through The Journey?

Provide Relevant Information

For most organizations, this is a shift from being reactive to proactive. How often do you reach out with relevant, personalized communications? Very recent research on loyalty programs showed how customers are looking for more communication that’s relevant. But more than 40% believe the communications they’re receiving is NOT relevant today. That’s a huge opportunity. Look at all the ways we bombard our customers with communication that makes them say “Meh.” Experiment with proactive communications and track what’s working and what’s not. Invite your customers into the process! Ask for feedback often and leave some of this open-ended.

Actually Track What’s Happening

The linear customer journey map looks great – and like what should be happening. It’s a good feeling to know everyone is getting the emails they receive. But are they, really? Test the process with yourself and trusted peers. Processes break all the time – both due to technology and people. If you aren’t testing the process, your customer journey map is nothing more than a wish list.

Reward Investments In Customer Loyalty

People will do what works for them. If your employees are only rewarded based on customer acquisition and sales, they will invest their efforts there. Rewarding employees on customer loyalty and proactive participation in that will help them see the need to focus on current customers. Doing so will help everyone participate in the process and the rewards will be immediate.

What do you think? Is it best to keep the customer journey focused as a linear process? Or do we need to rethink how we consider customer journey mapping?

This article was written for and a version was first posted on Sensei Blogs.

Photo credits: GetAmbITion and HobbiesOnABudget

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Death by design sneaks into culture, into presentations and into the customer experience.

The latest *awesome* example of really poor design is from the U.S. military. Following the leak/whistle-blowing of the PRISM surveillance program, the PowerPoint which explained the program quickly made the rounds. And then something really interesting happened. Instead of just criticizing the design, some designers took the initiative and redesigned the key slides. These slides were transformed from ugly, uninformative and illegible to clear, concise and attractive.

before

after

This points to many issues with poor design. It’s not just what is nice looking and what’s not, it’s about getting information across.

Customer experience death by design is not something to dismiss.

Helping your customers find what they need is a primary objective for ANY customer experience. In some cases, the customers you are serving are other employees or departments within your organization.

It seems presenters of information, whether it’s a PowerPoint agenda or signs in the airport, don’t ask the questions before launching into design.

Key questions to ask before designing anything:

1. What information am I trying to convey?

So simple, but let’s face it, often overlooked. Conferences are really great at selecting speakers who are interested in selling their services. Attendees don’t typically care. They attend the conference to learn, to hear what’s next, to understand. And it’s SO disappointing when the speaker doesn’t really convey anything except “WE WANT YOUR BUSINESS AND I WILL HARASS YOU IF I GET YOUR CARD.” It’s even worse when the presentation is lacking any personality or visually appealing slides. Throw in a monotone and an illegible spreadsheet (I’ve seen it!) and as an audience member, you regret you won’t ever get those 60 minutes back.

2. What is the MOST IMPORTANT piece of information?

Design and communication should be about action. What action would you like someone to take? Financial services companies send out a lot of things that tell us, what, exactly? Overused headers, designed to get attention, scream things in bold like Important Information or We Care and yet readers are trained to gloss right over this. Design, when done well, elevates the entire experience. The important information gets attention because of both what it is and the action being directed. Poor design coupled with poor communication is a recipe in apathy. No matter what is being designed, apathy is not the goal of the experience.

3. What context will the reader/customer see this in?

Context is king and all that, but it’s still not addressed in many parts of the customer experience. Consider mobile. If a mobile user is seeking a train schedule, consider the context of when and how he might be doing this. Don’t create a complex design that means he’ll miss not only the train, but might even walk off the tracks. Context of where, how, and who the user is should be at the forefront of any customer experience design.

Customer experience death by design is avoidable. There are many examples where great design brings the entire experience forward. What are your favorite examples of design? What are your favorite examples of awesomely bad design? My feeling is the NSA PowerPoint example will live in infamy for a very long time.

Photo Credit: Whatsername? via Creative Commons

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Event planners are amazing and I really do respect they work they do. That’s my disclaimer here. I do plan some events like kids’ birthday parties and local networking events for the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) and every time I’m reminded how many details are involved. Details, details, and more details!

But helping attendees navigate the myriad simultaneous events, crazy big and loud exhibit halls and oh! those restrooms should rank high as a priority for planners. Event navigation is often the last detail tackled since the other details need to fall in place first.

One example: a recent event touted their mobile event site, but the site itself didn’t load to the current day. Once opened, the user had to navigate to each day, then the time, then open up the agenda from there. It also didn’t provide details needed, like speakers. And while it was mobile optimized, it was organized by “track” which really is more about organizing the speakers and presentations in ways that make sense to the planners, not necessarily attendees. Considering when and how a user might need this mobile information, when walking through crowded, unfamiliar hallways while deciding on-the-go which session to attend next, it seems a shame not to make it more simple.

Then there was the signage. Instead of having unique signs for each presentation, there were only signs identifying the track. This meant dozens of attendees were scrambling to find either the mobile schedule or pull out the huge conference book to see if this was indeed where they should be.

I spotted several event organizers throughout the event, but they were busy taking pictures of the crowds in the hallways. The “badge checkers” at the ballroom doors were tasked with that one job. They were not there to inform attendees which specific session was happening.

There was also no time – not one iota of a second – between sessions, also indicating the organizers expected attendees to sit in one ballroom, absorbing nothing but the information from one track, instead of needing a minute or two to find a seat in another room. Because of this, it was easy to miss the introductions, leading to more confusion as attendees sat down and leaned over to one another, asking “Who is that speaking?”

Again, the details of event planning are overwhelming. But I bring this up because it’s a perfect example of how an outside-in perspective and objective evaluation can highlight issues with the experience that will most likely be missed on post-event surveys or the like. Asking “Please rate this speaker” is a very different question than “Was it easy to find?”

What do you think? Should attendees be responsible for planning their entire experience in advance? How can we improve event navigation?

Photo credit: Bearfaced via Creative Commons license

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Our May edition of the CXI® Club Newsletter was quite different from the ones we’ve sent in the past. This time around we thought we would offer something special for our readers. We decided to include the first look at an article we haven’t published anywhere.  We shared some valuable insights that we learned from top executives this past month!

Here is a peek at what our Chief Customer Experience Investigator® Jeannie Walters shared with our subscribers:

Uncovering the Psychology of Your Customers

As a dedicated live blogger for the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) Member Insight Exchange  earlier this month in San Diego, a common theme emerged: Your customers care more about their emotions than your products or services. This was music to my ears because through CXI® we aim to uncover emotional triggers in your customer’s journey. These can trigger the best sort of experience or the worst.

“The decision maker is the human brain” - Daryl Travis, Founder & CEO of Brandtrust.

The post Our Latest Exclusive Customer Experience Insights appeared first on 360 Connext.

While it may seem like a small topic in the grand theater of customer experience, it is a key component to creating experiences for your customers that are truly memorable for the good stuff – not the totally frustrating. After all, how can any experience be effortless if there is so much effort in just finding what we need?

Some topics we look forward to examining:

• Web site navigation – The topic du jour since 1998 has been how to make navigation easier for users. As companies expand and contract within their own walls, the web sites often show the strife through bloated primary navigation options or navigation via the company org chart. 
• Signage as a touchpoint – It’s amazing what’s overlooked in what might be the one of earliest forms of customer “help.”
• Marketing communications - Eagerness in launching a marketing campaign has forced more than one prospect to search for a landing page, a specific promotion or even a company that isn’t easy to find. How can we make this easier?
• Internal tools and resources - We’re passionate around here about how vital your people are to the customer experience. They can only help your customers if they can find what they need when they need it.
• Digital clutter - We all have it now. Accept your customers do, too, and need your help finding what they need. Text messages, email newsletters and desktop push notifications – oh my!
• Embracing the NEW - Not too long ago, pundits were claiming we would never read content online. Then they said we wouldn’t pay with our phones. New technology that answers the question “Can I do this easier” for customers always wins.

What else should we tackle? Our ongoing discussions on Facebook, Twitter, Google + and of course, here, help drive what we turn our magnifying glass to next. And don’t forget we are always looking for microinteractions to add to our Pinterest board or even earn the title of Microinteraction of the Month! Join us anywhere you can find us!

Photo credit:  LostBob Photos via Creative Commons

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But you have to do that no matter what.

Expectations from customers have always been about what they want to do. They want to accomplish something, interact with your brand a certain way, but most importantly, the feeling they have when they engage with your company is the one that makes them come back…or not.

Multi-Channel experience won’t change everything.

While multi-channel is important, it won’t change everything. A seamless experience between all my devices won’t matter if your product is lacking or your service is terrible.

There are plenty of examples of companies who are patting themselves on the back for their social media, online and mobile channels while ignoring a culture that accepts poor experiences with their people. People are not a channel, but they are the experience.

Retail workers, customer service reps, and even your executive team are all part of the equation. If your CEO comes across like a jerk in the media, you better believe no investment in superior technology will help.

Consider all the ways your channels relate back to the bigger experience. Don’t ever underestimate the power of the people who are both leading and creating the experience for your customers every single day.

The irony, of course, is your people are also the ones who are creating those experiences for your digital channels. If your people aren’t aligned with your bigger vision and mission for the experience, then everything they do will be disconnected.

Before thinking of multi-channel experiences, consider your most important channel, your people. It’s the way it’s always been and won’t change any time soon.

 Photo credit: jabberwock via Creative Commons

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1. These small moments matter. Just as we preach around here, those small moments we have to interact with customers (or just fellow humans) are precious. They should enlighten, entertain or educate. They should make someone feel better instead of worse.

2. Our readers really get it! It’s easy to overlook microinteractions and not recognize the importance of them. It’s critical to notice when we are customers ourselves so we can create improved experiences for our customers.

This one sums up a whole bunch of wrong all at once.

• Making the unsubscribe process painful.
• Ignoring the customer’s request.
• BLAMING the customer.

Catch that last line?

We are unable to transfer the request from this system. Thank you.

Apparently, the email forward function is also broken. And the phone. And walking this printed email to someone who will realize how harmful this is.

So. Much. Wrong. Our anonymous contributor couldn’t believe it, either.

Multi-channel experience is about creating a holistic view of what your customer’s journey is actually like. Only considering the experience from the inside leads to silos which lead to…this. Don’t let that happen to your brand.

(We’re obsessed with these small moments around here. Check out the TEDx talk that started this conversation, check out the Slideshare or follow our dedicated Microinteractions Pinterest board for more awesome!)

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One of the many challenges of this type of connectivity is how these systems were originally set up. Customer Service, a stand alone department in many companies, remains a call center. The internal workings of your organization are showing. Every customer can relate to the frustration of being transferred from one department to another to resolve what seems like a simple issue.

That’s the same feeling customers have when it takes four different channels to get an answer. What’s worse, is when it’s obvious the various channels aren’t connected. (Psst…your silos are showing!)

Take showrooming. It’s not uncommon to spot shoppers scanning bar codes in stores to see if there is a less expensive price via online stores. How many retailers are training employees to feel empowered when this happens? Instead, many retail workers view the web and mobile devices as competition. An empowered retail worker, however, could proactively approach the shopper and offer knowledge on the current price matching guarantees or the perks of purchasing today. Help the customer feel welcome and knowledgeable, instead of feeling like he or she is sneaking around, trying to gain knowledge on the sly.

Multi-channel customer support fails are well-documented. If you peel back the layers, those very public fails are typically tied to a few themes.

5 Keys to Multi-channel Customer Support

1. Be sure marketing, PR, legal and customer service are well-trained and well-connected around these channels. They move quickly, and both failures and successes will be very public. Social media brand representatives don’t understand the medium or the customer service policies. Treating social media channels as nothing more than sales promotions will fail every time. Putting excellent marketers there will only work until the first real customer service situation. 
2. Treat your online channels as friends, not enemies. There is no such thing as cannibalizing your brand if it is well connected. Update employees who deal directly with customers, whether in-store or via any channel, on the most current online experiences. Explain when there will be questions, such as if the Web store has a lower price on a product, and how to answer the customers who ask. Don’t leave the channels in silos.
3. Test your mobile site. Test your mobile site. Test your mobile site. And then test again from various devices. What works great on your iPhone might work terribly on your customer’s Android tablet.
4. Take the time to review chat logs, customer emails, and call center recordings. These will tell you what is commonly coming up for your customers. Consider the context. If your customers are all emailing you about a certain issue, watch for what channels they are discussing. If your customers are all explaining they’re emailing because it’s not worth calling, you know you have a bigger challenge with your customer service inbound calls.
5. Don’t create your online or mobile apps or sites in a vacuum. Mobile apps that include a store locator, for example, must be kept updated with locations that are open for business. Be proactive here. Don’t rely on customer complaints to tell you when your multi-channel customer support is broken.

Here’s the scary and exciting thing. We are at the TIP of the iceberg here. Customers not only expect you to support them on their terms, but they expect you to support them across the channels seamlessly. Are you staying connected?

Photo credit: IBMPhoto24 via Creative Commons license

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When looking at your company’s bottom line, don’t focus solely on your product or service offering. Your employees are your biggest asset. The people who make it all happen are responsible for driving your company forward and are the voice of your customers’ experience. Keep them happy and happy customers are sure to follow.

 There are three things your employees crave from you.

 1. Pay attention to the work environment, the other home away from home.

Depending on the organization or the role within the company, many employees spend more time at work than they do with their families. Because of this, an emphasis on employee surroundings has become increasingly crucial for achieving the coveted “employer of choice” status. This doesn’t mean you have to invest in a foosball table and forgo desk chairs for beanbags. Concentrate on creating a comfortable environment that enables your employees to succeed at doing their job and at ease. It might be through a flexible work schedule or new technologies allowing them to be more efficient.

Many organizations have come to embrace bring your own device (BYOD) as a way to implement the newest technologies in the workplace and improve employee engagement while increasing productivity. If you have an employee who loves his new Samsung Galaxy S4 or Microsoft Surface RT, why force him to use a device he isn’t nearly as comfortable with when he could utilize his own, one he loved so much he bought it?

2. Have you told your employees you value them lately?

If you haven’t, start making this a common occurrence. After all, a valued employee is an employee who values the customer. And a happy customer is a return customer and an advocate of your organization.

According to CEB’s quarterly global labor market research, the No. 3 reason employees will look to leave their employer in 2013 is respect. Stability and compensation topped the chart but respect is the new driver for change. If you give credit where credit is due and you acknowledge the hard work of those around you, employee happiness and loyalty follows.

3. Every voice should be heard.

Communication skills aren’t “soft skills,” they’re “must skills.” Poor communication can be detrimental to a company at every level, hindering growth and employee morale.

Companies that encourage open communication and allow employees to voice their opinions benefit by gaining insight and knowledge into all facets of the business. Open communication should stretch from entry-level to the most senior employee and even to customers. If you listen, you might just hear your next service offering, product or operational process improvement.

Give what your employees need, want and deserve.

Your bottom line will thank you.

Photo credit: meddygarnet via Creative Commons

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