Three reasons why you should be obsessed about your Client Journey in your business.

1. It’s up to 25% more expensive to gain a new client than to keep an existing one
2. You are 3 times more likely to sell a product or another service to current clients. They already know, like and trust you.
3. Improving your client retention rate by 5% can boost your bottom line (profit) by as much as 95%.

How do you know that you are giving your clients exactly what they want?

Think of the Customer Journey as a roadmap detailing how your client becomes aware of your business, how and when they interact with you, on the phone, messenger, email.

When they visit you, through to when they leave and everything in-between; round to when they come again.

MAPPING OUT YOUR CLIENT JOURNEY

How do you know if your customer journey is as good as it could be?

Do you offer excellent customer service, but your website is clunky to navigate?

Or maybe your online presence looks like the dogs what’s-its but in person they feel underwhelmed. 

You need to know where your strong AND weak points are.

The client journey encompasses ALL the experiences that client goes through when interacting with your business.

It is often depicted as a timeline. It includes not just the steps of the journey, but also the customers motivations and potential obstacles at each stage.

Each step on this journey is referred to as a customer touchpoint, basically any time a client comes in contact with your business.

1. BECOME YOUR CLIENT – imagine a typical client, don’t try to cover all, use your ideal client avatar with a name. Get specific. Picture yourself in their shoes
2. GRAB A PEN AND PAPER – for your initial planning, it is helpful to write each step out, cross things out, draw arrows etc
3. LIST ALL THE STEPS ON YOUR CLIENT JOURNEY – list all the different steps (you can get as granular as you like) leading up to and beyond them discovering you, coming for their service/product and after. Don’t forget, often the 1^st touchpoint takes place before they talk to someone from your business. It might be an ad or a social media post, or a review site.
4. ADD ACTIONS, MOTIVATIONS, QUESTIONS AND OBSTACLES – For each step in the journey, add in the following details. Actions: what is the client doing at this stage? Motivations: what will encourage/discourage the client from moving to the next stage? What emotional drivers do they feel? Questions: would they have any at this stage? Opening hours? Obstacles: what may they come across at each stage, Cancellation policy? Price? Availability?
5. RINSE AND REPEAT – It is important to map out a journey for different types of clients, wanting different things from you. Some clients will skip certain touchpoints.
6. LOOK AT HOW YOU CAN REMOVE ANY OBSTACLES AND ANSWER QUESTIONS – once you have laid out your map, it’s time to look at the client experience. Look at possible pain points. Prioritise pain points that could negatively impact your business.
7. CHECK WITH YOUR CLIENTS – the best way to know if you are getting it right, is to ask the clients themselves. Create a customer survey, but one of the best ways to keep on top of how you are doing, is to have a thorough regular chat to your clients. What better way to do that, is with a great consultation at every appointment.

Using the example above, map out a positive and then a negative customer journey for when a client books in, comes in for her treatment, greeting, consultation, retail offered, checking out, communication.

The above scenario can be adjusted for a mobile professional or a home salon.

We all know that consultation is an important part of what we do, don’t we?

The customer journey is at its most important at the consultation stage. If anyone or anything has upset the client, you may well be given the chance to discover and rectify it at this stage.

This month’s column is an extract from one of the workbooks that will be inside my coaching membership, launching soon.

Watch out for more news in next months column.