Financial marketing

Duck or Eagle? Define Your Customer Journey.

4th August 2015

Your customer journey is a way to describe all of the experiences a customer has with your organisation – from their very first impression of receiving your business card, to visiting your website and to calling your reception.

Each of these ‘moments of truth’ can be mapped in detail to ensure that every interaction the customer has with your business at every touch point, is aligned with the core essence of your brand and your values. A similar approach can be taken in respect of User Experience (UX) mapping for your website.

Imagine if your business had a Customer Journey or User Experience Map that visually summarised how you would like your customers to think, act and feel at every stage and what specific value (moments of delight) you can provide. What difference would it make to your brand if you could embed it at every level of your organisation to truly shine.

A great example of a customer journey (literally) was sent to us in an email last week about a Taxi driver.

“I was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing I noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the car passenger door for me.

He handed me a laminated card and said: ‘I’m Wasu, your driver. While I’m loading your bags in the trunk, I’d like you to read my mission statement.’ Taken aback, I read the card. It said: Wasu’s mission statement: ‘To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.’

This blew me away especially when I noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean! As he slid behind the wheel, Wasu said: ‘Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf’. I said jokingly, ‘No, I’d prefer a soft drink.’ Wasu smiled and said, ‘No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and diet coke, lassi, water and orange juice.’ Almost stuttering, I said: ‘I’ll take a lassi’. Handing me my drink, he said, ‘If you’d like something to read, I have ‘The Hindu’, ‘Times of India’, ‘ET’ and ‘India Today.’

As we were pulling away, Wasu handed me another laminated card, ‘These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you’d like to listen to the radio’.

As if that wasn’t enough, Wasu told me he had the air conditioning on and asked me if the temperature was comfortable for me. Then he advised me of the best route to my destination for that time of the day. He also let me know that he’d be happy to chat and tell me about some of the sights or, if I preferred, to leave me with my own thoughts.

I was amazed and asked him, ‘tell me Wasu, have you always served customers like this?’ Wasu smiled into the rear mirror. ‘No, not always. In fact, it’s only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard about the power of choice one day. Power of choice is that you can be a duck or an eagle.

If you get up in the morning expecting a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself. It’s about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly and the customers were unhappy.

So I decided I’d put a few changes in one at a time. When the customers responded well I did more. My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year, I’ll probably quadruple it. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone all the time or leave a message on it.’

How can you put your brand experience right at the heart of your customer journey?