Annette Franz (Gleneicki)

With whom and how do you socialize customer insights?

You’re listening to customers. You’re combining their feedback with those bread crumbs of data that they leave with every transaction and interaction with your brand. You’ve developed customer personas to better understand who they are, what problems they are trying to solve, and what jobs they need to get done. You’ve mapped their journeys to understand their experience today and their expectations for a better experience tomorrow.

Are you making this mistake when journey mapping?
We already know that people are making mistakes when they’re journey mapping. I’ve outlined several of them in past posts:

5 Myths of Journey Mapping, in which I wrote about:

I originally wrote this post for Forbes.com. It appeared on the Forbes site on November 14, 2018.

I originally wrote today's post for Forbes. It appeared on the Forbes site on October 18, 2018. I've made some slight modifications since then, as it turned into a two-part series.

Do you know the difference between means and outcomes? Between the journey and the destination?

I know. I know. Those are silly questions to ask.

Of course everyone knows the difference between means and outcomes. Of course everyone knows the difference between the means to an end and the end.

Or do they?

As I was driving to an appointment the other day, I saw a sticker on the back of a construction truck that read, in big red letters: Safety is the goal.

So, let me throw out some definitions here.

This is a modified version of a post I originally wrote for CallidusCloud. It appeared on their blog on June 14, 2018.

If you want to move beyond cosmetic changes and lip service to real changes in both the employee experience and the customer experience, the first thing you have to look at is your company’s culture.

How do leaders drive (lasting) change?

Last week, I enjoyed spending a few days in Vegas, speaking and networking at Fiserv's annual client Forum. The keynote on the second day of the event was Troy Aikman, who was interviewed by Fiserv's CEO Jeff Yabuki about sports, of course, as well as about leadership and business.

One of the stories that Troy shared resonated with me because it's exactly the kind of thing that I talk about when it comes to driving lasting change: leaders can't just talk the talk; they must walk the walk.

I originally wrote today's post for CallidusCloud. It appeared on their blog on July 12, 2018.

When companies focus on people, their people - employees first, then customers - the numbers will come.

I hate to tell you this, but you're just not.*

I've been doing a bit of speaking lately, either about journey mapping or with journey mapping as a piece of the talk, and I've learned a lot - or, rather, confirmed a lot. Namely, you might think you're journey mapping; you call it journey mapping; but it's not really journey mapping.

Here's what happens.

I start by asking the audience if they're mapping customer journeys, and a bunch of hands in the room go up. A lot of hands, as a matter of fact.

I originally wrote today's post for CallidusCloud. It appeared on their blog on April 13, 2018.

How do you prioritize your CX improvement initiatives?

You've listened to customers. You've mapped their journeys. And you've identified a lot of improvement areas that would make the experience light years better for your customers.