Kristina Evey looks at ways to identify opportunities that would add more value to your existing processes or systems.
I recently had a conversation with a business leader stating he was overwhelmed with too many “shiny objects” and that since his sales were steadily increasing, he knew things were “good,” but didn’t know where to focus to “be better than good.”
Since things were “good” overall and no major pain points were obvious, I suggested that he and his leadership team perform an audit of their own customer’s journey and look for ways to add value to each interaction and touch-point.
To be clear – a self-audit is not an assumptive journey map. In this case, the audit is intended to look for opportunities leadership believes would add more value to the existing process or system.
Conducting a self-audit is simple yet needs to hold true to the intended purpose to be effective.
As a team, consider each touch-point or interaction your customers have and ask yourselves these questions:
What’s important to the customer during this interaction/phase and are you delivering or addressing it? – It may sound too simple, yet things as basic as being able to actually find the right contact portal and response times are common customer frustrations.
In the discovery phase of the sales process, you may determine that encouraging all sales reps to have 5 bullet points of knowledge around the prospects last fiscal year increases the trust and engagement during the sale.
Based on what you know about your company, your capabilities, and your customers – is there something that could be done differently to improve this interaction or touch-point?
Has technology or some physical component improved to the point you can reduce time, expense or customer hassle?
What is the competition doing in this situation and is it working? Do your customers value your competitors’ efforts?
This is not a best-practice comparison. This is to understand what is and isn’t working as a benchmark and effectiveness as a differentiator.
Do you truly have the ability, dedication, and support to make changes that will stick? Be deliberate about your efforts. Be ready to fail fast and to refocus if your efforts fall short. Use agile principles as your guide. Non action will send a stronger message of non-customer centricity than continual improvement efforts.
About the Author
Kristina Evey is improving the way companies connect with their customers and increase their profits, she is an accomplished speaker and trainer on customer satisfaction and retention.
