How to Document and Measure the Customer Experience

Do you want to know what your customers are doing - and how you are doing at serving them?  Start by documenting the steps that they take in their journey with you and then measure against them.

Most consumer purchase processes follow a typical cycle of Research, Purchase, Service, Recommend and Renew.  Different organizations may call them different things, but you need to start somewhere.  Some industries or products may not have a service element (yes I know that even toothpaste has a 1-800 number, but does anyone call them?).  Map out the big steps a customer takes in it's interactions with you throughout the purchase process as phases.

Within these phases is where the nuances of your service offering and specific product will differ from industry to industry and across competitors.  We'll use getting a phone plan as the example.

Think about what you do in researching a similar product and breakdown the activities that you partake in to move to the next phase.  These are the elements within each phase.  For illustrative purposes only, this is not a set of definitive activities for getting a phone plan, it's a start.

Within these steps are key moments of truth where it is truth where a customer's satisfaction and ability to move forward with the process have the most impact.  This is a critical piece in understanding what your customer is going through and are highlighted for illustrative purposes.

The elements and moments of truth for your particular organization may change over time, and your customers will tell you if they should.


Finally, survey your customers at regular intervals evenly across all phases and elements to gauge their satisfaction and understand the drop-off points within the purchase process.  Applying a heat map technique (illustrated below as green is good, yellow is ok, red is bad) will help your organization understand where your operational focus should be in addressing the needs of your customer - awareness, sales team, customer service, product, etc.


In this example the company ranks high in Comparing Plans and Making Purchase Decision.  This would be typically achieved by having competitive rates and easy-to-use comparison tools available.  Their is however a drop off at Negotiate Final Plan which may mean a sales training issue exists that needs to be addressed.