Congratulations!

The first step towards Journey Mastery is to understand where you stand today. As you probably already know, working customer-centric is harder than it sounds. Doing it at scale is even harder.

Gaining deep customer insight

Especially when it comes to knowing your customer, it would help to have a method in place to find and store valuable customer insights. In this stage, such a method or system is not in place yet. But you’ll get there. The whole reason you are here right now is that you know it is important. And that’s what matters. It’s the most important ingredient in running a profitable business that delivers what customers want. Because without customers, there is no business at all. If your journeys are based on gut feeling and you have a hard time interpreting metrics, it’s a good time to start talking to your customers and research their needs.

Standardizing a Journey framework

If teams are already making customer journey maps, this usually happens on a project level and the journeys are not connected to a bigger whole. Also, journeys are created inside-out, where no real customers are involved. Most of the impact in the first stage – which is still pretty isolated from the rest of the operation – is created through a small project or pilot. This is the start of the journey toward Journey Mastery. However, once you have created something that delivers value, like a mapped-out customer journey, people start paying attention. Especially since others in your organization don’t think involving customers in the process is important.

Customer-centric prioritization

Because there are no processes or systems in place to use, you are the first to explore the different methods of prioritizing customer-centric. Chances are you are seeking help externally to guide you, which is a good thing. Not only can you explore creative problem-solving methods like Design Thinking or Design Sprints, but also the way you prioritize the opportunities might need a different framework. The key is to experiment a lot, but make sure you document what you do and how you do it. If you don’t keep track, you will never be able to face the dreadful nay-sayers who will easily dismiss your hard work. If your work is based on intuition, expect a lot of doubts. If your work is based on real customer insights, opinions are much easier to avoid.

Opportunities to look for

• Ask sales to identify a few ideal customers

• Validate quick wins for them that you know will boost KPIs

• Find a sponsor to help you get your results presented to a bigger audience.

How TheyDo helps

The proof lies in the pudding. To start connecting the dots, it is important to know how the first customer-centric projects you run, connect to business strategy. This way, you make sure that other decision-makers in the organization can also relate to the work you do, making it easier to spread your enthusiasm.

What to do next:

Read: What is Journey Mastery?
Do: Map your first journey