ChurnZero visitor article by Megan Beltran, Chief Buyer Officer, Virtuous
In some unspecified time in the future in your organization’s development, the client journey stops holding collectively. You’ve constructed processes, employed good individuals, and refined onboarding, help, and renewals. However, from the client’s perspective, it nonetheless feels fragmented.
That’s the place we have been at Virtuous earlier than we redesigned our buyer journey map for the shoppers who use our responsive fundraising platform, and for our inner groups too.
Since we accomplished the venture, our web income retention has elevated by 7% in lower than three quarters. Gross income retention rose by 5%. We lower onboarding from 4.5 months to 50 days, decreased time to worth by 63%, and achieved a technical companies CSAT of 96%.
However… it wasn’t straightforward. It took a deliberate, cross-functional effort (and a few hands-on steerage from Sabina Pons and her workforce at Progress Molecules) to revamp our buyer journey into one thing that may meet and exceed our objectives nicely into the long run.
Right here’s how we executed the venture and what we discovered.
1: Acknowledge when it’s time to go all-in.
A whole redesign of a buyer journey map is an intimidating venture. Why not take an incremental strategy and enhance one stage of your buyer journey at a time?
At first, we’d approached it incrementally. Based mostly on buyer suggestions that our onboarding was tougher then anticipated, we invested a major effort into refining the method.
But, whereas we felt assured within the construction we had constructed, the suggestions advised a special story. Some prospects mentioned they didn’t understand they have been reside once we transitioned them to post-onboarding help. Internally, our completely different groups didn’t agree on what “go-live” meant or when handoffs ought to happen.
On cautious evaluation of the suggestions, there was a constant sample round gaps: gaps between what we constructed, and what prospects and colleagues skilled. It grew to become clear that incremental enhancements weren’t fixing the foundation drawback. Issues felt disjointed not due to poor execution, however as a result of we had constructed particular person levels in isolation with out mapping how they related. When handoffs and transitions really feel abrupt or unclear, it received’t assist to proceed optimizing the items.
Hearken to your suggestions holistically and you may even see indicators that it’s time to go all-in on a redesign:
- Clients saying, “This isn’t what I anticipated.”
- Completely different groups defining success milestones otherwise.
- Referrals and enlargement aren’t taking place organically.
Clients don’t transfer by means of your online business in phases—they expertise it as one steady relationship. Fixing particular person touchpoints doesn’t make a significant distinction until the expertise connects finish to finish.
2: Outline the imaginative and prescient earlier than you deal with the method.
Earlier than you dig into the method, outline what you need the journey to realize. For Virtuous, the objective was to construct a journey that was holistic, proactive, and prescriptive.
We wished our total buyer lifecycle, from first gross sales dialog to enlargement, to really feel unified. Clients ought to know what to anticipate at each stage, and every inner workforce wanted to help their shared expertise as an alternative of making their very own model of it.
My recommendation: don’t goal for perfection; goal for readability. You need your prospects to know what’s coming subsequent, who’s accountable for what, and once they can anticipate to see worth.
3: Make it a cross-functional occasion.
We partnered with Progress Molecules on a deep-dive organizational diagnostic evaluation as pre-work, after which launched into a two-day, cross-functional, in-person buyer journey mapping workshop. We introduced in leaders from product, onboarding, gross sales, enablement, help, advertising, and operations. Our CEO and CRO participated too. That variety of perspective made all of the distinction.
Forward of the workshop, I met with every stakeholder individually to know what they wished from the method. It was vital for every workforce to see their priorities mirrored and are available into the room aligned.
Throughout the workshop, we broke into cross-functional teams, assigned buyer personas, and mapped the journey section by section. We checked out every stage from each the client and inner perspective: actions, obligations, outcomes, and transitions. This strategy ensured that we left the workshop with:
- An 18-month strategic advice framework for our venture roadmap.
- A categorized and stack-ranked record of initiatives with possession and timelines.
- A tactical prioritization mannequin to align effort with enterprise impression.
We spent six months after the preliminary workshop rolling out the brand new journey: constructing new assets, coaching inner groups, and establishing techniques to trace progress. Progress Molecules inspired us to make use of clear possession fashions, which helped preserve momentum lengthy after the workshop ended.
4: Take note of transitions and handoffs as friction factors.
One of many greatest issues the journey mapping course of helped us uncover was friction throughout two transitions: from gross sales to onboarding, and onboarding to post-live.
On paper, our onboarding course of was strong, but prospects didn’t all the time really feel ready or assured. We realized that we weren’t setting expectations clearly, aligning on objectives earlier than onboarding started, or speaking what prospects would expertise alongside the best way.
To repair this, we launched mutual motion plans earlier than the sale closed, created customer-facing assets to stipulate onboarding complexity and outcomes, and enabled inner groups with RACI fashions to make clear who owns what.
On their very own, none of those adjustments have been dramatic. When mixed, nevertheless, they made the client journey coherent as an alternative of complicated.
5: Measure fastidiously, and hold issues future-ready.
When it got here to measuring success, we wished extra than simply CSAT. We up to date our Buyer Confidence Rating survey with some pointed questions, primarily based on end result, which might be far more correlated to the client journey total:
- How assured are you that your group has acquired the anticipated worth in outcomes up to now?
- How possible is your group to supply a constructive advice or reference?
- How possible are you to resume or broaden?
- How possible are you to proceed as a Virtuous buyer past this renewal interval?”
We additionally made positive our journey framework is product-agnostic. It focuses on roles, outcomes, and experiences, not options. This makes it scalable as Virtuous grows and our choices evolve, whether or not they’re new companies, partnerships, or capabilities.
Ultimate recommendation: you don’t must go it alone.
Bringing in Progress Molecules as skilled facilitators made a giant distinction in serving to us obtain our outcomes. With out any person as skilled in making a buyer journey map to information us and immediate the proper questions, I don’t assume our journey mapping workshop would have been as productive.
And, lastly, deal with buyer journey mapping as an organization initiative, not a CS activity. The extra groups you embody, the extra aligned your group shall be, and the higher your prospects will really feel that alignment.
Editor’s word: Progress Molecules is an authorized ChurnZero Service Accomplice, accredited for his or her experience in digital buyer success and ChurnZero’s platform. Discover out extra about Progress Molecules and our different companions right here.
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