From Touchpoints to Timelines: How to Begin Mapping Your Client Experience [Client Experience Series Pt 2]
This is the second episode of the Client Experience Series. Today I'm sharing a breakdown of how to begin mapping your processes as the first step to create and implement your client experience inside your CRM. If you haven't listened to last week's episode on how to audit your current client experience, give it a listen and take my new CRM Self-Audit Quiz at coliejames.com/audit
Find it Quickly:
00:46 - Recap on Client Experience Series Episode 1
2:01 - Identify Your Touchpoints
3:49 - Required Action or Response?
5:52 - Where will the touchpoint take place?
6:59 - IdentifyTimeline for each touchpoint
9:32 - Recap and Next Steps
Mentioned in this Episode
Client Experience Series: Ep 195 - My Audit Process
Transcript
Hello.
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:Hello.
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:And welcome to a brand new solo episode
on business first creatives podcast.
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:This is part two in my brand
new client experience series.
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:Now, if you haven't listened to part one
from last week, I highly encourage that
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:you do so, but it isn't actually required
in order to get some value from this.
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:Last week, I covered my CRM audit
process in full and introduced
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:a brand new self audit quiz that
I have available on my website.
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:So if you didn't listen to last
week's episode, or you haven't taken
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:that quiz, you can go to coleyjames.
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:com slash audit and see if you are
stuck in manual mode inside your CRM.
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:But this week, we are going to take a.
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:30, 000 foot view of your client
experience and actually map out
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:what you want your process to be.
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:While the end goal here is to eventually
translate this into workflows with actions
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:and triggers, we're actually going to
start with a piece of paper and a pen.
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:I know I've said this multiple times
before, but really, the process of
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:figuring out what you want to do
with your clients does not begin
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:in your CRM, although you end up
creating it mostly inside of your CRM.
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:So there's a lot of value in simply laying
out what you want your entire process
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:to be so that you can cover everything
from what we will do inside your CRM
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:and what you will need to do externally.
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:Okay, so let's get started.
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:To begin mapping out your process,
I first want you to make a list
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:of every touch point that you
want to have with your client.
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:Now, I'm going to lay on the family
photographer example, just because,
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:you know, I started my own family
photography business in:
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:it's what I'm most familiar with.
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:But what I am going to talk about today
translates to wedding photographers,
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:website designers, copywriters.
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:Basically, if you are running a creative
service business, this will apply to you.
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:So here's a few examples of touch points
that you might have with your client.
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:First, you want to have
a consultation call.
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:Second, you want to actually
offer them to book your services.
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:Then you might want to confirm
that they're actually booked.
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:In the case of photography sessions,
you might need to choose a location for
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:the session, offer styling tips, ask
them about their family and who will be
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:present at the session, ask for final
payments, send payment reminders, send
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:last minute tips for the session, send
a reminder of your editing timeline.
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:Send an image gallery, request a Google
review, or if you have a referral
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:program, you might want to let them
know how they can earn session credit
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:or actual money from referring their
friends and family to you for a session.
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:Now I know I just said all of those
and that's a lot, but literally I
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:want you to get a piece of paper
and write down what those touch
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:points are for you and your client.
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:It might be helpful if you
pause this episode, write
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:them down and then continue.
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:But just in case you want to
listen to the whole episode in
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:one go, we're going to keep going.
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:Now each 1 of these interactions, or
these touch points you want to determine.
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:Whether or not you need an action
or a response from your client.
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:Sometimes you're just sending them
FYIs for your information only.
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:Other times you're sending them a
form that needs to be completed or
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:you are sending them your booking
form in which they need to sign
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:the contract and pay you money.
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:But for each one of those touch
points that you have previously
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:written down, you need to determine.
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:Whether or not that client themselves
need to take an action after it's done.
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:Now, then you need to ask yourself
what you need to do, whether
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:they've taken the action or not.
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:And again, I know that it's
like, Oh, well, how do I lay
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:that out on my CRM for workflows?
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:We are nowhere near touching your CRM yet.
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:This is simply on paper and it
might help if you do it visually.
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:It might help if for when you
put book your services, you have.
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:A conditional like aspect to it.
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:And on the left, you say, if they
book your services, then you say,
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:what happens if they don't book your
services, then you say, what happens.
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:Okay.
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:So, for each 1 of these touch points,
you want to know number 1, is there an
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:action or a response that's required
and if yes, what happens next?
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:If no, what happens next.
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:And you are going to follow that
process until you have answered that
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:for every single one of the touch
points that you have written down.
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:Now, once that is done, you've
probably expanded your list from like
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:a list of 12 items to, I mean, some
of you have probably doubled it, if
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:not tripled it with, you know, if
you're going to send many reminders.
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:All those kind of things.
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:But once you have your second list,
which has, you know, all of these things
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:that could happen, whether they take
the action, they don't take the action.
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:If it was just a reminder.
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:Now, we need to get into the nitty gritty
of how that touch point actually happen.
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:So in the case of a consultation
call, is it an actual phone call?
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:Is it a video conferencing call?
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:Like that's your next step is write
where this touch point takes place
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:or in what manner you send it to.
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:Is it an email?
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:Is it a text message?
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:Are you sending them a proposal
form inside of your CRM?
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:So now you're going to have.
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:The initial touch points, you're
going to have some secondary
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:items, depending on what happens
when you do those touch points.
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:And now you are identifying
what kind of touch point it is.
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:If you are feeling overwhelmed, maybe
you start with some of these touch
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:points and then you expand as you go.
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:I mean, there's always a bare
minimum setup versus a full setup.
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:And so, if writing all of these
things feels very overwhelming, write
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:down the ones that are absolutely
critical for you now, and you can
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:add in the rest of them later.
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:Now we need to talk about timelines
because timelines are important.
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:So once you've got all this laid
out, I want you to write down
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:the optimal timeline in which
these actions will take place.
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:So when do you want a
consultation call to happen?
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:I personally want it to happen no
more than three days after their
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:initial inquiry in my business.
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:I don't want someone to fill out my
contact form and be really excited
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:to work with me and then delay having
a consultation call for two weeks.
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:Because they are going to lose the
thread, they are not going to be as
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:excited, and they might actually find
someone else to hire in that two weeks.
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:So I want that timeline to be very
quick, three days after the inquiry.
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:Now, then you're going to write down
when you want these things to happen.
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:And there's a couple of ideas
on how you can start to actually
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:identify these timelines.
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:For me, there's going to be certain
actions that happen within a certain
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:amount of time after they inquired.
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:Or after I took an action by sending
them an email, sending them a form.
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:And then there are actions that
are going to need to happen
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:based on the session date.
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:So I might want to send some
of those session reminders.
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:One week before a session,
three days before a session,
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:24 hours before a session.
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:The purpose of writing down the
timeline at this point is once you
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:have everything laid out and you look
at it, you are going to be able to see
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:if there are significant gaps inside
of your client experience where you
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:are basically ignoring your client.
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:Now, newsflash, I'm going to
tell you when this happens.
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:For most photographers, and honestly
for most creatives, it happens between
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:booking and the actual service.
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:Like it feels like you're sending
them email after email after email.
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:You're having phone
conversations with them.
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:You're sending them forms.
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:You're sending them blog posts.
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:And then once they've paid you
money, it's kind of silent.
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:Or, instead of sending them multiple
touchpoints, you maybe send them
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:one single email in between the
booking process and when the
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:session actually takes place.
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:But you won't know if you have these
significant gaps until you map out
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:your process on a piece of paper
and you see exactly when each of
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:these touchpoints are taking place.
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:I feel the need to recap.
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:So first you have written down
every single touch point that you
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:are going to have with your client.
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:The second thing that you've done
is determined whether or not that
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:client needs to take an action or
respond in any way to the touch point.
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:Then you need to determine what
action you need to take if they do
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:the action or they send the response.
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:Or if they don't, then you are identifying
what kind of touch point it is and
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:where this interaction will take place.
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:Last, we just talked about identifying
the timeline on which each of these
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:touch points will take place so that
you can make sure that your client
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:experience is consistent from beginning
to end with no significant gaps.
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:And guess what?
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:That's it for the initial process
of mapping out your customer
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:journey or your client experience.
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:Once you've gotten that part done, that is
when you are ready to kind of transition
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:this and start creating workflow
actions and triggers that can be put in
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:place inside of your CRM to streamline
and automate your client experience.
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:But we are not going to cover
that in this podcast episode.
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:I feel like I've given you enough to think
about now, so I just highly recommend that
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:each of you block off a 30 minute block
of time so that you can sit down and begin
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:the process of mapping out your processes.
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:Now, can anyone guess
what comes next week?
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:Next week, we are going to talk about
how to take the process that you
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:have mapped out and translate those
into workflows and automations that
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:you can set up inside of your CRM.
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:I hope that this has been
helpful and I hope that you tune
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:in next week for part three.
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:That's it for this episode.
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:See you next time.
