I know that business operations can seem highly corporate. A lot of spreadsheets, multi-page business plans, organizational charts, and more. No worries. I want you to get started and not get discouraged. My genius is taking those complex ideologies and interpreting them in plain language for my small business CEOs to manage their businesses. I want you to get started and not get discouraged.
A client journey can tell you a lot about what needs to happen in the operation of your business. As your clients are the central point of business, you can use them as a touch point to organize your business. Start by mapping out how clients become aware of you, inquire about you, get information about working with you, are followed up with to purchase your offer, onboard with you, are serviced by you, and how they end their time with you. Here is an example of my old clients’ journey:
Potential client saw my expert content > inboxes for more information > schedule their discovery call > has the call > receives follow-up email reminding them of the offer and the payment amount > they respond with desire to move forward > payment link is sent > email is sent with next availability for the strategy session > go back and forth to schedule the strategy session > send email to remind client of session > have session > send follow-up session of detailed meeting notes
Looking at the parts of the client journey, we have the opportunity to create a better organization to the operations around it.
TECHNOLOGY. What technology could connect one piece to another to minimize the need for a team member to manually perform a task? The client journey makes identifies way to be more efficient as well as lower the payroll budget on unnecessary tasks performed.
TEAM. Can one person perform the tasks that technology cannot, or are their specialized skills involved where an expert would also need to be hired? The client journey identifies how to property staff the service you provide.
PROCESSES. Mapping out the client journey gives you an overview of the steps in servicing the client. However, it also allows you to look at each step to determine are their sub-tasks that need to be performed to complete a step. For example, to be sure the client is present for the call there may need to be a process of sub-tasks to remind them of the strategy session and sub-tasks letting them know how to be ready for the session. These are added and become a part of the process of scheduling a client for a strategy session.
CLIENT EXPERIENCE. Seeing all the full process of the client journey mapped out, you can identify what steps need to be eliminated, changed or added to make the client experience better. For example, instead of going back and forth via email to schedule the session with the client, it is more convenient for the client to receive a link and schedule in the available slot of their choice. Taking the friction out of your process will make for a more enjoyable experience for your clients.
Map out a client journey for each of your offers as an easy way to identify how you can manage your business better. If you need help mapping out your client journey, let’s talk. ShaCannon.info/talk