Walk Your Buyer's Journey: Finding the Friction Points Killing Your Customer Experience
When was the last time you actually experienced what it's like to be a customer of your own company?
Most operators and Seconds-In-Command are so deep in the weeds of delivery that they've never walked the buyer's journey from first contact to final goodbye, which means customer experience issues go unnoticed until they become complaints.
The exercise is simple but revealing: map out every single step from that first phone call or website visit all the way through fulfillment, including timelines between steps and who the customer interacts with at each point.
Together you'll cover a case studio of a company that discovered two major friction points through this process. The businesses winning right now aren't always the ones with the best product or pricing – they're the ones making it easy and pleasant to work with.
You'll hear all about:
00:29 – Introduction: Walking the buyer's journey – what does it actually look like to do business with you
01:02 – The reality check: It's rare that you have firsthand experience being a customer of your own company
01:14 – Why minor problems go unnoticed until they become customer complaints
01:26 – The exercise: Start mapping from the very first phone call, email, or website visit
01:47 – How to map it: Take a blank piece of paper and document every single step, no matter how small
02:15 – Include timelines between steps and who in your company interacts with the buyer at each point
02:37 – Map all the way to the last touch: fulfillment, project close-out, or the final goodbye
02:45 – Two key things to analyze: How many people are they interacting with? Where are the significant time gaps?
03:16 – Critical insight: Buyer's remorse sets in as soon as payment is processed
03:37 – Real example: Landscaping company case study reveals two major issues
03:50 – Issue #1: Admin takes initial info, then client waits a week or more for the design team to contact them
04:14 – Issue #2: Multiple waiting periods create a roller coaster of excitement and frustration
04:57 – The harsh truth: Silence and time kill deals
05:17 – How gaps create anxiety even for clients who stick around
05:23 – The coffee shop analogy: Two long lines might look like success, but customers are actually frustrated
06:03 – Important caveat: Not every gap is bad – custom work takes time, but are you managing expectations?
06:19 – Your homework: Walk the buyer's journey yourself or have a team member act as an internal secret shopper
07:00 – Level up move: Ask a recent customer to walk you through their experience (15 minutes of insight)
07:17 – Fall retreat preview and the four CSat questions discussed at the last event
08:05 – Question #1: Who owns customer satisfaction? (If everyone owns it, no one owns it)
08:33 – Question #2: What decisions in the past year impacted CSat most (positive or negative)?
08:43 – Question #3: What complaints led to the most significant operations changes?
08:53 – Question #4: What opportunities exist in your buyer's journey to improve customer experience?
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