In the past few years there’s been a lot of talk from digital marketing “experts” (yes, I somehow made double quotes with my fingers while typing) about hyper-focusing their efforts on social media; in some cases replacing their home page with a Facebook profile or in extreme cases (which may involve a head-injury), even a Pinterest page as their home page. Others have espoused a mobile-first policy, where all efforts are put into providing a mobile solution before considering other customer touchpoints along the way.

Despite the fact that 60 per cent of Canadians now own smartphones, and a further 25 per cent own tablets, simply assuming that your customers are all in need of a mobile version of all of your web content, is not considering their needs seriously.

Companies, and the marketers that serve them, need to take a timeout, put the shiny devices and bleeding edge technologies aside and focus first on the customer experience journey. Innovative companies have always been successful in breaking (or tweaking) the mold and creating  useful products and great experiences for customers. Digital technologies have allowed them (and others) to enhance and expand on the great work they are already doing. It seems that only been in recent years that that type of innovative thinking has been taken up in earnest by others around the world.

One has to remember that today’s customer experience journey can involve interacting with a brand through multiple channels, some strictly digital, some not. Your customers are not a single entity, or series of statistics. They are complicated beings, just like you. Look in the mirror if you don’t believe me.

While it should be easy for marketers to put themselves in the place of the customer, it’s been our experience that it’s not always that easy. As part of our work mapping customer experiences, we manage workshops that include exercises that help invoke empathy by allowing marketers to see their products and services through the customer’s eyes.

By identifying the pain points in the customer experience journey, we can develop solutions that best serve their needs at that particular touchpoint. These solutions can involve everything from better SEO practices, to the creation of a mobile utility, or creating a better environment for customer facing employees so that they smile more.

Instead of social-first, mobile-first, bricks and mortar-first, companies need to focus on the customer experience-first, middle and last.

Find out more about how we approach Customer Journey Mapping at Delvinia.