In my last post, I introduced the many benefits of the Client Journey Map and how it could double your income. Hopefully, I’ve piqued your curiosity, and you’re already thinking about how you could design and implement this in your business. This post is about giving you the framework around the Client Journey Workflows that support your business. One of the other reasons this process is so valuable is that it allows you to dig deep into your outbound communications. Great service is all about the little details and ensures that doing business is done with ease, concise with high personalization, and always moving one step ahead of the client. This is your chance to gather all the client preferences as you listen in to their responses, giving you the advantage to anticipate their needs and set the priorities to deliver a memorable client experience.

GIVE YOUR CLIENT THE BEST SERVICE OR SOMEONE ELSE WILL

The real result here is that you can truly streamline your business by getting rid of the clutter, disjointed steps, tools that don’t meet your needs and make your business run smoothly. Remember, the more touchpoints Customer Journey has, the more complex it is to manage.

I’m going to show you now are 5 easy steps to follow and create the workflow of a Customer Journey, going back to the basics related to service delivery.

1. PRE-PLANNING YOUR CLIENT JOURNEY WORKFLOW

The Planning phase is first and can be as easy as pen and paper with boxes or graphically through Google Slides, graphic creation with  Canva or flowchart creation with  Whimsical. Or even a numbered list. Give yourself a day to review everything you do for complete service delivery in your business. Believe me; it’s not as easy as you think because a lot of your process is in your head and built on reflex. You’ve probably never even written it down. You’ll do this process for each one of your services if you offer multiple services/packages.

Overall Business Review: Start first with thinking about your business and the service you deliver. What’s working well and what feels clunky is a total frustration because it’s a sticking point. Are there deadlines that are constantly flexing or being missed altogether? Where are you spending too much time?

Sales Process: Is your pipeline full of inquiries with a steady flow of clients being onboarded into your business? Have you gathered feedback from every client to better understand their overall experience of working with you? Do you have a collection of testimonials to use in your business?

Service Delivery: Is the process of onboarding your client smooth and seamless? Do you have complete business records and documents? Do you get paid on time? Are you dealing with clients that are unhappy with certain aspects of the experience?

2. TOUCHPOINTS AND ESSENTIALS THAT MAKE A BRILLIANT WORKFLOW

A well thought out Client Journey inside client service covers all the touchpoints and is based on a system of:

• Triggers to Activate (i.e. a completed contact form from your website is a trigger that starts a flow of communications)
• Responses or Actions that happen to move the client forward (either from the client or from your business)
• Precise Timing delivers every response at exactly the right time, so the client never falls between the cracks and service doesn’t come to a grinding halt.
• Communications that are personalized, intuitive and address the needs of the client. 

As you’re thinking about the workflow of how your service is delivered, the helpful question is, “What happens next?”

Here’s an example of what a fully completed Client Journey Workflow looks like for one service:

3. MAPPING THE FULL CLIENT JOURNEY

Every business tends to have specific phases of the Client Journey that can be easily used to organize the steps, as shown in the example above:

1. Lead (include Yes / Undecided, branches)
2. Onboarding
3. Current Client
4. Offboarding
5. Upsell / Referral

With each phase, write down every step that happens along the way and colour code as you organize and categorize what needs to happen next.

You can use something like:

BLUE: marks the beginning of the phase

GREEN: action step (like an email, form, etc.)

YELLOW: pause workflow / wait for a response

RED: action task, before next step can occur

ORANGE: end of the workflow

 

4. BUILDING & IMPLEMENTATION

Now that you’ve made it through the full planning phase, it’s now time for development and implementation using online tools to help automate the process.

I’m a fan of tools that can multitask inside a business. A one-stop shop where you can create an entire process with just a few apps. It reduces the margin for error, and there are certainly fewer headaches and stress to managing all the details.

These are just a few of the all-in-one tools that can help you run your online business with smooth automation and includes online scheduling, invoicing and payment processing, forms and contracts, as well as basic bookkeeping functions, and some have a private client portal with Zoom integration.  Also, you can use Zapier to integrate and sync with other tools (project management, customer service, email marketing, etc.) in your business. The use of smart fields makes personalization easy.

17Hats

Dubsado

Honeybook

SuiteDash

Bonsai

Plutio

Zoho 

5. FOREVER MAINTAIN AND REFINE

After the complete set-up, testing and implementation, be sure to set a regular time to review your Client Journey Workflow. As your business grows and evolves, you’ll begin to refine the workflow, systems and processes. Don’t become complacent about this step; it’s just as important as an annual financial review to ensure that you’re not leaving any money on the table. Never underestimate the power and competitive advantage that brilliant service delivery brings. Leave your clients happy, satisfied, eager to work with you and always telling everyone they know to do the same.

There you have it! I hope this post has inspired you to create your own Client Journey Map and implement a workflow that will make business easier. I’m confident that with this system in place, your business will have no other place to go but up.

Disclosure Notice: This post contains affiliate links to products and services. If you click on the link and decide to purchase through this dedicated link, I will receive a small commission. It’s never about the money but always about recommending tools that I have either personally used in my business or have found to be of quality and make business more efficient. 

 

Would you love to have your clients beautifully supported in concert with your business values and vision? Our partnership can create a plan to care for your clients, grow your business while balancing your business activities so you can shift your focus to creating a freedom-based lifestyle. Get in touch to schedule a complimentary consultation with me today.