At the risk of oversimplification, I want to narrow the focus of the customer experience through the use of four areas. Some of these will sound familiar, and proactive apologies for some terminology that may have dual meaning in our world.

Discovery.

This application of discovery is an ongoing situation during which we consistently seek to understand our customers. By actively listening to the requests and goals of the client, we need to ensure that we have a strong understanding of not only the technical requirements of a project or task, but also the business impact to the client. Step beyond the technical side of things and wrap your head around why this is important to them, and other stakeholders. Does it increase their revenue? Does it improve their efficiencies and make their job easier? Is there a critical business milestone attached to the task? Will the impact to the business offset the required investment (in time and money) from the client? Answers to these types of questions will help us to make the best recommendations, and display our interest in the client’s success at every turn.

We often talk about discovery as a key to a project, however this should be an ongoing activity with all of our partners to ensure we are aligned in the best possible way to provide the most value at all times.

Alignment.

In this instance I am using alignment to showcase our internal understanding of the client’s business model and audience. This is the preparedness action coming from a persistent discovery mindset. Alignment means we are making appropriate recommendations in the appropriate priority order to make the most impact for our clients. Included in this area is our resourcing alignment. If there is a need for a specific area of expertise, we need to be positioned to have adequate lead time to support them. The broad reach of expertise at an agency is a major reason why clients partner with them, and if there is consistent alignment with client needs, you can make the appropriate adjustments to ensure talent is dialed in to support these needs in the best way possible. Beyond just resourcing this also means you are demonstrating alignment on timelines, budgets, and technical requirements throughout the partnership.

Integration.

With any new project or task for a client, we should be thinking about how it will integrate with the current product. Will there be any conflicts or potential for regressions through the implementation? We also need to ensure there is an understanding of what the long-term use of the product will be so that we can plan accordingly for updates/upgrades to the tool. This should be included in our information shared with the client as we go through the recommendation process. They need to understand what they are signing up for long term, so we should surface any ongoing requirements so they can make the appropriate investment decisions. The last piece of this that I’d like to talk about is how we will measure the success of the project or task. Do we anticipate an impact on analytics or revenue? Do we anticipate efficiencies to be seen by their stakeholders? We should look at how to define success metrics for tasks so that we can evaluate our recommendations and ensure we are providing the value we expected.

Sustainability.

Spring boarding from the integration portion…when we talk about sustainability we need to be leveraging information about updates/upgrades and success metrics. Under sustainability we should be defining the update/upgrade cadence that will work best for the client. We should also have a plan for reporting on those success metrics. This reporting could be something assigned to the client, as they may hold the keys to that detail. Don’t be afraid to assign this to the client as they own a key portion of the partnership as well. Getting them engaged and owning their own customer experience is an important part of a successful partnership. We should also understand a prioritization of tasks here. Understanding how things such as performance, user experience, security, or ongoing iteration are ranked in the eyes of the client will help us make the most meaningful recommendations for improvements.

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Continuing my effort on oversimplification, here are some highlights to focus on throughout the 4 stages above.

• Maintain constant understanding by shaping your interactions beyond just a reporting of tasks. Set aside time to discuss the business goals of the client in regular check ins to stay on top of any shifts.
• Leverage needs analysis to power recommendations and priorities.
• Utilize frequent internal conversations to ensure alignment. Don’t be afraid to ask for clarity if you are uncertain about anything.
• Innovate ways to measure the impact on the client’s business. Think beyond Google Analytics…the impact could be that it takes an editor less time to do their job.
• Coordinate delivery and ownership of the product. Take pride in the documentation as you’ve likely been handed a project that you wish had better documentation to help you…so help the next person that may pick it up from you.