Getting inside the customer’s head to grow your business

Basically like mind-reading — only better.

Welcome to The Manual Weekly – LI Edition, the can’t-miss newsletter for business leaders. You’ll find snackable bits of news highlighting emerging trends, actionable resources, and proven best practices that can help take your business to the next level.

This week’s must-reads:

• Build your entire customer journey using this template.
• Going all out on customer service for bigger business success.
• Want insider knowledge at your fingertips? Join the Trainual Community.
• And how to break down the customer experience for some serious gains.

Template of the week: Process for Building an End-to-end Customer Experience

Let us ask you a simple question: What does your customer experience look like? 

Psych — you’ve fallen into our trap! Because it’s not simple at all. From first impressions to the inevitable choice of “To be [a customer] or not to be [a customer],” the journey holds a lot of key milestones. And understanding where your potential customers are at can really help you personalize their experience, and ultimately get them coming back for more.

👉 And to get you started? Get your team set up with this Customer-led Growth: Process for Building an End-to-end Customer Experience template. With all the steps you need to map the full journey, optimize your services, and create sticky customers.

Check out our entire template archive of free and customizable policy, process, and role starters. New to Trainual? Get a demo.

One-up the competition with extreme customer service

We’ve all been there.

The waiter who poured wine into your lap and didn’t apologize. That airline support member who couldn’t possibly help you find your baggage. The local goods business owner who delivered your product late and gave you sass about it (even if he is your son!).

Bad customer service is pretty memorable — and the standards for service recovery are totally achievable. It basically includes:

• Making time to listen.
• Acknowledging and apologizing.
• Having a meeting of the minds to come to a mutual understanding.
• Acting and following up on the issue.

You’re likely already setting the bar for good customer service — but that means you only deal with the “satisfied” customer. To elevate them to “loyal and engaged,” (who are less price-sensitive, more forgiving, and more willing to try extra offerings), it’s time to embrace extreme customer service.

Say goodbye to “just getting by.” Find your “wow” factor. It can be an over-the-top gesture (one that could make you go viral) or it could be an everyday kind of wow (like recognizing repeat customers and addressing them by name). You can also look to include anticipatory customer service, where you answer questions that haven’t been asked yet or fulfill wishes that haven’t been voiced. 

Once it’s embedded into your culture, you’ll get customers coming back for more (and more and more).

Trainual tips: Welcome to the Trainual Community!

Ever wonder how everyone else is organizing and optimizing their business playbook? If you’re in search of advice and best practices from business leaders who’ve been there, done that, look no further than the Trainual Community.

When you join the Trainual Community, you get just that — a community. A place like-minded entrepreneurs and business leaders are going to chat about all things onboarding, training, and SOPs. 

Let’s say you’re looking for a better way to organize your training or you’re creating your first flowchart and need some suggestions. You can pop a question in the “Ask the Community” section to get tip-top advice from business owners, HR experts, ops managers, and other industry and process pros from all across the country.

Plus, when you join this customer-only community, you’re the very first to know about new features and enhancements, events, and more.

No matter what stage you’re in with your training and documentation (from our 2018 OGs to our friends who haven’t quite started yet), there’s a place for you in the Trainual Community. 

So? Hop on in, say hi, and start leveling up alongside other winning teams today.

👉 Learn more about the Trainual Community. Want in? Reach out to us at support@trainual.com.

Becoming a master of your business’ customer experience

Hear us out:

Being in business is a little like being a mind reader. We look at people who have specific problems, appear in front of them with the perfect solution, and voila! We have a match made in heaven.

But our brand of mind-reading requires a bit of work. As far as we’re aware, no one’s running their business with Professor X-style powers — knowing what our customers want requires some research upfront. And according to Georgiana Laudi, co-founder of Forget the Funnel, rethinking the customer experience helps uncover what customers really want, creating a foundation for building loyal, satisfied users who champion a brand.

Introducing the Jobs to be Done (JTBD) framework: Georgiana’s framework digs into the specific “job” or task that a customer “hires” a product or service to complete. Here’s how it works: 

• Start with research. Find current customers to explain their experience motivations for “hiring” you.
• Look for common themes in their answers, like specific pain points, desired outcomes, or priorities.
• Then, use these insights to improve and personalize future experiences, like through messaging, feature prioritization, and refinement of customer onboarding.

🎧 Catch Georgiana’s full podcast episode for more tips.