Improving Customer Retention with Customer Journey Mapping

Customer retention is an often overlooked aspect of business success. When you focus too much on attracting new customers, you risk neglecting the ones you already have. This could mean lost revenues and damaged trust.

To fix this, businesses need to turn to customer journey mapping. By mapping out key interactions, you can improve customer experiences, build loyalty, and increase engagement.

But what is customer journey mapping exactly and how can it prevent customer churn? And what steps can you take to keep clients satisfied and loyal?

In this episode, Samantha Irwin and I explore the power of customer journey mapping and how it can help your business thrive. We break down her six key stages of the journey and share strategies on how you can improve customer retention and satisfaction - so you don’t lose them to the competition.

Samantha is a small business coach & consultant and the creator of the Power of People Academy and the Creating a Culture Deck. She inspires and educates teams to create exceptional Customer Experiences that foster loyalty and advocacy, driving both financial success and heartfelt service for brick-and-mortar businesses. She equips businesses to provide consistently Exceptional Customer Experiences, fostering thriving enterprises and fulfilled staff. Samantha's commitment extends to teaching business owners how to make their establishments preferred workplaces and favored customer destinations.

We discuss: (timestamps)

03:05 Traditional vs. Non-linear Customer Journey Maps

05:39 The Six Key Steps of Customer Journey Mapping

11:58 Why Customer Interaction is Crucial for Business Success

15:37 Is Great Customer Service Personality Trainable or Innate?

18:52 How to Refine Your Hiring Process to Attract the Right Staff

21:05 Hospitality as a Crucial Business Skill

21:50 How Online-Only Businesses Can Improve Customer Experience

23:59 Why Curating the Customer Experience Benefits Your Business

27:21 Real-Life Examples of Customer Experience Transformation

34:24 How Culture Change Improves Employee Engagement and Retention

34:48 Training Hospitality Skills to Enhance Customer Satisfaction

36:49 How Curiosity Builds Customer Connections and Opportunities

37:31 The Superpower of Maintaining Energy in Customer Service

39:34 Why Sometimes You Have to 'Fake It' to Lead Effectively

41:04 One Actionable Step to Improve Customer Retention

42:48 Closing Thoughts and Where to Find Resources

Sample of what you will learn:

The six key steps of customer journey mapping

Samantha Irwin explains customer journey mapping through six key steps designed to improve retention and customer satisfaction. Here’s a breakdown of each step:

• “Out There” or where potential customers first discover your business. At this initial stage, they have come across your brand while doing research and reading reviews, and are deciding if they want to engage with your brand or not.
• "On the Way" is the stage where you focus on how to make your business easy to find - and this is crucial whether you have a physical location or only operate online. It could be the signage for your store or clear navigation on a website, so your customers can get to you effortlessly.
• "Entrance/Lot" refers to the first impression customers have when they arrive at your business. For a brick-and-mortar store, it’s the physical entrance or parking lot. For an online business, it’s your landing page. Is everything clean, welcoming, and easy to access? This sets the tone for their entire experience with your business.
• "With the People" is all the interactions clients will have with your staff or customer service. Customers want to feel valued, and positive interactions will go a long way in giving them a great experience. A friendly, knowledgeable team is vital in this step, as a poor customer service experience can drive people away, no matter how good the product is.
• "With the Products" is when your customers are using your products and services. And in this stage, consistency is key. Customers expect a reliable experience every time they interact with your product or service. Whether it’s the quality of the product or the service itself, delivering consistently will keep your customers returning.
• "The Dating Game" is when you focus on retaining the right customers. The goal is to have your old customers keep coming back and eventually become your advocate. Keeping loyal customers is far more profitable than constantly trying to acquire new ones and even a slight increase in customer retention can lead to significant profit growth.

Each of these steps plays a role in shaping the customer’s experience and encouraging long-term loyalty, which is essential for business growth. Here are a few relevant quotes from the episode:

"For small business owners, the money is in retention. It's attracting the right fit customer, first of all, and then it's retaining that right fit customer." - Samantha Irwin

"Hospitality is a cultural value of who we are as a business." - Samantha Irwin

"Simply taking the time to walk through (your business) from your customer's point of view is a very valuable exercise to do for you and your staff." - Samantha Irwin

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