4ROCKS: The Winding Customer Journey

Customers don't always follow the path we lay out for them. Their journey can look like a winding river as they weave their way back and forth across channels, between processes and based on challenges we make them face.?This similarity has led me to develop the 4ROCKS program.?For Resolution Of Customers’ Known Struggles.?The 4ROCKS analytics program help identify the “known struggles” customers face that cause them to flow away from the straight journey.?

There are more similarities of customer journey and effort that align with rivers than just the rocks they face.?A river’s flow is determined by the volume of water, the slope and gradient, and the shape of its channel.?Similarly, the customers’ journey flow can also be explained by volume, gradient, and channel shape.

Volume:?

The volume of water that flows through a river affects its direction and velocity. For high volume rivers, the increasing mass of water causes more direct erosion, resulting in a wider, deeper and often straighter river channel.?Similarly, customer journeys are impacted by the number of customers taking the same path.?The higher the volume of customers and more common the journey or tasks, likely the more practice, training, self-service tools or help options available from the business to keep it straight. Because they share such a high volume, these customers might have a straighter path.

Gradient:?

The gradient of the river, or how steep its slope is, also greatly impacts the river flow.?When a river flows down a steep slope, the gravitational force that pulls the water downward is stronger than it would be on water flowing down a gentle slope.?This gravity creates a more consistent direction and flow.?In business, the slope or gradient speaks to the pull of the product or process through to completion.?Highly important products or services create their own gravity, drawing the customer toward completion of their task because of that importance. The more important the activity, the more gravity will create a straighter path for customers. The less important, the more they may wander.

Channel Shape:?

Lastly, the shape of the channel also affects the flow of a river. If a river has rough and rocky contact points along the sides of the river and in the riverbed, friction is created. Rough river channels containing a large quantity of rocks, either at the bottom of the river or embedded within its sides carry the greatest resistance.?Businesses with generally stable processes, products and history will usually result in a smoother flow.?For those businesses with many different customer challenges (a lot more ROCKS), the experience tends to exponentially get worse as one set of challenges is made exponentially worse by others.?Customers will experience their journey "rapids".

You can also hear more about this on the CX Decoded Podcast, April '22 edition, hosted by CMS Wire.?I’ll also be speaking at a few conferences later this year, CXFS/NGCX in July and BFSI CX Exchange in October.