Creating a Human-Centric Strategy By Design

A large, US healthcare client of ours believed they needed a new advertising campaign to drive more potential customers to consider their offering. We analyzed their funnel data, and it was clear they had a very low conversion rate among prospects that contacted them. But it was also amazing to see how high their close rate was later in the process – nearly everyone they brought in became customers.

So what was the problem? We set out to solve the challenge.

Our first clue came when we audited their internal systems set up to receive calls, schedule prospects, and deliver their product. It became clear we were dealing with two very different organizations. Their call centers were designed as a direct sales machine that saw callers as leads, not people. In contrast, their product delivery was among the most human-centric designs we had ever seen – everything revolved around the customer.

The second insight nailed it. We mapped the dynamics of the human journey that prospects experience as they decide how to address their health needs. We found people contacted our client at multiple points along their journey – in fact, most called at times in which they weren’t even looking to choose a solution. They either wanted general questions answered, specific information discussed, or just simply someone to talk with about some very personal and difficult issues.

The problem was their customer acquisition system wasn’t designed to intersect with their prospects on their terms. Sure, we could generate a new ad campaign to motivate more people to contact our client. But, their system was discarding valuable relationship opportunities simply because the people were not ready to buy when they called – a misalignment of expectations. Their system did not facilitate the human decision-making journey of many of their prospects.

We worked with our client to modify the approach to their call center, adding additional layers of triage, facilitating conversations about prospect needs, and linking them to resources to answer tough questions. The changes made a difference. Over time, the simple steps of relationship building have enabled our client to attract customers when they are ready to make the purchase decision. And it has opened the possibility of additional sources of revenue through other services they might offer people at different stages of their journey working through difficult health issues.

This experience highlighted the all-too-frequent mistake marketers make when they address symptoms of a problem without considering the bigger picture. Teams are set up across the organization with budgets to address very specific issues – someone is in charge of the call center, someone else is over the advertising, and someone else is over the customer experience, etc. Rarely are these designed as a seamless system.

To your customers, these are all part of the same system – they do not differentiate what happens when they call you from when they come into your store or use your products or even when they see your ads. And, they certainly don’t make decisions in their life solely around the process you build to sell them your offer. They expect you to intersect with their reality, not force yours upon them. And this dynamic has exploded in the digital dominant, app-ified market today.

So how do you build a system that resonates with the life systems that shape how people make decisions in your category?

We believe it requires a disciplined approach to mapping the human journey (not the customer journey) in pursuit of the decisions that relate to your business success. This can be a purchase decision (like in the case of our healthcare client) or it can be a life decision that directly intersects with your category (for example, how young men manage their image with young women in order for a deodorant brand to build loyalty). The journey provides the framework for building a brand system that resonates with the functional and emotional outcomes we, as humans, seek in the decisions we make every day. Marketers need that North Star not just for brand positioning, but they need it mapped across the multiple phases of the journey from awareness to consumption to loyalty, etc.

This is all about finding the right message or experience to deliver at the right time and in the right place. The holy grail of marketing, right?

Media agencies are beginning to talk about this as “purchase-driven planning.” Shopper marketing experts have been talking about this for years as mapping the path to purchase. Many firms are touting their customer journey mapping or ideal customer experience services with greater visibility. And marketers are beginning to flirt with design-thinking principles that have historically been reserved for product innovation.

We believe this is foundational work. It is a core ingredient to strategy built to last. It’s about crafting solutions that are human-centric by design. It is not shopper path to purchase work. It’s not customer journey mapping. And it’s not design research. While these are similar, we see the solution requiring a holistic perspective that starts with the human, not the brand, point of view. And it requires systems thinking to truly solve root cause issues and not put a band aid on one symptom only to create worse problems elsewhere.

We apply System and Journey Solutions to help clients, like this healthcare example, know when, how, and where to most effectively resonate with the people who matter most to their success. First, this means uncovering the rational-to-emotional outcomes people seek in pursuit of personal and societal values. Second, mapping how these vary across unique stages of the journey to making a decision. And, third, auditing the systems that shape the journey and influence the decisions people make.

Knowing what is valued at a rational and emotional level showcases the things you need to say or do. Mapping the pathway illustrates the experience you need to create or facilitate at specific moments. And understanding the system uncovers the role(s) you need to play in context of every else.

Our healthcare client plainly saw this reality. People want to balance life and medical goals in the pursuit of solving difficult healthcare needs. This means they may call you for many needs other than choosing a solution. It also means they need you to play multiple roles at different times – educator, navigator, perspective provider, advisor, etc. Knowing this enables effective delivery of these roles with the right channels at the right times, resulting in an experience that engenders loyalty because it is authentic.