A 3-Part Framework for Building (and Branding) Your Customer Experience

When I started teaching marketing classes and coaching small businesses on the “how to” of building a brand based on the experience they provide to their customers, the concept gained traction around the idea of storytelling. So I developed this 3-part framework to help simplify the steps you need to take to get started.

Part 1 – The Story
One of my favorite brands of all time is Pixar. Whenever they are in the process of creating a new film, the director of the project is given a year—a FULL YEAR—to go off and develop the story. You may not need a full year, but don’t rush it. Take your time and walk through each step of your customer’s journey starting the moment you first realize they have a problem, what it is and how you can help. Put yourself in their shoes. Donald Miller in his StoryBrand process talks about the customer as the “hero” and the business as the “guide.” When you are building a customer experience, you are essentially telling a story in which your customer is the “star” of the show. By the end, you want to have a character (your customer) who is transformed and has their problem solved by your business.

For example, your customer may be a busy mom looking for help around the house, an engaged couple looking for an affordable photographer to take some candid shots, or a real estate agent looking for someone to build a custom website. What is the story you want to tell? More importantly—what is the story you want your customer to tell—after they have engaged with your business? Your customers are going to create a story on their own, but your effort will help determine whether they have a happy or unhappy ending.

Part 2 – The Storyboard
If you’re not familiar with what a storyboard is, it’s a simple visual outline of the story. Depending on how many steps are included in your customer’s journey, this may be a fairly simple process—or incredibly detailed. Either way, just Google “storyboard template” and you’ll get dozens of options you can customize.

The goal is to capture the essence and the action of each step of your customer’s engagement with your business. You don’t have to be artistic. In fact, you don’t even have to draw anything. You can just use words to describe and “paint the picture.” If your business is all or mostly online, your storyboard may be a high-res site map of your website but then two or three frames that includes your service delivery, customer service or shipping process. To focus and simplify, you may want to choose an aspect of your business to storyboard vs. trying to flesh out the entire experience. For example, an inn with a restaurant might start with a guest’s lodging experience and storyboard the dining experience separately.

Part 3 – The Script
Using your storyboard as your outline, now it’s time to write everything out and assign roles and lines to your cast and crew. This is where your casting (hiring) choices come into play and, to be quite honest, it’s a great time to assess your staff and see if you really have the right team in place to deliver the experience that you’ve envisioned for your customer.

If you were a chef running a restaurant, this is no different than writing out a recipe that you would share with your kitchen staff so they can create and carry out the desired vision for your dish. They might also have the opportunity to provide input to make it even better. The key is to be as specific as possible but leave room for your customer to maneuver. Remember, they are the main character in your story.

In summary, this is about being intentional and putting your customer in the driver’s seat. When you stop and think through what would truly make your customer’s experience as enjoyable as possible, you are ahead of 95% of your competition. When you include your customers (focus groups and surveys), your team members (when they are involved and invested, they will be empowered to help you deliver) and outside influences (don’t limit your perspective), you’re virtually guaranteed to create a winning experience that can be repeated effortlessly and automatically again-and-again.

Need help? Ask a question or leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.