Challenge & Selection

I work for an international Management Consulting firm, and in one of our projects for a  company in the Health Care sector, we had the goal to increase customer experience and value  delivered to their clients. The main objective was to boost the retention of clients.

One of the first things we set out to do was talking and trying to understand the clients, which  were mostly small and medium enterprises from various sectors. We chose the Journey  mapping method, a combination of the visualization and storytelling tools, to conduct our  interactions with them. We believed it was the best way to make it easy for the clients to  relate to what we were showing, because they would be able to see themselves in the journey  and be more willingly to participate and share their thoughts.

The main things we wanted to capture were the moments of the journey in which they were  more satisfied, unsatisfied and what we could do to provide a better experience.

Application

The idea was to arrange a set of workshops with clients across the country to gather the  insights we wanted using Design Thinking tools. The main driver for the discussion was the  storytelling, which was going to be presented in the form of the Customer Journey Map. We  had to map it before the workshops so we could use the time on refining rather than mapping  it. The template we used had the name of the moment of the journey at the top and for each  moment we had the intention the customer had during this moment, the activities he  performed and points of contact between the clients and the health care company. To validate  our Customer Journey Map we interviewed a few clients beforehand.

Since we also wanted the clients to discuss solutions for the problems they were going to  introduce, we prepared some “Solution Cards”, visual paper cards describing/showing  solutions based on the problems we thought they would say. More than testing solutions the  goal was to use the cards to foster the creativity of the clients attending the workshops so they  could ideate more solutions.

Now let’s go to the workshops. We invited around 15 clients for each of the workshops and  divided them into tables of 5-6 people based on the profile of the companies they  represented. We conducted five workshops.

For each table we gave a poster size paper with the journey and told the story we mapped so  they could relate to it and then we asked - “What are the moments where you are most  satisfied and what are the moments that you are unhappy and why?” The participants wrote  their opinion on post it papers and glued them bellow the moment they were referring to.  After we did that for a while we asked them to choose the top 3 satisfying moments and  unsatisfying moments, we wanted to see what really bothered them and what made them  really happy, we called it the moments of truth.

After that, we changed to the second dynamic of the workshop where we showed solutions to  the complaints of the clients and asked them to rank it form “I didn’t like this, it’s not useful”  to “Wow! This is amazing”. After we presented all our solutions, we asked the participants  “Based on your problems and on the solutions we showed you, what is still missing that could  improve your experience with the product?” – We asked them to write it down or draw it on  blank solution cards we provided them.

Insight & Approach

What I have learned after conducting these workshops is that we always have to make the  material as easy as possible for the participants to understand and also to create a very light  environment for them to feel free to share their thoughts. Sharing is the key word in such an  event, if they do not share nothing happens; you want them to interact and not feel afraid of  saying something that does not make sense. I learned that the first step for these workshops is  to have a good activity in the first minutes to break the ice and create this collaborative  environment. Because it didn’t work well, we changed the icebreaker activity from the first  workshop to the others, and the dynamic completely changed, the results improved a lot.

I saw that visualization is very good because people are more willing to look and debate  pictures or illustrations about something you are trying to show rather than reading a lot of  text. Next time I will reduce the amount of text in the Customer Journey even more. For  example, in this workshop, we wrote down the activities clients performed during the journey  and few people really read them. Next time I will illustrate all the activities with icons and  other images, which will better capture their attention and improve the flow of the discussion.


Challenge & Selection I work for an international Management Consulting firm , and in one of our projects for a company in the Health Care sector , we had the goal to increase customer experience and value delivered to their clients . The main objective was to boost the retention of clients . One of the first things we set out to do was talking and trying to understand the clients , which were mostly small and medium enterprises from various sectors . We chose the Journey mapping method , a combination of the visualization and storytelling tools , to conduct our interactions with them . We believed it was the best way to make it easy for the clients to relate to what we were showing , because they would be able to see themselves in the journey and be more willingly to participate and share their thoughts . The main things we wanted to capture were the moments of the journey in which they were more satisfied , unsatisfied and what we could do to provide a better experience . Application The idea was to arrange a set of workshops with clients across the country to gather the insights we wanted using Design Thinking tools . The main driver for the discussion was the storytelling , which was going to be presented in the form of the Customer Journey Map . We had to map it before the workshops so we could use the time on refining rather than mapping it . The template we used had the name of the moment of the journey at the top and for each moment we had the intention the customer had during this moment , the activities he performed and points of contact between the clients and the health care company . To validate our Customer Journey Map we interviewed a few clients beforehand . Since we also wanted the clients to discuss solutions for the problems they were going to introduce , we prepared some “ Solution Cards ” , visual paper cards describing / showing solutions based on the problems we thought they would say . More than testing solutions the goal was to use the cards to foster the creativity of the clients attending the workshops so they could ideate more solutions . Now let ’s go to the workshops . We invited around 15 clients for each of the workshops and divided them into tables of 5 - 6 people based on the profile of the companies they represented . We conducted five workshops . For each table we gave a poster size paper with the journey and told the story we mapped so they could relate to it and then we asked - “ What are the moments where you are most satisfied and what are the moments that you are unhappy and why ? ” The participants wrote their opinion on post it papers and glued them bellow the moment they were referring to . After we did that for a while we asked them to choose the top 3 satisfying moments and unsatisfying moments , we wanted to see what really bothered them and what made them really happy , we called it the moments of truth . After that , we changed to the second dynamic of the workshop where we showed solutions to the complaints of the clients and asked them to rank it form “ I did n’t like this , it ’s not useful ” to “ Wow ! This is amazing ” . After we presented all our solutions , we asked the participants “ Based on your problems and on the solutions we showed you , what is still missing that could improve your experience with the product ? ” – We asked them to write it down or draw it on blank solution cards we provided them . Insight & Approach What I have learned after conducting these workshops is that we always have to make the material as easy as possible for the participants to understand and also to create a very light environment for them to feel free to share their thoughts . Sharing is the key word in such an event , if they do not share nothing happens ; you want them to interact and not feel afraid of saying something that does not make sense . I learned that the first step for these workshops is to have a good activity in the first minutes to break the ice and create this collaborative environment . Because it did n’t work well , we changed the icebreaker activity from the first workshop to the others , and the dynamic completely changed , the results improved a lot . I saw that visualization is very good because people are more willing to look and debate pictures or illustrations about something you are trying to show rather than reading a lot of text . Next time I will reduce the amount of text in the Customer Journey even more . For example , in this workshop , we wrote down the activities clients performed during the journey and few people really read them . Next time I will illustrate all the activities with icons and other images , which will better capture their attention and improve the flow of the discussion .