Mind Mapping

Challenge & Selection  The first tool I used was the Mind Mapping tool when I initially joined my current company where  I was brought on to chart the current onboarding process for new customers and identify areas  of opportunity for process improvements.  I decided to use this approach because I could begin  by mapping out my own onboarding experience as a customer (because I had my own data  points) which could easily be described as dreadful and I had tons of feedback. I then extended  the invitation for other associates to map out their experiences as well, giving us a broad sense  of what was happening across the process since no documentation for this existed at the time.     Application  I started the process by designating a huge whiteboard (conveniently located to senior  leadership) as the space where myself and other associates could place visuals of their  onboarding process – application information, messaging screenshots, printouts of emails  received during the onboarding time-frame, copies of welcome materials, call recordings with  service agents and relevant information about product usage/ease, etc. I also asked everyone  to write sound bites of their experience – what went well, what did not, what was devastatingly  awful, would they recommend to friends and family.  I then added actual customer complaint  verbatims to this board that we received through website surveys, social media, call listening  sessions and regulatory organizations. This whiteboard turned into a very powerful visual of an  undocumented process that was ripe with opportunity to make it better for our customers.      As more and more associates contributed their information on the board themes started to  emerge.  We grouped together pieces of the experience into groups, sorted by channel and  interaction type, which began to tell the story of the current customer onboarding process - lack  of relevant information about what was going to happen next once the product was purchased,  over communication via email regarding cross sell or simply providing useless information and  clogging inboxes, untimely delivery of product via snail mail, poor lengthy service calls with  agents that oversold additional products when customers clearly were not interested.  Senior  leadership was able to have sequenced visuals to react to and get a sense of what was  happening to our customers during this valuable first interaction with new customers.  They  were then able to prioritize projects to improve the experience for the customers and inform  impacted business lines about the current process failures and keys to best practices for future  sales.     Insight & Approach  This was the perfect tool to use to map out an undocumented process that was considered a  “black hole” within the organization. Through the use of visuals and plotting, we were able to pull  together data points compiled by actual associate experiences married with hundreds of  customer complaints to provide fact-based insight into what was actually occurring and where  things were broken, demystifying what we were assuming was happening during this vital  portion of a customer lifecycle.  We were able to pinpoint root causes of customer pain points  and make big process improvements to create a better customer experience. Associates shared  their insights and learnings with their individual teams to influence the creation of better  business processes to ensure a positive customer experience. Since the overall customer  experience told such a valuable story, next time I would like to dig deeper, using storytelling, to  show case individual customer experiences to gain even more insight into customer  needs/expectations/dislikes, etc. to implement additional process improvements.


Mind Mapping Challenge & Selection The first tool I used was the Mind Mapping tool when I initially joined my current company where I was brought on to chart the current onboarding process for new customers and identify areas of opportunity for process improvements . I decided to use this approach because I could begin by mapping out my own onboarding experience as a customer ( because I had my own data points ) which could easily be described as dreadful and I had tons of feedback . I then extended the invitation for other associates to map out their experiences as well , giving us a broad sense of what was happening across the process since no documentation for this existed at the time . Application I started the process by designating a huge whiteboard ( conveniently located to senior leadership ) as the space where myself and other associates could place visuals of their onboarding process – application information , messaging screenshots , printouts of emails received during the onboarding time - frame , copies of welcome materials , call recordings with service agents and relevant information about product usage / ease , etc . I also asked everyone to write sound bites of their experience – what went well , what did not , what was devastatingly awful , would they recommend to friends and family . I then added actual customer complaint verbatims to this board that we received through website surveys , social media , call listening sessions and regulatory organizations . This whiteboard turned into a very powerful visual of an undocumented process that was ripe with opportunity to make it better for our customers . As more and more associates contributed their information on the board themes started to emerge . We grouped together pieces of the experience into groups , sorted by channel and interaction type , which began to tell the story of the current customer onboarding process - lack of relevant information about what was going to happen next once the product was purchased , over communication via email regarding cross sell or simply providing useless information and clogging inboxes , untimely delivery of product via snail mail , poor lengthy service calls with agents that oversold additional products when customers clearly were not interested . Senior leadership was able to have sequenced visuals to react to and get a sense of what was happening to our customers during this valuable first interaction with new customers . They were then able to prioritize projects to improve the experience for the customers and inform impacted business lines about the current process failures and keys to best practices for future sales . Insight & Approach This was the perfect tool to use to map out an undocumented process that was considered a “ black hole ” within the organization . Through the use of visuals and plotting , we were able to pull together data points compiled by actual associate experiences married with hundreds of customer complaints to provide fact - based insight into what was actually occurring and where things were broken , demystifying what we were assuming was happening during this vital portion of a customer lifecycle . We were able to pinpoint root causes of customer pain points and make big process improvements to create a better customer experience . Associates shared their insights and learnings with their individual teams to influence the creation of better business processes to ensure a positive customer experience . Since the overall customer experience told such a valuable story , next time I would like to dig deeper , using storytelling , to show case individual customer experiences to gain even more insight into customer needs / expectations / dislikes , etc . to implement additional process improvements .