Personalizing Customer Journeys

🗺️ AirBnB Customer Journey Blueprint, a wonderful practical example of how to visualize the entire customer experience for 2 personas, across 8 touch points, with user policies, UI screens and all interactions with the customer service — all on one single page. Discovered via Peter Yang. AirBnB Customer Journey (Google Drive): https://lnkd.in/eaAhwaRw Spotify Customer Journey (High-resolution): https://lnkd.in/eX3NBWbJ Now, unlike AirBnB, your product might not need a mapping against user policies. However, it might need other lanes that would be more relevant for your team. E.g. include relevant findings and recommendations from UX research. List key actions needed for next stage. Add relevant UX metrics and unsuccessful touchpoints. That last bit is often missing. Yet customer journeys are often non-linear, with unpredictable entry points, and integrations way beyond the final stage of a customer journey map. It’s in those moments when things leave a perfect path that a product’s UX is actually stress tested. So consider mapping unsuccessful touchpoints as well — failures, error messages, conflicts, incompatibilities, warnings, connectivity issues, eventual lock-outs and frequent log-outs, authentication issues, outages and urgent support inquiries. Even further than that: each team could be able to zoom into specific touch points and attach links to quotes, photos, videos, prototypes, design system docs and Figma files. Perhaps even highlight the desired future state. Technical challenges and pain points. Those unsuccessful states. Now, that would be a remarkable reference to use in the beginning of every design sprint. Such mappings are often overlooked, but they can be very impactful. Not only is it a very tangible way to visualize UX, but it’s also easy to understand, remember and relate to daily — potentially for all teams in the entire organization. And that's something only few artefacts can do. Useful resources: Free Template: Customer Journey Mapping, by Taras Bakusevych https://lnkd.in/e-emkh5A Free Template: End-To-End User Experience Map (Figma), by Justin Tan https://lnkd.in/eir9jg7J Customer Journey Map Template (Figma), by Ed Biden https://lnkd.in/enkBCkJj Free Figma/Miro User Journey Maps Templates https://lnkd.in/etSB7VqB User Journey Maps vs. Service Blueprints (+ Templates) https://lnkd.in/e-JSYtwW UX Mapping Methods (+ Miro/Figma Templates) https://lnkd.in/en3Vje4t #ux #design

New Andreessen Horowitz thesis - AI x Online Shopping! Shopping used to be a hunt. With AI, it’s ‘God Mode’. AI is transforming online shopping into something intelligent, predictive, and visually intuitive. Instead of searching for products, the right picks come to you — curated, customized, and ready to buy. Here’s how Bryan Kim and I see it playing out 👇 1/ No more “will this look good on me?”: AI try-ons let you see fit, drape, and style on your own digital twin — making shopping visual and data-driven. 2/ From “nothing to wear” to AI-curated style: AI stylists recommend outfits based on your closet, calendar, weather, and taste. 3/ From imagination to inventory: You can now design and refine custom products in real time — AI makes personalization scalable. 4/ AI finds the best deals: Smarter search surfaces affordable alternatives and secondhand picks — matching your style and budget. 5/ Brands connect at scale: LLMs run support, from refunds to shipping — with higher satisfaction and zero wait time. This is just the beginning. What’s next is predictive, personalized shopping powered by fully integrated AI assistants. Outfits are becoming first-class primitives — dynamically styled from what you already own or imagined entirely by AI. For more of our thoughts, check out the full blog post below - and we'd love to hear from you if you're building something here! 👋 https://lnkd.in/gFWB3K9b https://lnkd.in/g99-Caz7

Are you generating enough value for users net of the value to your company? Business value can only be created when you create so much value for users, that you can “tax” that value and take some for yourself as a business. If you don’t create any value for your users, then you can’t create value for your business. Ed Biden explains how to solve this in this week's guest post: Whilst there are many ways to understand what your users will value, two techniques in particular are incredibly valuable, especially if you’re working on a tight timeframe: 1. Jobs To Be Done 2. Customer Journey Mapping 𝟭. 𝗝𝗼𝗯𝘀 𝗧𝗼 𝗕𝗲 𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗲 (𝗝𝗧𝗕𝗗) “People don’t simply buy products or services, they ‘hire’ them to make progress in specific circumstances.”  – Clayton Christensen The core JTBD concept is that rather than buying a product for its features, customers “hire” a product to get a job done for them … and will ”fire” it for a better solution just as quickly. In practice, JTBD provides a series of lenses for understanding what your customers want, what progress looks like, and what they’ll pay for. This is a powerful way of understanding your users, because their needs are stable and it forces you to think from a user-centric point of view. This allows you to think about more radical solutions, and really focus on where you’re creating value. To use Jobs To Be Done to understand your customers, think through five key steps: 1. Use case – what is the outcome that people want? 2. Alternatives – what solutions are people using now? 3. Progress – where are people blocked? What does a better solution look like? 4. Value Proposition – why would they use your product over the alternatives? 5. Price – what would a customer pay for progress against this problem? 𝟮. 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 Customer journey mapping is an effective way to visualize your customer’s experience as they try to reach one of their goals. In basic terms, a customer journey map breaks the user journey down into steps, and then for each step describes what touchpoints the customer has with your product, and how this makes them feel. The touch points are any interaction that the customer has with your company as they go through this flow: • Website and app screens • Notifications and emails • Customer service calls • Account management / sales touch points • Physically interacting with goods (e.g. Amazon), services (e.g. Airbnb) or hardware (e.g. Lime) Users’ feelings can be visualized by noting down: • What they like or feel good about at this step • What they dislike, find frustrating or confusing at this step • How they feel overall By mapping the customer’s subjective experience to the nuts and bolts of what’s going on, and then laying this out in a visual way, you can easily see where you can have the most impact, and align stakeholders on the critical problems to solve.

'Social is just for awareness, not revenue.' I used to agree. But last quarter alone, my social presence influenced ~$15m in pipeline! Here's what most CEOs get wrong about social and what I wish I'd known sooner... CONTEXT: I've been a CEO for almost a decade. But only embraced social 14 months ago. Why the delay? I was trapped in old thinking: 𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘺 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦?  𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴?  𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴? Fast forward to today: → Social influences the majority of our enterprise deals → We close deals faster with socially-engaged buyers 
 → 15M impressions on my LinkedIn content in just 90 days  → I get invited to stages that would cost us tens of thousands  → Top talent reaches out directly → Gong shows my exec presence being mentioned more times in Q125 than all of 2024 But I didn't get here overnight… Along the way, I had to confront several myths that were keeping me - and many executives - on the social sidelines. Let me share the biggest myths I overcame: 1. "𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐬 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠'𝐬 𝐉𝐨𝐛, 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐞" As CEO, your voice carries unique authority that resonates with other executives. When I post, we see engagement from decision-makers who never click on our brand content.
 2. "𝐈 𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬" I spend 2 hours daily on social. Besides posting,  I’m listening, engaging with customers, and noticing what’s happening. The ROI on that time is immeasurable. 3. "𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐍𝐨 𝐖𝐚𝐲 𝐓𝐨 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭" Wrong. We track impression value, lead attribution, deal influence, and sales velocity. 4. "𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐨 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐤𝐲 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐌𝐲 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧" While you worry about saying the wrong thing, your competition is building relationships with your customers. A social presence isn't risky, it’s expected. The executives getting left behind aren't the ones who never showed up. 5. "𝐌𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐈𝐬 𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭" I came from finance - an industry notorious for social skepticism. Today? Goldman Sachs executives are building personal brands. If banking embraces social, your industry has no excuse. TL;DR: You can wait for your competitors to own the conversation. Or you can shape it yourself, starting today.

I believe it's inevitable that niche, deeply researched content is the future of content marketing in b2b. So much so, that we're betting the house on this thesis at storyarb. What you're about to read is our exact content marketing strategy that we'll be using to drive trust & revenue for our business in 2025. Feel free to copy (or better yet, hire us to do it)... Step 1: Who is our Market of 1? - Head of Marketing at a growth-stage B2B business (>$10m rev) Step 2: What are the specific goals of our content strategy? - Add value: every piece of content should be bookmark worthy...so high value that our ICP feels compelled to save it & reference it later to improve at their job - Build trust: +20% MoM direct site traffic - Drive qualified pipeline: +20% increase in demo requests from ICP Step 3: What channels are we focusing on? - Rented: Long-form blog content + Exec social content - Owned: Weekly editorial email newsletter Step 4: What are our content pillars? - Content Marketing - Demand Gen - B2B Step 5: What does the content strategy look like in practice? 1) Interview/research-based case studies (not customer case studies) Series name: Fine Tuned Description: A deeply researched, highly detailed breakdown of the most successful content demand engines in B2B. The channels, the content formats/focus, the funnel, the metrics, the team/responsibilities. Additional: Weekly release of a Fine Tuned essay (on storyarb site) that is email-gated to read the whole thing (and amplified via our newsletter & exec social) 2) Weekly/bi-weekly email newsletter Newsletter name: The Lead Description: Option 1 - Curation & commentary on the best content marketing campaigns that companies were actively doing in the wild this week Option 2 - A long-form case study on a content marketing campaign that a B2B company is actively doing with our analysis After the playbook have a section that has links to content marketing news, tools/strategies, and ofc our Fine Tuned essay from the previous week. 90% value add, 10% value extract 3) Exec social from 3 storyarb employees Abby Murray: Persona: The Content Marketing Agency Owner 1-liner: Stories from running storyarb that has lessons/stats/wins/updates interwoven. Alex Lieberman: Persona: The Content & Marketing Obsessed Entrepreneur 1-liner: Spotting trends, brainstorming ideas, and identifying genius in the world of content & marketing Magda Cychowski:  Persona: The B2B Content Marketer 1-liner: Breaking down specific strategies that content marketers & b2b demand gen teams can take to level up their org. Additional: - 90% of the content should be value add, 10% should be value extract. - Each person should be boosting each Fine Tuned (case study) and Lead (newsletter) through the lens of their specific persona to drive their distribution to our email capture & owned audience.

𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻-𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Design goes beyond aesthetics—it's about functionality and user experience. It’s not just about making products look good; it's about how they work seamlessly in our daily lives. From the intuitive interface of the iPhone to the ergonomic design of the MacBook, we all know how Apple exemplifies Steve Jobs' belief that design is not just appearance. Great design is how it works. Our world is making a conscious shift towards human-centered design, an approach where the user is at the heart of the design process. Here’s a great case study that shows how empathy is at the core of design thinking. This approach ensures that when creating an application, product, or service, you prioritize the end-users' needs and perspectives from the very beginning of the ideation process. A children's toothbrush that remains popular today was developed through a collaboration between Oral-B and the global design firm IDEO in the mid-nineties. Instead of merely replicating existing products—a scaled-down version of an adult toothbrush—IDEO took a more insightful approach by observing children in the act of brushing their teeth. The observation revealed a significant challenge: children struggled to grip the slim toothbrush handles designed for adults due to their limited motor skills. Recognizing this, IDEO's team innovated a toothbrush with a larger, more ergonomic grip that was easier for children to hold. Every toothbrush company worldwide now produces similar designs.  A modern essential that has become almost a generational staple is the Dyson vacuum cleaner. Unlike traditional vacuums, which were often stashed away in closets due to their long, tangled cords, Dyson's sleek, cordless designs are meant to be prominently displayed and proudly showcased, not hidden away – another design win! The same goes for the Dyson hair dryer. The Dyson engineering team attended beauty school to better understand how hair dryers are used. The result was the Dyson Supersonic – a hairdryer with the tiniest motor and the Heat Shield Technology. As you can see, human-centered design is a creative approach to business problem solving. It leverages the designer's toolkit to seamlessly integrate people's needs, technological opportunities, and business imperatives.  Picture Credit: Chapter247      

Throughout my decade-long journey in the tech industry, if there's one lesson that’s stuck with me, it’s this: your connection with your customers is everything. At Supersourcing, we’ve woven this belief into the fabric of our business. And trust me, it’s made all the difference. Here’s how we keep our customer focus sharp and true: - Listen First, Act Fast: Early on, I learned that listening isn’t just about hearing words; it’s about understanding your customers' underlying needs and emotions. We prioritize active listening—through regular feedback loops and candid conversations—so that when we act, it’s both swift and deeply aligned with what our clients actually want. - Tailored Solutions, Not One-Size-Fits-All: One of the most transformative shifts we made was moving from a transactional mindset to a partnership approach. It helps us understand our clients’ bigger picture—what are their goals? What keeps them up at night? We tailor our solutions to align with these insights, making our support feel less like a service and more like a collaboration. - Transparent Communication Builds Trust: I can’t stress enough how much transparency has contributed to our success. It’s about being upfront, even when the news isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Our clients appreciate honesty, and this straightforward approach has helped us build strong, lasting relationships based on trust and mutual respect. - Proactivity Is Key: Waiting for a problem to arise means you’re already too late. We’ve built a culture of proactivity—whether it’s checking in on developers regularly or anticipating potential roadblocks, we aim to address challenges before they turn into problems. These strategies have been pivotal in driving not just customer satisfaction but loyalty and advocacy. It’s about being more than a vendor; it’s about being a partner who genuinely cares about the success of those we serve. How do you keep your client relationships strong and authentic? I’m eager to hear your thoughts!

Smart CRM Basics Predictive Customer Behavior Modeling The Advantages of Predictive Behavior Modeling When Marketers can target specific customers with a specific marketing action – you are likely to have the most desirable campaign impact. Every marketing campaign and retention tactic will be more successful. The ROI of upsell, cross-sell, and retention campaigns will be more significant. For example, imagine being able to predict which customers will churn and the particular marketing actions that will cause them to remain long-term customers. Customers will feel the greater relevance of the company’s communications with them – resulting in greater satisfaction, brand loyalty, and word-of-mouth referrals. Enhancing Customer Segmentation for Personalization Predictive analytics refines customer segmentation by identifying patterns within data. By understanding customer segments on a deeper level, businesses can personalize their interactions, marketing messages, and product recommendations. This tailored approach fosters a stronger connection with customers, leading to increased loyalty. Anticipating Customer Needs Through Lead Scoring Lead scoring becomes more accurate with the integration of predictive analytics. By evaluating customer data, such as interactions with emails, website visits, and social media engagement, businesses can prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert. This ensures that sales teams focus their efforts on leads with the highest potential. Optimizing Sales Forecasting Accurate sales forecasting is crucial for effective resource allocation and business planning. Predictive analytics in CRM analyzes past sales data, market trends, and customer behaviors to generate more accurate sales forecasts. This empowers businesses to make informed decisions, allocate resources efficiently, and capitalize on emerging opportunities. Transforming CRM with Predictive Analytics Predictive analytics is revolutionizing CRM by providing invaluable insights into customer behaviors. From personalized marketing campaigns to proactive churn prevention, businesses can leverage these predictions to enhance customer relationships and drive growth. As technology continues to advance, integrating predictive analytics into CRM systems is not just a strategy for staying competitive; it's a key component in building lasting customer-centric businesses in the digital age. #PredictiveAnalytics #CRMInsights #CustomerBehavior #DataDrivenDecisions #BusinessIntelligence #CustomerRetention #SalesForecasting #MarketingStrategy #EthicalCRM #DynamicPricing

If more of your store sales start on TikTok lately, you might wanna read this. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘦. The checkout happens in-store. But the sale happens everywhere else. Here's the reality: This year 60%+, and in 2027, 70% of retail sales will be digitally influenced. I can't emphasize this enough; here's what most brands miss—digital influence isn't just about online sales. It's about shaping every moment before the customer even walks into your store. L'Oréal cracked this code: 100M+ AR try-on sessions driving real conversions. 31 brands orchestrating seamless experiences across 72 countries. No.1 in beauty influencer marketing (29% market share), 20-80% higher conversion rates through enhanced digital experiences. The new customer journey isn't linear—it's layered: - They discover you on social - Research you through reviews and UGC - Try your product virtually through AR - Get retargeted with personalized content - Finally purchase in-store (feeling confident they're making the right choice) Every touchpoint matters, and every interaction influences the final decision. The brands winning today aren't just selling products—they're orchestrating experiences across owned, paid, and earned media that guide customers from curiosity to checkout. Digital discovery is increasingly pay-to-play and shoppers are paying attention. ++ Tactical Recommendations for CPG / FMCG Brands ++ 1. Beyond just having perfect, high SOV product pages, create discovery ecosystems. - Optimize for "zero-moment-of-truth" searches. - Activate shoppable content at scale. - Leverage user-generated content as social proof. Brands that do these see a 35% higher conversion rate from digital touchpoints to in-store purchases. 2. Connect digital engagement directly to retail execution. - Geo-target digital campaigns to drive foot traffic - Create "store-specific" digital content CPG brands using geo-targeted social ads see a 23% higher in-store sales lift in targeted markets. 3. Most important one; stop flying blind—measure digital influence on offline sales. - Implement unique promo codes for each digital touchpoint to track conversion paths. - Use customer surveys at point of purchase. - Partner with retailers on shared data insights Brands with proper attribution see 15-25% improvement in marketing ROI within 12 months. 𝗧𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 ecommert® 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝟭𝟰,𝟲𝟬𝟬+ 𝗖𝗣𝗚, 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘁® : 𝗖𝗣𝗚 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿. #CPG #FMCG #AI #ecommerce Procter & Gamble PepsiCo Unilever The Coca-Cola Company Nestlé Mondelēz International Kraft Heinz Ferrero Mars Colgate-Palmolive Henkel Bayer Haleon Kenvue The HEINEKEN Company Carlsberg Group Philips Samsung Electronics Panasonic North America

“She blinded me with science!” 🎤 “She Blinded Me With Science” -Thomas Dolby If a #CustomerSuccess leader found a genie that gave them 3 wishes, after rightly asking for “more wishes,” I’m guessing they would ask for a way to predict churn. [OK maybe they’d ask for world peace, a raise, … but go with me!] Our brilliant data science, Pau Ortí Codina, helped us understand which product features at Gainsight were the most predictive of retention or churn. For context, for years, we had done analysis to look at how usage of specific Gainsight Customer Success features correlate with retention. The challenge is that this approach can end up outputting many features that align to retention. But some of these features may themselves be correlated to each other. So the question is which few features we should focus on? Luckily, we had Pau. I asked him about his methodology and here’s how he approached it: 1: We started with hypotheses - which features could be indicators of retention. 2: We pulled renewal data from a year ago. 3: We made sure to avoid “survivorship bias” by looking at data 9-12 months before the renewal. The logic is that if you look at usage data near the renewal, it could be misleading. A customer’s usage could have dropped BECAUSE they are leaving. 4: We used several statistical methods to see how each feature correlated to renewal outcomes; we removed those without strong correlations. 5: We employed a decision tree classifier (see below) to understand how the variables relate to each other. 6: Pau then evaluated the model. If the model predicted a renewal, it was correct 96% of the time. By contrast, if the model predicted a churn, 50% of the time the client renewed. This isn’t great (ideally, churn predictions would have no false positives), but it’s better in CS to be more cautious rather than less. At the end of the day, we determined that clients with usage of our Journey Orchestrator digital automation feature were much more likely to renew. Have you run any data science-based model to predict renewal and churn for your business? If so, what did you learn? [The red boxes are confidential data that I blanked out]