This document discusses creating excellent customer experiences. It defines experience as engaging customers' emotions, senses, and values in a way that surprises and delights them. It introduces tools like the Value Proposition Canvas and Eight Facet Experience Model to help design customer-centric offerings. The document provides examples of companies that excel at experience like Build-A-Bear Workshop and Disney, and guides developing a "Wow!" experience through understanding customer needs and designing touchpoints across the customer journey.

1. Understanding the
Customer Experience Journey
Capturing the Hearts, Minds and Wallets of Customers
January 22, 2015
City Club Raleigh Business Alliance
ba-navigationseries.com
Big Think Innovation, Inc.
bigthinkin.com

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WE’RE IN AN EXPERIENCE ECONOMY
People are used to getting their way now more than ever. It’s no longer enough to
just provide a great product or service – now we need to wow our clients with an
experience to differentiate our companies.
Creating an experience for our clients can be as simple as
conducting an orchestra. Okay, so maybe that’s not so simple.
With a little thought and consistent delivery, we can create buzz
around our offerings. When we make people say, “Wow!” we get
referrals, buzz, and positive press.
How Do You Define Experience?
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Do any of these Define an
Experience?
q Engages my emotions
q Surprises me
q Engages multiple senses
q Makes my life easier
q Brings joy
q Fills a void
q Feels more substantial
q Provides more value than expected
q Entertains me
q Makes the mundane exciting
Experience is subjective. And it’s not about what you want. It’s
about what engages, excites and wows your clients. Different
industries and product types will have different wow factors.

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THE VALUE PROPOSITION CANVAS
The Value Proposition Canvas makes explicit how you are creating value for your
customers. It helps you to design products and services your customers really want.
Company Perspective Customer Perspective
Gain Creators
Pain Relievers
Products &
Services
Company Perspective
Gains
Pains
Customer
Job(s)
Customer Perspective

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The Value Proposition Canvas helps you Create the core of your
experience: A great offering.
The Value Proposition Canvas is a tool designed by Alex
Osterwalder, the creator of the Business Model Canvas, and
author of Business Model Generation, a book that has sold over
1 million copies.
The VP Canvas focuses on the first two parts of the Business
Model Canvas, the Customer Segments (CS) and Value
Proposition (VP). When you design a business using this canvas,
you are more likely to:
1. Properly assess your customers’ true needs
2. Clarify what is most important to customers
3. Craft an offering that is specifically designed for your
ideal customer
4. Reduce the risk of launching a new offering
The VP Canvas helps you clarify what your customers want, and
how you can design a solution for them.
For a more in-depth discussion of the Value Proposition Canvas,
see http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas/vpc.
Creating a Value Proposition
Canvas
1. START WITH THE CUSTOMER PERSPECTIVE
A. Define your ideal customer
Clearly define your ideal customer using demographic,
geographic, and psychographic characteristics.
Example
Demographic: Middle class, business owner, Hispanic, with 2
or more children
Geographic: In Triangle area of North Carolina
Psychographic: Reads Wall Street Journal and Triangle
Business Journal
Action: Create an Ideal Customer Profile (Persona) that
describes your ideal customer in as much detail as possible. It
is often good to think about a specific person or company to
start with, build the profile, and then modify it as you think
about other customers.
B. Identify what job(s) they want done
The job to be done can be anything: move water from one place
to another (pipe), cook food (microwave), identify ways to grow
revenues (consulting services). It is important to identify what
they want done, and not assume they are looking for a particular
product or service. The clearer you can be about the JOB, the
easier it will be to build the rest of the VP Canvas.
Action: List the job(s) to be done from your customer’s
perspective.
C. List potential Pains and Gains
Is your ideal customer looking for the solution to a problem
(pain), or do they want to achieve something better (gain)?
Action: List the various possibilities for Pains and Gains on
the canvas.

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2. FINISH WITH THE COMPANY PERSPECTIVE
A. List potential Pain Relievers
What ways could you alleviate the pains of your customers?
Really push your self/team to think of ideas that go beyond what
you offer or plan to offer. This is where you can create
breakthroughs.
You may find that to create a complete solution for your
customers, you may need to partner with other companies. This
is excellent. It means you’re thinking through the problem
deeper than surface level.
Action: List potential Pain Relievers.
B. List potential Gain Creators
Sometimes customers want something better – to increase their
standard of living, achieve a stronger feeling of success, turn
heads when they drive by, etc. It’s up to you to think about how
you can provide this for your ideal customers.
Like the Pain Relievers, think deeper and try to uncover
something that other companies haven’t surfaced – and then hit
it hard to really provide a differentiated offering and experience.
Action: List potential Gain Creators.
C. Identify potential Offerings
Once you understand the Pain Relievers and Gain Creators you
can potentially offer, get creative and craft some potential
solutions by combining Pain Relievers and Gain Creators into
one or more offerings. Try to solve 100% of your customers’
wants (pains gone and gains achieved). A 100% solution for a
smaller niche is better than an 80% solution for a larger market
because you will create raving fans.
Action: Design potential offerings (products and services) for
your ideal customers.

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THE BIG THINK 8 FACET EXPERIENCE MODEL
There are eight facets of experience. The diagram below shows how they affect and
surround your offering to provide an excellent customer experience.
EMOTIONS
Emotions are among the most powerful of the experiences. This
is the Wow! factor. Example positive emotions include:
Fun, funny, surprise, intense, love, adoration, appreciation,
valued, affirmed, connected, safe, unexpected, entertaining.
There are hundreds more, and each one can help connect your
client to you and your offering more effectively.
SENSES
Engaging senses helps to brighten the richness of the
experience. A store with soft music, a hint of fragrance, and
pleasing artwork and lighting is very different than a store with
loud music, strobe lights, and garish graffiti-covered walls. Both
can be appropriate and engaging to specific audiences. Senses
include:
Sight, sound, smell, touch, taste.
INTRINSIC VALUE
Intrinsic value is the perceived value of the offering itself. If you
provide high-end services for a low-end price, the value may be
great. Examples of intrinsic value include:
Environ-
ment
Emotions
Offering
Intrinsic
Value
Personal-
ityProcess
Richness
Simplicity
Senses

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Free, extra value, meets clients needs fully, performs as
expected.
ENVIRONMENT
Environmental experiences include the use of space to engage
the senses. Examples of environmental experiences include:
Space, temperature, décor, feng shui, “feel” of the space,
openness, layout/organization, flow.
PERSONALITY
Some companies differentiate based on the
personalities/attitudes of their employees. Some companies that
come to mind include Southwest Airlines, Chik-fil-A, and
Nordstrom. All of which are highly successful businesses.
Creating a culture that supports the positive attitudes is not
easy, but it does pay dividends. Literally. Examples of
personality experiences include:
Genuine caring for your needs, walking you to another
department and engaging you in conversation, helping you with
something other than what the store offers - such as a
recommendation, treating you like a special guest or friend,
making you smile or laugh.
PROCESS
Process experiences are tied to your company’s flow of business.
Oftentimes, there are speed bumps for transitions, causing a
momentary disconnectedness with your offering. Designing
process experiences will help smooth out those bumps and help
your client feel better about your offering. Examples of process
experiences include:
Remembered preferences, walking a client to the checkout,
providing immediate follow-up to any requests or issues,
transitioning between project phases gracefully, clarifying what
to expect with your process.
SIMPLICITY
Google is a perfect example of the power of simplicity. Because
they didn’t clutter their home page with everything Yahoo! has,
they stood out because of faster page loads and rapid browsing.
Simplicity can also mean the ease with which you get what you
want from a company. Examples of simplicity in practice
include:
Making it easy to buy, limiting offerings to just those things
people really need, clear steps in a process, adding in extra
services that help the client start using your offering faster,
integrating with other offerings to simplify implementation.
RICHNESS
Richness is not necessarily the opposite of Simplicity, but it can
be. Richness is a factor of the completeness and depth of your
offering and everything surrounding the interaction with the
client. Examples of rich experience include:
Disney theme parks, wowing clients’ senses, providing a total
solution for clients, providing more than is necessary in a way
that is appreciated, creating feelings of connectedness.
Multiple Media
Each of the experience facets can be displayed through multiple
communication channels, such as visual images, spoken words,
written words, staff countenance, and how everything is put
together. Consider how each facet translates into each
communication channel.

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Examples
BUILD-A-BEAR WORKSHOP
Build-A-Bear Workshop is a tremendous place for kids. They get
to build their own stuffed animal, give it a heart, voice, and
name. B-A-B Workshop engages all senses, have people who
enjoy doing what they do, have a standardized process that’s
clearly displayed within a lively, fun environment. The price of a
new friend? About $25. A tremendous value as well.
Build-A-Bear Workshop Experiential Star Map
DISNEY
Disney is widely regarded as one of the best experiential
companies in the world. Walt and Roy took the theme park
concept from a seedy establishment to a world-renowned
household name. They focus on staff development and creating
repeatable, enjoyable experiences for their guests.
Disney Experiential Star Map

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Exercise
Rate the following companies’ experiences on the star maps
provided.
MCDONALD’S
McDonald’s Experiential Star Map
BEST BUY
Best Buy Experiential Star Map

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Exercise
Rate your experiences with another company below:
COMPANY:______________________ COMPANY: ______________________

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Pricing for Experience Value
When you create an experiential offering, your price should
reflect the additional value. Those who are drawn to premium
offerings will be attracted. If you still want a lower price point
for some of your market, you can reduce the price and
experience accordingly. Charge for the value you offer so that
you can keep your profits high.
Comparing Multiple Offerings
You can use the chart below to draw in various offerings – yours
or others’ – to show relative positioning in the market. This can
help you identify holes you can fill.
Market: _______________________________

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CREATING A WOW! CLIENT EXPERIENCE
Now that we know the various facets of experience, it is time for us to apply this
knowledge to our own offerings to Wow! our clients.
Step 1 – Decide What You Want to
Offer
Use the following star chart to get a feel for what you want your
experience to look like overall.
Step 2 – Think Through Each Facet
EMOTIONS
What emotions do you want them to experience when working
with you?
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SENSES
What senses do you want to engage?
Sight: _______________________________________
Sound: ______________________________________
Smell: _______________________________________
Touch: ______________________________________
Taste: _______________________________________

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INTRINSIC VALUE
How can you enhance the intrinsic value of your offering (make
it a better value for the price)?
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ENVIRONMENT
How can you enhance the environment to elicit some of the
emotions you identified earlier? How can you use color, texture,
sound, space, and décor to maximum effect?
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PERSONALITY
What personality/attitude characteristics do you want your staff
to have when dealing with your clients?
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PROCESS
What processes can you improve for your client? How can you
make it easier to do business with you, make order processing
easier, or customize the process for their needs?
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SIMPLICITY
How can you simplify the experience for your client? Think
through clarifying steps, setting expectations, and de-cluttering
your website.
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RICHNESS
How can you give clients a sense that they are having a richer,
more fulfilling experience? What extras can you add in without
much cost? How can you give the client the total solution to their
problem rather than just a part?
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Step 3 – Create a Process Diagram
Use the space below to diagram your process flow, including the
newly designed experience:

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Step 4 – Secure Resources
What else does your company need to provide this additional
experience?
PERSONNEL
Do you need more staff? Different staff? Training for your staff?
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PARTNERS
What partners do you need to connect with to provide this
improved experience?
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SPACE
Do you need some space, more space, or different space?
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ADDITIONAL ITEMS
What else do you need to deliver this experience consistently?
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Step 5 – Share with Your Team
Share your ideas with your team and assure they are on board.
Include them earlier in the process to garner additional buy-in.

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RESOURCES FOR FURTHER STUDY/ENGAGEMENT
Sometimes you just gotta have more. The resources below are our recommendations to
dive deeper and get a fuller understanding of customer experience design.
Books
Customer-Centered Products (Hooks and Ferry)
What Customers Really Want (McKain)
The Experience Economy (Pine & Gilmore)
Re-Imagine! (Tom Peters)
Designing for Growth (Liedtka)
Customer Experience
Crafting the Customer Experience For People Not Like You:
How to Delight and Engage the Customers Your Competitors
Don't Understand (McDonald)
The Zappos Experience: 5 Principles to Inspire, Engage, and
WOW (Michelli)
The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net Promoter Companies
Thrive in a Customer-Driven World (Reichheld)
Consultants
Ward Certified Consulting
wardcertified.com, customerservicesafari.com
Customer service training that’s fun and impactful.
Intelligaia
intelligaia.com
Focused on user experience design for enterprise software.
Big Think Innovation
bigthinkin.com
Sees the whole picture of how the business impacts customers,
and helps design a journey map that drives customer
engagement at every stage.

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Life is a great big canvas… and you should throw all the paint on it you can.
– Danny Kaye

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When you’re ready to grow,
think big
Big Think is like Miracle-Grow for businesses.
We provide insights, strategies, and innovative
solutions for profitable growth. From ideation to
implementation, we are the single point of
contact for all of your growth needs, with an
incredibly talented team and network of experts
able to solve nearly any growth issue.
Let us know how we can serve you.
Craig Mathews, Chief Thinkologist
919.324-6650
craig@bigthinkin.com