Build better processes during COVID-19

Samantha Reid Aviña | Gallery Design Studio Editor + Copywriter

With events and plans being put on indefinite hold, many of us have some extra time unexpectedly available. Use this time to build processes designed to increase efficiency and map out a better digital customer experience (CX) for your prospects and clients. These actions can position your organization for short- and long-term success during this time and after. 

Start with asking yourself some useful questions:

• Do our current processes make sense?
• Do we have a process to evaluate missing or unfulfilled steps of our client's customer journey?
• Do we have standardized, documented guides mapped out for the marketing team to follow?

When you take the time to map out flexible yet specific guidelines, you give your team a framework to perform consistently, and as we say here at Gallery Design Studio: “Quality is consistency”. Establishing a process framework for your team results in better employee experiences, which in turn leads to better customer experiences.

Ideas of processes you can develop or optimize

1. ANALYZE YOUR DIGITAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

One process you can bring to your marketing toolkit is customer journey mapping. Journey mapping is a framework that enables you to visualize your customer’s pain points by empathizing with them.

Use journey mapping to analyze each touchpoint your customer might go through: from visiting your company’s website during the research stage to purchasing and onboarding your product or service. This process helps you address vital questions such as: which interactions provoked negative customer experience or worse, customer churn? And at what stage of the buyer’s journey?

Evaluate your organization's digital customer experience as a whole and compare it to where you'd like it to be. What aspects or features are you missing? 

Download our journey mapping template here.

Tips: 

• Talk to customers frequently and update journey maps to meet their current needs. You’ll need to keep iterating your journey maps since this is an ongoing effort. 
• Share your journey map with your team to get more perspective on how customers feel. 
• Fill out and keep your journey maps on file so you can track your progress. Companies such as Smaply by More Than Metrics enable you to store your journey maps digitally. 

2. OPTIMIZE THE CAMPAIGN CREATION PROCESS

Your content marketing should reflect the analysis of your customer’s journey. Remember you want to provide information that is of value to your customer—which in turn also helps move forward your marketing initiatives.

Tips:

• Build a standardized process for coming up with campaign themes that are relevant to your customers. Initiate actions like regular check-ins with your customer support team to understand what challenges clients are having. This process will ensure you’re always covering industry-relevant topics or macro-economic inspired campaigns, such as COVID-19 solutions and resources.
• Your process should also map out which content deliverables you'll need to roll out your campaign based on your customer's journey such as whitepapers, landing pages and social media posts. Download our creative deliverables checklist here.
• Have skeletal versions of creative deliverables that can be repurposed to keep your brand consistent and professional. If the foundation of the creative is strong you can simply change messaging or positioning as needed.

3. MAP & PLAN YOUR FUNNELS

Forget spreadsheets or just winging it. Map your marketing funnels visually to ensure maximum clarity. Visual funnels keep all team members and stakeholders on the same page – Clarity of communication processes maximizes ROI and productivity.

Tips: 

• Easily map visual marketing funnels with software like Funnelytics. Platforms like these help you make sure everyone is on the same page and has the big picture in mind.
• Visual maps and funnels are also excellent tools for educating new employees or transitioning to new roles. Include visual funnels to make internal onboarding simple and fast.

4. OPTIMIZE TEAM COMMUNICATIONS

Gallery Design Studio Employee Playbook

Build processes and guidelines for your team that enable each member to understand their role and current situation. That starts with being able to easily access project guidelines and checklists in one centralized place. 

Tips:

• Have one place where your team members can access company information that is easy to find and edit, like a playbook on Google slides. 
• Save time by building processes that outline team communications, so when an employee has a question or concern they know exactly which team member to ask.

BOTTOM LINE

Clear, focused processes bring peace of mind to your team. Happy teams with strong tools create awesome client experiences. Those experiences, in turn, increase retention and improve your organization. Try making processes and guides visual, to increase your team’s engagement and minimize errors.

To remain consistent, genuine, and necessary in an unprecedented time, focus on aligning your content strategies and processes with your company mission and customer’s present needs.  

ABOUT GDS

We help B2B marketing teams, in software, financial services, and healthcare, with their ongoing communication design needs. Conveying complex information clearly, concisely and in a visually engaging way.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Samantha is a copywriter at Gallery Design Studio. Samantha is passionate about using precise and evocative messaging to connect with clients. She has written for journals, online publications, and blogs.