The other day, in a Networking event, I was speaking to a business advisor. We had a fascinating conversation about services and how we should prototype before start selling. Whatever service you do you should understand all the phases of the user journey. Here you have a system that works really well. Inspired by the book called Sprint this is how I help prototyping businesses.
Understand the Mission of your business
We all do things for a reason. We all want to make an impact on the world and help people to succeed, that is what most companies do. I know some might think about money, but to me, money is a collateral benefit for doing something right. If your motivation is money, you might not find this article interesting.
Map your service
One of the best ways to understand your service and whether it will work or not is seeing it visually. I straightforwardly map the services, download the template I use below, I think how the whole process will work: Before, during and after the service. I consider the start of the service from the time you engage with your customers. For example, for an E-commerce site, the beginning of the service would be the website.
Include arrows and drawings if that helps to map your service. A user journey is rarely a straight line, most of the times it takes seven visits or more to your website for a customer to purchase something, so remember that while mapping. After the service, there is an excellent opportunity to get your customer to buy again. A reminder after a few months you could send an email saying: “It’s been a month since your last appointment, would you like to book a new one?”
Check the map within the company experts
Your marketing manager or your sales executive can give you a lot of great feedback, share the plan with them because they will be the ones that might pick the mistakes you might have missed.
Implement quick and test
We are at the time of the internet. Prototyping is easier than ever, and people aren’t looking for perfection but excellent service. If you can get your prototype out there sooner do it, ultimately you will improve that as you gather real feedback from real clients.