Let’s do a little imagination exercise. Let’s pretend you’re in the market for a new car. You go down to the auto dealership, and instead of going into the showroom to talk to a sales representative, you go into the dealership service department and just order every single part that goes into the model of car you want.

Is that how we buy automobiles? Seems a little absurd, huh?

A few days later, a big truck pulls up out in front of your house and drops off all these crates full of the parts you bought.

Now, is that big pile of parts on the ground a working automobile?

All the parts might be there in that pile, but they have to be assembled in a specific...

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What if you got all of your customers together in the same room so they could compare their experiences with each other. How many of them would share the same experience?

A Big Mac tastes the same in Paris, France, as it does in Paris, Texas, because McDonalds has a standard. It doesn’t matter who is at the counter or who is on the grill. Your experience as a customer should be the same. Customers want consistency, they want to know what they can expect.

If you can’t articulate your customer’s journey when buying from your company, then you may not understand what’s actually happening with your customer’s thinking processes. And consequently, your actions as a company may not be aligned with that journey. And to the previous point, that journey may not be consistent depending on who the customer deals with in your business because there isn't any standard.

For a very large percentage...

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