I’m heading a team at church with responsibility for evangelization and conversion. Our responsibilities include ensuring our church creates an inviting and welcoming experience for both parishioners and visitors.
Our team gathered before the last Sunday mass this weekend to conduct a visual and experience audit. We used a worksheet supplied by our local archdiocese to perform what they called a visual hospitality audit. We informally extended the audit to include the entire experience, not just the visual cues.
The worksheet was tremendously helpful. It kept our team aligned AND provided a way to see our parish experience with fresh eyes.
Even before we successfully used the worksheet to conduct the audit, we planned to adapt the idea to develop a new Brainzooming branding exercise. It will help brands effectively and efficiently look at their in-person customer experiences.
If you want to adapt the concept to your brand’s in-person customer experience, here are the steps we’re taking to modify it:
- List the various steps that customers pass through to reach your brand (i.e., street to parking lot, parking lot to door, etc.)
- Ask for a short list of both visual cues and experience moments within each step
- For each visual and experience observation, provide an opportunity to indicate whether the actual experience aligns to the desired customer experience
- If a part of the experience is off-brand, have people record what the intended customer experience SHOULD be at that point
To set up our team’s exercise, I prepared a cover sheet advising people to be as much in the background as possible (to minimize the impact of our presence on the observations). It also suggested trying, as best possible, to take on the eyes of specific audiences that need accommodation beyond the typical experience.
Our next step is compiling all the results. It is clear already that the audit form led all of us to new insights. One team member noticed a massive mosaic on the front of the church for the first time, even though he's been in and around the church for fifty years! That shows the value of this type of customer experience audit approach to allow you to find fresh eyes, even if you have decade of exposure to a customer experience situation. – Mike Brown
Download our FREE eBook:
The 600 Most Powerful Strategic Planning Questions
Engage employees and customers with powerful questions to uncover great breakthrough ideas and innovative strategies that deliver results! This Brainzooming strategy eBook features links to 600 proven questions for:
-
Developing Strategy
-
Branding and Marketing
-
Innovation
-
Extreme Creativity
-
Successful Implementation
