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User Journeys: They're Not Just Online

22 April 2018

So I went to a marketing session for a major software company. I'm a "fan" of their offerings, but I haven't had the opportunity to go hands-on in a professional setting. That is changing in my day job, though, so I was pleased to attend this particular event and get some immersion.

Things started off well and I felt a vibe of finally being around other people whose job it is to work on the sorts of things I think about all the time. Okay. Not all the time, but quite a bit.

But there were a couple glitches. A couple hiccups.

One involved a guy who went, basically by rote, through a little demo of a data analytics tool. Maybe it's an occupational hazard, but he was a little personality deprived and I was a little disappointed with how he handled my question about providing stakeholders with a real-time dashboard. This particular tool wasn't designed for real-time analysis, I was advised.

The other incident was really more of a major fail than a glitch. That one involved a VP of marketing.

For a little more stage setting, consider the software. There are a range of modules which can be licensed, serving different business functions and needs. The backbone is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. There are bots for handling customer service requests, accommodating the increasingly popular "self service" model. There's a lot of data-driven intelligence to drive business decisions and scheduling. There's a nice range of offerings to help automate business and make the business run more smoothly (at least in theory).

At one point, after a demo, I patiently waited while this VP chatted with another customer. It was clear we were both customers, based on the color of our lanyards.

When finished with the other customer, he noted my patience and we started to chat. I told him I was new to the system, but also a long-time fan of the company. I said I heard a rumor the company was developing a module for talent acquisition — tracking job applications, resumes, interviews and related activity. I also acknowledged he might not be the right person to ask.

His response was pretty short. He was totally unaware of any such offering in development. I should check their version of an app store for solutions.

I said, "Okay." But I also further clarified, based on demos I had seen, the solutions currently in the marketplace (outside of their app store) all sucked. This was a great area for the company to explore, expand and add to its offerings.

He basically didn't care. That was the end of the conversation.

This conversation came maybe 15 minutes after Kerry Bodine wrapped up a terrific keynote about customer experience and the user journey. I had previously worked through user personas and user journeys as part of a major rebranding program for a Fortune 500 company. Those efforts were focused largely on the website experience and surfacing content to satisfy the users' needs. Bodine's presentation helped put the journey in a broader context of not only the digital, online experience, but also in the interpersonal, physical world.

At another point in the broader keynote session, it was said — and I think it was by this same VP — "We're all in sales."

Let's put it all together now.

• Customer experience and user journeys extend beyond the software.
• Customer experience and user journeys include physical experiences, such as at museums — or at a mini-conference such as this one.
• As representatives of any given company, we're all in sales.

And yet here I was, essentially dismissed off hand when presenting my user need to a VP of marketing. There was no effort to get my contact details and offer a follow-up or a different point of contact for further discussion of my needs.

Go to the app store and find something.

Fine. But my fandom took a hit.

And it actually got a little worse.

As I made my way out of the mini-conference, this VP walked by and offered another suggestion: "You could build your own."

I guess I should be pleased he did me the solid of putting his phone down and acknowledging me. I replied, "Oh yes, that is an option!"

Prior to that whole discussion, I filled out an event survey and had already dinged this VP's segment as the least effective of the meeting. Had I held off until I was actually on my way out, I would've provided more insight into the disconnect I had just experienced.

It was a glossy — no doubt, expensive — Amway-esque hype conference allowing local users, vendors, prospects and company staff to mingle.

It's a shame, though, that beneath the gloss there was precious little substance — and a disturbing lack of walking the walk after all the talk.

Oh. And by the way, this software company really is working on the solution.

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