First of all, why? Well, because social media is all about authentic dialogue between people (not amorphous, talking logos). And, your people are your voice. They provide the human shape and character that is relatable, dynamic and engaging for customers. Corporate messaging on Twitter or Facebook is a one way push that rarely gets anyone’s attention. It’s like throwing a tennis ball at a wall to yourself–you get one-dimensional feedback: your own.

Secondly, how? By leveraging the talent, skills and amazingness of your employees. They have a lot to give beyond their basic job description and if you take the time to uncover those gems you will be doing two things: 1) recognizing and appreciating their value (something people need to thrive), and 2) empowering them to BE your brand (something YOUR BRAND needs to thrive). See how that works?

An example: TGI Fridays out of the UK realized their employees are the key to delivering the experience they want their customers to have. So, they highlight their rock star talents with videos on YouTube that do two things: 1) showcase the skills of their employees (which makes them feel important and valued), and 2) demonstrate the type of fun and entertaining experience one can expect when they go there. Bada bing, bada boom–two hits in one.

Take a look.

If you are in HR, corporate communications or a marketing manager who is trying to figure out how to engage employees in delivering on your brand promise, I’ll be talking more about this subject at The Conference Board Social Media Strategies for HR in New York next week. Follow the seminars on Twitter #tcbSM4HR. Oh, and I’ll post the presentation on Slideshare after the seminar too!

–Jen Travis

Last night, while attempting to find parking to see a play at Seattle Center, I had totally given up, and was ready to (shudder) pay for parking to not miss the curtain, when a free space appeared two blocks away from the theater. Two weeks ago, I found free all-day parking DOWNTOWN! (OK, it was a Saturday and I did have to move my car once.)

What accounts for all this parking luck? I say it’s the same thing that helps businesses succeed.

Does that sound weird? Let’s break it down and see why my ability to find parking spaces is similar to what every successful entrepreneur experiences: We make a lot of our luck. Here are the five ways that finding parking and running a business are related and alike:

1. They reward attention. Near one of my haunts is a confusing no parking sign with about four different restrictions on it: No parking 4-6 p.m., except Sundays and Holidays, two hour limit except with Permit #19, Metro only 8-4 Tue. through Thurs., you get the idea. I swear, I’m the only person who reads these signs. These spaces are available more often than not, just because it’s too complicated to figure out if you’re safe from ticketing.

Similarly, paying attention to the right things in business may mean you find a better internet connection deal, or find an RFP (request for proposals) for a good opportunity that others may miss. It may mean you see a new partnership opportunity, or a new market need. Paying attention pays off.

2. They reward persistence. Let’s take the Seattle Center theater case again: I first went to one lot (too expensive), then to another (required exact change), then to another (full up) and then found street parking (permit required). My husband was starting to sweat bullets that we’d miss the curtain. I was secretly getting anxious, too, and ready to go back to the too expensive lot, but my natural stubbornness prevailed and I drove around one more time. Voila! (What I saved in parking fees, however, will now have to be applied to marriage counseling!)

Never giving up is one way that businesses thrive. Sometimes, all you have is your persistence, and you never know if the next time you try, it might work. How many filament materials did Thomas Edison try before he found the one that worked? More than 6,000.

3. They reward cheapness. Frankly, I’m cheap in most places in my life, preferring to buy my clothes at warehouse sales and eat at funky holes in the wall instead of more upscale venues. This is part of the way I was raised. So I make a game out of economizing, and actually enjoy living within my means. Looking for free parking is part and parcel of that ethos.

When we were first looking for office space, free parking was one of our top priorities. Keeping overhead low is so baked into my business culture that every expense is questioned, and every perk is suspect. This policy helps us reap more profit in good times, and avoid layoffs and debt in bad. It doesn’t mean we don’t invest when necessary, but it does mean we’re careful about expenditures.

4. Both reward a certain kind of risk taking. Here’s where I come clean. Sometimes I don’t pay for street parking when I’m running in to pick something up, or I pick spaces that are a teensy little bit illegal. (Oh, come on, I’m only one foot into the red curb!) Of course, I could always get busted by the parking enforcement people, and when I do, I try to accept it with grace (and fail utterly). But when I get away with it — oh, the joy!

Every business has risk, and sometimes the risk pays off. Playing it too safe will not lead to growth and market dominance.

5. Both reward goal setting. If you don’t set out to get free parking, it’s much easier to fill the meter or buy a space in a garage than to spend the time I do looking for that one free space. Similarly, in business, you’re much more likely to achieve your goals when you have them, and then put the processes and resources in place to make them happen.

So while there is no free lunch, there is often free parking. May the parking fairies rain empty slots upon you. And may your business thrive as well.

- Lynn Parker

This article was published in Puget Sound Business Journal where Lynn is a guest columnist.

There are several different methods of customer experience mapping that exist in the market today. Some methods try to capture the experience across the entire customer life cycle—or the journey a customer takes as they engage in a service with a company over time. This is sometimes called “customer journey mapping“. Others look at the tangible and quantitative measures of a customer’s experience across the touch points, such as number of contacts made and the time taken to access a service. These methods tend to only look at the experience from a service or goal achievement perspective. They often overlook how the brand impacts a customer’s decisions, mindsets and behaviors.

Customer Experience Mapping: The Parker LePla Approach

Parker LePla’s method for customer experience mapping is more targeted to business goals and looks at customer experience through the lens of the customer and their relationship with the brand—seeking to understand how the customer influences the brand and the brand influences the customer along the way. This approach highlights the many elements of a customer experience that are more important from a customer’s perspective than a company may think. It also uncovers opportunities for the company to create moments that turn a simple event such as a post-purchase confirmation, or how a package is wrapped and shipped, into brand-defining experiences.

Customer Experience Mapping in Practice

Here’s how customer experience mapping might work in practice. Let’s say we are working with a company that provides high end shipping and project management services for trade shows and other events. And, let’s say their business goal is to acquire 10 new customers over the next two months. Rather than trying to break down and analyze their entire customer experience from end to end, we help them understand how their existing customers learned about them and what process they went through to make a decision to work with them—how did they frame their need or business problem, what did they need to know, who was involved in the each stage of the process, what barriers existed and how were they overcome?

We start by doing some customer experience research to understand customers’ baseline impressions of the brand, how it impacts their decisions and what they associate with the brand. Then, we talk to the company’s internal teams (business development, marketing, communications, PR and sales) to understand how they deliver their services and what channels they deliver them through. Then, we get to mapping—facilitating a team discussion that walks them through the experience from their customer’s point of view—mapping each and every aspect of the experience on a white board so that the team can see, in real time, what the process looks like from their customer’s point of view.

Let’s also say that during the process they realize that the way most of their customers are finding them is not through Google, but through the event management grapevine. This realization makes them think about whether they should reduce their Google AdWords budget and put more money towards a customer referral program and directory listings on key event management sites. It also makes them think they should boost their brand promotions in these event spaces. During the process, they discover the opportunity to turn their sales force into “event logistics consultants” that provide an hour of free consulting to help potential clients see the benefits of their approach—all because they were able to see that their clients needed more education on why their customers should choose their approach over others. The end result: a clear understanding of their customer’s experience and a strategic plan to help them meet their business goal of acquiring 10 new customers over the next two months.

Customer experience mapping is a very enlightening process that helps companies take a new look at what they do through the eyes of their customers. It helps managers and executives emerge from ruts and inspires creativity and innovation in everyone in the organization. It’s powerful work that transforms brands and turns customers into champions.

Learn more about how customer experience mapping can help you increase brand loyalty and sales and learn about a complimentary customer experience mapping offer from Parker LePla here.

Airplanes and flight have always intrigued me. The idea that you can put a heavy hunk of metal in the sky and make it soar is truly a phenomenon. And, as a fairly green gal, I’m also interested in the evolution of this science and how we can improve upon its efficiency. So imagine my delight when I found The GE Show: A celebration of flight.

This site, developed to help demonstrate (not just tell people) what GE is doing, is a truly brand-defining digital experience. Fun, educational, interactive and engaging: yes. Interesting and relevant information that helps you understand technology and how it influences and changes our lives: check! And, I come away from it with a somewhat surprising appreciation for GE that I never had before.

Fun fact: the number of airplanes in the sky every hour in the U.S.—5K. Check out their intersecting flight patterns. There’s also the celebration of innovative ideas: electric planesand optimized descents that reduce fuel consumption and CO² emissions. Personally, I recommend the High Flying Tens—top ten plane landings, weirdest planes, window photos and trying your hand at designing your own plane.

You know it’s a good experience when you’ve lost track of time during your exploration, can’t wait to come back for more, leave armed with new found knowledge that you can’t wait to share with your friends and feel inspired by something that happens every day. If you aren’t enamored by the magic of flight now, once you soar through this innovative experience, I think you will be.

An Example of Customer Experience Mapping: This experience map is a visual representation of our target persona Zach’s journey as he tries to figure out how best to cut costs quickly.

Customer Experience Mapping: The Parker LePla Approach

Parker LePla’s method for customer experience mapping is more targeted to business goals and looks at customer experience through the lens of the customer and their relationship with the brand—seeking to understand how the customer influences the brand and the brand influences the customer along the way. This approach highlights the many elements of a customer experience that are more important from a customer’s perspective than a company may think. It also uncovers opportunities for the company to create moments that turn a simple event such as a post-purchase confirmation, or how a package is wrapped and shipped, into brand-defining experiences.

Customer Experience Mapping in Practice

Here’s how customer experience mapping might work in practice. Let’s say we are working with a company that provides high end shipping and project management services for trade shows and other events. And, let’s say their business goal is to acquire 10 new customers over the next two months. Rather than trying to break down and analyze their entire customer experience from end to end, we help them understand how their existing customers learned about them and what process they went through to make a decision to work with them—how did they frame their need or business problem, what did they need to know, who was involved in the each stage of the process, what barriers existed and how were they overcome?

We start by doing some customer experience research to understand customers’ baseline impressions of the brand, how it impacts their decisions and what they associate with the brand. Then, we talk to the company’s internal teams (business development, marketing, communications, PR and sales) to understand how they deliver their services and what channels they deliver them through. Then, we get to mapping—facilitating a team discussion that walks them through the experience from their customer’s point of view—mapping each and every aspect of the experience on a white board so that the team can see, in real time, what the process looks like from their customer’s point of view.

Let’s also say that during the process they realize that the way most of their customers are finding them is not through Google, but through the event management grapevine. This realization makes them think about whether they should reduce their Google AdWords budget and put more money towards a customer referral program and directory listings on key event management sites. It also makes them think they should boost their brand promotions in these event spaces. During the process, they discover the opportunity to turn their sales force into “event logistics consultants” that provide an hour of free consulting to help potential clients see the benefits of their approach—all because they were able to see that their clients needed more education on why their customers should choose their approach over others. The end result: a clear understanding of their customer’s experience and a strategic plan to help them meet their business goal of acquiring 10 new customers over the next two months.

Customer experience mapping is a very enlightening process that helps companies take a new look at what they do through the eyes of their customers. It helps managers and executives emerge from ruts and inspires creativity and innovation in everyone in the organization. It’s powerful work that transforms brands and turns customers into champions.

Learn more about how customer experience mapping can help you increase brand loyalty and sales and learn about a complimentary customer experience mapping offer from Parker LePla here.