Customer Scenario^® Mapping
A Proven Methodology for Customer-Centered Design
(Download PDF)

Overview

Customer Scenario® Mapping is the best way to prioritize and to redesign your processes from your customers’ perspective. Using this technique, you can quickly discover and communicate a context-rich set of customers’ ideal requirements. In a single session, you can easily capture customers’ priorities, their metrics, the information they feel is critical, the offers they will value, the resources and application services you’ll need to provide, the policies and processes you’ll need to change and the business case for redesigning your processes to better support or transform your customers’ processes.

The visual representation of the requirements conveys in minutes what would take hours to communicate in prose. The scenario map helps everyone in your company understand the part they play in delivering the customer experience, the impact of policies and practices on customer satisfaction, and the value to the organization and to the customer in changing (or retaining) those policies and practices.

The Customer Scenario® Mapping methodology is a proven approach to customer-centered design. A Customer Scenario® Mapping session takes about 2 hours, and involves a cross-section of stakeholders within your company as well as representative customers and partners.

We believe in methodology transfer.

Therefore, we offer training in our licensed Customer Scenario® Mapping methodology. Once you’ve been certified, you'll be licensed to use the methodology with your employees and customers.

Training, Certification, and Licensing

The basic training and certification process can be accomplished in four simple steps, within a recommended elapsed time of four to twelve weeks. Experience in transferring this methodology to others has taught us that while the basic steps in the methodology are not hard to memorize, applying the technique well in a real-life setting takes practice, trial and error, and coaching.

The people who do best are those who are experienced in other forms of facilitation, active listening and consulting. Our curriculum does not include basic facilitation skills training.

We recommend that you train at least three to four facilitators at a time. Having a team of several professionally trained CSM consultants dramatically increases the effectiveness of the methodology. A team of CSM consultants can support one another throughout the process of preparing for and leading Customer Scenario® Mapping sessions. Having three to four certified consultants enables you to lead multiple Customer Scenario® Mapping teams in parallel, maximizing customer and partner involvement and increasing the impact of each Customer Scenario® Mapping session.

4 Steps to Confident Competency

Even experienced presenters, consultants, and facilitators find that they need coaching and mentoring through the assimilation process. Becoming a certified Customer Scenario® Mapping (CSM) Consultant—one who is capable of eliciting high quality, useful and actionable customers' ideal requirements and metrics—takes several months, lots of practice, and coaching.

Step 1: Introductory Training

Each CSM Facilitator-in-Training participates in a two-and-half day Customer Scenario® Mapping public training session at our offices in Boston, Massachusetts or in a private in-house training session held at your location of choice.

At the conclusion of the initial session, you’ll know how to apply the technique and how to incorporate the customer’s point of view in the design of any process, system or application.

Step 2: In-House Practice and Coaching

Within three weeks of the training session, each CSM Facilitator-in-Training should lead his or her own internal team through several Customer Scenario® Mapping sessions in order to assimilate and practice what you've learned. Before and after each session, you will receive coaching and debriefing from a Patricia Seybold Group Senior Consultant.

Practice sessions will increase your confidence and expertise, begin to spread the techniques to your team, and produce meaningful and actionable customer-centered designs.

Step 3: Certification and Licensing to Lead Sessions with INTERNAL Stakeholders

With certification, facilitators can expect to be able to discover, specify, and lead the design of critical customer scenarios with key stakeholders. The Customer Scenario® Maps that are developed will identify and quantify valuable opportunities to increase effectiveness and efficiency while improving the customer experience. The maps actually provide insight into future customer requirements. By revealing how the customer does his job, maps show you how to make it easier for the customer to do business with you, thus raising the bar for your competitors.

To be certified as a CSM Facilitator who is competent to successfully lead in-house sessions with groups of stakeholders (including skeptics), we need to see you in action. Therefore, the certification process involves having a Patricia Seybold Group Senior Consultant observe, and help you lead, one or more internal Customer Scenario® Mapping Sessions.

Step 4: Certification as a CSM Consultant to Facilitate EXTERNAL Customers

The most valuable Customer Scenario® Maps are built by customers and partners. These maps truly capture what the customer needs from you to do his job and/or to achieve his desired outcome, and how he measures your performance.

To be certified as a CSM Consultant who is competent to successfully plan, design and lead customer sessions with groups of end-customers, partners, and stakeholders, we need to observe you carrying out all of the steps involved in planning, recruiting, interviewing, and facilitating customers through a mapping session as well as to vet the quality of the deliverables you provide after a mapping session. Therefore, the advanced certification process requires that you have a Patricia Seybold Group Senior Consultant shadow-consult, coach, and help you plan and lead one or more Customer Scenario® Mapping Sessions with end-customers.

Need more information? Please contact csm at psgroup.com or (617) 742-5200.