Process mapping is SO important. However, building your processes is about so much more than the big picture. It’s the little details in your micro-processes that can make ALL the difference between a decent experience, and a great one.

In this video, we’re going to compare two different order pick-up experiences at two local chain retailers in our area. Since they are big box stores, you wouldn’t expect them to be anything fancy, but the way that one of them made their processes unique, completely changed our experience overall. (So of course, we had to dissect their Process Mapping and make a video to detail the key differences, just for you!)

Let’s dive in.

The Details Matter

When it comes to building out a process and customer experience we often times assume the whole idea should start at a sort of big picture, strategic, high-level view.

We talk a lot about Process Mapping here at ProcessDriven (go figure!). But if there’s anything we want you to take away from our approach to this topic, it’s that more often than not, building a great process can come down to the tiny details.

Let’s take a step further and compare some real life examples.

P.S. – Both of these scenarios are quite similar, but we’re looking at key details here that really make one stand out from the other.

Roleplay: Order Pick-up at Home Depot

You can watch Layla act this scenario out (husband’s borrowed clothes and everything!) starting at 01:07.

Here’s about what that process looked like, from a customer’s point of view:

1. Enter store
2. Approach General Support Desk
3. Request to pick up an order
   1. (Insert weird internal squabble here)
   2. Get directed to different, undefined help desk
4. Awkwardly dictate your order number
5. They locate your order
6. You take your order
7. Goodbye!

Overall, if you look at this process map of this experience, it’s pretty good. There were no big problems here, and it all seems running pretty smoothly. There was nothing blatantly wrong with the process (except for maybe a few awkward encounters).

So now, let’s take a look at a different encounter. Same pick-up order scenario, but this time with a different big box store.

Roleplay: Order Pick-up at Best Buy

Watch the renactment starting at 03:34..

Here’s about what this process looked like, from a customer’s point of view:

1. Enter store
2. Go directly to clearly labeled Pick-up Help Desk
3. Scan order number from phone
4. They locate your order
5. You take your order
6. You’re handed a feedback form after some light conversation about item purchased
7. Goodbye!

Now, let’s dissect this shall we?

The first two elements that really stand out in the second process are Steps. 3 and 6.

By adding the tools and training to implement Step 3, where instead of having to recite a long, drawn-out code with background noises and distractions, we just simply scanned our phone — they’ve just made an inherently already simple process, that much better. Not only is this less awkward for the customer, but it’s also way more time-efficient for the team.

Step 6, where a somewhat personalized interaction was added and then we were prompted to leave a review, is also a small detail that could make all the difference. The key here, however: the delivery of the ask.

We’ve all been asked to leave a review or feedback after interactions with a business or maybe at the end of a customer service call. And we’ll be the first to admit that, well.. most of us probably don’t follow up with that request.

However, this particular delivery, combined with the handwritten name of the service representative helping you and the small gesture of circling exactly where to go to leave the review as it was handed to us, were genius touchpoints here.

Personally, we’re much more likely to take the extra time (the time we now have saved by not having to recite a 16 character order number) to leave that review, than say — if we were just handed a receipt and happen to catch the option to leave a review at the bottom.

Want to improve your sales process? Check out this renactment of a personal experience at a local climbing gym, and how it could be better.

This quick video is specifically about micro improvements that could be made to the pickup process in a retail store environment, but of course, that’s not the only way you can apply this attention to detail. Take the time to think about those micro-moments in any step of any process.

The topics we cover on this channel focus on process mapping based on the C.E.O. (the customer, the employee, the owner) and making each important piece of a well-run business’ lives easier. By starting from the bottom and working your way up with those little wins before you start worrying about those high-level, visionary objectives — your process and team will thank you.

Until next time, enjoy the process.