Transformative Experiences: The Humble Milestone
Experience strategists often live and die by journey maps. Right?! What they may not realize is that anyone who is seeking a transformative experience wants a journey map too. That is, if you plan to create a transformative experience for your customer you are likely going to be sharing--in some form--your map of their experience with them. This is how things should be every time. There should be a rule that says that people are entitled to read the journey maps the companies who sell to them create. A kind of disclosure.
And every customer who seeks transformation should search those journey maps for the word “milestone.” A company who promises a transformative experience but doesn’t have milestones is a company that hasn’t put much effort into the experience. So overlooked by companies as to hardly be considered, the milestone is completely underutilized.
Why Milestones
A milestone marks progress for the customer and denotes that something has changed. Milestones encourage people to do more while celebrating what they’ve already accomplished. We like to collect milestones. We appreciate recognition for milestones. They make us happy.
To take someone on a journey and not create milestones along the way eliminates opportunities for dialogue. Most journey maps are focused on phases, moments, emotions, and tasks. It’s time for milestones to shine.
Creating milestones for customers breaks big transformations down into bite size pieces.
Turning moments into milestones improves the moments. If you can celebrate more when key moments become key milestones.
Milestones show progress toward a goal. They remind the customer of the goal.
Milestones motivate people to keep moving forward.
A milestone is trackable. And people want to be able to track their progress.
Even if they haven’t set a goal, when people see a milestone, they begin to want to accomplish more.
They give us a chance to pivot and redirect our goals.
They help companies understand what really matters to customers.
Sometimes we set goals that are unrealistic. Milestones allow us to adjust our goals.
They give brands proof points of success.
Transformation Happens Over Time
Perhaps the most important reason why experience strategists should incorporate milestones into their maps and solutions is that transformations happen over time. People and the companies they work with need a way to keep track of what happens during that time. For biking enthusiasts who want to get better, Strava is a necessity. With its wide variety of metrics for biking activity, Strava provides the motivation to keep going. Even if you have an off day, you still feel some sense of accomplishment from the milestones that Strava generates.
The same needs to be true for people who want transformations in their family life, their homes, other skills, and personal attributes. We need the same sort of mindset that propels people up and down trails to affect the way we engage with other parts of our lives.
Milestones evoke memories, a certain reminder of things happening overtime. Who doesn’t respond to those milestone memories on Facebook and Instagram? Every birthday, every anniversary, and on and on. We love what Strava did with their year in review milestone moment. We are even more impressed with Spotify. Spotify made customers feel like they were seen, known, and really understood through their Year in Review milestone moment.
No wonder, more and more companies are focused on milestones. And if you are focused on milestones, then perhaps you should go a step further and think about your strategy for creating transformative experiences. It might be easier for your company to do than you think.