Have you ever noticed that when you put a single event or idea into a larger context, its impact becomes more clear? Time can be just the context you need to make better choices about your customer experience.

If you’re a regular participant in this conversation, you know I’ve just completed a series of posts outlining the six steps common to any customer experience. You know that every customer experience starts with a person with a need, problem, or desire they would pay to have solved. You know their experience is what happens, and how they feel as they realize the need, learn about options, try them out, buy, use your product or service to solve the need, and evolve to a new need over time. And time is the backdrop for every experience. Knowing WHEN your customers are in their experience helps you meet customers where they are. Leverage this knowledge to maximize the profit payoff for your actions.

A while back, I was working with a company that helped consumers express themselves online with digital photo editing and web design software. They were incredibly customer driven. The day we began working together they showed my their freshly redesigned company website.  And if you’ll forgive my crude rendering, here’s what I saw:

Me: “I’m curious. Why devote the primary focus and about 40 percent of the real estate on your home page to this message?”

Them: “We pay attention to our customers. We track the top reasons we get calls into our care lines . . . consistently the top question is from customers who download software from us and then can’t find it on their systems. We’re addressing that concern straight out.”

Using time as context, can you spot the problem with this well-intended effort?  Visitors to your home page are likely in the LEARN or TRY step of the customer experience. They are learning about options to solve their need, or exploring which options they know about might be best. They are likely NOT in the purchase step, where the content above is most appropriate. The interaction designed here wasn’t bad, just placed in the wrong time. It is an opportunity cost that is lost to what could have happened here to earn a spot on this customer’s short list of good options.

It may sound obvious, but customers are locked in their own chronology. Each time they interact with you, they expect you to know when they are and that you remember what and how much happened before.

This is why we find it so frustrating to call customer service for help using a product and the person who takes our call starts with some version of “what’s your name?” or “what product do you have?” We’re in the SOLVE step, being addressed in some earlier time. It’s why I appreciated it so much when my insurance agent proactively reviewed my policy and suggested some changes based on the events of the previous year. I was in the EVOLVE step, and he spotted an emerging new need.

When evaluating a new action or auditing the effectiveness of your customer experience overall, use time as your context. Use the six steps common to every customer as a framework to your thinking. I bet you’ll see a more potent payoff for your efforts.