--- title: "Marketing Hack: Experience Your Business Like a Customer" description: When was the last time you experienced your business like a customer? Use this practical customer journey audit to uncover friction across your business. image: https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/hubfs/Blog%20Banners/Experience%20Like%20a%20Customer.png --- [Skip to main content](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/post/customer-journey-audit-business#main-content) [![The Emerald Strategic Marketing Logo](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Emerald%20Logos/Emerald%20Logo%202500x2500.png?width=100&height=100&name=Emerald%20Logo%202500x2500.png) ![The Emerald Strategic Marketing Logo](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Emerald%20Logos/Emerald%20Logo%202500x2500.png?width=100&height=100&name=Emerald%20Logo%202500x2500.png)](https://www.emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/) - [Home](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com) - [Show submenu for Solutions Solutions](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/solutions) - [HubSpot Consulting & Optimization](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/hubspot-consulting) - [Marketing Strategy & Consulting](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/marketing-strategy) - [Website Design, SEO, AEO](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/website-design) - [Email Marketing](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/email-marketing) - [Social Media Marketing](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/social-media-management) - [Branding](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/branding) - [Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/pay-per-cllick-advertising) - [Campaign Creation](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/campaign-creation) - [Graphic Design](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/graphic-design-services) - [Solution Bundles](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/solution-bundles) - [Show submenu for Portfolio Portfolio](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/emerald-portfolio) - [Portfolio](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/emerald-portfolio) - [Client Success](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/testimonials) - [Show submenu for Growth Hub Growth Hub](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/the-growth-hub) - [Articles](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/post) - [The Marketing Minute Newsletter](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/the-marketing-minute) - [Downloadable Resources](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/resources) - [Guest Articles](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/guest-articles) - [FAQs](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/faq) Open main navigation Close main navigation - [Home](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com) - Show submenu for Solutions Solutions - Solutions - [Solutions](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/solutions) - [HubSpot Consulting & Optimization](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/hubspot-consulting) - [Marketing Strategy & Consulting](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/marketing-strategy) - [Website Design, SEO, AEO](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/website-design) - [Email Marketing](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/email-marketing) - [Social Media Marketing](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/social-media-management) - [Branding](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/branding) - [Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/pay-per-cllick-advertising) - [Campaign Creation](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/campaign-creation) - [Graphic Design](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/graphic-design-services) - [Solution Bundles](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/solution-bundles) - Show submenu for Portfolio Portfolio - Portfolio - [Portfolio](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/emerald-portfolio) - [Portfolio](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/emerald-portfolio) - [Client Success](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/testimonials) - Show submenu for Growth Hub Growth Hub - Growth Hub - [Growth Hub](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/the-growth-hub) - [Articles](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/post) - [The Marketing Minute Newsletter](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/the-marketing-minute) - [Downloadable Resources](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/resources) - [Guest Articles](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/guest-articles) - [FAQs](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/faq) - [Contact](https://www.emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/contact) [Contact](https://www.emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/contact) # When Was the Last Time You Experienced Your Business Like a Customer? You know your business inside and out. You know where everything is on the website. You know which phone number to call. You know what happens after someone fills out a form. You know what your services mean. You know which reviews are old, which ones are unfair and which ones make you smile. You are literally are your business's expert. But here's the problem...your customer doesn't know any of that stuff. They simply experience what you've put in front of them. And that's why one of the most useful marketing exercises you can do has absolutely nothing to do with creating another campaign or piece of content. **The best thing you can do is become your own customer.** Not as the CEO. Not as the marketing director. Not as someone who already understands the company. You need to approach your business as if you've never heard of it before. Then pay attention to what happens.   ## **Start Where Your Customer Starts: Search for Yourself** Open an incognito or private browser window so your browsing history has less influence on what you see. Now search for your business. Don't automatically type in your exact company name. Think about what a potential customer who **doesn't know you exist yet** might search for. For example: - "managed IT company near me" - "environmental organization Tampa" - "vegan restaurants near me" - "cybersecurity company for small business" - "best landscaping company near me" *Do you show up?* If you do, look at what the searcher actually sees. - Does your page title make sense? - Does your description give someone a reason to click? - Is your Google Business Profile current? - Are your hours correct? - Are there recent photos? - What do your reviews look like? - What do your competitors look like next to you? Customers aren't evaluating your business in a vacuum. They're often looking at several options at once. So your search presence, or lack there of, is the beginning of the customer experience, long before someone talks to your sales team. ## **Visit Your Website Using Your Phone** This part matters, *but is often overlooked.* Don't sit at your desk with the giant monitor you use every day. Pull out your phone and Google your company. Enter the site exactly the way a potential customer would. Then give yourself a mission:  - You want a quote - You want to find a particular service - You want pricing information - You want to understand whether this company can solve your problem Now try to do it. And resist the urge to make excuses for your website. - *"Well, I know that information is under Services..." Your customer doesn't.* - *"They just have to click the menu..." Would they know that?* - *"Our contact form is at the bottom..." Will they make it that far?* Slow, confusing or outdated websites create friction, while simple navigation, shorter forms and clear calls to action make it easier for visitors to move forward.  This exercise isn't about whether your website technically works. It's about whether your website makes the next step obvious.   ## **Fill Out Your Own Form** Seriously, fill it out. Every single field. If you're annoyed halfway through, imagine how a prospect feels. Your forms exist because you want someone to raise their hand and say, "I'm interested!" So don't punish them for doing it. - Do you really need ten pieces of information before you've even had a conversation? - Could some of that information be collected later? - Does the form work properly on mobile? - Does the 'Submit' button actually submit? - What happens after you submit the form?   But don't stop at submission. Because there is untapped opportunity after the click.   ## **What happens after you click 'Submit'?** Do you receive confirmation? Does the page simply refresh? Does an automated email arrive? What does it say? Does it sound like your brand? Does it tell you what happens next? And then find out how long it takes for real humans to respond. Remember, we live in a fast-paced world. People want quick responses. Slow responses often equal lost opportunity.   You spend so much time and money getting people to your website. You invest in content, SEO, AEO, social media, email and advertising. You need to remember that getting someone to fill out a form is not the finish line. It's the handoff. It's the next step in that potential customer's journey. And a bad handoff can waste everything that happened before it. 👉  [Learn how to improve your sales and marketing alignment](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/post/the-importance-of-sales-marketing-alignment-and-how-to-get-it-right)   --- 73% of customers say experience is an important factor in purchasing decisions. Source: [PWC](https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/commercial-excellence/future-customer-experience-is-supply-chain.html) --- ## **Call Your Own Business** This one might make people uncomfortable. Call the same number your prospects call. If possible, call from a number your team won't immediately recognize. Then ask yourself: - What happens? - Does someone answer? - How are you greeted? - Can the person who answers explain what the company does? - If you're transferred, is the transition smooth? - If nobody answers, what does the voicemail sound like? - Is it friendly and professional, or does it sound like it was recorded seven years ago in a hurry? ....Then leave a message. *See what happens next.* So many companies and organizations see their brand as their logo, colors, graphics, and fonts. But your phone experience is part of your brand too. So are your emails. Your salespeople. Your proposals. Your customer service. Your invoices. Your follow-up. The customer doesn't separate these experiences into "marketing," "sales" and "operations." To them, it's all one company.   ## **Read Your Reviews Like You've Never Seen Them Before** Next, go wherever your customers are most likely to encounter your reviews and read them all. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Don't just look at your overall rating. Look for patterns by asking yourself: - What do happy customers mention repeatedly? - What frustrates unhappy customers? - Are people praising something you barely mention in your marketing? - Are they complaining about something your marketing promises to do well? Pay close particular attention to the language customers use. They may describe your value very differently than your marketing department does. That's incredibly useful information! Reviews aren't simply reputation management. They're customer research. They can help uncover what people value, where expectations don't match reality and what customers remember enough to tell other people about. 👉  [Learn how to turn customer feedback into smarter marketing](https://emeraldstrategicmarketing.com/post/turning-customer-feedback-into-smarter-marketing) ## **Now Experience the Follow-Up** This may be the most revealing part of the entire exercise. You've searched. You've visited. You've clicked. You've completed a form. You've called. Now wait and see how your organization responds. - Does your response feel personal? - Does it reference what the prospect actually asked about? - Does sales know which page, offer or campaign generated the inquiry? - Does someone answer the question, or simply jump straight to: "Let's schedule a call." (This is our biggest pet peeve!) - What happens if the prospect doesn't immediately respond? One follow-up? Five? None? Does the communication provide something useful, or is every message essentially another version of *"just following up..."*?   ## **The Problem Usually Isn't One Big Disaster** Here's what makes this exercise valuable. You probably aren't going to discover one gigantic issue destroying your customer experience. Instead, you'll probably discover friction *(and maybe some internal inconsistencies)*. You may find: - A search result that's unclear - A homepage headline that's too vague *(or sounds like every other organization in your industry!)* - A button that's difficult to find and/or click on mobile - A form asking for unnecessary information - An awkward confirmation email, or a lack of an email at all - A phone menu with too many options or that sends you in circles - A voicemail that doesn't set expectations - A pushy sales follow-up that feels disconnected from the marketing message None of those things alone may seem catastrophic *Together?* They shape someone's perception of your business. And that's exactly why customer experience can't belong to one department. 👉  [See where you may be 'leaking' customers](https://lnkd.in/p/ejsqGFNZ)   ## **Marketing Can't Stop at the Lead** Businesses love dividing the customer journey into neat internal categories. Marketing generates the lead. \> Sales closes it. \> Operations delivers. \> Customer service handles problems. But customers don't care about your organizational chart. They experience you as one brand.  If your website says you're easy to work with but your sales process is painfully complicated, that's a marketing problem. If your ads promise responsiveness but nobody calls a lead back, that's a marketing problem. If your social media sounds warm and human but your automated emails sound like they were written by a legal department, that's a brand problem.   --- “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” — Warren Buffett ---   ## **Try the Customer Journey Test** Set aside your internal knowledge and walk through these seven steps: ### **1. Search** Can someone who doesn't know your company find you? ### **2. Compare** How do you appear next to competitors? ### **3. Visit** Can someone understand what you do quickly, especially on mobile? ### **4. Navigate** Can they easily find the information they came for? ### **5. Convert** How much friction exists between interest and taking action? ### **6. Contact** What happens when someone calls, emails or submits a form? ### **7. Follow up** Does the experience after conversion match the promise that got them there?   Write down every moment that makes you pause, hesitate, hunt for information or feel confused. Don't explain the problems away. **Fix them!** Because if something frustrates you when you already know how your business works, imagine what it feels like to someone encountering you for the first time.     ## **Your Customer Journey Is Your Marketing** We spend a lot of time talking about websites, SEO/AEO, email, social media, content and lead generation. And those things absolutely matter. But ultimately, they're pieces of a larger experience. Your customer doesn't care which platform is responsible for which step. They care about whether the experience feels **easy, credible, consistent and worth continuing**. So before you launch another campaign, redesign another ad or add another tool to your marketing stack, try something simpler. - Google yourself. - Visit your website. - Fill out the form. - Call the number. - Read the reviews. - Experience the follow-up. See your business the way your customers do. You may learn more about your marketing in that journey than you will from another month staring at a dashboard. **Not sure where your customer journey is losing people?** Emerald Strategic Marketing helps businesses connect the dots between visibility, messaging, website experience, lead generation and the systems that turn attention into revenue. Think of us as your outside perspective! *Ready to improve your customer journey experience?* [![\
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