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Customer Journey

Prove value, by building systems that guide progress that drive growth with quantifiable improvement.

Operating Model

The Seven Flows of a Business

Six commercial flows. One meta-flow wraps them. Click any flow for depth.

Lens
  1. Customer Intent & DemandWhat the market wants and how it is changing.
    Data sources:Ad impressions, clicks, form fills, telemetry, NPS, churn reasons.
  2. Order-to-CashFrom quote to money in the bank.
    Data sources:Quotes, contracts, orders, fulfilment status, invoices, payments, refunds.
  3. Procure-to-Pay & SupplyDeliver consistently and profitably.
    Data sources:Forecasts, POs, supplier confirmations, receipts, payables, payment runs.
  4. Operational ExecutionPromises become reality — production, service, logistics.
    Data sources:Work orders, capacity, utilization, delivery performance, downtime, rework.
  5. Financial PerformanceThe truth ledger that integrates all other flows.
    Data sources:Revenue, margin, costs, cash position, covenants, FX, credit exposure.
  6. People, Capability & GovernanceHow fast the organisation learns, adapts, and stays safe.
    Data sources:Hiring pipeline, onboarding, role changes, skills, performance, retention, access logs, audits.
Meta-Flow: Analytics & FeedbackThe brain stem — raw events → insight → changed behaviour.
Data sources:Events, transactions, logs from every other flow → warehouse → dashboards → alerts.
Feeds back into every flow above

Source: 7-flow framework (banthamtechnologies) + three-flows + data-value-flow. SaaS-first lens — physical/manufacturing variant deferred.

How you onboard people is the most important system to get right to building an enduringly successful organisation. As this shapes culture of future generations that will shape the fabric of existence.

Dig Deeper​

Prediction​

We are moving into a state of world where, who and what you trust is everything.

  1. Genuinely giving a fork is going to best way to survive
  2. Engineer a team so you can spend more time, more effectively genuinely giving a fuck
  3. Work hard to build trust, never take it for granted

Build Trust​

Health Score​

  • Develop a system to quantify customer engagement and product utilization
  • Categorize customers into red (at-risk), yellow (neutral), green (engaged), and purple (referenceable) status
  • Implement a "member-at-risk monitor" (MAR) to track customer health

Outcome Focused​

  • Understand each client's specific desired outcomes
  • Manage implementation and activation like a project
  • Use tools like the Executive Business Review (EBR) Flow Planner to guide customer interactions

Retention​

  • Engage renewal and upsell
  • Aim to have referrals match or exceed customer churn for sustainable growth
  • Develop a structured renewal process, especially within 90 days of contract renewal
  • Focus on expansion revenue throughout the customer lifecycle
  • Aim for a 5:1 return on investment for Customer Success expenditure

Escalate Value​

  • Move customers from red to purple (referenceable) status
  • Obtain testimonials, referrals, and case studies
  • Engage top customers in marketing activities (podcasts, conferences)

Customer Voice​

  • Represent customer perspectives in product development meetings
  • Provide critical feedback to improve the product
  • Create a process for escalating and addressing customer concerns

SaaS Toolkit​

Use the EBR Flow Planner, a nine-box model, to guide customer interactions and identify upsell opportunities

SaaS Checklist

Context​

Questions​

What would change if you measured customer progress by state (like a things table) instead of satisfaction scores?

  • Which phase of your onboarding process loses the most customers — and is it a process failure or a product failure?
  • If your healthiest customers became your sales force, what would you need to prove to them first?
  • Where does your customer journey promise trust but deliver process?