Notes

The map with the holes in it

Nathan Householder3 min read

Before I build anything for a new client, I draw a map. It isn’t fancy. It’s one line that shows how somebody goes from never having heard of you, to buying, to coming back and telling a friend.

Never heard of you → asks a question → books → pays → comes back → tells a friend

Then we walk it together, one step at a time, and I ask the same question at every step: what actually happens here, and who does it?

The holes show up on their own

Most of the line is usually fine. You’re good at the part where you do your actual work, so the middle tends to be solid. The holes are at the hand-offs:

  • Between “asks a question” and “books.” The reply goes out when someone remembers. Sometimes that’s two days later, and by then they’ve booked with whoever answered first.
  • Between “pays” and “comes back.” The work is done, everyone’s happy, and nobody checks in again. The customer liked you fine. They just forgot about you.
  • Between “comes back” and “tells a friend.” Nobody asked. Happy customers rarely leave a review or send a referral on their own. They do it when someone asks at the right moment.

None of these feel like problems from inside the business, because nothing breaks. There’s no error message for a follow-up that never happened. People just quietly don’t come back.

Plugging them

Once the holes are on paper, the fixes are usually small and specific: an answer that goes out right away, a check-in two weeks after a purchase, a review request a few days after a good appointment. One fix per hole, and each one is something I can price, build and show you.

That’s why I start with the map instead of a list of features. A feature list tells you what’s possible. The map tells you where you’re actually losing people, which is the part worth paying for.

Try it yourself

Take a sheet of paper and draw the line for your business. At each step, write down who does it and how they remember to. Anywhere the answer is “me, when I think of it,” you’ve found a hole.

If you’d like a second pair of eyes on it, that’s what the check-up is for.