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Many things impact your customers, but are outside of your control.

Let's say you run a coffee shop in a strip mall. You do your best to offer great coffee, friendly service, and a welcoming environment. Yet you don't control:

• Traffic

• Parking

• Weather

All of these things can impact your customers' experience. Your customers will be far happier on a sunny day with no traffic and ample parking than they will on a rainy day with traffic congestion and a snarled parking lot.

Annette Franz has some great advice for handling this challenge. She's a customer experience expert who writes the popular CX Journey blog. Her new book, Customer Understanding, provides a great overview of ways companies can put customers at the heart of their business.

Franz recently joined me to discuss how journey mapping is essential to elevating the customer experience. Here are some of our conversation topics:

• What is the difference between customer experience and customer service?

• What exactly is customer journey mapping?

• How can journey mapping break down silos?

• What can you do to mitigate problems outside of your control?

• How do you get started with journey mapping?

You can watch the full interview here.