Stop Drowning Customers: A JTBD Guide to Smart Contact

How to Use Jobs-to-be-Done to Make Every Customer Interaction Count (and Stop Annoying Them)

Table of Contents

• Why Current Contact Optimization Falls Short

• Reframing the Problem: The Customer's Job-to-be-Done

  • Elevating the Level of Abstraction

• Building a JTBD-Driven Contact Strategy

• The Benefits: Beyond Reduced Annoyance

• Make the Shift

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You've been there. Your marketing team sends a promo email Tuesday. Your support team sends a follow-up survey Wednesday. Your account manager calls Thursday for a check-in. All well-intentioned, all potentially valuable in isolation. But for the customer? It's a deluge. It feels like being bombarded from all sides, leading to annoyance, ignored messages, and ultimately, the dreaded unsubscribe or "do not contact" request. This is the communication paradox: the more we try to engage, the more we risk pushing customers away.

The core issue is that traditional contact strategies – think frequency caps, channel preferences – often fail. Why? Because they focus on our internal activities and constraints, not on the customer's struggle for success in reaching their objectives and goals. We optimize for our send limits, not for their need for timely, relevant information in their specific context.

This is where Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) offers a radically different and more effective approach. Instead of just managing touchpoints, JTBD forces us to ask: What 'Job' is the customer trying to accomplish where communication from us becomes relevant? What specific outcomes define success for them in that moment?

By adopting a JTBD-driven contact strategy, we shift from merely controlling message volume to orchestrating communication that genuinely helps the customer achieve their desired outcomes. This leads to interactions that are not just tolerated, but welcomed and valued.

Why Current Contact Optimization Falls Short

Let's be honest, the standard playbook for contact optimization has limitations:

• Focus on Vanity Metrics: We obsess over open rates, click-through rates, and number of touchpoints. While indicative, these metrics don't tell us if the customer actually moved the needle or achieved an outcome. Did that opened email help them solve their problem, or was it just another interruption?

• Siloed Channels: Marketing has its email cadence, support has its ticketing system, sales has its CRM outreach sequences. These systems rarely talk to each other in a way that understands the customer's holistic journey or current state. The result? Tone-deaf messages, like a sales pitch landing while the customer is fuming over an unresolved support issue.

• Arbitrary Rules: "No more than 3 emails per week" or "Only use SMS for urgent alerts." These blanket rules completely ignore the fact that one customer might desperately need three updates today to resolve a critical issue, while another might prefer a single, comprehensive monthly digest. Context and the specific Job matter more than arbitrary limits.

• The Outcome: We create customer fatigue. They develop channel blindness, automatically archiving emails or silencing notifications. We miss crucial moments to provide real value and build trust, instead contributing to the background noise of their digital lives.

Reframing the Problem: The Customer's Job-to-be-Done

To break free from this cycle, we need to reframe the problem around the customer's Job-to-be-Done. What progress are they trying to make?

Consider a common scenario: Resolve a service issue. This is the customer's Job. When they engage with your support channels, they aren't just looking to 'be contacted'; they are striving for specific outcomes. Based on JTBD research principles, these outcomes are measurable, controllable, and devoid of solutions. Examples might include:

• Minimize the time spent explaining the issue initially.

• Reduce the number of times they need to repeat information to different company representatives.

• Increase the likelihood of receiving proactive updates relevant to the resolution status.

• Feel confident that progress is being made towards resolution (experiential outcome).

• Avoid receiving unrelated promotional messages while their core issue remains unresolved.

Notice the verbs – minimize, reduce, increase, feel, avoid. These point to specific, measurable criteria for success from the customer's perspective.

Elevating the Level of Abstraction

Furthermore, JTBD encourages us to think about elevating the level of abstraction. Instead of just optimizing contact for the low-level job of resolve a service issue, can we help them achieve a higher-level job, like maintain operational efficiency for their business?

Today, achieving that might require them to interact with support, consult a knowledge base, maybe even loop in their account manager – multiple points of contact, multiple potential friction points. In a future state, could a single, highly contextual, proactive notification driven by system monitoring prevent the issue or provide the needed information before they even have to ask? This higher-level solution often requires fewer visible features or interactions, delivering more value with less noise, potentially even serving a different job performer within the customer's organization.

Building a JTBD-Driven Contact Strategy

Of course, you need an algorithm that allows you to assign segments and assume the outcomes below. Ask me if I have one. 😉 These outcomes are not about product features, but span the 17 Universal Consumption Chain Jobs (more commonly referred to as Customer Journeys

Shifting to this customer-centric model involves a deliberate process:

1. Identify Customer Jobs & Contexts: Map out the key Jobs (like evaluate a purchase, onboard successfully, integrate a new feature, resolve a technical problem) where communication from your company is relevant. Understand the different contexts in which these Jobs arise.

2. Uncover Desired Outcomes: For each Job and context, conduct research (interviews, surveys, observation) to uncover the customer's desired outcomes related to communication. Use the "verb + object + clarifier" structure (e.g., Minimize the time spent finding relevant troubleshooting guides). Focus on functional and experiential outcomes.

3. Map Existing Touchpoints: Analyze all your current communication touchpoints (emails, calls, SMS, in-app messages, chatbot interactions, etc.). Which outcomes do they currently help achieve? Which ones do they hinder? Where are the glaring gaps (unmet outcomes) and redundancies (multiple messages hitting the same outcome inefficiently)?

4. Design "Outcome-Based" Communication Rules: This is where the strategy comes alive. Replace old rules with new logic:

   • Context Triggers > Frequency Caps: Instead of "Send email every 3 days," use "IF customer is in context 'Evaluating Integrations' AND outcome 'Compare technical specifications easily' is unmet, THEN send targeted email with comparison chart."

   • Outcome dictates Channel: Instead of "Use SMS for all alerts," use "IF outcome is 'Receive immediate confirmation of critical action,' THEN use SMS/Push Notification. IF outcome is 'Understand complex configuration options,' THEN use Email/Link to Detailed Guide/Scheduled Call."

   • Progress-Based Suppression: Implement rules like "IF critical support ticket is open AND outcome 'Avoid unrelated promotional messages' is desired, THEN pause all marketing sequence emails to this customer until ticket closure."

5. Implement & Iterate: Roll out the new strategy, perhaps starting with one key Job or customer segment. Crucially, shift your measurement focus. Track customer success metrics, task completion rates, and specific outcome achievement scores alongside (or even prioritizing over) traditional contact metrics like opens and clicks. Continuously refine your rules based on performance data.

The Benefits: Beyond Reduced Annoyance

Implementing a JTBD-driven contact strategy yields significant advantages:

• Increased Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty: Customers feel understood and helped, not harassed.

• Higher Engagement: Communications are relevant and timely, leading to better reception and action.

• Improved Resource Efficiency: Marketing, sales, and support efforts become more focused and effective, reducing wasted outreach.

• Stronger Brand Perception: Your company is seen as genuinely customer-centric and innovative in its approach.

Make the Shift

Stop optimizing contact frequency and start optimizing for customers achieving outcomes. Moving from an activity-focused to an outcome-focused communication strategy is essential for cutting through the noise and building lasting customer relationships. It requires a deeper understanding of your customers' Jobs-to-be-Done, but the payoff in satisfaction, engagement, and efficiency is immense.

Your first step? Don't try to overhaul everything at once. Pick one crucial customer Job where communication plays a key role. Talk to your customers, identify their most important desired outcomes related to communication within that Job, and map your current touchpoints against them. You might be surprised by what you find.

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What's the biggest challenge you face with customer contact overwhelm, either as a business or as a customer? How are you currently trying to solve it? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!

If you’d like to take action, I would love to help. Here’s are some steps you can take to make that a reality for us:

1. Join my community and get access to more content and tools

2. Apply for coaching so we can do projects together and build a new business-as-usual with someone who will share the knowledge, and hold you accountable. (I have limited seats so hurry!)

3. I do project work as well. Use the coaching link and we can discuss.

Why Me?

I limit the number of coaching sessions to ensure quality and focus.

I’ve been trained by the best in Outcome-Driven Innovation. Part of that training involved how to understand what the future should look like. As a result, I’ve taken what I’ve learned and begun innovating so I can get you to the outcomes you’re seeking faster, better, and even more predictably. Anyone preaching innovation should be doing the same; regardless of how disruptive it’ll be.

How am I doing this?

• I’ve developed a complete toolset that accelerates qualitative research to mere hours instead of the weeks or months it used to take. It’s been fine-tuned over the past 2+ years and it’s second-to-none (including to humans). That means we can have far more certainty that we’ve properly framed your research before you invest in a basket of road apples. They don’t taste good, even with whipped cream on top.

• I’m also working on a completely new concept for prioritizing market dynamics that predict customer needs (and success) without requiring time-consuming and costly surveys with low quality participants. This is far more powerful and cost effective than the point-in-time surveys that I know you don’t want to do!

I believe that an innovation consultant should eat their own dog food. Therefore, we must always strive to:

• Get more of the job done for our clients

• Get the job done better for our clients

• Get the job done faster for our clients

• Get the job done with with fewer features for our clients

• Get the job done in a completely different and novel way for our clients

• Get the job done in a less costly manner for our clients

But more importantly, I strive to deliver high quality and high availability. That's why I also have to be choosy.

All the links you need are a few paragraphs up. Or set up some time to talk … that link is down below. 👇🏻

Mike Boysen - www.pjtbd.com
Why fail fast when you can succeed the first time?

📆 Book an appointment: https://pjtbd.com/book-mike

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