THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY

The road to success

WHAT IS A CUSTOMER JOURNEY?

A customer journey (eng: customer journeys) is simply explained a list of phases, actions and contact points (eng: touchpoints) your customers go through before, during and after they become customers in your company. A customer journey maps all your customers' experiences and feelings from start to finish.

PHASES:

The customer journey typically consists of 3-7 phases, depending on how detailed you want to work. I typically work with 6 phases: Attention, Interest, Desire, Evaluation, Conversion and Retention.

Attention: Potential customers have not yet recognized that they have a need
Interest: Potential customers have recognized a need and are slowly starting to show interest
Desire: Potential customers are now actively looking for a solution to their needs
Evaluation: Prospects have chosen a concrete solution and are starting to compare products and suppliers
Conversion: Customers buy a product
Retention: The customer evaluates his purchase and perceived value

ACTIONS:

It is very different which actions a customer takes, but typically a customer journey starts with a customer becoming aware of a need. It could be, for example, that she sees an advertisement for a trip which triggers a need to go on holiday. To begin with, the need is not specifically aimed at a particular type of holiday or destination. This will only happen after the customer has researched and explored the possibilities of meeting his needs, for example against finances and wishes.

When the customer has settled on a concrete solution to his needs, the research is now typically focused on concrete offers and suppliers and ends with a decision on a concrete offer from a concrete supplier. The customer then makes the purchase from the selected supplier. Finally, the product or service (in this case the journey) is put into use. Please note that there can easily be a time difference between the time the item is purchased and put into use!

After becoming familiar with the product or service, the customer makes an evaluation which can be negative and cause the customer to leave the company or negative and result in a repeat purchase when the need arises in the future. Often the evaluation is shared with others.

CONTACT POINTS:

There are countless different points of contact which I will not go into here. What the contact points have in common, however, is that they can be analogue or digital, just as they can be respectively within or outside the company's control. In mapping the customer journey, it can in many cases make good sense to include these nuances.

WHY MAP THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY?

IT CREATES INSIGHT

By mapping the customer journey, you gain insight into how customers experience the total as well as the individual parts of the journey, and what challenges they have in connection with each individual part. At the same time, you gain insight into your customers' wishes, interests, (unmet) needs - and thus input for development and improvement.

Mapping the journey identifies how customers are treated at each and every contact point, including what the customer feels and thinks about the company when the journey has ended. Knowledge that can naturally be used in management's decision-making processes.

The work also creates understanding and insight into the most important contact points - the so-called "moments of truth" - which are particularly important for the meeting between your customers and your company.

IT PROMOTES EFFICIENCY

Working with the customer journey is efficiency-enhancing because it forces your company to look critically at all contact points, which usually reveals errors, problems, inappropriateness, places where the customer journey breaks or where your company does not deliver in accordance with customer expectations - but can also uncover opportunities for improvements.

These observations can subsequently be translated into operational decisions and process improvements, which should eventually reduce the number of negative customer experiences (friction) and create more seamless customer experiences.

Working with the journey also often helps organizations better understand how functions and departments can better collaborate to deliver strong, cohesive experiences.

HOW DO YOU MAP THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY?

Before you start mapping the customer journey, there are a few things you should keep an eye on:

#1 Mapping the customer journey should always be segment specific, so the first thing you need to do is choose the customer segment whose journey you want to map.

#2 Mapping the customer journey must be done from the customer's point of view. It is therefore crucial that you involve the company's customer-facing employees in the process, but it is of course best if you involve the customers directly, for example through observation or interviews. And of course - for the sake of understanding - you should always "walk" in your customers' footsteps.

#3 You can choose to map the entire customer journey or selected parts of the journey as required. eg. you can choose to map the purchase journey (ie before-during-after purchase) or the complaint journey (before-during-after complaint).

...And now for the mapping itself:

Start with an over-division into before - during - after (can later be expanded to before-before and after-after when you are ready to work with linked journeys).

Next, describe the customer's actions/processes during the three phases. (ex. Consideration, research, decision, purchase/booking, use, evaluation, repurchase, complaint, termination, etc.)
Then list the contact points that the customer is in contact with on their journey during each phase/action. Typically, your customers will be in contact with both digital and physical touch points and in many cases their decisions are influenced by people they trust.
Note what the customer feels (tension, joy, frustration, irritation, excitement, hunger, etc.) and how these feelings develop over the course of the journey. Pay particular attention to touchpoints that evoke strong emotions (80% of purchase decisions are made on the basis of emotional considerations and 25% of even the most loyal customers are prepared to leave a brand they love after just one bad experience).

What thoughts, observations and considerations does the customer make during the journey. What expectations do they have, what annoys, frustrates or excites them and what opportunities for improvement do they see? What questions are they left with? The observations your customers make are worth their weight in gold, as they can be used as input for improving the customer journey.
How easy it is to be a customer with you and how is the customer experience at the individual contact points. If the company already uses (and it should) Customer Effort Score (as the measure of how easy it is to be a customer with you) and Customer Satisfaction Score (which measures customer satisfaction), you already have data for mapping. If not, you have to go out and collect it - typically through a questionnaire survey.

MAPPING THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY - THE INTERNAL PERSPECTIVE

The mapping of the customer journey can advantageously be supplemented with an internal mapping

Start by listing all your contact points under the individual customer actions
Next, describe the purpose of the contact points (creating attention, interest, need, action, recommendation, etc.) This is important when you later have to measure whether the individual contact point lives up to its purpose.

Note which feelings you want to evoke in the customers (inspired, understood, informed, safe, surprised, etc.)
Next, list your SMART KPIs for each individual contact point (visibility, sales, traffic, visibility, impact, activity). KPIs are a prerequisite for you to be able to continuously monitor whether the contact points are delivering on their purpose and therefore whether you are delivering on your promise to the customer. If you don't have KPIs for your contact points, you should get one!
Document the processes behind each individual contact point. If the process is not described, it is difficult to communicate and work with.
Finally, describe who owns the individual contact points and the underlying processes. There should always be one and only one owner of a contact point who is on target for the set KPIs and for continuously developing the process and delivery.