Customer Journey Mapping Definition:
Customer Journey Mapping (CJM) is a framework to explore all possible scenarios of customer’s journey so that we can implement the best design. It plays an very important role in Customer Experience (CX) Management and Customer Experience Re-design.
As an approach, in Customer Journey Mapping, we create a map of the customer’s journey to shop, journey to buy and journey to use our products or services. Thus Customer Journey Mapping is a Design Thinking Tool that is aimed at improving our understanding of customers and their needs.
Customer Journey Mapping Definition
Salient Features of Customer Journey Mapping
When you start a journey map, the emphasis is more improving our understanding rather than focusing on its accuracy. So you can choose to assume how the customer’s journey is or ought to be and create a customer journey map. Using this as a starting point, you frame few hypotheses and then using customer research, validate if it those are true. This way, you can challenge status quo, empathize with the customers and better understand their needs.
As a result, Customer Journey Map is created based strong experimentation or fact validation. It is a factual map of how the customers get things done. So, you can create a Customer Journey Map, even when you don’t have a product or service to cater to customer needs. All you are trying to do is map the customer’s journey from inception to exit, though in major part of this journey, the customer may or may not even interact with your products and services.
One of the big differences or advantages of Customer Journey Map is that, it takes a holistic view of the entire customer journey rather than fixing isolated events. Such isolated improvements are very common general practice in the industry. They can relieve customer pain points but cannot help you re-invent or re-design the entire customer experience. Instead of choosing such piece meal approaches go for Customer Journey Mapping.
Benefits of Customer Journey Mapping
Typical benefits of Customer Journey Mapping includes improvement in Customer Retention, revenue enhancement through up sell, cross sell and share of wallet improvement, increase in customer experience (CX), customer satisfaction (C-Sat) & customer loyalty (NPS), ability create wow moments or delights for customer and the power to emotionally connect with the customer.
Customer Journey Mapping Training Course
If you want to learn to create customer journey maps, you can visit our online course
At first, measuring customer satisfaction is fun, just because many get to push traditional problems to others’ boundaries.
“How can we sell a product that has poor support? My conscience doesn’t allow me to do that”
“See, this is the kind of customers we have? Is he our target customer? No. Should we be wasting our time on him? No.”
“See there is something called as market dynamics, we need to accept things the way they are.”
When the dust settles and customer satisfaction scores become targets to achieve, many leaders struggle to improve customer satisfaction or NPS scores. Those who improve the scores, find it difficult to relate its improvement to business performance measures. For example, a large brand has NPS score > 70% now, consistently moving up from 20% over the years. But the CEO is left to ponder as to why market share isn’t moving up. Leaving a marginal lift, it’s almost stagnant.
Similarly, companies invest time and money to conduct market research and embark on a journey to develop new products or services, but at the end, hardly there are any takers. According to Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, each year more than 30,000 new consumer products are launched and 80% of them fail. The numbers across other sectors aren’t very different.
Webinar : Case Study For Customer Journey Mapping
- Learn what are journey maps
- How to create them
- How to use them to take decisions in business
DATE : Mar 27, 2018 TIME : 3.30 to 4.30 PM IST
It’s an irony to note that many big data analytics firms that promise data based decision making to their clients, have themselves perished. I wonder, why they didn’t use those tools for themselves first, like the oxygen mask of an aircraft. One has to accept that even with numerous data sources & analytics tools, hitting the bulls eye is still a magic.
We can blame it on the flat world, disruptions, ample choices, etc. There are choices available to customers now and in future, those choices will only increase. To be future fit, of many things, organizations need to understand why their customers like or love to do business with them? What are their greater motivations? It can be ‘coolness’, ‘hotness’, ‘simplicity’, or the absence of ‘frustrations’ that drives customer’s emotion and ultimately their behavior.
Unfortunately, data often fails to ‘fully’ communicate the frustrations and experiences of customers. The last mile insight of ‘Why’ isn’t answered by data, instead it only helps to narrow down when, where and to whom should you pose this question of ‘Why’.
Choosing to understand ‘the customer’s story’, as told by the customer and as told by employees, can be a soul-stirring experience for any organization and its leaders. It can get you answers to questions such as what to develop, how to sell, when to sell and whom to sell.
A simple yet powerful way to do that is using ‘Customer Journey Map’. It is a design thinking tool that allow us to think beyond the box (frame of mind) and unlearn.</P
Experience of creating a Customer Journey Map is more of “Unlearning” that “Learning”. And that is why I consider it as a treasure map.
Sadly, most leaders mix-up Process Map with Journey Map. When organizations cross that barrier, they get entangled in a tool-mindset – Filling a template and making a presentation.
Learn more about how to, how not to and why to create Customer Journey Maps in the upcoming webinar.
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