Definition of ‘customer journey mapping’
In customer journey mapping, the customer journey is created (visually). Here, the steps of the customer journey are described in detail, put in the right order and visualised.
Definition of ‘customer journey’
The customer journey visualises and documents the customer’s experience of interacting with a company step by step from the customer’s perspective. It reflects the customer’s overall experience.
It is not an isolated or selective view, but rather shows the entire journey that customers go through when they use a product or service. A customer journey is therefore the customer’s entire path from the moment a need is created to the moment this need is satisfied.
What are customer journey phases?
It makes sense to clearly structure the customer journey and divide it into phases. Each phase can then be described in detail with corresponding sub-items. Only the customer perspective (see section ‘Change of perspective’) should be adopted. At the top level, the phases or stages of a customer journey show the steps that customers go through. They think about buying a product or using a service, decide in favour of it, purchase the product and then use it. The described phases of a customer journey are stable and consistent and do not change even when adjustments or changes are made to product features, for example.
Milestones
Milestones show the end of each phase and the starting point of the next. They also make it easier to understand them.
Goals of the CJM
The goals of mapping are, on the one hand, to gain an understanding of customer behaviour and, on the other hand, to align a company’s internal structures with it. The overarching goal is always to achieve greater customer centricity and customer satisfaction.
Change of perspective for the CJM
In order to find out what is important to customers and what steps they take, a change of perspective is required. You slip into the customers’ shoes to understand which steps they go through in their encounters with a company, a product or a service, what they experience and feel, how and why they act and how they contact and interact with the company.
This customer behaviour can only be truly understood if all experiences with the provider or product are considered contextually, holistically and in their entire dynamic. The starting point for a holistic understanding is to look at the company from the outside. This view is called ‘outside in’. It enables us to understand how customers experience the company, regardless of its structures, processes, IT systems and employees. One method of making customer knowledge tangible and visualisable is customer journey mapping.
CJM and process management
Process requirements can now be derived from the activities, expectations and emotions of the customers depicted in a customer journey. Clear customer requirements are first formulated from the statements, wishes or activities.
Examples:
If a customer wants to order a product online, this must not only be possible, but they also expect the product to be delivered to them as quickly as possible. They are used to this and it is now standard, even in the business customer sector.
If a customer has difficulties installing a product, requirements can be formulated in the same way as for issues during the utilisation phase.
The principle is always the same: Specific requirements can be formulated based on the customer’s behaviour, wishes and statements.
It is not uncommon for improvements or completely new ideas to be taken up at this point.
The customer journey map illuminates the customer experience, while the process map illuminates the internal view of the company. These are two different views.
While customers go through one step of the customer journey, a large number of processes take place in the background within the company.
As a rule, there is a direct correlation between a smooth process flow and a good customer experience. There is also a connection between process disruptions and disappointed customer expectations.
The dependencies between customer experience and process flow must therefore be presented transparently. Only then it can be assessed whether business processes are customer-centred or whether there is a discrepancy between self-perception and customer perception.
By comparing the customer journey map and the process map, the correlations can be shown and analysed.
Correct tailoring of the customer journey map and process model
However, as process flows are often designed independently of the customer’s perspective and purely from an internal perspective, it is not always easy to recognise correlations.
Similarly, we have already learnt that the customer journey usually starts before the first interaction with a company with the need and can go far beyond that. A customer journey map therefore describes a broad experience horizon, while the process map only takes up the internal processes.
In order to establish a connection between the customer journey map and the process flow, the first step is to make the correct assignment. In other words, which process or processes influence which phases of the customer journey and the other way round?
This provides clarity about where the customer and company perspectives meet and where processes in the company run independently of each other
Would you like your company to be more customer-centric?
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