Customer Experience Management

Customer Journey & Customer Journey Mapping. Tools for successful customer centricity.

Customer journey mapping
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The customer journey includes all interactions of a customer at touchpoints with the company. It encompasses the entire relationship between the customer and the company. Customer journey tracking measures customer experiences at different touchpoints. The customer journey map is a tool that visualizes the customer journey and documents the customer experience. It makes it possible to understand the emotions, expectations and experiences with the company from the customer's perspective as part of the redesign or revision of customer experiences.

“Your customers may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” 

Customer journey: definition and explanations

The customer journey is a term that finds its place within customer centricity. Customer Centricity is a change process for the entire company that anchors the customer as the most important factor in the company, i.e. H. all products, processes and technologies must be aligned with customer needs. All employees must be included in customer centricity and internalize it. The core of Customer Centricity is that customer experiences enable the company to gain unique competitive advantages throughout the entire purchasing and decision-making process. The prerequisite for this is inspiring, seamless customer experiences along the customer journey across all channels and touchpoints.

The term customer journey, which comes from the field of marketing, loosely translated means “customer journey” and describes the different points of contact between a person and a product or a brand from the initial perception to the moment of the purchase decision and also afterwards. In marketing language, the term touchpoint is usually used instead of the terms contact or contact points. Such touchpoints can be, for example, advertising posters, radio spots, standing in line at the supermarket checkout, testimonials on social media or even the opinions of an acquaintance about a product at a regular's table. But email contact, surfing on the provider or retailer website or visiting a store are also customer touchpoints within the customer journey model.

The goal of the customer journey strategy is to positively influence the touch points and contact

Of course, the term customer journey does not just describe the touch and contact points of a customer. The aim is first of all to recognize customer needs at the respective touchpoints of the customer journey: Is the customer aware of his needs? How does he become aware and develop interest in what the company has to offer? Does the customer consider the offer? Does he buy the product in the expectation that it will solve his problem? Does the customer also develop interest in other offers or how can customer loyalty be increased or, ideally, how can you ensure that the customer becomes a fan and makes recommendations?

For this purpose one takes place Detailed recording, i.e. tracking of a customer's contact points, in order to be able to trace the path to the purchase decision and thus influence it. The respective contact points are also analysed using surveys and observation in order to determine the effectiveness of measures aimed at making touchpoints positive. Designing positively here means that every single contact point should create positive customer experiences or customer experiences. Only if customers have exclusively positive experiences throughout the entire customer journey is there a high probability that a purchase or contract will be concluded or a service will be commissioned.

Example:
Having great products, an informative website or 24/7 support is great. But if your customers feel that you are not valued in direct dialogue, that support never really offers solutions, that they wait too long, then customers will quickly switch to the competition. The Customer Journey helps you understand your business from the customer's point of view by "tracking", i.e. measuring, every point of interaction between the customer and the business, product or service.

More than just good products

Buyers rarely tend to buy products on impulse unless it is a convenience purchase, preferring to know more about the products they are interested in and then with colleagues, acquaintances and friends talking about it, doing a competitor analysis and other such steps before proceeding to purchase. So it's safe to say that it takes more than just good products or good service for customers to stay loyal to a brand or company or to buy the product in the first place. The positive design of the customer journey across all touchpoints, i.e. the “customer journey”, plays a major role. with the aim of winning the hearts and minds of customers and thus turning them into enthusiastic, intrinsically motivated ambassadors for the product or brand or company (customer empowerment).

The sum of all experiences on the “customer journey”

The customer journey is basically nothing more than the collection of all the experiences customers have at different touchpoints with a particular company or brand. The assessment should take into account the entire customer experience journey and not just specific sections of individual interactions. In crowded markets, every little detail can actually be crucial.

Customer journey mapping

Customer journey mapping is a strategic toolbox for recording, transparently presenting and dynamically documenting all of a customer's interactions with the company. It shows the individual steps throughout the entire journey, but in particular the respective wishes, expectations, emotions, enthusiasm factors or moments of frustration of customers at all contact and interaction points - divided into the different phases of a purchase decision - which can be influenced by the company. All The customer's points of contact with the company, its products and brands are recorded in the so-called customer journey map.

The map supports all employees in changing their perspective towards “customer centricity” and enables an outside view across functional silos and individual touchpoints to the entire customer journey. The customer journey map provides valuable insights into which interactions to collect feedback on, what to ask to measure what matters to customers. It is also the basis of modern feedback systems that follow a holistic customer journey logic.

Phases of customer journey mapping

Within customer journey mapping, the customer's journey is generally divided into different phases within the framework of an AIDA-like explanation model:

  • Awareness / The product reaches awareness
    A female athlete wears new running shoes while training
  • Favorability / Interest is growing
    The interested party asks the colleague for details, performance features and price. The shoe is advertised on advertising posters. These also catch the eye of the interested party
  • Consideration / The purchase is being considered
    Image, performance features, price structure correspond to the customer's ideas. The soles of the old shoes are worn out anyway. The customer searches for opinions and comments in forums and rating portals
  • Intent to Purchase / The purchase decision solidifies    
    The customer obtains information on the shoe manufacturer's website. The customer then goes into the store and tries on the shoe
  • Conversion/purchase is made
    The customer buys the shoe. Either in store or online

There are also explanatory models that do not consider the model to be over after the purchase, but rather extend the model described above to include the after-sales service phase. Basically, or ideally, the customer journey is a never-ending cycle.

Added value of mapping

QP icon tool QP icon evaluation QP icon innovation QP icon simplicity QP icon development
TOOL

Obtain a collective tool for representing the product experience

EVALUATION

Gain cross-channel, structural knowledge of customer behavior

INNOVATION

Identify areas for ideation and innovation

SIMPLICITY

Track customer insights in a simple and usable way

DEVELOPMENT

Observe structured development of customer-oriented thinking

Excursus: Differentiation of touchpoints: interaction points vs. channel

At a Interaction point contact occurs between a person and a representative, a message or a product of the company. The interaction takes place at a specific time, in a specific context and with the intention of fulfilling a specific need of the customer.
An Channel is an interaction medium, e.g. E.g. web, print, TV, mobile, business, which defines the capabilities and limitations of an interaction point.

What does a customer journey map look like?

It should be noted here that there is no ONE customer journey map. On the one hand, every company has its own templates, approaches and ideas about how to map the “customer journey”. On the other hand, the purchasing processes also vary depending on the industry or medium. A map from an online retailer has completely different content than that of a car dealership, for example. So we can only sketch an example here so that you get an idea of ​​what such a map looks like.

Example of a map

Suppose a company that sells its products both online and in shops are conducting a sales campaign. A new, innovative product is to be promoted via a radio spot and an advertisement in the local newspaper. A corresponding customer journey map could look like this:

Example of a customer journey map


This map could also be divided into an online and offline map. What is crucial is that this includes all touchpoints as well as the wishes and expectations of the customers, measures taken by the company and how and where along the customer journey customer experiences should be “tracked”, i.e. measured and evaluated.

Another example can be found below. At first glance the map may look simple. Once you start creating it, you will realize that it is quite complex and different for each customer segment. If you search the internet you will find many different variations. Below we will also show you how you can create and visualize the customer journey map digitally.

Customer journey template

Customer Journey Map Template


Main components of a map

The representation of the customer journey map ultimately depends on what you want to observe, visualize and use. Its main components are:

QP Icon Customer Path QP icon lens QP icon simplicity
CUSTOMER PATH

The customer journey is always individual and case-related. It should depict the most important points such as phase transitions and channel changes.

LENS

The lens is a filter that analyses the customer journey across the board and summarizes the core experience. Overarching principles and key values ​​are usually listed.

TAKEAWAY

The takeaway includes strategic insights and recommendations that emerge from the experience map and summarize the obstacles and opportunities found.

Other important elements are:

  • Environment: Pre- and post-interactions, external circumstances, actual situation
  • Thoughts: Comments with the customer's thoughts at the point of interaction
  • Legend: Breakdown of symbolism for easy understanding
  • Emotion scale: Mental and emotional states presented graphically

Process of a customer journey mapping project

Preparation

Definition of objectives and prioritization: Which customer journey is being developed? What is the result used for? What deficits are known? Creation or selection of persona, Planning capacities and participants as well as creating the basic framework of the map (main and sub-steps).

To prioritize main and partial customer journeys, a scoring model is usually used In addition to the customer perspective, capacities, technical feasibility and readiness are also taken into account.

Exploration externally with customers

If there is not enough information or internal know-how, interviews, surveys, etc. must be carried out with the customers in order to have a valid and well-founded data basis for creating the maps Nur.

Internal workshop

The internal workshop is the heart of every customer journey mapping project. Ideally, it takes place with 25-30 participants from all relevant departments, preferably with customer contact. The map is created in several small groups. The group results rotate between the small groups of participants so that the individual is confronted with all stages. What has been worked out in advance by the previous group can be reflected on and supplemented. Overall, the needs, experiences and emotions of customers are explored in depth.

Validation externally with customers

An internally created customer journey map should discord be validated by real customers before finalization, e.g. B. in online communities, group discussions, in-depth interviews or observations.

Implementation: From the journey map to the feedback system

There is often no direct link between a customer journey mapping project and the feedback system. These are currently based more on individual contact point surveys. Modern feedback systems follow a customer journey logic that allows better control of optimizations and has a greater impact on company profits than purely touchpoint-related solutions. Journey mapping also offers further advantages for designing a modern feedback system:

  • Definition of the implementation roadmap
  • Decision on survey times and triggers
  • Dashboard design specifications
  • Content of questionnaires

Customer Journey Tracking: Carry out touchpoint analyses along the customer journey

The customer journey map represents the customer's feelings, goals, questions and pain points at every touchpoint. This should identify as many touchpoints as possible and make them as positive as possible depending on the phase of the purchase decision. In order to know whether your measures to positively influence touchpoints are actually effective, customer experiences must be tracked. This means that you have to survey your customers and prospects at the appropriate touchpoints, which is called customer journey tracking. Customer journey tracking is carried out using touchpoint analysis. We have already explained the topic of touchpoint analysis in more detail in a separate blog article. When tracking, there is no need for extensive customer surveys at the respective touchpoints to gain valuable insights into customer experiences. Rather, you use short and concise questions to determine certain KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).

a) Determine the effort your customers need to get to a desired goal (e.g. finding information on the offering company's website, going through an ordering process, reaching the complaint hotline, resolving a support case). This KPI is called the Customer Effort Score

b) Determine general customer satisfaction using the Customer Satisfaction Score

c) Determine your customers' loyalty and willingness to recommend others using the Net Promoter Score

Which KPIs are determined at which touchpoints?

Here, too, the approaches of the companies are different. For example, some companies use the Customer Effort Score especially in the Awareness and Consideration phase to find out whether the effort for the customer runs smoothly, especially at the beginning of the customer journey, to find information quickly and to reach contact persons quickly and easily. After the order is placed, the Net Promoter Score is queried and some time later the Customer Satisfaction Score.

Other companies only use one of these scores at touchpoints along the entire journey. The Customer Satisfaction Score is very popular here, as it determines “general satisfaction” with the question: “Looking back at all your experiences with our company: How satisfied are you with us?”. The reason why companies only choose one variant of KPI determination is that by using the same survey method, the course of the “customer journey” can be tracked consistently. Other companies use the Net Promoter Score to uniformly measure touchpoints.

Time course of the Customer Effort Score and the Net Promoter Score

Time course of the Customer Effort Score and the Net Promoter Score


Weaknesses and strengths of the customer journey model

The principle of the customer journey, i.e. the customer's journey, also has weaknesses: it is hardly possible to actually record, i.e. track, all touch and contact points within the customer journey mapping. The sales staff in a stationery store will not be able to ask each of their customers what contact point they had with the product in question before the purchase decision was made, such as an advertising poster or a recommendation from a work colleague.

A customer survey is also not possible in every location. Therefore, in practice, the term customer journey is basically limited to the area of ​​online marketing, where it originated. Here, contact points can usually be tracked and evaluated quite easily using tracking tools. But the term is now also justified as a model for offline retail thanks to new, modern survey technologies. Although touch and contact points cannot always be tracked directly, there are methods in market research to trace the “customer journey” - for example by means of surveys - and thus be able to influence it.

Customer journey mapping, the customer's journey


Customer experience management and touchpoint analysis

The topic of Customer Experience Management has long been an integral part of customer-oriented companies. And the topic is becoming more and more extensive and complex. And it is moving more and more into focus. In addition to creating positive and minimising negative customer experiences, the focus is increasingly on the measurability of the measures performed within the context of Customer Experience Management.

Customer journey, customer journey mapping and customer experience

Finally, companies also want to know whether these measures, which are desirably a profitable cost factor, are actually effective or even perceived by their customers. For measuring such measures at the interfaces between companies and customers, survey technologies are now available that enable companies to evaluate almost every touchpoint between companies and customers. These so-called touchpoint analyses have become indispensable in the practice of Customer Experience Management. But how do companies identify and visualise such touchpoints, how do they design them and how exactly are they measured? If you would like, we would be happy to explain this to you in a 1:1 live online presentation!

Customer journey dashboard

In this article we have shown you the importance of understanding, measuring and ultimately optimising your customers' experiences at every touchpoint to differentiate yourself from the competition by creating consistently positive customer experiences at touchpoints. Creating a customer journey map is no trivial matter. QuestionPro CX, the web-based Customer Experience Management software with multiple customer journey tracking tools, offers a unique solution with an integrated customer journey dashboard to help you create your map and track it. The special feature of the Customer Journey Mapping module is that you can see evaluations from touchpoint analyses for each touchpoint at a glance! So you know immediately at which touchpoint there is a need for action.

Customer journey tracking


With our extensive tool set for customer journey mapping and tracking, we have found a way to automate touchpoint analyses and therefore make them cost-efficient. This allows you to understand customer behavior and touchpoint pain points and gain a comprehensive understanding of all customer interactions. “Mapping the customer journey”, i.e. mapping, as well as measuring and evaluating all customer touchpoints, is much easier, more effective and faster with powerful Customer Experience Management software like QuestionPro’s. The QuestionPro Customer Experience Software enables you to gain valuable insights by carrying out comprehensive touchpoint analyses. Such powerful software helps companies to sustainably increase customer satisfaction and customer experience.

This article is just a rough explanation of the term customer journey. If you have any further questions on this topic, please feel free to contact us. We will show you how you can use QuestionPro to trace and measure the customer's journey and visualize the model using software. We look forward to the dialogue!

1:1 live online presentation:
Customer journey mapping & tracking with QuestionPro's innovative CX software

We would be happy to show you in a live demo how you can conduct customer journey surveys with QuestionPro's Customer Experience Management software using customer journey mapping.

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FURTHER KEYWORDS

Customer Experience | Feedback | Innovations | Customer Community | Customer need | Customer survey | Customer loyalty | Customer feedback


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KEYWORDS OF THIS BLOG POST

Customer Journey | Customer journey mapping | Customer Journey Map | Customer journey tracking | Customer journey management

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