Mapping customer experience is not only necessary, it is incredibly useful for customer experience professionals and marketers alike to visualize the kind of experiences they are providing to their customers.
Customer journey mapping is the act of creating a customer journey map, or mapping out customer journeys.
A customer journey map is a visual representation of the entire customer journey, i.e. the actions and engagements of users, across all touch points.
Customer journey maps help reveal critical gaps in customer experience, between various departments, and between various channels.
Customer journey maps don’t have to be too complicated. They can be simple and to-the-point, however, it is ideal to have a well-designed customer journey map to share with the entire organization. Let’s get started with creating your first customer journey map:
Create Customer Personas
User personas are often the starting point for creating customer journey maps. Focus on what drives your customers to take action, and the critical moments of truth for the customer across channels.
Outline Stages of the Customer Journey
Once you have your user personas, create a model for all the stages of the customer journey. Make a sketch with all the touchpoints a customer is likely to interact with.
Customer Actions
Once you have a basic skeleton of a customer journey map, outline customer actions at each of these different stages.
The Driving Force Behind Customer Motivation Find out what drives your customer to interact with your brand and buy from you.
Obstructions
Once you know what motivates your customers, find out what’s stopping them along their customer journey.
Ask yourself some customer journey mapping questions to ponder about what really matters to the customer in the customer journey.
Scorecard
Objectives: This is what you want to achieve – your end goal. e.g. improve customer retention According to McKinsey & Company, over half of all customer interactions happen during a multi-event, multi-channel journey.
Measure: This is how you will measure what you are trying to achieve in your objective. It is always something quantifiable, realistic, and in your control to influence. e.g. churn rate
Targets: Targets define your objectives in quantifiable terms, i.e. in the form of numbers. e.g. churn rate < 10% Key
Business KPIs: This is the business KPI that drives your objective. e.g. revenue or number of repeat customers.