Want to Stay Ahead of the Game? Make Sure You Know Your Customer’s Journey

For almost every industry, the balance of the power is with the customer as a result of digital technologies. More and more customers are using digital tools and platforms to research, plan, book, transact and share what they do with organizations and the number of people who do so is growing steadily.

 

In order to communicate and engage with today’s customers effectively, and stay ahead of your competitors, it is imperative that companies understand their customers better. One of the most important tools for doing this is customer journey mapping.

 

What is customer journey mapping?

In the quickly changing business landscape, customer journey mapping is a critical way for ensuring your organization is delivering great customer experiences.

 

So what is it?

 

At its core, customer journey mapping “maps” all of the steps that a customer takes from the start to the finish of their experience with your organization.

 

By mapping this journey you will gain a thorough understanding of how your customers engage and interact with your company.

 

Armed with this understanding you can then nurture and win customer business and on-going loyalty by creating and delivering better, more personalized experiences.

 

Remember, it’s about them not you

To truly leverage the most value out of your customer journey mapping efforts it’s important to remember that it’s the customer’s entire journey, not the steps in your map, that matter.

 

Designing your customer journey maps, and the experiences and communications you produce, should therefore be based on what they need and desire, not on how your organization is structured or on the products that you sell.

 

Delighting your customers with experiences that meet or exceed what your customers want to do—not just what you want to sell—is what will allow you to reap the greatest ROI from your customer journey mapping initiative.

 

How to know if customer journey mapping could help your organization

At Quadient, we believe customer journey mapping is well worth the investment, but it takes a significant investment to get it right. Not only do you have to put in the work to have everything in place for an effective customer journey map, but it also involves a cultural change within your organization for the process to take root and flourish.

 

To help you decide whether customer journey mapping is a commitment worth making for your organization, take a moment to answer the following questions:

 

1. Have you tested your existing assumptions about what you (and your employees) think your customers experience when interacting with your organization is vs. what they actually experience?

 

2. Do you have an accurate view of every channel your customers use?

 

3. Do your own employees understand how, when and why customers engage your organization and what they can do proactively in reaction to this interaction?

 

4. Can you monitor and take action – such as sending emails or messages with new offers – on an individual customer basis, in real time?

 

5. Do you know where in the customer journey your organization is failing to deliver a great experience?

 

If you were unable to answer “yes” to most of these questions, then in all probability your organization may be viewing your customer journey in a bubble. If so, the bottom line is, it’s time to seriously consider investing the time and resources into customer journey mapping.

 

Learn more about customer journey mapping, the characteristics they should include to be effective and what future trends could impact them. Download the white paper “The Essential Checklist for Customer Journey Mapping: How to Stay Ahead of the Game”.