Journey Mapping
Despite best intentions and mountains of data, many organizations continue to offer lackluster experiences for their customers and most companies lack the skills to transfer insights into real solutions.
Many organizations function with an internal focus, and that becomes apparent when customers interact with their various products, services and employees. One dead giveaway is the use of internal language that finds its way onto the packaging or digital products. Product assembly instructions are just one example.
Every interaction a customer has with an organization has an effect on satisfaction, loyalty, and the bottom line. Plotting out a customer’s emotional landscape by way of a Customer Journey Map, or Experience Map, along their path sheds light on key opportunities for deepening those relationships.
What is a Journey Map
A Customer Journey map is a visual or graphic interpretation of the overall story from an individual’s perspective of their relationship with an organization, service, product or brand, over time and across channels.
The beauty of journey mapping is that it’s easy to do and even just a couple of hours or a day’s workshop can set things on the right path.
Journey Map Benefits
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Catalyst - it's a perfect starting point to get a birds-eye view to the customer's experience warts and all.
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Engagement - typically performed as a workshop, key players come together across the organization and voilà functional teams are formed.
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Value - strengths, weaknesses and opportunities are uncovered that energize teams to ways to improve the customer experience and give everyone else a view to what a customer encounters.
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Themes - since workshops are performed with a range of stakeholders, themes will arise when the same issue reappears.
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Education - for me, the biggest benefit in mapping customer journeys are the conversations that arise from the team members.
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Connection - there's nothing better than connecting with end users to hear their product stories.
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Focus - the whole point of journey mapping is to generate ideas to improve the future.
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Fun - it’s simply a great way to bring people in your business together and foster employee engagement.
Redbox Purchase Journey
Success
The CEO placed the map in her office to reference to provide business alignment.
Background
This map describes the purchase journey from discovery to return. The found weaknesses inspired the team to prioritize projects ending up on the product roadmap - success!
To validate the insights actual data was layered to give evidence and credibility to the findings and concepts we found in the field.
Diabetes Journey Map
Success
The workshop aligned the clinical team around diabetic content to be featured within the chronic disease center on Walgreens.com.
Background
This was the first step in a three phase project to visualize what customers experience from the onset of diabetes to management. The map was developed from secondary research and validated by the corporate diabetes clinical team.
Wahdle Journey Map
Success
Discovered experience gaps for group travel for an early stage startup.
Background
A two founder team was excited to create a travel app for a small groups. The exercise allowed the founders to identify low and high points of the experience. The low points were turned into opportunities that the investors found to be the real competitive advantages.
