How do you test and validate your customer journey map with real customers and feedback?

Defining objectives and metrics is foundational, but the real test lies in how well these align with the customer's experience. To validate your customer journey, start by involving customers early and often. Real feedback is gold—it reveals gaps in our assumptions and highlights what's truly valuable to them. One approach is to create interactive prototypes or pilot programs where customers can engage and provide feedback in real-time. This not only tests the journey but also fosters a sense of collaboration. Remember, a customer journey isn't just a map—it's a living, evolving process that should continuously reflect your customers' evolving needs.

To validate our customer journey map, I blend qualitative interviews and focus groups to grasp emotional responses and pain points. Quantitative analytics and A/B testing then refine touchpoints based on real-time customer feedback and behavior, ensuring our map evolves with changing preferences across channels.

With well-defined goals, you can laser-focus your testing efforts, ensuring each step contributes to a more profound understanding of your customer's experience.Setting objectives and metrics isn't just about the present; it's about charting the course for the future. It's about equipping yourself with the tools to continually assess and enhance the customer journey. It's a commitment to adapt and evolve, striving for excellence in every interaction.

Trial & error in the customer journey is the only way to arrive at the best way of doing things & it takes a village to arrive at that outcome. Clearly identifying what you're trying to test & the outcome you're aiming for is critical in ensuring that all team's involved understand their part in the grand scheme of things.

When it comes to delivering a successful experience to your clients, having a clear understanding of your customer journey is key to achieve this goal. I like to describe CJM as a dynamic process that allows businesses to walk in their customers' shoes, experiencing their journey by seeing it from their perspective while identifying area of improvement. But the mapping of your customer journey starts first by understanding what it is about: Analysing chronologically the entire experience a customer has with a brand, from initial awareness to post-purchase support. It involves identifying and documenting each interaction point, whether it is through digital channels, customer-employees interactions or in-person experiences.

Segment your customers based on demographics, behavior, and preferences. Then, select testers from each segment to ensure diverse feedback. For instance, for a software company, testers could include both new and long-term users, offering insights into different stages of the customer journey. This targeted approach ensures your customer journey map resonates with all segments, leading to more accurate validation and actionable insights.

Each stage of your journey should be mapped out in detail throughout all its different touchpoints. So how to do so successfully? It starts by making sure you: ? Define clearly your target customers and the fictional customer persona who represent your ideal user type within this niche ? Analyse the different stages of this journey – 8 main stages: Awareness / Consideration / Decision / Delivery / Use / Monitoring / Loyalty / Advocacy ? Analyse the different touchpoints your customer persona has with your brand within each stage ? Identify which of your touchpoints are considered being “pain points” as detailed below

Identify Test Participants: - Select a representative sample of your target audience for testing. - Ensure diversity in demographics, behaviors, and preferences to capture a comprehensive range of perspectives.

Segmentation Criteria: Identify the different segments of your customers based on relevant characteristics, behaviors, and needs. This could include demographics (age, gender, location), psychographics (lifestyles, values), purchasing behavior (frequency, amount spent), or other factors relevant to your business. Representative Sample: Ensure that you select testers from each segment to get a diverse and representative sample of your customer base. This will help you uncover insights about the unique experiences and expectations of different customer groups. Recruitment Methods: Use a variety of methods to recruit testers from each segment, such as surveys, interviews, referrals, or incentives.

Segmentation: Identify distinct customer segments based on demographics, preferences, behaviors, or lifecycle stage. Ensure representation across key segments to capture diverse perspectives on the customer journey. Testers Selection: Use a combination of methods such as surveys, interviews, and referrals to recruit testers from each segment. Consider offering incentives to encourage participation while ensuring testers are genuinely interested and engaged. Aim for a balanced sample size within each segment to ensure diverse feedback without overwhelming data.

Creating a customer journey map involves a lot of different steps. So where does it start? First of all, you must gather accurate information about your target audience (such as demographics, preferences and behaviors) and more precisely, your customer personas (a personalized fictional character created to represent your ideal user type). Once the data is collected, you can then begin to outline the various stages of your customer journey and do so from the initial awareness stage up to the purchase stage and beyond.

Efectivamente, recopilado las informaciones del viaje del cliente oculto, elaboramos un informe visual y escrito, donde alcanzamos la puntuacion del recorrido. En base a este informe, lo socializamos en equipo para conocimiento y mejora de cada momento de dolor del cliente. Este informe analizado y estudiado por el equipo, servira para reconocer y retroalimentar. Es un antes de la estrategia y cada cuatro meses, despues de el personal haber recibido la primera formacion y lanzamiento del proyecto de cultura centrada en el cliente.

Scenarios and Tasks: Create scenarios or use cases that simulate different stages of the customer journey. Develop specific tasks or actions for testers to complete within each scenario, reflecting common interactions or touchpoints. Questions and Surveys: Design questions or surveys to gather feedback from testers about their experiences and perceptions at each stage of the customer journey. Include both quantitative questions with predefined answer options and open-ended questions to capture qualitative insights. Prototypes or Mockups: If applicable, create prototypes or mockups of your digital interfaces (e.g., website, app) to provide a visual representation of the customer journey.

A customer journey map can be tested and proven through usability studies, interviews, and questionnaires with real customers. See how they engage with touchpoints, solicit comments on issues, and spot holes. Compare several travel paths using A/B testing. Examine consumer behaviour data and change the map depending on findings. Also, add constant consumer comments to continuously improve the journey map so it reflects real customer experiences and requirements.

The best I've seen for this is a zoom call with a screen share. Watch the user go through the motions, don't interrupt and take notes. Record the session and share it with people. You can also ask the person to dictate how they are going through the process and speak out loud about their experiment. If you use a language tool like Gong or Avoma you can then send the transcript into an AI tool like Chat GPT and ask them to summarize what the person is saying/doing. "What are the most important things to learn about this person's interaction with our site" etc. While the screenshare is low tech, its something everyone has and you can do this quickly, without much prep.

Choose Testing Formats and Methods: Select appropriate formats and methods for your testing sessions based on your objectives and the preferences of your testers. Options include online or offline sessions, individual or group settings, and techniques such as observation, interviews, questionnaires, or usability testing. Set Up Testing Environment: Prepare the testing environment to ensure a smooth and conducive experience for your testers. This may involve setting up digital interfaces, providing necessary materials or tools, and creating a comfortable and distraction-free space for testing. Facilitate Testing Sessions: Facilitate the testing sessions by guiding testers through the scenarios, tasks, or activities

Once you are done building your customer journey chronologically, you need to make sure that you are turning any opportunities of improvements into specific actions. For instance, updating your internal processes such as your booking, onboarding or decision processes based on what you discovered can definitely be something you want to do. But it can also be related to the different methods you have in place to check on your customers, get their feedback or manage their expectations. Once a CJM is successfully created, it is also essential to improve your business strategy accordingly. This can involve making changes to existing retention strategy, implementing new technologies or retraining staff to better meet customer needs.

Analyze Data and Identify Patterns: - Analyze the collected data to identify patterns, common themes, and recurring issues. - Look for insights related to pain points, positive experiences, and areas where the journey map aligns with or deviates from customer expectations.

Once you collect the data put it into an AI tool to analyze the results in a digestible way. The computer can probably give you a better analysis than most humans, and if you don't have the resources this is a tool that can really help you get far if you are early in your evolution as a business. It probably costs nothing and if it gives you any insight its worth it. But you do have to make your own assumptions as well. Test and keep going!

Data Organization: Organize the feedback data collected from testing sessions using appropriate tools such as spreadsheets or databases. Group responses by tester, segment, or specific stage of the customer journey to facilitate analysis. Categorization and Visualization: Categorize and visualize the feedback data using charts, graphs, or diagrams to identify patterns, trends, and outliers. This could involve creating visual representations of quantitative data (e.g., bar charts for survey responses) and thematic analysis for qualitative data (e.g., identifying recurring themes in interview transcripts).

Incorporate the learnings from the testing to update and refine your customer journey map. Repeat the testing process periodically to continuously improve the journey.

Iterate the Journey Map: - Based on the insights gathered, iterate and refine the customer journey map. - Update touchpoints, emotions, and pain points to better reflect the reality of customer experiences.

Run a survey with a cash incentive. I know that seems very basic and maybe even strange, but you need answers and you need people's time. work with your CS team to find your champions and offer them a digital giftcard for 30 minutes of their time. Record the session. Rinse and repeat. Actually action their feedback. Iterate quickly.

Review Feedback and Insights: Review the feedback and insights gathered from testing sessions, data analysis, and interpretation to identify areas for improvement and opportunities for refinement in your customer journey map. Identify Areas for Modification: Identify specific elements of your customer journey map that need to be updated, refined, or modified based on the feedback received. This could include stages, touchpoints, channels, actions, emotions, pain points, or other relevant aspects. Prioritize Changes: Prioritize changes to your customer journey map based on the significance and impact of the feedback received. Focus on addressing critical issues or pain points that have the greatest potential

Share key takeaways from the journey map with stakeholders. Keeping all stakeholders updated is necessary for good communication. Problem solving often happens when you do it as a group. Coming together as a whole to discuss findings can improve overall customer experience, especially with cross-collaboration.