The Evolution of Customer Journey Mapping

Customer journey mapping has been an essential tool in service design since the beginning, but it has undergone significant transformation. In the past, journey maps were physical printouts that hung on walls, enabling a highly collaborative and engaging work environment. However, with the advancement of technology and the emergence of remote work, digital platforms have become the new norm, shifting the once beautiful artworks into the cloud accessible by distributed teams at any given time. At the same time, the role of the customer journey map is becoming more of an integration point of various data sources, making it a central piece for customer-centric decision-making. In this article, I look at the evolution of customer journey maps and what the future holds for them.?

The Genesis: Physical prints

I still remember vividly the feeling of standing in front of a wall-size, beautifully crafted journey map with a group of stakeholders and designers aiming to improve the existing experience or create a new one. It was one of those signature moments for our team when we presented the "artwork" to our clients in a workshop setting. These journey maps acted as a visual reference and a springboard for customer-centric innovation.

Although this process was collaborative, it was primarily managed by a single owner who updated and maintained the journey map. This owner-centric approach had its advantages and challenges. On the upside, it allowed for a high degree of customisation and control, making the journey map a 'single source of truth.' However, it could pose difficulties for those not directly involved in the creation process, and the physical nature made collaboration across different locations and teams challenging. Also, typically, journey maps were created for a project and rarely visited after the project was done.?

The Shift: Digital Collaboration Tools

The shift from physical journey maps to digital collaboration tools was hastened by the advent of remote work in 2020. Teams started using digital whiteboards like Miro and Mural, which allowed them to share ideas and insights virtually. Although somewhat limited, these tools offered significant advantages in terms of accessibility and flexibility compared to physical blueprints.

However, based on what I've noticed after discussing with tens of organisations, the role of the customer journey map is still very much the same. Maps are created for projects and rarely updated after the project is done.

The Future: Advanced Journey Management Platforms

Enter advanced journey management platforms. These platforms represent a significant leap in the evolution of customer journey mapping. They take the process beyond static mapping to a dynamic and iterative ongoing practice where teams gather regularly to analyse the journey experience and to work together across the organisational boundaries to optimise the customers' journey experience.

What makes journey management interesting for other departments are the data integrations that change the nature of the journey map from a static to a living view of the customer experience and business performance. The latter is an important aspect because, without it, you will struggle to make it interesting beyond design organisation.?

As we've seen, it's evident that most SaaS businesses are eagerly pivoting towards AI integration within their platforms. Journey management platforms are no different. The primary advantage of AI in this context is its ability to drastically reduce the manual labour needed to create, maintain, and optimise customer journeys at scale. The significance of this capability cannot be overstated. Otherwise, many organisations might shy away from taking on the work that scaling JourneyOps requires.?

Conclusion

The evolution of customer journey mapping has mirrored the broader shifts in our working environments, from physical to digital and from singular to collaborative. Today, advanced management platforms stand at the pinnacle of this evolution, offering dynamic and sophisticated solutions to manage customer journeys.

If this resonates with you and you're keen to dive deeper into the transformative power of Journey Management, follow me on LinkedIn, where I post weekly on this topic. Let's journey together towards CX excellence.

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