The Truth About Customer Experience: It’s the Journey, Not Just the Touchpoints

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Some years ago, I read a Harvard Business Review article titled “The Truth About Customer Experience” by Alex Rawson, Ewan Duncan, and Conor Jones. My key takeaway from the article is that transactional touchpoints can distort a company’s true understanding of customer engagement. More importantly, they can misrepresent how customers behave towards the company.

According to the authors,

“In our research and consulting on customer journeys, we’ve found that organizations able to skillfully manage the entire experience reap enormous rewards: enhanced customer satisfaction, reduced churn, increased revenue, and greater employee satisfaction. They also discover more-effective ways to collaborate across functions and levels, a process that delivers gains throughout the company.”

Let’s unpack these findings.

The Customer Journey vs. Touchpoint Satisfaction

It’s easy to get caught up in transactional victories—succeeding at individual customer interactions or “moments of truth.” But that’s only one part of the equation. Winning over a customer at one point in their journey is meaningless if the rest of the process is clunky, disjointed, or frustrating. Success at touchpoints does not guarantee long-term loyalty, repeat business, or emotional engagement.

The study warns that a well-executed moment in an otherwise poorly-designed customer journey will result in positive satisfaction scores. Still, it may leave your customer just as ready to switch to a competitor. You’ve won the battle, but you didn't win the war.

The Importance of End-to-End Experience

Rawson, Duncan, and Jones emphasize the importance of managing the entire customer journey—end-to-end. The overall experience, including the interactions in between touchpoints, is what truly defines how customers feel about your brand.

Companies designing, refining, and managing the entire customer journey enjoy many benefits. Employees also thrive in environments where collaboration across departments is seamless and focused on delivering consistent customer experiences.

Key Takeaways for Leaders and Managers

To truly embrace this research, here are some actionable strategies for you to consider:

• Measure the Entire Customer Journey: Don’t just focus on touchpoint-specific satisfaction scores. Use comprehensive metrics to understand the whole customer journey and experience.
• Design with the End in Mind: Ensure your processes are optimized for the entire journey, from the first interaction to long-term engagement. Break down silos and align departments to collaborate for better customer outcomes.
• Create Emotional Engagement: Transactional success doesn’t guarantee loyalty. Aim to build emotional connections by understanding customer needs throughout their journey.
• Refine Consistently: Customer needs evolve. Continuously assess and adjust your customer journey to ensure it aligns with their expectations and the realities of today’s market.
• Empower Cross-Functional Teams: Foster collaboration between different parts of your organization to deliver seamless customer experiences. Siloed success is fleeting; holistic success requires teamwork.

Reflecting on Your Customer Journey

How well are you managing your entire customer journey? Do you see transactional victories as the end goal, or are you committed to designing and delivering a seamless, positive experience from start to finish?

Your customers aren’t content with fragmented excellence—neither should you be.

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This downloadable infographic summarizes the content mentioned above. Feel free to share or post it.

To learn more about creating end-to-end customer experiences, please contact me at?josephmichelli.com/contact.