Who Wants to Build a Customer Journey?

There are several models/templates for customer journeys. The details vary according to the view point of the developer or the facilitator (e.g., CX vs service design vs digital transformation).

What I outline here is the approach I use for Digital Transformation related training/consulting. Let’s say it works for me.

The goal is to visualize the customer(s) perspective, and then identify problems and opportunities for digitization and innovation. Essentially, build a strong business logic for digital transformation.

Lets build a Customer Journey Map!

Research Methods

• One-one conversations with customers
• Focus groups with similar groups of customers
• Conversations with front-line employees
• Customer queries/emails
• Internal research studies
• Validation with web analytics data

Research Process

• Take the customers through a typical buying episode. Ideally, a bunch of current customers and prospective customers who may or may not have heard about your products/services
• Discuss key decision making moments, troubles in finding information, pains and frustrations, motivation, and so on.
• The discussions should be about them and their quest. Never ask opinions of products/website/ways to make things better.
• More importantly, as you put all this information together in a map, MAKE SURE you don’t strategize simultaneously– creating solutions right away. This obfuscates the real intent of the map i.e., a true outside-in customer perspective of a market or your firm.
• Subsequently, the personas and their journeys can be validated with search trends data as well as a firm’s web analytics data. Front-line employees can add significant value too.

Key Steps in Building a Journey

Step 1: Establish Involvement Levels - Where does your product fall in the ‘involvement grid’?

Consider the following grid for this activity. It can also be multi-dimensional if one wants more granularity.

• Involvement = Importance * Complexity
• Importance = f (cost, consequences of a bad decision)
• Decision Complexity = f (information needs, frequency of purchase)
• Involvement --> Journey (number of stages, number of channels, time, information needs, & emotions)

Step 2: Customer Persona - Who is your buyer(s)?

The old fashioned segmentation isn’t dead yet. It is necessary to identify targeted groups with similar attributes. These are personas - characters that embody the motivations, goals and behaviors of our target audience.

Consider the following dimensions to define a persona

Here is sample persona of a prospective International MBA student:

Right out of the gate, we have significant information from a marketing perspective. For instance, this persona is smart, privacy conscious and hates spam, will take her own time, has very specific program requirements, has money and will act only when she is absolutely ready.

Step 3: Customer Journey - What is this persona’s journey in the market?

The question we ask is simple: What does Jackie experience as she goes through the process of finding a suitable MBA program abroad? a program that has the potential to change her life and career.

To simplify the process, segregate the journey into two parts: the customer part and the firm part. Let’s continue with the above persona and the context.

Journey map should have the following components:

Stages in the journey: Identify the various stages of the journey starting with the trigger to awareness to purchase and subsequently post purchase. Due to space constraints, I am truncating the stages. Ideally, the more granular, the better.

Channels used for information: Jackie uses a combination of search and websites/channels to look for information in each stage. Major channels should be identified. It is also a good idea to notate next to each channel if it is paid, owned or earned.

Key questions in each stage: Jackie has several non-trivial questions at each stage. While mapping, it is important to frame the questions the way Jackie would ask rather than just make statements. Statements mask the key problems that customers face. A tip here is to frame the questions the way Jackie would query in Google or ask a trusted advisor.

Current experience going through the journey: Assess the current experience. Is Jackie able to easily find the information she is looking for? Does she trust that information? Are the channels helpful in guiding her in the path forward? Are the channels satisfying her communication needs in terms of time and effort?

Expected Outcomes: These are Jackie’s expected outcomes in each stage, not the marketers’. Simply put, in each stage, these are the outcomes that Jackie needs to accomplish before she can move forward in the journey. If not she will take her own time, and go around in loops till she finds the right information/people.

Substantial number of studies (including those by the Big Four) show that journeys in the digital world are no longer linear as envisioned by a funnel. It’s is a repetitive loop. As Jackie identifies more information sources, brands fall in and fall out of the consideration set. Earned media from social platforms exert significant influence in this process. Decision making tools that help customer achieve expected outcomes alter the trust and relationship building process.

Step 4: Moments of Truth – What are the most critical make or break moments?

Ceteris paribus, certain critical moments in each journey have an outsized influence on customers’ decision to trust, buy and even advocate. Identify them and make them the central piece of the customer experience strategy.

• What is the key channel that triggers awareness and the first impression?
• Which piece of information and channel combination enhances the trust?
• Which channel or action makes the customer share or advocate?

Step 5: How can the journey help strategy formulation?

The above map is pretty intuitive in terms of actionable information. It directly connects with several key activities that you need to perform as marketers so as to bring Jackie into your fold. To concretize these activities, develop the firm side of the map.

The activity list is defined by the figure :

• What are the paid, owned and earned channels on which you need to present to engage with Jackie in each stage?
• What critical pieces of information and decision making tools should you provide her to help achieve the expected outcomes?
• Who are the players in the ecosystem with whom you need to connect to enhance our credentials as well as visibility?
• More importantly, which groups of employees will take ownership of each stage?

Concluding Thoughts

I urge participants of the mapping exercise to aim at two end outcomes:

Journey Map: A preliminary story or narrative of a customer’s experience as she navigates the big bad world looking for right solutions/products/services – her aspirations, troubles, needs, frustrations, etc.

Experience Strategy: A reworked story with your firm as the hero – with your value proposition, tools, information, and engagement, and being available in the right place at the right time to save the customer’s day.

It always works and is fun too!