Consumers are bombarded with loads of influential information each day, which makes it difficult for businesses to rely solely on one marketing strategy to capture relevant information. From increasing awareness for your business to saying “thank you for coming in” after a customer pays, there are a number of steps to make each customer experience — or customer journey — worthwhile.
You might be thinking that you already know your customer’s journey, but there is always room for improvement. The best way to improve and visualize how a customer interacts with your business is by outlining it on a customer journey map.
What Is a Customer Journey Map?
A customer journey map is a visual representation of the process a customer goes through with your business to reach their end result. It is evident that you cannot assume your customer’s opinions based on your own views. By gaining in-depth information, you are able to notice how to positively manage your customer’s experience.
Consider a customer journey map to be a road map of your customer’s experience. It shows you moments where customers will be impressed, as well as situations where they might be faced with friction or disappointment. Knowing this ahead of time allows you to plan your customer service strategy accordingly and intervene at the most ideal times to maximize your customer value. Therefore, with the help of a customer journey map, you are able to get a sense of your customer’s motivations, needs, and value points.
Why Implement a Customer Journey Map?
Creating a customer journey map might sound like extra or unnecessary work. However, breaking down your customer experience step by step and making sure that it aligns with your goals to represent a positive customer experience are very important. In order to achieve maximum customer success and avoid mistakes, it is essential to structure your marketing to effectively reach your target audience.
Organize your information into a diagram that you and other employees can refer to as a resource. To record and notice customer growth, it will help you determine what marketing tactics work best for your business.
Five Advantages:
- Shows effective ways to satisfy customers
- Identifies current weaknesses
- Builds emotional connections
- Bridges gaps between sales, marketing and operations
- Determines customer behaviors
The obvious perk of utilizing your customer journey map is gaining a lot more perspective that will benefit your business, as well as customer interactions. You can retrace steps to pinpoint mishaps or areas needed for improvement, so you know how to correctly problem solve for the future. After all, your customers make your business possible so you should do your best job to understand and deliver your customers’ needs.
How to Get Started
A customer journey map details your current process — from the first to final touch point — to verify if your customers are currently reaching full potential for satisfaction, and, if not, how they can. Your map lays out every action involved in the customer experience, including the customer, employees directly serving them, and employees working behind the scenes.
Begin with having a goal to get to know your customers and form positive relationships. The process of creating an effective customer journey map can be extensive but it is even more valuable. Follow these steps below to start off right.
First Five Steps:
- Set clear objectives — before starting your map, ask yourself why and form goals.
- Profile and define customer expectations — put yourself in their shoes for a moment.
- Highlight target customers — find the needs for your target audience.
- List touch points — points/places online where customers can interact.
- Determine resources — know resources you already have and the ones you still need for success.
Analyzing each of these contributions and how they influence your customer’s journey will lead you to a better understanding on how to improve every part of your business.
It is common for customer journey maps to start as spreadsheets that outline key events, customer motivations and areas of conflict within their experiences. Eventually, you can combine your information into a comprehensive visual that describes an average customer experience with your business. It is key to remember the most important thing is for your journey map to make sense to those who will be using it!
Sources:
https://www.vocalcom.com/en/blog/customer-experience/6-key-advantages-of-customer-journey-maps/
https://www.salesforce.com/uk/blog/2016/03/customer-journey-mapping-explained.html
