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Customer Journey Mapping

9 steps to understand what matters most

WHITE PAPER

by Sharon Oatway

President & Chief Experience Officer - VereQuest

MOST COMPANIES understand how their compa-

nies work. They have carefully mapped out in detail the processes that drive their businesses and ana-

lyzed them for greater efficiencies and productivity.

Every step has been counted and refined over the

years. Cost savings have been realized and em-

ployee productivity enhanced.

And yet when asked about how customers experi-ence the processes,

channels, policies and

procedures, very few

c o m p a n i e s k n o w .

Among mounds of con-

sumer research, there is very little insight into

how customers feel about these things.

Over the last few years, we have seen a growing in-

terest in the practice of ‘customer journey mapping’

— drawing out how a customer navigates an organi-

zation, decisions made and options available. For every company that creates journey maps, there is a

unique approach and design.

This paper highlights the key steps that form the

foundation to a successful mapping project. As you

will see, the process is based on building a funda-

mental understanding from the customer’s perspec-

tive and then drilling down to greater detail.

Making a decision to use internal resources or not is

not just about budgets. It’s about retaining the

value knowledge of the customer’s journey inter-

nally. That’s why it makes sense to work with an

internal team and an external facilitator/coach — as

opposed to a classic consulting engagement. While consultants are great to do the heavy lifting at the

outset, when they leave you want to make sure they

leave the insight and expertise behind as well!

Although much of the journey will be similar for

each customer segment, it will be important to

choose a single segment to begin the process. Spend

time to build a detailed profile of this segment to use

throughout the mapping exercise. Complete the mapping exercise using the customer persona devel-

oped … and then repeat for other key customer seg-

ments.

Although you may think the customer journey is a

simple one, it has many layers which must be un-

derstood for full appreciation. Given the complexity of a multi-channel, multi-touch environment, it is

important to break the customer journey into stages.

By focusing on one stage at a time, you will be able

to dig deep without getting caught up in a quagmire

of detail.

Before starting, it is important to know where you

have insight and where gaps exist. This includes gathering and reviewing all primary and secondary

research, speaking with stakeholders and interview-

ing front-line staff. This helps to identify areas

which may require further research.

If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to

bring in an external facilitator (like VereQuest). An

independent third party has no preconceived notions about how things should work or what barriers exist

to prevent the type of experience that customers may

expect. They can add important perspective.

Together with the facilitator, prepare a prototype — a

map of your understanding of the customer’s experi-

ence. This will be used as the jumping-off point for a Customer Journey Mapping Workshop, serve to

The Approach

2 © 2015 VereQuest Inc.

Develop a customer persona. 1

Identify the stages. 2

Gather what you know. 3

THINKING INVESTIGATING TEST DRIVING DECIDING BUYING WAITING RECEIVING/DRIVING

“I want a new car!”

“I LOVE my new car… or maybe not!”

Map it. 4

brief the facilitator and offer insight into gaps that

may exist within your organization about how you

think about the customer, internal processes and policies.

The next step is to take

your prototype into a

Workshop facilitated by

the external coach and a

few internal team mem-bers who have a broad

understanding of what customers experience. Typi-

cally this would include a tenured product manager,

frontline sales, customer service representative, re-

search analyst and customer experience leader. There is no magic number about how many partici-

pants to include but 6-8 tends to be a good size.

Depending on the amount of customer research you

have, it may make sense to ‘walk the map’. This will

give you an independent view of the experience from

a typical customer’s perspective. VereQuest will

typically engage individuals who meet your cus-tomer’s profile (many of who are experienced actors

and business coaches) to ‘walk the map’. This may

include a hands-on simulation across channels,

from internal to external resources and back. We

may visit branches/retail locations, call each service

and sales point, apply for and/or buy products or services. Whatever an actual customer does. In

some cases we will listen to live customer conversa-

tions, reading emails or blogs; in other cases we will

deploy our Customer Insight Specialists as ‘mystery

shoppers’.

As each step is evaluated and validated, observa-

tions are gathered about how the experience feels

© 2015 VereQuest Inc. 3

(e.g. I felt frustrated. I was pleasantly surprised.

etc.)

This stage can be the most labor-intensive — to

translate your post-it note diagram into a graphic

image you and others can understand. It makes

sense to engage a consultant to help you do this.

You will want to do this as soon as possible after your workshop, while things are still fresh in your

mind. The sooner you can start to share the map,

the sooner you can engage other groups to help fix

the experience.

With a detailed, graphic journey map in place, you

will now be in a position to understand how the ex-

perience works for a customer. You will likely see a

host of issues that may be concerning to and should

be fixed or refined.

It is important at this stage to understand what mat-

ters most to customers. Where are the ‘pain points’?

— those areas of the journey which are troublesome

or frustrating but not enough to stop or deter a cus-

tomer from proceeding. And where are the

‘combustion points’? — those areas of the journey where the customer cannot or will not proceed.

Some areas will be obvious and others you may want

to conduct some additional research.

Once you have identified where the high priority

gaps lie, measurement is critical. If you fixed this problem, how many customers or how much more

revenue would be generated or saved? This is the

Walk the map. 5 Determine what matters most. 7

Draw the map. 6

most challenging part of the entire journey mapping exer-

cise.

Whether you are trying to solve a single problem or need to

fix the entire end-to-end experience, it is critical that you

clearly define the problem that needs to be solved or the op-

portunity that needs to be exploited.

The most effective approach is to phrase the problem as a

question, starting with the words: “How to…” For example,

“How to rejuvenate spending among our high value custom-ers?” [For more information about this process, see Inno-

vative Intelligence by David Weiss & Claude Legrand.]

At this point you should know (a) how customers are interacting with your company, (b) how they feel about the interaction, (c) where the barriers/pain points are, (d) where

the opportunities lie and (e) where the greatest effort/reward lies. All this hard work will be for naught if

you don’t improve the experience. As we know only too well, it is one thing to have identified the customer

journey gaps and to have quantified the value to the company (and the customer) in closing the gaps — it is

another to know how to close them.

Now is the time to engage your team in a Problem Resolution & Innovation Thinking workshop. This Work-shop not only help you develop innovative and actionable solutions to close gaps but you and your team will

also be provided with the foundational tools and skills needed to innovate around other barriers going for-

ward. Given that creating great customer experiences takes time — and is ever changing — having the skills

to close gaps and map other experiences is critical to sustaining great results!

© 2015 VereQuest Inc. 4

VEREQUEST is a consulting firm specializing in customer experience diagnostics and transformation. We

help our clients, each a leading organization in N.A., to strive to win the hearts and loyalty of customers.

Through our unique team of customer experience connoisseurs, proprietary technology and wealth of exper-

tise, we provide clients with reality-based analysis and meaningful insight into their customer’s experience

with their organization. As our name suggests, wherever possible, we strive to tap into real experiences and

actual customer behavior. While we acknowledge the value of qualitative insight, we work to quantify each

element of the interaction so that they can be prioritized against the next. We are recognized for our high

quality work and great value. Our recommendations are grounded in practicality and ROI. Importantly, we

deliver results, cost effectively.

Let’s chat! Call us 1-866 -920-2011 or 416-362-6777 x222 or go to www.verequest.com

Innovate. 9

Understand the question. 8