tooling around a journey map: a real-world case study on northern tool & equipment

Tooling Around a Journey MapA Case Study of Northern Tool + Equipment

Jen EckertSenior Consulting PartnerDirector, Customer Experience Consulting

Synopsis Journey Mapping Defined

Why Should You Consider Journey Mapping?

The Journey Mapping Toolbox

Outcomes from Journey Mapping

The Importance of Voice of the Customer

Lessons Learned

Call to Action

A solid understanding of your customer and their journey with your organization must be the foundation of your Customer Experience strategy. So, do you REALLY know your customer? In this session, we will share the tools you need to successfully map your customer journeys, and explore how this valuable information can be used to identify and address pain points for your customers and employees; leading to delighted customers, more engaged employees, and improved bottom line.

What is a Customer Journey?

The customer journey is the complete sum of experiences that customers go through when interacting with your company and brand.

What is a Customer Journey?

the act or process of directly perceiving events or reality.

ex·pe·ri·ence ik-’spir-ē-ən(t)s/

interact /,intər’akt/

brand /brand

to act together; to come together and have an effect on each other.

name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's product as distinct from those of its competitors.

Customer Journey Mapping

• Identifying the experiences your customer will have with your company and brand through the phases of the customer lifecycle. What touch points will the customer have? What channels will they use? How well does that touch point work (from the customer

and colleague perspectives)?

Discover Evaluate Buy Access Use Maintain

Journey Mapping Case Study: Northern Tool + Equipment

90 Brick and Mortar Locations

Frequent Direct Mail Campaigns

Online Retailer

Contact Center Ecosystem

Challenge ResultLimited to no integration between channels

Customer Service Rep must ask for information already provided by the customer.

Unable to pin point areas within the applications that should be enhanced to improve containment rates.

Additional call volume to contact center and longer handle times.Disparate data sources Significant manual effort to compile consolidated reporting.

Inability to analyze interaction trends – contact reasons, containment/failure rates, cross-channel volume.

Disparate Point of Sale (POS) systems Limited visibility into sales across channels.End of life ERP Limited visibility into stock availability.

Cross Channel Contact Strategy

E-Commerce VideoSocial Next

?. . . Retail Store

Live Call Fax

Contact Center Channels

Meet Jim(and his family…)

Meet JimSuccessful Small Business Owner and Master of Many Trades

Meet JimSuccessful Small Business Owner and Master of Many Trades

Jim needs to purchase a new air compressor for his new boat dealership.

It’s 1986…What He Wants

• A Good Brand• A Fair Price• To Purchase from

Someone He Trusts• To Know that the Seller

Will Stand Behind the Product

So, how did Jim research his options?

When it came time to purchase…He could have placed the order via the telephone, or mailed in the order from the catalog, but…

Would you have purchased a $3,000 piece of equipment site-unseen?

And, if he was happy (or upset) about his purchase?

What He Wants

• A Good Brand• A Fair Price• To Purchase from

Someone He Trusts• To Know that the Seller

Will Stand Behind the Product

Jim needs to purchase a new air compressor to replace his old one.

It’s 2014…

So, how does Jim research his options?

When it comes time to purchase…He could drive 200+ miles to the nearest store, but…

He is much more likely to place an online order

And, if he is happy (or upset) about his purchase?

The Lesson in This

What He Wanted

A Good Brand

A Fair Price

To Purchase from Someone He Trusts

To Know that the Seller Will Stand Behind the Product

What Changed

Methods for Researching Products

Options for Purchasing

Technology

Comfort Level of Buying “Sight Unseen”

Ability to Influence Other’s Future Purchase Decisions

Jim’s Purchasing Journey Evolved Over the Years

Contact Center Ecosystem

Challenge ResultLimited to no integration between channels

Customer Service Rep must ask for information already provided by the customer.

Unable to pin point areas within the applications that should be enhanced to improve containment rates.

Additional call volume to contact center and longer handle times.Disparate data sources Significant manual effort to compile consolidated reporting.

Inability to analyze interaction trends – contact reasons, containment/failure rates, cross-channel volume.

Disparate Point of Sale (POS) systems Limited visibility into sales across channels.End of life ERP Limited visibility into stock availability.

Cross Channel Contact Strategy

E-Commerce VideoSocial Next

?. . . Retail Store

Live Call Fax

Contact Center Channels

Journey MappingTools

+ +Participant Expectations:• Be willing (and able) to put yourself in the mindset

of the customer.• Be open to learning about aspects of the customer

journey that don’t necessarily pertain to your role in the organization.

• Recognize that the end goal is to create a more seamless customer experience.

• Accept that journey mapping will require significant effort (and time).

Journey MappingTools

Characteristic Comments

Social Savvy Late adopter to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, but frequently visits online communities and forums specific to their trade or personal interests.

Tech Savvy Highly mechanically-inclined, but a late adopter to the use of technology. This persona likely has a PC/laptop, and a smart phone, but may not use all the smart phone features. This persona may also have a tablet device, but most likely uses it mainly for internet browsing.

Optimism Will spend significant time researching product options/pricing online, but when needs assistance beyond general order placement, will likely fall back to placing a telephone call to a Contact Center, versus investing more than a few minutes using other available self-help options.

•Research Product(s)/Options (NT+E will not be the only place they have looked)

•Price Comparisons (89% of customers will compare prices)•Order/Purchase Product• Locate Product Information (Post-Sale)•Product Support (Post-Sale)

Tasks

•Web-Site•Catalog / Contact Center

Channel

•Telephone Call•Email• Fax•Web Chat

Media

•Price and Value are Critical•NT+E Will Stand Behind the Products•Want to be Known•Ease to Purchase•NT+E Accountability•Product Knowledge and Support•Easy returns•Quick Delivery Time•Discounted or Free Shipping•NT+E “Has Their Back”•Account Management

Expectations

BEFORE you start, be sure you have a thorough understanding of the customer you are examining

in your journey!

Customer PersonaThe characteristics of your target customer, including the tasks (s)he is trying to accomplish in his/her journey, the channels/media (s)he may use, and his/her expectations from your company.

Journey Mapping Process

Journey Mapping

Journey MappingBreaking it Down

Touch PointAn interaction that the customer may have with the company or brand.

RatingHow well (or not well) is that interaction working? Is it easy for the customer (and employee) to do business with you?

Journey MappingBreaking it Down

ChannelsWhat options does the customer have in interacting with your company during each touch point?

Journey MappingInternal and External Factors Will Drive the Journey

Journey MappingInternal and External Factors Will Drive the Journey

At the beginning of the Customer

Journey, NT+E was very much in control

of the journey.

As the journey progressed, external

factors (namely customer

perceptions) became increasingly

important.

Customer experience is critical

to creating and maintaining brand

loyalty and advocacy!

The Importance of Voice of the Customer

Targeted telephone interviews Surveys

Posting the Journey Map for employees to review/provide

feedback

Validating your Journey Map before taking action

Journey Mapping

Strengths• Easy to research products and place orders• Concise and accurate product

documentation• Quality products• Brand that invokes pride of ownership• Stand behind the products sold• Effective at driving traffic to e-commerce

site• Multiple marketing strategies to encourage

customer loyalty

Opportunities• Varied CX depending on channel• Limited ability to share key information

across channels• Difficult to enact customer service and

loyalty programs• Time consuming for CSRs to locate

important customer/product information• Inability to personalize the customer

experience• Challenges in product fulfillment

What did this Journey Map Reveal?

Journey MappingCritical to Forming Your Customer Experience Strategic Roadmap

• Aligning Customer Experience across all channels• Providing consolidated customer information and purchase history to all front line employees• Aligning Contact Center rep performance measurements/pay structure to the Customer

Experience strategy• Providing reps with better tools to support the basic CX philosophies of “Know Me”, “Help

Me” and “Value Me”

CX Focused

KPIs

Omni-Channel Contact Center

Virtual Contact Center

Consistent Cross

Channel Experience

Cross Channel

Integration

Consistent Agent

Message

Proactive Customer

Service

Voice of the

Customer

Lessons Learned

Be sure to include cross-functional team members

Don’t rush the process

Revisit the journey and the touch point rankings

Validate your findings with your customers

Recognize that the customer journey will evolve and change (just like Jim’s purchasing journey)

Tips for Making your Journey Mapping Exercise a Success

Lessons LearnedTips for Making your Journey Mapping Exercise a Success

Call to ActionPr

epar

e Identify your Target PersonaAssemble a cross-functional teamSet expectations about participation and the process

Crea

te Start by Defining the PersonaBrainstorm about the touch pointsDocument the channelsRate the touch points

Revi

ew

Identify the journey drivers and moments of truthRe-visit the Journey Map within the cross-functional teamSolicit feedback internally and from your customers

Getting Started

Questions?

“…many companies and interactive agencies have gotten so caught up in the persona and journey map hype that they skip the research phase and go straight to crafting these documents based on what they think they know about customers… Your end goal is deep customer insights, which just happen to be encapsulated in these particular formats.”

Harley Manning and Kerry BodineForrester Research“Outside In”