Journey mapping has become an essential tool to every customer experience program. This document highlights some best practices to take into consideration before undertaking a journey mapping exercise.
Best practices in customer experience mapping
1. Best Practices in Customer Experience Mapping
2. • What is Customer Experience / Customer Journey mapping? • Our methodology – Best practices – Common pitfalls • Six steps to a Customer Experience Map • Case Study: Major Luxury Retailer Overview
3. • Each map can have multiple purposes • Identifying flows (communications, information) • Measuring “gaps & overlaps” • Assessing efficiency/effectiveness of interactions • They can be iterative or ‘layered’ • Types of customer experience maps: • Process maps • Lifecycle maps • Web or Contact center optimization • Data maps • Communication maps • Resource / empowerment maps • Privacy compliance roadmaps There are many types of Customer Experience Maps Image Sources: East Bay Group, SNG Consulting
4. • An Experience map is an essential tool • Creates a visualization of your touchpoints and relevant information • Shows where and when customers experience satisfaction/pain point, who is most impacted and how it affects your bottom line • Prioritization for both customers and business to understand what creates or detracts value Data-‐driven Maps enable many disciplines • Data Integration/Consolidation • Collects and standardize disparate data sources (data integration) • Helps get to a common data set of customer profile/ dimensions • Collaborative and ‘Social’ • Shared tool in ‘3D’ • See how activities & processes in one area affect the entire organization, and get everyone on the same page • Living vs. static • Allows you to continue to uses it over time to drive strategy, planning and tactics. • A “Dashboard” that can reflect trends and progress over time
5. • There are different exercises that can be done at different points in the map creation or follow-‐up processes: • Storyboarding – illustrating a customer experience through the map • Choose a scenario – the group walks through the customer experience via the map (great process for business rule development) • Ideation session • Break down issues identified in the experience maps • Brainstorm solutions • Create high level prioritization for implementation • Deep Dive sessions • Create the future state for specific problem areas • ROI analysis • Gather data across touchpoints (i.e.. Collateral creation cost, fulfillment cost, cost per interaction, etc.) • Do calculations based on focused assumptions: one touchpoint, one campaign, one customer type, etc. Offshoots of the mapping process Image Sources: UXMatters.com, DesigningCX.com, Branddriveninnovation.com
6. • Communication strategy – develop an integrated communication through all touchpoints • Operational strategy -‐ identify the infrastructure that is needed to support a customer centric environment • Process reengineering – refine processes to be more efficient and customer focused • Privacy issues – identifying potential risks • Data management – Develop data strategy – Develop an understanding of how data can be used as a competitive advantage to increase loyalty, satisfaction, etc. – Identify places where data can be leveraged • Lifecycle opportunities – understand the customer experience throughout the lifecycle, work to alleviate the highest pain points and leverage interactions to improve customer relations Potential outputs of an experience mapping effort Impact on Revenue Ease of Implementa2on Customer Sa2sfac2on Time to Implement Cost to Achieve
7. 1. Documentation of vision - Overlaps and synergies across BU’s - Conflicting strategies 2. Useable Best Practices 3. Documentation of gaps and Opportunities 4. Documentation of the current customer experience - Living Customer Journey Map - Holistic view of the customer experience and infrastructure that is supporting it - Gaps and opportunities between customer experience and stated customer strategies 5. High Level Recommendations 6. Initiative Identification & Prioritization INTANGIBLE TANGIBLE 1. Engagement of key stakeholders across divisions and business units - Begin to see commonality of key challenges - See the overlap and chaos from the customer’s perspective 2. Key Customer Journey Insights 3. Forum for breaking down silos - Realization that customers view and experience the whole brand and not divisions or business units - As such, need for greater collaboration and coordination where customers are cutting across different parts of the organization 4. Recognition for the right ideas and the proper execution - Elevation of best practices to senior stakeholders and across divisions provide forum for superior and peer recognition Summary of experience mapping outputs
8. • Interview at least some staff that are closest to the customer • They know more about the customer experience than anyone in the enterprise • Interview people who “own” customer data • They know best what happens to the data • What customer data you have is less important than how you use it • Look for data flows (or lack of flow) among functions • What technology you have is less important than what you do with it • People and process integration with technology determine how successful it is Tips for effective mapping
9. • Mapping only outbound communications • Does not address the customer experience; omits the feedback loop • An inflexible process that fails to identify real opportunity • Provides lots of data, but little real insight • No clear view of purpose or outcome • Results are equally fuzzy • Political agendas • Office politics prevent interviews of appropriate staff, acquisition of needed information Common pitfalls of the mapping experience
10. Planning • Set the map’s scope and scale • Create interview material and identify interviewees Data Gathering • Schedule and execute interviews • Gather and review documentation Map Creation • Plot customer interactions on map; refine & validate • Overlay metrics, customer data & collateral Ideation Session • Identify, analyze and prioritize opportunities Conduct “deep drills” on issues/opportunities • Identify “deep drill” needs • Conduct deep drills, analyze results Six steps to a Customer Experience Map Analysis & Recommendations • Analyze map • Develop recommendations and compile roadmap for change
11. • Establish the project scope • What are the expected results? • What information is necessary to support those results? • Establish the project scale • Enterprise, divisional, functional? • Identify the specific information to be acquired • Draft data acquisition process and tools • Draft and test interview question set • Train the team • Interview process • Data acquisition process Step 1: Planning the mapping process Planning
12. • Do we agree on approach & outcome? • Do we agree on scope and scale? • Have we identified all key stakeholders? • Who should own/drive this project? • What are the interdependencies? • Project sequencing • Leverage existing work and resources • What is the risk of not doing this project? • Are there any timing or resource issues? Step 1: Questions to ask before starting Planning
13. • Finalize interview list and data-‐gathering targets • Revise target list of interviewees to ensure coverage • Review data sources to ensure completeness • Conduct interviews • Pilot interviews (then adjust question set as needed) • Schedule and conduct interviews • If there are a large number of interviews, create a scheduling system for the team • Compile interview reports; review for completeness • Complete the data-‐gathering process • Review data dictionaries and other sources as they are acquired • Identify gaps; re-‐acquire missing information sets Step 2: Data gathering phase Data Gathering
14. • Set map parameters from existing data • Review interview reports and datasets • Draft and submit map options for review • Draft initial map • Create core map • Plot customer interactions and/or datasets on map • Refine the map and validate information flows • Pinpoint “gaps & overlaps” • Identify potential problem areas (missing data, possible privacy violations, etc.) • Overlay other data as deemed relevant • Metrics, communications tools, dataflow gaps, etc. Step 3: Map creation Map Creation
15. • In a team settng, review map for opportunities and threats • Customer-‐identified needs and preferences • Touchpoints with unusually high or low customer interaction results • Gaps in the feedback loop • Obvious “missed signals” from the customer • Points of high customer satisfaction or preference • Analyze the opportunities and threats • Determine “do-‐ability” of potential solutions • Estimate potential ROI of solutions • Prioritize opportunities • Determine priority metrics (budget, growth, ROI, etc.) • Score and rank opportunities • Recommend “deep drills” to better analyze high-‐value opportunities or threats Step 4: Ideation Ideation Session
16. • Identify deep drill needs • Areas where the mapping process identified an issue, but did not provide sufficient information to support a decision • Large-‐scale opportunities or threats that require additional analysis • Intriguing ideas or concerns that need to have an ROI specified before approval • Conduct deep drill • Acquire necessary data • Conduct interviews • Analyze results • Determine priority metrics (budget, growth, ROI, etc.) • Score and rank against other opportunities/threats Step 5: Conduct deep drills Conduct “deep drills” on issues/opportunities
17. • Identify key findings from map • 3-‐5 major issues (opportunities, threats, needs, etc.) that surfaced in the customer experience mapping process • Develop recommendations for each finding • Core recommendation • Support data (ROI, etc.) • Create high-‐level roadmap to implementation • Key steps to implementation • Major implications Step 6: Analysis and recommendations Analysis & Recommendations
18. Challenge/Opportunity Results § Created a customer experience that drives brand loyalty, resulting in shared value for the customer and the company § Developed a 360-‐degree view of the customer to deliver what they need, when they need it, and how they want it § Leveraged customer data to drive actionable insights & measurable ROI § Identified “quick wins” while working towards the long term strategy. § Leveraged the strategic framework from North America to enable it to scale to a global footprint. Approach/Solution § Organizational assessment across Sales, Marketing and Service to determine gaps in CRM efforts § Created Touchmap to fully understand customer through retailer and distributor Experience § Developed initiatives to close gaps (operations, people, information, technology) § Used Touchmap to gather requirements, inform RFPs and manage bid processes for MRM, CRM solutions § Developed Sales and Marketing Training for Segmentation and 1:1 Marketing concepts Client had several failures to launch CRM programs Sales/Marketing not in agreement on how to proceed Realized technology plan would not work without a Go-‐to-‐Market Strategy and clearer understanding of Marketing/Sales Needs/Objectives Business Requirements Concern about alienating Resellers kept them from collecting relevant end user data Sales and Marketing ohen blind in trying to create lead nurturing programs Case Study: Multi-‐brand Retail Experience Map
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20. Valerie Peck Co-founder and CEO, SuiteCX About the Content Authors Valerie has more than 20 years of diverse experience delivering accelerated growth and strong bottom line results. Valerie has successfully led multi- functional teams to ensure marketing strategy is translated into technical solutions. Valerie Peck is the founder of East Bay Group and a co-‐founder of SuiteCX. She focuses on developing Marketing and CRM strategies and driving them through tactical execution. She is highly skilled in developing and executing marketing/relationship and sales strategies within both large scale and startup organizations. She specializes in the area of utilizing technology for strategic advantage. Her areas of expertise include all facets of relationship management, marketing optimization and customer-‐centric service. Acknowledged for developing BI/KM capabilities within corporations as well as professional services firms. Valerie has multi-‐vertical CRM expertise with over 50 clients such as Samsclub, Limited Brands, Overstock.co, Bluefly, Royal Caribbean, EDS, Blue Shield of CA, Bank of Turkey, HP and Luxottica to name a few. She also has strong repeat client business in integrated marketing, digital marketing and marketing automation such as HP, Houghton-‐Mifflin, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Kaiser Permanente. She has significant B2C and B2B experience. Her client side experience was gained within the industry leading CRM practitioners in telecommunications, starting her career with Pacific Bell and then Director of Strategic Alliances and Product Marketing at StorageTek and Director of Marketing for PwC’s High Technology practice in the West Coast. Valerie has a BS in Marketing and an MBA from the University of Southern California.
21. Anne Cramer Co-founder and COO, SuiteCX Anne is an experienced Marketer and CRM subject matter expert. Her focus on detail and strong writing skills enable her to produce insightful and usable deliverables across the spectrum of marketing/CRM projects. Anne Cramer is has served as a Partner at East Bay Group and is a co-‐founder of SuiteCX. Anne is a seasoned strategy and management consulting professional with deep expertise in creating and implementing data-‐ driven, customer-‐centric business strategies. Having been in the consulting and professional services industry for over 12 years, Anne’s passion lies in finding and replicating best practices all over the world. She believes that all clients can learn from other successful organizations regardless of their size, business model or country of origin. Anne is a specialist in process improvement, customer data strategy, and customer experience mapping across a variety of vertical and geographic markets. She is fluent in French and proficient in Spanish and Czech. Anne has worked for clients such as PayPal, Salesforce.com, Autodesk, Kaiser Permanente, Silicon Valley Bank, Volkswagen and United Airlines. She has also built CRM and loyalty programs from scratch in the gaming and healthcare industries. Anne graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California with a degree in International Relations, attained a Master of Arts in International Development from the American University and received her MBA from Cornell University. . About the Content Authors