1 Make journey mapping your secret to outstanding customer service START Make journey mapping your secret to outstanding customer service Understand the touch points to reap bottom-line benefits 2 Introduction to customer journey maps Delivering an exceptional customer experience is priority number one for companies hoping to succeed and grow in today’s competitive environment. More than two-thirds of companies say they are currently competing mostly on the basis of customer experience.1 And to make that customer experience really shine, it’s critical to look at the customer journey from a customer’s point of view. So, how can you best assess the quality of your customer experience and identify areas for improvement? Start by understanding their journey. 1 Gartner, “Key Findings From the Gartner Customer Experience Survey”, 2018. 50% of organizations have little to no understanding about their customer journey More than 80% of organizations expect to compete mainly based on the customer experience An exceptional customer experience starts with a journey map Delivering an exceptional customer experience is priority No. 1 for companies hoping to succeed and grow in today’s competitive environment. Nearly 50% of organizations in a Gartner survey claimed they can track the financial benefits of customer experience projects. And more than 80% of organizations expect to compete mainly based on the customer experience. 1 To make that customer experience really shine, it’s critical to look at the customer journey from a customer’s point of view. So, how can you best assess the quality of your customer experience and identify areas for improvement? Start by understanding their journey. We realize that this is easier said than done, considering that 50% of organizations have little to no understanding about their customer journey. 2 But don’t worry: this ebook will guide you in creating a journey map that can lead to a best-in-class customer experience for your organization. 1 Gartner, “Realizing the Benefits of Superior Customer Experience” 2 SuperOffice, “Customer Journey: How a Holistic Strategy Drives Profitable Business Growth” | 2Make journey mapping your secret to outstanding customer service Understand the touch points to reap bottom-line benefits Harness the power of customer journey maps On the surface, a journey map is a visual representation of a customer’s interactions with your company’s product or service. But it goes beyond a basic diagram. It helps to shift your perspective on the customer experience by considering each touch point from a customer’s point of view. Learn how well you’re serving customers The goal of a journey map is to help you clearly understand what a customer goes through when using your product or interacting with customer service. By examining each step of the journey, you’ll discover how well you are serving the customer, along with any roadblocks, pain points, or opportunities for improvement. Reap the rewards Customer journey mapping offers a host of benefits: • Reduces customer effort in interactions with your company for greater satisfaction • Delivers seamless experiences to drive higher customer loyalty • Streamlines your business processes and increases efficiency It also delivers a host of bottom-line benefits for you. Companies that have journey-mapping programs show a 23% reduction in customer service costs, 14% higher employee engagement, a 10% increase in revenue from customer referrals, and many other tangible financial benefits. 3 Companies that have formal journey mapping programs have significantly higher year-over- year growth than companies that don’t, including a 54% greater return on marketing investment, a tenfold reduction in the cost of customer service, and 56% more cross- and up-sell revenue. 4 3 Aberdeen Group, “Customer Journey Mapping: Lead the Way to Advocacy” 4 Workflow magazine, “Building a customer journey mapping program” | 3Make journey mapping your secret to outstanding customer service Understand the touch points to reap bottom-line benefits Lay the foundation Your journey map should represent the chronological phases, actions, thoughts, and emotions from a customer’s point of view. And it should lead to new ways to make a specific action better or insights for overall experience improvement. Find a target Start by targeting a specific business problem or opportunity. Ask yourself if there is an existing process that isn’t working optimally, leading to customer complaints. From there, select a target customer persona that aligns with this issue. Narrowing your focus to a certain type of customer is critical to ensure the map is specific enough to be useful. Do some digging After you have identified the business problem and target persona, perform a discovery exercise to determine how much is known about this particular journey. Gather the knowledge and determine whether additional research is needed. Once you have enough detail about the customer journey—specifically, the steps your persona might take to resolve the problem and the issues the persona might be experiencing—you are ready to create the journey map. Narrowing your focus to a certain type of customer is critical to ensure the map is specific enough to be useful. | 4Make journey mapping your secret to outstanding customer service Understand the touch points to reap bottom-line benefits 5 Build your journey map in five simple steps Using large format paper, stickies, and markers, the workshop team will capture insights and ideas around these five “swim lanes” that form the basis of a successful journey map. By the time you’re done, you should have a baseline map of the journey, not a polished visualization—that comes later. Keeping your business problem in mind, it’s time to build a basic journey map. Ideally, this will take place as a workshop involving stakeholders from across the organization to foster shared ownership and quick resolution of any issues that arise. A workshop also encourages conversation and creative ideas for opportunities and solutions. 1 2 3 4 1 What the customer is doing 2 What the customer is thinking 3 What the customer is feeling 4 What are the customer touchpoints 5 5 What are the opportunities Build your journey map in five simple steps Once you have your business problem in mind, it’s time to build a basic journey map. Ideally, this will take place as a workshop involving stakeholders from across the organization to foster shared ownership and quick resolution of any issues that arise. A workshop also encourages conv rsation and cr ative ideas for opportunities and solutions. Using large-format paper, stickies, and markers, the workshop team will capture insights and ideas around these five “swim lanes” that form the basis of a successful journey map. By the time you’re done, you should have a baseline map of the journey, not a polished visualization; that comes later. 1 What is the customer doing? 1 2 What is the customer thinking? 2 3 What is the customer feeling? 3 4 What are the customer’s touch points? 4 5 What are the opportunities? 5 | 5Make journey mapping your secret to outstanding customer service Understand the touch points to reap bottom-line benefits 6 Bring your journey map to life Let’s delve into an example of what the journey mapping process looks like. In this scenario, the workshop strives to “improve the existing end-to-end customer service experience when cable subscribers have problems with their cable TV.” The persona is Jen, a cable TV customer. Jen interacts with multiple company representatives in this scenario, specifically with virtual chat, an agent, a dispatcher, and a technician. Lane 1: What is Jen doing From our discovery and research, we know the steps Jen takes to get her problem solved. We use this information to fill out the lane that describes what Jen is doing. Lane 2: What is Jen thinking As a group, we map out what Jen is thinking when she is doing each of these steps. Lane 3: What is Jen feeling Next, we capture what Jen feels—from angry to optimistic to relieved—during each step of the journey. Lane 4: Jen’s touchpoints Now we parallel Jen’s journey touchpoints by articulating every interaction she may have with our company. Lane 5: What are our opportunities Finally, we look for opportunities to improve the customer experience or address issues.. Bring your journey map to life Let’s dive into an example of what the journey-mapping process looks like. In this c nar o, the workshop objectiv is to “improve the existing end-to-end customer service experience when cable subscribers have problems with their cable TV service.” The persona is Jen, a cable TV customer. Jen interacts with multiple company representatives in this scenario, specifically with virtual chat, an agent, a dispatcher, and a technician. Lane 1: What is Jen doing? From our discovery and research, we know the steps Jen takes to get her pr blem solved. We use his information to fill out the lane that describes what Jen is doing. Lane 3: What is Jen feeling? Next, we capture what Jen feels—from angry to optimistic to relieved—during each step of the journey. Lane 4: What are Jen’s touch points? Now we align Jen’s journey touch points with every interaction she might have with our company. Lane 5: What are our opportunities? Finally, we look for opportunities to improve the customer experience or address issues. Lane 2: What is Jen thinking? As a group, we map out what Jen is thinking at each step of the journey. 6 Bring your journey map to life Let’s delve into an example of what the journey mapping process looks like. In this scenario, the workshop strives to “improve the existing end-to-end customer service experience when cable subscribers have pr blems wi h their cabl TV.” Th persona is Jen, a cable TV customer. Jen interac s with multiple company representatives in this cenario, specifically with virtual chat, an gent, a disp tcher, and a t chnician.