As an organization we strongly believe in designing consumer journeys as close to real life experiences, as possible. Whilst we visualize an interaction as a real conversation, the true evaluation is how do we make it work in our virtual world? Simple, by mapping all the user cases possible in a single (ongoing) interaction.
What is customer journey mapping?
Customer journey mapping is the process of visualizing how a customer builds a relationship with our business (and brand) by understanding the actions they take to achieve an end goal. Customer journey mapping outlines key actions, core customer needs, and areas of possible discomfort within their experience. From here, this information is combined with a comprehensive visual that describes a customer’s intuitive and cognitive experience within our app. By understanding this relationship, we can better structure our touchpoints to design the most effective and efficient process, for our end-customers.
A customer journey map visualizes the current process the customer undertakes, from the initial to the final goal. This assists to visualize if they’re currently reaching their end goals and, if not, how can we enhance the experience. The customer journey can rarely be represented in a linear format, that from point A to point B, because buyers have different personas who often switch around – back and forth, cyclical or through a multi-channel journey. This makes customer journey mapping far more difficult to visualize accurately.
And this is why we use innumerable methods to represent the customer journey – from post-it notes on a boardroom wall, to Excel Spreadsheets, to infographics to paper scribbles (and lots more). The most important thing is that the map makes sense to those who’ll be eventually using it.
However, the first step is to collect data from customers and prospects.
This is thus broken down into the following five stages:
- Engagement Process
- User Step-by-Step Actions
- Core Motivation to engage
- User Pain Points and Journey Hiccups
- Proposed Solutions
The key to remember here is that a customer journey map is all about taking significant steps and living through the customer virtual conversations, with the brand. This relationship can be impactful, rather yield the benefits that you intend to, only if we tread as close as possible to the ever-changing customer behaviors. Conclusively, it’s about how you can think in the shoes of the customer and thus make the journey seamless for their experience.
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