Customer journey
Customer journey[edit]
The customer journey is the complete sum of experiences that customers go through when interacting with a specific company/brand. Instead of looking just at the crucial moments of the purchasing process, the customer journey documents the complete experience of being a customer, from start to finish.[1]
Understanding the customer experience throughout the customer journey is one of the crucial factors for firms and it is one of the leading management objectives in many companies. Multiple firms (KPMG, Amazon, Google, etc.) have chief customer experience officers, customer experience vice presidents or customer experience managers.[1]
The importance of customer experience on its journey is increasing, because people interact with different firms in a large number of touchpoints, therefore the customer journey is becoming more complex with each additional marketing channel.[1] Even though it is very challenging to create, manage and attempt to control the experience of a customer on his customer journey, it is very important for a company to do so.[1]
Customer journey mapping[edit]
Customer journey mapping (CJM) is a very important strategic management tool used and approved by both academics and practitioners [2] for better understanding of an organization's customer experience.[3] The fundamental idea behind CJM is relatively simple; it is a visual depiction of the sequence of events through which customers may interact with a service organization during an entire purchase process. CJM lists all possible organizational touchpoints customers may encounter during the service exchange process. A simple diagram can illustrate the steps which the customer(s) need to go through with the company, it could be regarded as a product, an online experience, retail experience, or a service, or any combination of the above items. [4] CJM can be an evidence-driven method that follows the user from offline to online, from mobile to desktop, from the main branch to a satellite location, from email to phone.[2]
From using innovative communication channels and social media, marketers could leverage the map to gain insights and multiply customer interactions.[5] Also, visualizing the journey could provide a consistently valuable and positive experience at each interaction point.[6] However, the work of mapping should be done by a cross-departmental team, due to the reasons that most users would interact with more than one department.[7]
Creating customer journey map[edit]
Customer journey maps are often used for creating a visual representation of how customers interact with specific brands or companies.[8] As a customer journey map should in one visual image include the entire customer journey, it is important to know how the map should be created.[2]
According to Clinehens (2020), customer maps are composed out of seven main parts. Firstly, they should include a customer persona, which represents a segment of the customers. There should be different personas for different segments and journeys, as otherwise, the map will be too broad.[9] Furthermore, it is important to acknowledge that the consumer journey maps are created and written from the consumers' point of view. [8] Secondly, phases of the consumer journey have to be addressed. Usually, there are four to six phases in each consumer journey and they can overlap[8]. Thirdly, it is important to list all of the touchpoints. Touchpoints are places (on the website) where the consumer can interact with the brand or company and they give you insight into the actions of consumers.[9] They can be owned by the brand or the company, or reflect the brand somewhere else, e.g. social media and reviews.[8] Then the actions need to be defined. Actions are combinations of what customers do, they give the perception to the company and help the brand to improve the whole journey.[8] Next, the obstacles and pain points need to be defined. They describe what is stopping customers to make a desired action and why they do not succeed with it.[9] Furthermore, emotions and motivations need to be included. They tell the brand or a company what has caused a problem and how emotions change depending on a journey.[9] Lastly, opportunities, with the help of feedback, should be defined.
There are a lot of different ways to create a customer journey map, the above-explained is just one approach of the many.
Benefits of customer journey mapping[edit]
A customer journey approach aims at utilizing multichannel management to ‘design, deployment, coordination, and evaluation of channels to enhance customer value.[10] It should be considered as a starting point for developing an effective multichannel strategy.[11] Organizations should make use of customer journey mapping to become a strategic tool for service innovation and a visual depiction of how a service system can work together at each touchpoint to improve a customer's experience. [2]
Organization efficiency[edit]
A customer journey map with an understanding of evolving customer behaviors and expectations helps businesses to define what existing customers, and potential customers required in order to complete a purchase.[6] It helps in prioritizing service development, providing evidence, and persuasive arguments for where investment is most needed.[7] Also, giving an outside perspective to companies’ sales process.[12] If the company can identify the frustration points, and eliminate it, the company can maximize customer satisfaction and grow the business simultaneously.[13]
Employee satisfaction[edit]
Besides, employee satisfaction would come along with journey mapping exercises. It empowers business prospects and ensures an enhancement in employee satisfaction when the mapping distinguishes the needs and wants of customers.[14] Employees would have a clear vision and understanding of customer goals. Consequently, they would feel a sense of personal satisfaction which directly corresponds to their own contributions.[15] Apart from that, knowing the requirements of fulfilling the mission of customer contentment creates a focal point for the teams, while eliminating the unnecessary exercises that hinder the success in achieving customer goals.[13]
Customer satisfaction[edit]
From the customers' point of view, they would expect their experience with a brand to be connected and seamless.[12] The ideal state of the customer journey mapping is to secure them with the touchpoints of the most effective, efficient buying and service process. Customers will be better able to achieve their goals, from their pre-purchase through their post-purchase experience, with your company.[16] With higher customer satisfaction, the relationship between a customer could be developed and become a long- term mapping.[17]
Related approaches and terms[edit]
Customer journey is often linked to other approaches and terms, such as: service blueprinting, service journeys, and orchestration of clues.
Service blueprinting was developed in the 1980s as a method to support service management and service design.[18][19] The service process is presented as diagrammatic visualizations, also called service blueprints[20] In general, service blueprint is an operation planning tool, which shows how the service will be executed.[21] It provides information on physical evidence, staff actions, backstage actions, and support systems, e.g. infrastructure.[21]
Service journey was in the past a term used as a synonym for the customer journey, however today the customer journey is a much broader topic and the terms are now used for different purposes.[20] Service journey is mostly used for describing customer expectation management and service quality perceptions.[22]
Term »orchestration of clues« focuses on the customer experience in the service process, which is very similar to the approaches of the customer journey.[20]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lemon, Katherine N.; Verhoef, Peter C. (2016). "Understanding Customer Experience Throughout the Customer Journey". Journal of Marketing. 80 (6): 69–96. ISSN 0022-2429.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Rosenbaum, Mark S.; Otalora, Mauricio Losada; Ramírez, Germán Contreras (2017-01-01). "How to create a realistic customer journey map". Business Horizons. 60 (1): 143–150. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2016.09.010. ISSN 0007-6813.
- ↑ Klein, Jan F.; Zhang, Yuchi; Falk, Tomas; Aspara, Jaakko; Luo, Xueming (March 2020). "Customer journey analyses in digital media: Exploring the impact of cross-media exposure on customers' purchase decisions". Journal of Service Management. ISSN 1757-5818.
- ↑ Richardson, Adam (2010-11-15). "Using Customer Journey Maps to Improve Customer Experience". Harvard Business Review. ISSN 0017-8012. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
- ↑ Paquin, Alain (2013). "Mapping the customer journey: Are marketers taking the wrong approach?". Customer. 31 (6): 22–23.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Five Best Practices to Integrate VoC into Your Customer Journey Mapping Processes". CRM Magazine. Vol. 20, No. 8. August 2016.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 ""Customer Journey Mapping" by Fichter, Darlene; Wisniewski, Jeff - Online Searcher, Vol. 39, Issue 4, July-August 2015 | Online Research Library: Questia". www.questia.com. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Clinehens, Jennifer (2020-05-28). "How to Create a Customer Journey Map". Medium. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Agius, Aaron. "How to Create an Effective Customer Journey Map [Examples + Template]". blog.hubspot.com. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
- ↑ Neslin, Scott A.; Grewal, Dhruv; Leghorn, Robert; Shankar, Venkatesh; Teerling, Marije L.; Thomas, Jacquelyn S.; Verhoef, Peter C. (2006-11-01). "Challenges and Opportunities in Multichannel Customer Management". Journal of Service Research. 9 (2): 95–112. doi:10.1177/1094670506293559. ISSN 1094-6705.
- ↑ Stone, Merlin; Hoobs, M; Khaleeli, M (September 2002). "Multichannel Customer Management: The Benefits and Challenges". Journal of Database Marketing. 10 (1): 39–52.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Stewart, Charla. "How the QSEHRA Works for Me". www.peoplekeep.com. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Custer, Lisa (May 2018). "Mapping The Way". Quality Progress. 51 (5): 46–51.
- ↑ Erkmen, Ezgi (September 2018). "Managing Your Brand for Employees: Understanding the Role of Organizational Processes in Cultivating Employee Brand Equity". Administrative Sciences. 8 (3): 52. doi:10.3390/admsci8030052.
- ↑ Miao, Chao; Humphrey, Ronald H.; Qian, Shanshan (2016-11-01). "Leader emotional intelligence and subordinate job satisfaction: A meta-analysis of main, mediator, and moderator effects". Personality and Individual Differences. 102: 13–24. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.06.056. ISSN 0191-8869.
- ↑ Candi, Marina; Beltagui, Ahmad; Riedel, Johann C. K. H. (2013). "Innovation through Experience Staging: Motives and Outcomes". Journal of Product Innovation Management. 30 (2): 279–297. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5885.2012.00999.x. ISSN 1540-5885.
- ↑ Micheaux, Andrea; Bosio, Birgit (2019-08-01). "Customer Journey Mapping as a New Way to Teach Data-Driven Marketing as a Service". Journal of Marketing Education. 41 (2): 127–140. doi:10.1177/0273475318812551. ISSN 0273-4753.
- ↑ Bitner, Mary Jo; Ostrom, Amy L.; Morgan, Felicia N. (2008-04-01). "Service Blueprinting: A Practical Technique for Service Innovation:". California Management Review. doi:10.2307/41166446.
- ↑ Polaine, Andy; Løvlie, Lavrans; Reason, Ben (2013-03-13). Service Design: From Insight to Inspiration. Rosenfeld Media. ISBN 978-1-933820-61-3. Search this book on
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Følstad, Asbjørn; Kvale, Knut (2018-03-12). "Customer journeys: a systematic literature review". Journal of Service Theory and Practice. 28 (2): 196–227. doi:10.1108/JSTP-11-2014-0261. ISSN 2055-6225.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 "Service Blueprint | Learning Space Toolkit". Retrieved 2020-06-06.
- ↑ Gyimóthy, Szilvia (2000-01-05). "Visitors' Perceptions of Holiday Experiences and Service Providers: An Exploratory Study". Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing. 8 (2): 57–74. doi:10.1300/J073v08n02_05. ISSN 1054-8408.
This article "Customer journey" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Customer journey. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
