Following our last blog let's give you some more quick tips for how to better map customer journeys.

So, the title - what do you have in common with Lego? Well many things but if you're reading this, probably a desire to better improve the experience of your customers. I remember an old post from the blog Experience Matters which shared a picture of Lego's customer journey mapping method - applied example below. They call it the 'experience wheel' and it is designed to give a single image overview of the customer experience (assuming for one persona).

As a reminder a customer journey map is a visual or graphical interpretation of the overall story from an individual's perspective of their relationship with an organisation, service, product or brand, over time and across the channels they utilise. The story is told from the customer's perspective, but also emphasises important intersections between user expectations and business requirements.

As the image above shows, no two journey maps are alike, and regardless of format they will allow you to consider interactions from your customers' points of view, instead of taking a business outwards focus. They can be used in both current state review and future state visioning to examine the present, highlight pain points and uncover the most significant opportunities for building a better experience for customers.

There is no single way to map customer journeys nor is there any one right answer. So let's consider five more quick tips to improve your journey mapping approach.

Map the whole experience

Map the experience from beginning to end and be as comprehensive as you can. Ideally one touchline will cover the entire experience but if this is too complex you can map a touchline for each key customer interaction. Try to think beyond the obvious and look before and after the immediate touch points with your organisation.

Ensure goals are clear

Engagement is important. It will be very unlikely to create a detailed customer journey map in a day. Instead expect to complete a draft of a single journey for one type of user in a day and make sure the right level of input, co-creation and buy in during the workshop session.

Don't get stuck on the detail

You are not trying to create a realistic representation of every customer's individual experience. Instead you are trying to tell a story and depict the overall shape. There simply needs to be enough detail to describe the journey, identify weak points and highlight opportunities.

Get the people mix right

It's worth remembering that the process is also about buy-in and education. It focuses minds on the importance of the customer experience and educates participants, so they better understand how to meet the needs of their customers. You will need the right mix of senior management and operational staff in your workshops.

Senior management may be more removed from the customer but will take decisions that impact them and it is important they understand the consequence of these actions. Individuals who interact with customers day in day out will give detail and context to the sessions alongside genuine examples where things don't work at the moment. At the same time, they may find it harder to see the bigger picture outside of their immediate job role. Other individuals may be beneficial to attend including marketing teams, sales and account management, support functions such as IT and Finance or digital and strategy teams.

Refine and share

Circulate your map to help begin informing decision making. Present it in meetings and encourage test and challenge, making sure to keep it live and iterated. Consider packaging it with other insights and recommendations and use it as a tool to focus and accelerate momentum into the next phase of your customer experience programme.

Get more help

We love customer experience and can help you to improve how your organisation delivers more customer-centric products, services, processes and technologies. We can help you run your next customer experience programme or we can help to give you the tools and techniques to do so yourself.

Why not get in touch with us to find out more.