Defining the Customer Journey Map
& highlighting its value
The Customer Journey Map, when done correctly, is a highly versatile tool that can:
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Act as the master plan for the future customer experience.
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A key tool in managing stakeholders, as it provides an opportunity to engage, listen, and capture ideas and sentiments.
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The portfolio for user stories to be developed in the transformation project.
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A training tool for stakeholders, care teams, etc., on how customers can and should engage.
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An assessment tool to help visualize the intersection of process and experience.
A customer journey map is a comprehensive representation of a customer's journey as they engage with your company's products or digital tools. Like an architectural blueprint, it is composed of several components.
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Persona: A descriptive definition of the target customer for whom the journey is built
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Journey Moments: A list of the step-by-step activities a user from the target persona would take as they progress through the journey. In more complex journeys, the moments may get grouped into journey stages.
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Customer Voice / Sentiment: A visual or descriptive representation of what the customer thinks about a moment or stage. This can come from surveys/interviews/feedback, or quality systems like NSS.
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Experience Map: A visual representation of the various platforms or domains in which the customer engages at each moment and stage of the journey. The visual is key to seeing where disconnects or disjointed journeys may exist.
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Gaps and Opportunity Register: a place to capture the user stories that are required to support the to-be journey.
To complete a full customer journey exercise, which starts with a customer searching the web and ends with the customer receiving product end-of-life support, can take weeks or even months to complete. Although there are different opinions on whether as-is and to-be journey maps need to be completed, in our experience, the as-is map tends not to generate much value.
The starting point for creating a journey map is to define a persona. Although it can be made in PowerPoint and will ultimately be summarized on the journey map, the best practice is to have a long-form, written persona definition. The definition should include demographic information along with key concerns and goals that the customer type may have. With the persona in hand, the mapping of journey moments can begin.
Mapping Journey Moments is a collaborative effort; it requires subject matter experts for the journey stages, customer representatives, and product experts to complete. A starting point and an ending point should be clearly defined with statements such as “this journey starts with…” and “ends with…”. From there, a facilitator captures the key moments of the journey. The easiest way to complete this part of the map is with a blank wall and a stack of blank stickies. This will enable team members to capture moments and rearrange them as new moments are identified.
A note on Journey Moments. A journey moment should be written from the customer lens. Starting each moment statement with “I, the customer...” is a helpful way to keep the team focused on the customer and avoid creating an operational process map.
Once the moments are laid out and agreed upon, the facilitator should collect customer sentiment and voice. Mature organizations may already have this, but in many cases, a journey stage may be missing the necessary detail. If this is the case, customer research, such as interviews or surveys, should be conducted. This part of the mapping process is typically the most time-consuming, but it should not be skipped as the customer voice and sentiment are a key validation of the defined journey.
The experience map section can be completed in parallel to the customer voice. This is a visual of where the moments are executed. In today's environment, most moments will be captured on a website, portal, or application, but it is also acceptable to represent offline moments, such as calls to a care center or tasks completed on paper.
With the above work complete, the gaps and opportunities need to be logged. This section is best done using user stories that need to be developed. At this stage, the stories do not need to be defined, but an essential title for story ideation is required. We will cover user stories in a separate section as they are the intersection between the customer journey map and the transformation development portfolio.
The result is a Customer Journey Map Canvas that should represent the master plan for the experience you intend to deliver to the customer. Journey maps are not meant to be static. A team member should be nominated to own/maintain and update the journey regularly as the customer's needs or expected experiences change.