customer journey mapping

CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPPINGFIVE STEPS TO IMPROVING SALES AND BRAND LOYALTY IN AN OMNICHANNEL ENVIRONMENT

Lenati LLC. 1. 800. 848. 1449 1300 Dexter Ave N #100, Seattle, WA, 98109 lenati.com

TACKLING COMPLEXITYIn a world where channel options, shifting media habits, product and service information, product skus, social media influence and search tools are all proliferating at a staggering rate - understanding your customer has become more important than ever.

How do your customers find what they are looking for?

How do different customers choose between “their” brand and competitors’ products?

Which information channels do your customers trust most?

How do your customers share their experiences with others?

How do product and service interactions affect a customer’s loyalty to your brand in the long term?

OLD MODELS LEAD TO BAD CONCLUSIONSMost marketers now recognize that customers rarely progress linearly through the stages of a “marketing funnel.”

THE PATH TO PURCHASE IS SELDOM A STRAIGHT LINEIn a true omnichannel environment, the linear path to purchase gives way to a network of possible channels - some physical, some virtual - with the possibility of the customer navigating more than one channel at a time.

CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPPING is a technique that can help you build a better understanding of how your customers interact with your company and your brand. When used properly, it forces you to consider every channel, product and touchpoint in the context of your customer’s experience.

IT CAN HELP SOLVE MANY BUSINESS CHALLENGES: • Failure of existing touchpoints to drive purchase decisions• Failure to translate initial sales into repeat purchases• Customer disinterest in a retail or online environment

PLOTTING A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC VIEW OF YOUR COMPANY• Customer needs, objectives, perceptions and motivations• The network of paths to purchase open to your customer• Potential barriers and pain points in your customer’s experience• Customer interactions with touchpoints, brands and products

A FRAMEWORK FOR DRIVING KEY BENEFITS FOR YOUR COMPANY• Prioritizing investment in developing loyalty and customer base• Streamlining the purchase process by understanding customer pathing• Visualizing a common direction for internal project teams• Aligning marketing tactics to targeted points in the customer’s journey

FIVE STEPS TO BUILDING A CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION

STEP 1: DEVELOP FRAMEWORK, BUILD TEAM CONSENSUS• Frameworks can include lifecycle, scenarios, touchpoints, path

to purchase, AIDA, physical pathing etc. - establish which of these lenses are the most relevant to your organization’s goals.

• Engage all stakeholders to align on objectives and inputs through workshops and participatory design concept sessions.

• Determine how much new research is needed to build the map, and what can be derived from existing data.

STEP 2: GATHER INTELLIGENCE• Start with what you already know - your company may already

have transactional data, past surveys, focus groups, ethnography, analyst reports, competitive reviews etc.

• Conduct additional research to fill in the gaps - customer interviews, online analytics, in-store observations, social media sampling, mystery shopping online and in-store.

STEP 3: MAP THE CURRENT STATE• Visualize the journey from the customer’s perspective - avoid

using operational language - focus on what the customer is actually doing, feeling, thinking, interpreting and buying.

• Profile key “moments of truth” - describe interactions at each touchpoint in detail from the customer’s side including perceptions, needs, goals and path.

• Diagnose painpoints, barriers, soft-spots and opportunities for better engagement with the customer.

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STEP 4: DEFINE THE FUTURE STATE• Imagine the ideal journey for your customer, smoothing the path

and improving their experience throughout.• Ask questions like “where are the opportunities to enhance the

experience? to acquire more customers? to convey our brand?• Consider multiple possible paths between touchpoints. Don’t

focus on a single linear model.• Engineer the ideal touchpoints online, in-store, and beyond. -

Consider how they relate to each other and your brand.

STEP 5: DEVELOP A PLAN TO MAKE IT REAL• Socialize and land the Map and its insights with key stakeholders• Identify business requirements and approximate retrofit costs• Conduct a gap analysis between current & desired state and prioritize

according to level of investment and expected impact• Develop a roadmap for short-term, mid-term and long-term

improvements – which may span many different parts of the organization, e.g. Marketing, Sales, Operations, Customer Support etc.

KEY CONSIDERATIONS: CHOOSING THE RIGHT PATHStart with a clear destination in mind. Are you looking for input on specific touchpoints? customer acquisition? retention? brand alignment? product mix? store layout? social media strategy? all of the above?

KEY CONSIDERATIONS: FINDING YOUR WAYIs your organization ready to put changes into action? This isn’t just about investment - how far is the culture of your company willing to go?

KEY CONSIDERATIONS: MEASURING SUCCESSDesign the framework based on clear objectives - and align all co ordinates and points in the framework to contribute to those objectives. Establish clear measures of success for both the process and the end result based on clear goals and KPIs.

KEY CONSIDERATIONS: SHIFTING PERSPECTIVETeams tend to conceive the customer journey from the perspective of how the company touches its customers – instead of looking through the eyes and walking in the shoes of their potential customers. This exercise is about shifting perspective, to see things from your customer’s point of view.

• Consider your customer’s real thoughts, needs, emotions, choices, influencers, and alternatives to your offerings - many of which are outside of the company’s direct influence.

• Base your thinking on real observations - not imagined or idealized personas.

KEY CONSIDERATIONS: DON’T ASSUME A COMMON JOURNEYThere is no single customer journey - it may vary significantly from customer to customer, from segment to segment, from location to location, from category to category.

Differentiate groups of customers based on their observed needs, attitudes, motivations, behaviors and pathing. This doesn’t mean mapping every possible journey - that will be too complex to be useful. But it does mean building a map of key forks in the road and brand touchpoints for each customer group.

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ANATOMY 101THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPPING

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

In this highly simplified example, we will walk through the basic components of a customer journey map. Actual maps go into a great deal of detail for each item shown, and can become much more granular for the total number of items represented.

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Start by considering the experiences the customer engages in along their journey, as observed in the research. Base this on real-world findings, not on imaginary personas. Keep your focus on the customer’s POV and use language that emphasizes the subjective, the active and the personal.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES

PRODUCT ENGAGEMENT

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Build the pathing from experience to experience. Repeat this for each customer group observed. Many paths will be non-linear, or may loop back on themselves. Consider how the customer will repeat the process next time - what is driving them to return?


CUSTOMER PATHING

PRODUCT ENGAGEMENT

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Now consider the operational zones that enable these experiences - online, in-store, etc.

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An additional layer can be added showing product and service offerings involved at each step.

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CUSTOMER PATHING

OPERATIONAL ZONES

PRODUCT and SERVICE OFFERINGS

PRODUCT ENGAGEMENT

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Service intercepts can also be added. (In fact, the whole journey can be re-calibrated from the staff point of view to help visualize operational frameworks. But we’ll leave that for another time...)

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Additional layers can be added for key touchpoints, affordances, brand cues, messaging - any physical or digital enablers in the customer’s journey.

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CUSTOMER PATHING

OPERATIONAL ZONES


TOUCHPOINTS AND AFFORDANCES

BRAND CUES AND MESSAGING

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Each one of these items tells a story - one that should be told from the customer’s point of view. For each step in the journey, identify the painpoints, the moments of positive connection, the opportunities for better engagement and the soft-spots in the customer’s experience.

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Alternate methods can also be layered in, depending on the business objectives defined at the beginning of the project. For example, a path to purchase model can be added to clarify customer habits, behaviors and motivators.


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Consumption chain models focus on underlying customer needs throughout the cycle, and can help identify opportunities to radically reinvent or differentiate product value propositions.


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CX/UX maps distill functional, emotional and contextual elements of the journey and are a great tool for informing service design and brand experience work. Touchpoint analysis focusses on existing customer interactions points and operational tactics.


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The key to choosing the right methods for your organization lies in the business objectives laid out in the first step, and knowing the questions you need to answer in the project.

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CUSTOMER PATHING

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CONTACT LENATI TO LEARN ABOUT HOW TO CREATE A STRONGER CUSTOMER CONNECTION.

THANK YOU.

Lenati LLC. 1. 800. 848. 1449 1300 Dexter Ave N #100, Seattle, WA, 98109 lenati.com [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

customer journey mapping

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