What is Customer Journey Mapping and Why is it Important?
Much happens on the path to purchase, and there are many points where the right interaction at the right time will yield one result: a sale, a positive review, a loyal repeat customer. While the wrong move will yield a missed opportunity. This is the customer journey and there’s an ROI (return on investment) if you get it right - 96% of consumers feel that customer service is crucial for brand loyalty, and a recent Forbes Report reported that 74% are likely to buy a product based solely on a positive customer experience (CX). That’s where customer journey mapping can be extremely helpful because it allows you to serve your customers better by understanding how they experience your brand.
What is Customer Journey Mapping?
Much like the name entails, customer journey mapping involves designing a visual diagram or representation of your customer journey. Literally, “mapping out” the whole brand experience, from the moment someone researches your products and services, through to the moment of purchase, and beyond, to what happens after the sale (because the journey towards a lifelong customer involves more than just a sales transaction).
A customer journey map allows you to see the big picture. It helps operations teams to visualize all the various touchpoints and how your customers experience your brand at each one. This is especially helpful when you have several channels, such as voice, live chat, and email, and want to ensure a seamless, consistent omnichannel experience, no matter which channel a customer chooses.
Why is it Helpful?
There are many ways that customer journey mapping can benefit a client. For both the company and their CX partners, it offers a window into consumer habits and preferences, and coupled with key data insights from customer support teams, can be used to optimize workflows, position sales offers, improve overall customer satisfaction, and even influence the kind of agents we recruit.
A Reality Check
Mapping the user experience allows you to step into your customers’ shoes, to see your brand through their eyes. It allows you to spot common pain points, or areas of friction, that could cause a customer to have a negative experience. It can also help you compare perceived service delivery with what customers actually experience. Your ops team can then work towards improvements, while your company’s sales and marketing teams can use this information to refine their strategies.
Personalization
Customer journey maps can be created for various consumer segments. It allows you to better understand the individual preferences of different customers and to personalize each experience. For instance, a tech-savvy Gen Z’er might not have the patience to wait for an agent and might appreciate instant live chat or even self-help options. Whereas a Boomer might prefer to speak to someone over the phone. By mapping out your different consumer personas, you gain insights into how these segments interact, seek out info, and purchase, and what drives their loyalty and trust.
Seamless Integrations
By mapping out the flow of the customer journey, we can see where it makes sense to add new integrations, and how touchpoints interact and connect, so we can increase things such as call routing efficiency, decrease wait and hold times, transfers, and ensure that no matter how a customer interacts with your brand, it is easy, quick, and effective (i.e. the customer gets their issue resolved or the answers, or products, they need).
Working with itel
At itel, we are CX experts who can work with you to map out your customer journey, so we can spot areas of improvement, opportunities for greater efficiency, innovation, and cost savings.
We can plan for each customer experience touchpoint, which includes the action taken by the customer and exact advice on how your brand should respond. We can consult on which channels would be best and where helpful automation or intelligent AI-assisted IVRs (interactive voice response systems) could improve call flows or handle times.
“Mapping the customer journey allows brands to activate the right strategies and resources, and to understand how every single touchpoint or action links with the purpose of the brand,” explains itel’s Director of Digital Strategy & Brand Experience. “Then, we can work with clients to construct precise solutions for a particular problem or need. It will also define the right moments to grow, optimize resources and/or innovate.”
By mapping out the user experience, and by leveraging your historical data, we can develop customer personas that can supply a clear analysis of who your customers are and what they expect when it comes to customer or technical support. We can then craft operation plans and customer service workflows designed to deliver the best customer experience for your target audiences. Backed by a framework for measuring success, that will help you determine how well your customer journey has been planned and executed.
Most importantly, we can identify the moments that matter to your customers, those moments of the greatest emotional load, so we can deliver the right message, offer, or personalized touch, to win you a lifetime customer.
Build an inviting, effortless customer journey. Ready to begin? Contact our team.
