Eighteen Reasons to Map Customer Journeys

They’re not called the backbone of customer experience management for nothing

Published: Thursday, June 16, 2016 - 12:24

Ihave written and talked about journey mapping so much this year, even suggesting back in January that we make it the year of the journey map. I think customer experience professionals have made great progress toward this goal so far in 2016! I hear so many people talking about mapping, and many prospects and clients are asking about it. That’s progress. And yet, there are still plenty of folks who don’t understand how powerful the maps can be and are as a customer experience (CX) tool.

Throughout the year, I’ve written about different ways that maps can help you advance your CX strategy. Here they are in one place.

Use journey maps to...
1. Get executive buy-in to focus on the customer experience
2. Get organizational buy-in for customer focus and customer-centricity
3. Understand your customer and her interactions with your organization
4. Build empathy for the customer and what he’s going through as he interacts with your organization
5. Shift CX thinking from touchpoints to journeys
6. Shift CX thinking from inside-out to outside-in
7. Align the organization around a common cause
8. Provide a clear line of sight for employees to the target: customers
9. Help both frontline and back-office employees understand how they impact the customer experience
10. Influence talent requirements and hiring decisions
11. Train and coach employees about the customer experience
12. Onboard employees and indoctrinate them in the CX culture
13. Speak a universal language (customer)
14. Break down organizational silos
15. Set a single view of the customer
16. Identify moments of truth and performance measurement opportunities
17. Design/improve the customer experience (foundation for CX strategy)
18. Identify and update/fix/kill inefficient touchpoints and processes, as well as rules and policies that don’t make sense

What am I missing? If you’ve mapped customer journeys, what other activities have you used your maps for? What other benefits have you witnessed as a result of mapping? How do you use the maps?

Remember: Don’t map for the sake of mapping. We’re not just checking a box to say that we created maps. They’re not the endgame; they haven’t been dubbed “the backbone of customer experience management efforts” for nothing. Journey maps are a valuable tool in your company’s effort to improve the customer experience.

A closing thought... maps aren’t just for the customer experience. Map the employee experience, the partner experience, and the experience of any other constituent with whom you interact, including your internal customers.

“A map does not just chart, it unlocks and formulates meaning; it forms bridges between here and there, between disparate ideas that we did not know were previously connected.”
—Reif Larsen, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet (Penguin Press, 2009)

About The Author

Annette Franz

Annette Franz, CCXP is founder and CEO of CX Journey Inc. She’s got 25 years of experience in both helping companies understand their employees and customers and identifying what drives retention, satisfaction, engagement, and the overall experience – so that, together, we can design a better experience for all constituents. She's an author (she wrote the book on customer understanding!), a speaker, and a customer experience thought leader and influencer. She serves as Vice Chairwoman on the Board of Directors of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), is an official member of the Forbes Coaches Council, and is an Advisory Board member for CX@Rutgers.