Intro

In our technology-driven world, where the market is highly competitive in segments and customers’ expectations are evolving instantly, personalized, and seamless customer experience is more important than ever. According to a survey conducted by Epsilon, 80% of customers are more likely to buy from companies when personalized experience is provided by them. Understanding customer’s needs and optimizing customer experience is a challenging process and requires efficient and successful customer Journey mapping. There are, however, fundamental steps that all maps should follow to succeed. In this article, we give you a brief overview of those steps.

Effective customer journey maps focus on the customers’ point of view while visualizing  people’s interaction with companies. The mapping process should include the following:

1. Defining persona and objectives

Firstly, before starting the mapping process, we need to define what the main goal of our organization is exactly. Once we fully understand that we can create our persona to know who our customers are, what their needs and objectives are. Personas are semi-fictional and designed to represent a segment of our customers. They can be profiled by using the records of existing customers and demographic as well as psychographic research. Throughout this step, we will be able to identify gaps where further research is needed.

2. Determining the phases of the customer’s journey

Once our persona has been defined, it is time to identify the phases of the journey from the moment the customer becomes aware of the brand. While determining the phases, the major focus should be always on the main goal of the customer. Different factors such as the industry or the product may influence the number of phases during the journey.

3. Highlighting touch and pain points

Points where customers interact with our business through the different channels are called touch points. Touch points need to be marked as they can show us how customers experience our brand. Special touch points, called Moments of Truth, need to be also highlighted during this phase as they have the greatest power to influence customer experience. We should also look at the pain points that prevents customers from taking actions. Transcosmos Omnichannel Customer Service Solution helps with the mapping of touch and pain points and the successful customer Journey Mapping process to deliver exceptional customer experience.

4. Evaluating the emotional journey

Many companies still do not consider customers’ emotions when creating a customer journey map. However, emotions play an important role in the customer journey and influence customers’ decision to a great extent. A Deloitte study showed that 44% of people would recommend a company or a product to others because of emotional standards, and only 3% would do the same based on organizational values. To understand customer expectations and know how they feel and why they feel that way, we need to gain insight into customers’ behavior and attitude.

5. Visualizing the journey, identifying opportunities for refinements

When our map is designed, we can test it by visualizing the journey with our persona. After that, we can start analyzing the results. All these processes will allow us to detect gaps and work on solutions to fulfill them to meet customer expectations. Obviously, our customer journey map should be updated from time to time as our customers are changing and our organization is also evolving dynamically.

Conclusion

As we have seen, with the help of the fundamental steps, a successful customer journey mapping enables us to understand our customers’ expectations in a better way and how they interact with our brand. They can also contribute to increased customer satisfaction, customer engagement and Return on Investment. But businesses should first have a clear vision of their objective before creating a map. The more precise their goal is, the more they can focus on improving specific areas within their organization. For the best customer service support and customer experience, please contact Transcosmos, your Digital Transformation Partner.

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