Understanding and mapping customer journeys is critical for anyone wishing to be truly customer-centric. This ensures that you both talk to customers on the right topic at the right time and focus on improving what is important to them. As a business, this helps you maximise the return you get from your efforts and investment.
When embarking on a mapping exercise, one needs to first determine the level of journey that is required to address the strategic objectives of the business. Customer Journey is a broad term, and ranges from the customer’s own life journey, through to the granular episodic journeys of specific interactions. There are three layers of customer journey:
Life Stage Journey – This is about understanding how customers’ needs change as they mature through the life stages, and experience the events or moments that shape their choices, e.g. moving home, having a baby or retiring. The complexity in this mapping lies in understanding not just when purchases are made in relation to an event, but when the consideration window opens and decisions are made in advance of that event. This is when you want to be front of mind with the customer, as if you get in when they are making the purchase, you are likely too late. Informing the who, when and how, this level of journey mapping is very much focused on maximising acquisition and cross sell strategies.
Customer Life Journey – The next layer down, is the customer’s journey with you. From being a non-customer, through the purchase journey and on-boarding, all the way to churn. This mapping exercise is about identifying all the critical episodes, including both actions (e.g. changing details) and experiences (e.g. making a claim) that a customer encounters in their lifetime with you. By understanding the prevalence, your performance and the CX impact of these episodes, one can prioritise where to focus efforts and resources. That is where to spend your time and $.
Episodic Journey – This is the most granular layer of customer journey. Working off the back of the Customer Life Journey, these journeys delve into the detail of the episodes (actions and experiences) that customers go through. By understanding the when, what and how of these episodes, one can identify the moments of truth, and any associated pain points. While the Life Journey told you where to spend your time and $, this now tells you what how to spend your time and $.
In summary, customer journeys can be very simple or incredibly complex. To avoid getting bogged down in the complexity, one needs to break the journeys down and focus on the relevant level that is required to address the businesses strategies.