A journey map captures what the user does, thinks, and feels, and what they are interacting with over time. This journey encompasses all of the phases a person goes through from the moment they identify their need until they acquire a product or service to satisfy that need. It tells you what they went through in the buying process. Like a story, it comes with a narrative, and the highs and the lows of the user’s emotions.
But what is different in digital customer journeys? We now have email, e-commerce, blogs, social advertising, online advertising, chat GPT, AR, and more technology will come. And we updated our website and social media day by day to catch up with the trend. We try everything to bring value to the customer on the digital side which helps us connect to them more closely and have more interaction. But how can we know which value we can add to customers? and which value corresponds to which phase? For example customers in the awareness phase, do you know which value they need to focus on? This is the reason why the customer journey has a crucial role in business. It's a clear picture to help the brand to grow and expand in this era. From a holistic point, the customer journey is a map of the Explorer, without it, you may still find the road if you're lucky but with this, you definitely know which road you will go to find the treasure, the thing you want.
Various stages make up the complete customer journey, but these three steps are most clear for businesses to analyze overall:
The front stage is where the action takes place and what the audience can see. The customer journey depicts mostly the front stage and customer behind the scenes: customers’ touch points, actions that occur directly in view of the customer, and his experience with the product or service.
Backstage is steps and activities that occur behind the scenes to support onstage happenings: the lights, the sets, and the crew, all of which should be invisible to the customer.
Then there are the behind-the-scenes, things that the organization must do to make both the front and backstage possible. Internal steps, and interactions that support the employees in delivering the service.
In other words, these parts of the service will be visible or invisible to the customer.
We can take online courses as an example.
Customer Journey
Customer experience experts such as Errant Roman, are suggesting focusing on:
solve a problem: analyzing the current customer journey will surface pain points, frustrations, and barriers. These pain points have been defined based on customer insight research and filtered on the customer journey. At every phase of this journey, we will know what exact things our customers need from us. What more value can we bring to customers through digital at a certain moment? What things can we improve on our operation side or digital side? Answering these questions will shape the business at the customer's top mind.
simplify life: remove the time, effort, and/or friction the customer has in engaging with you. Are they happy with the solution your products or your brand give them? For example, online courses help customers learn from the best lecturers in the world at a cheaper cost, with flexible time, and simple procedures. Are customers comprehend this point and feel comfortable with your solution? Defining the USPs and differences compared to competitors is one of the keys for businesses to step out of their comfort zone. Then input it into our customer journey, it will help us to filter and select the best insight to scale up the business.
Engage customers: Keeping customers content and engaged should be a business’s number one priority if they want to succeed. This is because when customers are happy, they are more likely to return and do business with you again. Also, if you can exceed their expectations, Word-of-mouth marketing, is the best tactic ever. "Customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than those not focused on the customer.” — Deloitte and Touche.
By understanding our customers’ journey, we can better understand how they buy to meet their needs and expectations. Furthermore, we can deliver a consistent message across all communication channels by being aware of all their interactions (touchpoints). To make the right customer journey, let's question ourselves:
Does your customer journey map focus on your customer's digital persona?
Does it follow the purchase/interaction processing across all sales channels?
Does your customer journey map all customers’ insights and emotions (thoughts, feelings, pain points, emotional responses, etc.)?
Did you include the Truth based on company resources in your map?
Does it contain opportunities for innovation and scenarios if customers want another journey?
Including the elements above will ensure that your customer journey map is customer-centric, insightful, and useful to your organization.
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