customer journey mapping

Are you using journey mapping to design a better future-state experience and to deliver new value for your customers – with your customers?

I hate to tell you this, but you're just not.*

I've been doing a bit of speaking lately, either about journey mapping or with journey mapping as a piece of the talk, and I've learned a lot - or, rather, confirmed a lot. Namely, you might think you're journey mapping; you call it journey mapping; but it's not really journey mapping.

Here's what happens.

I start by asking the audience if they're mapping customer journeys, and a bunch of hands in the room go up. A lot of hands, as a matter of fact.

I originally wrote today's post for Story of Business. It appeared on their blog on August 3, 2018.

Stories are a wonderful communication tool and a powerful teaching tool. They allow you to deliver a message in a way that engages the audience, helps them understand the characters in play, and, hopefully, inspires them. People tend to connect to stories and, therefore, remember them and the message they convey.

Let's put the "customer" into customer experience.

What does that mean?

If you’re a customer of any business on this planet, no surprise here, you know this: most companies are not really focusing on the customer and the customer experience. They might be giving it lip service, but that’s not the same as actually doing the work, understanding the customer, and designing a great customer experience as a result.

What is customer understanding? And how can you achieve it?

Get the journey mapping process right, and you'll reap the rewards for a long time to come!

Last week, I wrote about the session I hosted for Quadient's 2nd CX Transformation Day. It was a great hour, during which I busted five myths about journey mapping and interviewed a panel of experts on their experiences with journey mapping.

Journey maps are a catalyst for change. But only when done right!

You've heard me say that before, and it's the truth.

There's a problem with journey maps?

Well, not with the maps themselves but with how people talk about them.

I love attending webinars and reading articles about journey mapping because I'm always curious about how others talk about them, what their approaches are, what outcomes they've achieved, etc.

As I read or listen, I'm hopeful that the author or presenter will share some great success stories and get the audience excited about what can be done when you map customer journeys and use those maps as the catalyst for change that they are.

Here’s a couple of things that, in my experience, you probably best stick to a wall in the room where you are painting the picture of your Customer’s Journey. Somehow we seem to forget when busy. Let me know what you think, or add yours in the comment section below!

Have you gone through some journey mapping exercises, only to find that the maps don't deliver what they experts said they would?

Have your maps failed you?