What do you do when you feel lost? When you are lost, and need to find a new way, you would most likely use google maps or a GPS. The path you choose is up to you whether you find the best way, the fastest, the scenic, the longest, or busiest route you will always need to decide the best options.
We don’t have a GPS or Google Maps to show us our business’s direction, but we do have “Journey Maps” for when we feel lost in managing a business. You would use a journey map when you lose the way to the customers’ needs and wants, or we need to get back on track.
Tons of research and experts agreed that customer experience drives profits. As a company manager, you need to focus on profits, saving costs, and managing resources; deciding where to start and how many resources to invest requires a solution that is easy to implement and cost-effective.
Customer journey maps are a visual representation of the interactions between humans and your company. It is a tool that customer experience practitioners use to help a businesses like yours.
In a technology context, journey maps are about the steps a human follows to accomplish a goal. A journey map is all about the user and their actions, the storyboards, and use cases; in customer experience, we add the service journey to align offline and online processes.
How do humans use and experience the technology?, and how do we capture those moments or interactions? Simple, use a customer journey map that will include: technology, processes, people, and physical evidence.
There is a relationship between journey maps and understanding your customers, prospects, or ideal customer. A journey map will provide an overall view from where you can draw a plan; it will give you and your team a “360 view” of your company relationship and the human aspect of that relationship.
There are two approaches you could use:
- Map individual interactions to pilot a customer experience program. It is the faster and easier route to start, provide quick wins, buy-in, and less resistance. It works well to adapt to sudden market changes such as a pandemic, industry disruption or digitalization.
- Map the overall experience with a high-level customer journey; this works well for an established company or a small program for a new company. A high-level customer journey map provides the starting point to understand the relationship between the service promised and the service delivered. It is a long-term approach with quick non-structural changes at the beginning for quick wins and adds cumulative value over time.
I want you to remember two points: number one, customer journey maps are living documents that adapt, and number two, CX is a continuous improvement program.
As the customers or users evolve and market conditions change. Using customer journey maps keeps an alignment between your business promise, users’ or customers’ expectations, and how your employees deliver on that promise. And it will keep your business on the path to your customer’s and user’s hearts and success.
Lastly, customer journey maps give that emotional connection, that most businesses lack. We talk about gains and losses; a customer’s journey, speaks to your company about the customer’s awes and pains. We humanize technology and business, we see beyond profits, and we create human connections that are meaningful and productive.
Customer Experience Consulting 
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