18 Reasons to Map Customer Journeys

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Have you started journey mapping yet? Or are you still wondering why it’s an important tool to have in your customer experience management toolbox?

I’ve written and talked about journey mapping so much this year, even suggesting back in January that we make it the year of the journey map. I think customer experience professionals have made huge inroads in that regard this year. I hear so many people talking about mapping and so many prospects and clients asking about it. Progress. And yet, there are still plenty of folks who don’t understand how powerful the maps can be/are as a CX tool.

Throughout the year, I’ve written about different ways that maps can help you advance your CX strategy. I thought I’d compile them all here in one place.

Use journey maps to…

  1. get executive buy-in to focus on the customer experience
  2. get organizational buy-in for customer focus and customer centricity
  3. understand your customer and his interactions with your organization 
  4. build empathy for the customer and what he’s going through as he interacts with your organization
  5. shift CX thinking from touchpoints to journeys
  6. shift CX thinking from inside-out to outside-in
  7. align the organization around a common cause
  8. provide a clear line of sight for employees to the target: customers
  9. help both frontline and back office employees understand how they impact the customer experience 
  10. influence talent requirements and hiring decisions
  11. train and coach employees about the customer experience
  12. onboard employees and indoctrinate them in the CX culture
  13. speak a universal language (customer)
  14. break down organizational silos
  15. get a single view of the customer 
  16. identify moments of truth and performance measurement opportunities
  17. design/improve the customer experience
  18. kill processes, rules, policies that don’t make sense

What am I missing? If you’ve mapped customer journeys, what other activities have you used your maps for? What other benefits have you witnessed as a result of mapping? How do you use the maps?

Remember, don’t map for the sake of mapping. We’re not just checking a box, to say that we created maps. They are not the endgame; they haven’t been dubbed “the backbone of customer experience management efforts” for nothing. Journey maps are a valuable tool in your company’s effort to improve the customer experience.

A closing thought… maps aren’t just for the customer experience. Map the employee experience, the partner experience, and the experience of any other constituent with whom you interact, including your internal customers.

A map does not just chart, it unlocks and formulates meaning; it forms bridges between here and there, between disparate ideas that we did not know were previously connected. -Reif Larsen, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Annette Franz
Annette Franz is founder and Chief Experience Officer of CX Journey Inc. She is an internationally recognized customer experience thought leader, coach, consultant, and speaker. She has 25+ years of experience in helping companies understand their employees and customers in order to identify what makes for a great experience and what drives retention, satisfaction, and engagement. She's sharing this knowledge and experience in her first book, Customer Understanding: Three Ways to Put the "Customer" in Customer Experience (and at the Heart of Your Business).

2 COMMENTS

  1. Hi Annette. You are exactly right when you say that journey maps can be used for so many others purposes than (as the name often suggests) mapping a customer journey. You asked for unique examples, and I have a really cool one to share. One of our Touchpoint Dashboard clients is using a journey map as a communication planning tool. It’s helping them manage and enhance their donor communication program. I think this is one of the most innovative ways to use a map that I’ve seen in a long time. You can read more about this case on our blog: http://bit.ly/1F50giQ

    Thanks for all your great posts – they always keep us on our toes and thinking!

  2. Thanks, Jennifer. And thank you for sharing the TPD blog post… that’s a great “alternative” purpose for journey mapping!

    I think the bottom line is, if it helps us understand the customer and how to improve the customer experience, whatever touchpoint that affects, that’s a powerful thing.

    Annette 🙂

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