18 Reasons to Map Customer Journeys

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