Delivering great customer service (or even consistently good customer service) doesn’t happen by chance. Customer journey mapping and implementing the right processes are key. And even though technology can help you ensure consistency and excellence, don’t hire a vendor before you’ve thought through the process side of things.

Where To Begin The Customer Journey Mapping Process?

1. Map out how prospects of different types would hear about you, interact with you, buy from you, and recommend and/or continue buying from you. Map how you handle their enquiries and orders. Doing this mapping right will involve people from all departments in your organization. Marketing alone doesn’t know it all.
2. Look at the key decision points, and see where your company adds value. That may give you ideas about what your real competitive advantage is or could be.
3. Identify likely trouble spots. Things are most likely to go wrong in places where different people or departments have to communicate with each other. For example, there may be miscommunication going from sales to order fulfillment, from picking to packing, packing to shipping, fulfillment to billing,etc. In today’s omnichannel customer service world, things often fall apart when customers cross channels. They get awfully annoyed if they already filled in their information on a form and now have to repeat it all to call centre staff, for example.
4. When setting technology investment priorities, start with what will help you most in offering a better product or service.
5. Choose a vendor who is experienced with the technology and with your industry.
6. Make sure you have consistent, effective processes throughout the organization that reflect the role of the new technology and how it helps deliver great service.
7. Ensure that all staff, at every level, understand both the customers’ needs and your company’s competitive strength, so they can all help create that outstanding customer-centric experience.

Don’t Forget The Feedback Loops

Customer journey mapping and process improvement is not a one-time thing. You need to constantly be testing and iterating based on what is working well and what isn’t.

Even if you have a great process in place today, the success it leads to will ultimately force changes. Many a company gets overwhelmed and dies because their early successes swamp them, and they can no longer handle all the customers well. Don’t be that company.