Customers like trips. Very good ones, with great experiences. In fact, while shopping, they want a valuable, remindable, exclusive experience. How could we do this ? How stand such a goal, facing competition and overtroubled consumption ? It’s now the tricky work of « journey managers », who empower the global experience of any customer trip…
Like new positions, created by digital enforcement (community manager, chief data officer, chief digital officer…), they deal with the new challenges of customers’ fears. They create straight, remarkable and smart situations, to raise business welfare. Get the better chance of transform cold prospect to instant customer. They track « UX » and trace any footprint and path from the customer. Someone said « journey is key », and I think it’s all essential. Each journey could me remindable, unique and awesome. Each journey, a new reason to be loyal for a customer.
Personal, coherent and ongoing : the perfect journey
These three things make the difference for a valuable and tremendous journey. A likeable, trustful timeline of steps. And we must insist on « steps », because it’s traditionally the only thing companies are aware of. They do not maker a deal of global journey experience, prefering focus on steps, process and mechanics or automation. The important matter stands as a valuable experience more than a suite of tasks. That’s where a journey manager is very relevant and important. Fair, non partial, he has a global view of the different steps blooming alongside the pain points of the customer. The digital enpowered this notion of « journey » as ever and created experiences to be followed.
Fast track
The hardline today is the customer feels more the « steps » than the global warm of the whole experience. That’s where the hit is. The goal is always and still to surround the customer, from the company perspective and giving him first priority and centrism. The customer owns himself, in his own, personal experience, that only a journey manager can build.
A sustainable mission ?
The customer remains a very mysterious alchemy that changes every day. Lots of new features and functions have been created to track, target and engage with it. Softwares, tags, networks, clubs, apps…the customer is globally surrounded in a realtime interest from companies because he’s the first shareholder of the company. Future will tell us about the sustainability of the journey manager, whose place still is to be defined : PR, Marketing, Customer teams, process, data analytics…A crossroad and hybrid function, some kind of silent angel who’s gonna guide for an exception travelling in brand mysterious ways.
May the idea keeps closer relations between companies’ organization and customers and ignite a new kind of client discovering. At that step, we don’t know if this new venue in customer enlightment is here to stay or is a fashion move, to give a lift to an environment on the emprise of the digital and social conversations. But I’m sure we have a good newly initiative that could bring value to the table. May the customer force be with us.
