Customer journey mapping is a practice for understanding the experience individuals have throughout the entire customer journey of your business. It allows you to see where each touch point can be improved or enhanced, and what needs to happen at every single moment of the journey in order to turn a potential buyer into a committed, loyal customer. Transform your business through customer journey mapping so you can retain more customers and acquire new ones.
When done correctly, an analysis of the customer journey will reveal insights that might otherwise appear counterintuitive – or simply missed – by executives looking at their businesses from 30,000 feet away – which is why many companies use this technique as part of their regular process for improving performance.
Here are five ways that customer journey mapping can transform your business:
Explore hidden patterns: Many organizations carry out market research regarding customers’ perceptions of their brands, but this research is often limited to the end of the customer journey. By mapping out your customers’ entire journeys, you can gain a more complete understanding of their perceptions throughout the buyer’s cycle, and understand what you need to do in order to turn them into loyal supporters.
Focus on potential challenges: Journey mapping allows you to see where there may be problems along the way. For example, if someone comes across an error while filling out a web form, there are some steps (e.g., sending an automatic email asking for clarification) that could be taken in order to keep them engaged with your brand even though they have hit a bump in the road.
Explore new opportunities: Your business might have access to valuable data, such as transaction data and browsing history, that can be used in order to identify potential new markets. For example, our research shows that people who buy sporting goods online also tend to search for travel items at the same time – perhaps because they plan their vacations around their sports activities. By mapping out the journeys of these individuals and finding commonalities between them, organizations may discover new ways in which they can connect with target markets in a more meaningful way.
Increase customer loyalty: Customer journey mapping allows you to see where your customers are struggling or facing challenges, so that you can help them overcome those obstacles along the way. This kind of personalization will increase engagement levels and your ability to convert first-time buyers into repeat customes – resulting eventually in more profitable revenue. Personalized offers increase the value of each customer, too, so your business will benefit even further from increased lifetime values and decreased shopping cart abandonment rates.
Optimize your resources: Mapping the journey can help you to focus on where to improve areas that require more investment – whether it’s improving order fulfillment processes or simply ensuring that internal departments are working together better. For example, if there is a strong correlation between browsing for products online and then buying them in-store (a common pattern these days), you should consider introducing changes such as click-and-collect features at your bricks-and mortar locations.
Customer journey mapping is not an easy task; it requires significant effort over time in order to accumulate enough data to show how different aspects of your business intersect and affect one another. Yet it is a worthwhile investment that will pay off in the long run as you continue to refine the customer segmentation process and fine-tune all aspects of your operations.
If you need to speak with an expert on how you can make customer journey mapping , contact us now!
