Customer Journey Definition

What are Customer Journeys?

The definition of customer journey is: The act or instance of traveling by potential customers (like leads and suspects), actual customers, and ex- customers (from your company and other companies) by going from one place to another place (in the real world and online).

Visiting touchpoints of organizations, exposing and showing their needs and requirements, buying, using, and experiencing propositions, offerings, products, and services, making complaints and recommendations to organizations.

Customer journeys are a simplification or a model of a series of experiences focused on visits, touchpoints, and interactions with organizations or companies providing products and services.

Customer Journey Mapping.

The purpose or goal of a customer journey is, on the one hand, to measure and evaluate how well you are servicing your customer in line with your strategy and to improve your current delivery of service. On the other hand, to find out what has changed in your customers' lives (potential, actual, and ex), why they are visiting your competitors and not you, and to come up with ideas for new services.

This all leads to a better understanding and servicing of customers. You focus on what your customer thinks, feels, needs, wants, says, shows, and tells. You will know what people want and need to become and stay your customer, and you will undoubtedly know how to prevent them from going over to your competitor or even prevent them from visiting, investigating, or learning about your competitor.

Customer Journey is a tool to look 'outside in' instead of 'inside out'. You broaden your scope and view. And you prevent tunnel vision and self-fulfilling prophecy.

Improving the Customer Journey Experience Map

The example above provides an overview of a customer journey. With only one touchpoint with your organization. It is common practice to zoom in on or detail a single touchpoint in a series of touchpoints with your organization and others. For instance, if they search online, the first organization they will touch is often Google.

Below are some examples of detailed mappings of Customer Journeys. In every visualization, you see a series of customer journey experiences; for each experience, the pain points and opportunities are measured or defined. In some mappings, you make it even more explicit by showing what a customer wants, feels, thinks, and does. Creating a detailed map can improve customer experience and increase sales.

Map the Customer Journey.

Customer Journeys Mapping.

Mapping the Customer Journey.

Customer Journey Mapping Secrets

Congratulations! You have reached the bottom of the page. And we will reward you with some secrets about Customer Journey mapping.

There are many secrets to successful customer journey mapping and improved customer service. We will mention six secrets here.

• Secret 1: Use a Customer Journey Template

  - On this page, we have provided you with an overview diagram and four examples of Customer Journey maps. By reusing these diagrams, you gain access to years of knowledge and experience from the field's experts. On Dragon1, we provide four templates and a checklist to help you create a customer journey map quickly.
  

• Secret 2: Work with your Net Promoter Score (NPS)

  - The Net Promoter Score®, or NPS®, measures customer experience and predicts business growth. Measuring your NPS before and after using your customer journey is a smart move.
  

  Customer Experience Journey.

• Secret 3: Customer Loyalty

  - Customer loyalty is the result of consistently positive emotional experience, physical attribute-based satisfaction, and perceived value of an experience, which includes the product or services. Focus on how loyal your customers are or are not. Why is that? How loyal are customers to your competitors, and why is that?
  

• Secret 4: Customer Effort Awareness

  - How much effort does a customer have to put in to acquire your product or make use of specific services (or parts of services)? Are you happy with the amount of effort they have to put in?
  

• Secret 5: Start with a Strategy Map

  - Whether or not something is good or is a problem concerning customer service, it all depends on your strategy. So customer journeys will significantly improve in terms of force and value if you first create a strategy map for your organization.
  

• Secret 6: Calculate the financial benefits

  - Realistic Numbers. Calculate the financial benefits of your service desk employees instead of only the cost that they bring.

Visualize your Customer Experience Journey

Mapping out customer journeys is an easy way to visualize a possible or potential scenario or to map the experience throughout an existing service.

A best practice is dividing your worksheet into lanes (journeys) where one or more personas (types of customers) travel from left to right. And next, divide the lanes into frames (windows of opportunity).

Every moment or period in a journey provides you with a window of opportunity to do something to engage the customer, to do something to make them aware of your product, to educate, to show, to tell, etc.

Also interesting to read and try this Customer Journey template and the Business Model Canvas template.

If you have comments or remarks about this Customer Journey definition or other terms, please email specs@dragon1.com.