Benefits of mapping the customer journey?

Lauren Mecca

Has anyone successfully introduced the concept of a customer journey when everyone else at the company was unfamiliar? How do you describe the tangible benefits to the business? Which functions are involved in the mapping exercises?

I've personally seen life without a customer journey...I know it's messy. I work in early startups, where the mindset is often, "do whatever it takes to make each customer successful" and so there's not a well-defined path to success. How can I start to socialize the concept to get buy-in?

Ed Powers

Hi @Lauren Mecca--

I think the perception is that customer journey mapping is just a documentation exercise. It's much more than that. I've found working with clients that besides coming up with better designs, cross-functional teams build a shared understanding, a shared vision, and a shared commitment:

• Shared Understanding--they learn the customer's journey from the customer's perspective, where the gaps are in meeting the customer's needs, specifically where the disconnects and gaps are in the company's workflow, and even how other employees actually do their jobs. 
• Shared Vision--the team collaborates to apply their expertise and define the ideal customer experience. Then identify the specific steps to create it.
• Shared Commitment--working together builds teamwork and reduces natural "silo-ism." Through collaboration, the vision becomes theirs. Then team members become highly motivated to spend time and effort making the vision a reality. 

Customer journey mapping is, in my view, a means to an end. The artifact isn't important, but neurons firing in the brains of team members is. And when it's used to stand up a new Customer Success function or reengineer CX, customer journey mapping is one of the most powerful tools in the business transformation toolbox. I've learned that when the CEO and senior leadership staff are committed to making breakthrough improvements, these benefits resonate quite well.