Developing a Digital Strategy: Journey Mapping
In my last post on defining digital strategy, I analyzed some of the reasons why a digital strategy is important. But how should you get started?
I recommend that your digital strategy include the following tactics:
1. Map the end-to-end customer journey for a high-value customer segment.
2. Map the end-to-end business process to identify automation opportunities.
3. Prototype new digital touch points that reimagine the customer experience.
4. Build a digital roadmap for the process, technology or organizational changes that communicate sequencing and priorities.
For this post, we will focus on step #1 – journey mapping.
What is journey mapping?
Today, more than ever, there is a greater urgency and focus on the customer experience. Customers are increasingly demanding always-on, easy-to-use, near-real-time access to products and services across multiple (digital) touchpoints such as mobile apps and web browsers. So, providing a good customer experience across these touch points makes good business sense. But measuring the impact of customer engagement with your company/ product is a big challenge, which is why journey maps are so helpful.
Briefly, customer journey mapping is the process of tracking and describing all the experiences and goals customers have as they encounter your company’s products or services.
How can your company get started with journey mapping?
Conducting a workshop is a great way to accelerate your journey mapping effort. While each workshop is unique, you should consider the key planning areas before beginning a journey mapping project. This example planning checklist may be helpful:
Click to view larger image. Image credit – https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/123970/journey_mapping1.pdf
After you’ve completed the planning checklist, you can develop the workshop agenda. As I wrote earlier, each workshop is unique; here is an example agenda for a one-day journey mapping workshop:
Click to view larger image. Image credit – https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/123970/journey_mapping1.pdf
Why do companies invest in journey mapping?
Clearly, having the right metrics in place to adequately judge the performance of your customer engagement initiatives is key. And the only way to do that is by understanding the end-to-end journey your customers take.
If you don’t understand the customer journey, you’ll rush to judgment with ill-timed surveys, miss important moments of truth and fail to align operational data with customer perceptions.
In my next post, I’ll explore business process mapping, which is step two in the development of a digital strategy.