Five common customer journey mapping mistakes

Customer journey mapping is absolutely vital for any organisation that wants to differentiate its offering through better customer service, dustomer experience is high on everyone’s priority these days and customer journey mapping can help you design ideal journeys that will keep your customers coming back for more.  

However, there is no point in just going through the motions. Successful customer journey mapping requires a real commitment and willingness to take on board the organisational change that may be required. If you are not willing to put customers at the heart of your processes, then your customer journey mapping project will not deliver the results you are looking for.  To help you succeed, we’ve put together a list of the five most common customer journey mapping pitfalls to avoid.

1. Your customer personas are one-dimensional

Customer personas should bring a vital human element into the service design process. They are the foundation stone of customer-centric, or outside-in service design. The whole point of customer journey mapping is to meet, or ideally exceed customer needs. And that means really understanding the real-life, desires, motivations and behaviours of key customer groups. It is vital to invest the time and resource to do this properly. If you’re not sure how to go about this, then you might find our guide useful.

2. Your journeys are too generic

Yes, there are rare examples where personas have common collective needs, for example buying a book on Amazon. However, in most cases the same journey may take a different course depending on the persona for whom they are designed. Just to take one example, booking a holiday; the customer journey will be very different for a young couple celebrating a honeymoon or a family of four with young children. For the former the customer journey needs to reflect the romantic and memorable elements that honeymoon couples are seeking; for the latter you probably need to address concerns about facilities to entertain the children so the parents can take a break.

3. Your journeys do not consider multiple touchpoints

Today’s buying process usually involves several stages, each using a different channel. It might include online research, a call to clarify key points, possibly a visit to a store and finally a transaction which could be done across multiple channels. By matching the needs of customer personas to each stage of the buying process, you can make the journey as smooth as possible for your customers. And of course each channel needs to be joined together to create a seamless process from start to finish. Think about customers looking to buy a mobile phone, or seeking help with mobile phone settings; a digitally-savvy student may go through a very different journey than a busy mother who may not be technically confident and prefers talking to a real person.

4. You are trying to force customers down a path they don’t want to take

Ideally your customer journey mapping will include elements of self-service or automation for repetitive tasks and straightforward enquiries. Whether you are introducing an app or voice IVR, make sure these routes are not only fast and efficient, but also enjoyable. By rewarding your customers with outstanding service design you will encourage fast adoption of automated service and avoid repeat calls to your contact centre.

5. Your legacy technology infrastructure is not fit-for-purpose

With a detailed and insightful customer journey map, your business can more effectively assess current and proposed processes, identify system limitations, determine targeted actions to resolve pain points, and leverage opportunities for building stronger customer relationships. But you may need to take an objective look at your existing technology set-up. Thankfully, technology is no longer one-size-fits-all, where customisation and integration required heavy investment. A cloud-based platform can complement your existing infrastructure while providing the joined-up element you need. By making the right technology choices now, organisations can ensure they are well-positioned to respond to an increasingly complex environment at the speed they need to keep pace with consumers expectations.