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The customer journey - where will it end (or even begin?)

We’re hearing that phrase alot there days aren’t we - customer journey. Richard Greenhalgh blogged about it today on Brand Republic:

‘The phrase ‘customer journey’ is in vogue at the moment, and tends to be used in a wide variety of contexts. Tellingly more and more organisations are appointing internal ‘Customer Experience’ teams, though their remit or powers of execution are often unclear. The one thing that is certain however is that there is little consensus on what the customer journey truly means, and how using it effectively can benefit both businesses and consumers.’

The lack of consensus on what it means could well stem from the lack of understanding of where it starts. Does the customer’s journey start at the point at which they take action (e.g entering the supermarket, going online to book) or when they see your ad? Or does it start when they get those first rumblings of a need that isn’t yet fulfilled? In which case the journey could start months before any actually brand engagement or activity takes place. We would suggest it is the latter.

Every journey begins with an emotional trigger which drives the need - a point of realisation that I want something and right now I don’t have it. So in order to find relief from my pain of not having, I must go on a journey to find it. Every sales programme will tell you to ‘find the pain’ then position yourself or your product as the solution.

However, along the path to pain relief is a rollercoaster of excitement (that my need will be fulfilled) and anxiety (that maybe it won’t), disappointment (that it hasn’t been yet or may not be because there is a spanner in the works like a delayed flight or an out of stock product) and elation (finally I have got it!)

So our take would be that to understand the customer’s journey and give them the best possible experience of your product or service along the way, you must get under their skin and understand their emotional triggers and their emotional touchpoints - where and how does their pain turn into excitement and anticipation; what flips them into anxiety or disappointment, and what transmutes that back into elation and fulfillment?

‘Every interaction between customer and brand will have a direct influence on this journey and, ultimately, on the profitability and duration of the resulting relationship. But the reality is that businesses find it very difficult to join up the disparate silos to create an end to end view.’ writes Richard Greenhalgh.

When you map the customers’ emotional journey from trigger to relief (which means you really have to get to know your customers at the bottom of their hearts not just the top of their minds), what you need to do when, how and where to faciliate the best possible physical journey becomes so much more obvious and easier to implement. It becomes easier to see how those disparate silos need to work together. The end to end view is much more visible when you look at it through emotional eyes of your customers.

So if your pain is that you just don’t know your customers’ emotional map and how that relates to their physical journey with you, then allow us to give you some relief and provide it for you.

Tags: customer experience, customer journey, data, management information, MI

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