FLIPPING THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP - Jornaya€¦ · One step many marketers are taking to ensure...

FLIPPING THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP

INTRODUCTIONConsumers are complex beings, and one of the

greatest challenges for marketers has always

been figuring out why consumers take the steps

they do in their buying journeys. Determining

why a consumer chooses one product over its

competitors can become an impossible task when

you consider how many options are available in

the market.

Especially now, in an era where we have an

overabundance of choices for almost every type

of product, it is critical for marketers to optimize

each and every interaction a consumer may

have with their brand. An exceptional marketer is

always seeking new ways to gain insight into their

consumers’ shopping journey and buying intent.

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One step many marketers are taking to ensure they’re making the most out of every touchpoint they have

with consumers is creating customer journey maps. Customer journey mapping is the strategy of effectively

diagramming all the steps and touchpoints that your customers go through as a prospect with your company

during their buying decision process.

This mapping goes from initial awareness through to becoming a loyal, advocating customer and then

nurturing them appropriately along the way. This includes all of your marketing content and messaging

dedicated to each of the different stages of the consumer’s shopping journey.


You can create a customer journey map for a product,

for your website, or, in the case of retail, your

customer’s in-store experience.

Regardless of what exact steps you choose to map

out, customer journey mapping has been a useful tool

for identifying steps of your customer’s journey where

improvements can be made to increase conversions,

shorten the sales cycle, and improve the customer’s

perception of your brand.


The conversation amongst consumers is shifting from

“who has the best product” to “which company provides

the best experience”, and companies are starting to take

notice. According to a Forrester survey1 of 1,821 enterprise

business and technology decision-makers, the top three

investments that firms are making in customer experiences

are in digital customer experiences. 55% are prioritizing

online experiences; 41% are adding or improving mobile

experiences; and 39% are improving cross-channel

experiences. Additionally, in an industry report put together

by Kitewheel2, of the 134 agency respondents,

75% had customer journey and personalization solutions

as part of their 2017 investment plan. And the driver behind

those agencies investing in customer journey practices

comes directly from the brands, as 68% of agencies point

to client requests as the biggest reason for launching these

investments in 2017.

With so much money being invested in enhancing the

customer journey, it’s crucial for companies to consider the

risks involved in doing so.


While there are numerous benefits to customer

journey mapping, it doesn’t come without its risks.

It’s certainly better to attempt putting together a

map of your customer’s buying experience than

to not think about the customer’s perspective

at all. However, most marketers are mapping

their own journey without even considering the

entire consumer journey. With this approach, you

are seeing the customer experience through

your biased view, rather than seeing the highest

resolution view possible of your customer’s journey.

And, many companies fail to research and design

their maps effectively, leading to a few common

mistakes being made.

THE RISKS OF JOURNEY MAPPING


When the team designing the customer journey map doesn’t have a

holistic view of their customers’ experiences with their brand that is

based on real data, they can’t realistically anticipate and design each

touchpoint. When teams are departmentalized and focused on their

respective pieces of the consumer journey, they lack the ability to see

the big picture. Without understanding the whole customer experience,

these teams do the obvious: focus on what their subject expertise, and

make educated assumptions for the remainder. The result is a heavily

biased consumer journey map that fails to see the journey as the

customer herself sees it.

Limited Collaboration Incomplete View of Customer Journey

Another common error made by companies is the failure to recognize

that their customer’s journey began far before they ever directly

interacted with them. That is very rarely the case. Many customer’s begin

by doing research on the product and service, expanding their choices

first to look at you and also your competitors, before they narrow down

their choice and ultimately select your brand. Without actually knowing

what customers are doing before they interact with your brand, it’s very

challenging to to accurately depict their complete shopping journey.

You’re Just a Part of the Journey

The majority of marketers are well aware that no two customers are

alike, and therefore, have specific messaging and communications to

attract and retain a diverse list of customers. This isn’t usually the case

for customer journey mapping.

Marketers often assume that all of their customers (who likely have very

different backgrounds, interests, time to spend browsing the internet,

etc.) all go through the same customer journey with their brand. This

oversight could stem from marketing teams thinking that they have

no blind spots in their customer journey, or from not taking the human

element and of online activity and the random clicks and scrolls that

come with it into account.

No matter how well thought out your customer journey map may seem,

it is nearly impossible to avoid one of these errors. Why? Because if you

can’t actually see your customers’ journeys on your site and around the

internet, then you’re basing your entire framework off of mostly guesses,

not facts. If you can only see what’s within your own walls (your brand’s

touchpoints) when you map out a consumer journey, just imagine the

valuable information you’re missing out on.

Assuming Every Consumer Takes the Same Journey


As we’ve learned, mapping a consumer’s entire

journey beyond your brand’s interactions with them

has traditionally been done through a combination

of research and guesswork, or not tried at all. But,

making incorrect assumptions leads to a largely

ineffective customer journey map.

What if you didn’t have to guess? What if you could

see the actual journeys that your customers were

having online?

For starters, you wouldn’t need to “guess” what

kind of journey your customers will go on because

you would actually be able to see it yourself. And,

with a sharper vision of the existing journeys your

customers went on, you could accurately gauge

what stage of the buying process consumers are in

instead of making guesses.

FLIPPING THE MAP


The ability to do everything described above

already exists in the form of the aptly named

“consumer journey data”. When you have

access to this kind of data that provides a look

into the true buying intent of your consumers,

you can make sounder decisions, accurately

pinpoint areas of the journey that work or don’t

work, and then ultimately uncover new, more

effective ways to market to and engage with

your consumers.

The practice of illustrating a customer journey

will always be an important exercise for

marketers. But, when you can leverage this type

of intent data, mapping can truly serve as an

educational tool for your teams.

1 http://blogs.forrester.com/ted_schadler/15-12-15-your_digital_experience_technology_strategy_starts_with_a_customer_journey_map

2 https://kitewheel.com/state-of-martech-adtech-survey/


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Jornaya is the consumer journey insight platform that provides marketers, data analysts, and compliance professionals with the highest-resolution view of the consumer buying journey.

It is the only technology platform that witnesses both first- and third-party consumer interactions in real time and across devices. Meeting consumers at these moments of intent enables

businesses to shorten the distance between data, decision, and action. Jornaya seamlessly integrates with any buyer journey decisioning process or toolkit.

Get started at jornaya.com

267.460.7287


Date post:	19-Jun-2020
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