Effective mapping of customer journeys can augment business operations

MORE organizations now focus on meeting customer demands and enhancing customer experiences (CX), and hence, making an effort to understand how customers interact and engage with their brands.

However, businesses need to map their customer journeys better.

A study by Hanover Research found that journey mapping is a critical tool in guiding businesses to structure the best strategies.

Doing so provides valuable data that can help bolster revenues, increase preference among existing customers, and gain traction from prospective customers.

Nevertheless, the key question here remains: How can businesses effectively map customer journeys?

Well, according to the study, effectiveness depends on how integrated the maps are across a business organization. Naturally, one of the most important steps is ensuring that the map is consistently utilized throughout the organization.

Involving various teams in the mapping process is key to encouraging an organization-wide integration of the maps.

In fact, businesses find that when they use a combination of resources to map customer journeys, they are 40 percent more likely to find it as an effective tool in measuring KPIs.

Next, businesses must also foster a culture of making decisions that are based on data and insights. Chartering the next moves to develop the business and enhance CX must be solidified by extensive data to enable results to be effectively measured.

Using the data harvested from the maps can drive better decision-making processes and help create practical business strategies.

Another measure to ensure a wide integration for effective use of mapping is to get C-suite executives to buy-in on the customer journey process. A top-down investment from C-suites would further emphasize the value of these maps and drive greater integration.

The report shared that more than half of C-suites executives that are invested in customer journey mapping have testified that the maps have been used extensively in decision-making processes.

Though the overall outlook of mapping might seem like a tedious task, 81 percent of businesses that are succeeding with journey mapping find that the time spent was worth it.

Mapping the journeys and creating a visual map to better understand customers’ interaction habits and behaviors can significantly boost business operations.

To further support this, the study revealed that 95 percent of businesses using this approach have managed to increase customer satisfaction while 92 percent got to develop new products and services.

This is followed by another 91 percent who reported to have identified gaps within their communication touchpoints.

Businesses also have the choice to adopt relevant digital solutions to further fortify their maps and gain greater insights on how to better serve customers.

Overall, it is safe to say that investing in customer journey mapping is a wise business investment in the long run and businesses that are still choosing not to map their customers’ journeys are missing out.

---

---

---