What's a customer journey?
A customer journey is a visual representation of all the steps a customer takes to complete a goal or task.
Think of it as a roadmap of the adventure a person goes on when they interact with a business. It’s not just about the practical steps they take to achieve a goal, like browsing a website or purchasing. It’s also about the emotions they feel and the thoughts they have along the way. In order to truly show how someone navigates through various touchpoints, a journey should always be shown from the customer’s point of view, rather than the perspective of business goals or processes.
In TheyDo, we go one step further. We believe the anatomy of a journey is made out of building blocks. Each with a function to align the business context to the customer experience.
More on TheyDo journey anatomy here.
Why does the journey matter?
By understanding every twist and turn of the customer journey, companies can uncover valuable insights that help them improve their products, services, and overall customer experience. It’s like finding clues to solve the mystery of what customers truly want and need. In this way, the customer journey is a powerful tool for businesses to better understand and serve their customers.
Types of journeys and experiences
A customer journey isn't the only journey out there. Depending on the context of a business, there could be various types of journeys, each tailored to different interactions and relationships. For instance, in a healthcare setting, you might have a patient journey, mapping out every step from scheduling an appointment to receiving treatment and follow-up care. In the realm of HR and company culture, there's the employee journey, tracing the path from recruitment and onboarding to professional growth and development.
Furthermore, many different kinds of journeys can exist across the entire customer lifecycle. For example, a large financial institution may have different journeys for mortgages, loans and private bank accounts, and a micro journey like ‘online identification’ can influence the customer experience across the board.
Who should work with journeys?
Working with customer journeys helps teams to gather all of the information about customers in a way that enables them to work together on improving the experience. They help teams collaborate effectively, from researchers diving deep into customer behavior to designers crafting seamless user experiences, and from product managers shaping new features to marketers spreading the word.
Ultimately, the customer journey is about putting customers at the heart of everything a business does, ensuring their experience is smooth, enjoyable, and memorable every step of the way.