What is a journey map?
It is a visual timeline of a customer stepping through a business service experience and the emotions they feel along the way.
What can you learn from creating a journey map:
- It shows how a customer is feeling at a given moment. Since the journey map is done from your customers point of view, when plotting out the different points in the journey map, you need to make note of what the customer is doing and what his/her reaction is to what is happening.
- It takes into consideration before, during and after your service offering. Oftentimes a business focuses on the actual service it is offering and the before and after services are overlooked or an afterthought at best. Things such as on-boarding, website and storefront appearance, follow-up marketing and responses to praise and complaints are all part of the your customer's journey and are just as important.
- It shows gaps where improvements should be made. When the possibility of an unpleasant customer experience happens the journey map pinpoints the areas where these occur such as how the customer is greeted, how they make a selection from your list of services, and how they go through the payment process.
- It shows where there are opportunities to enhance the customer experience. There may be areas where the customer is not necessarily unhappy but your business may have the opportunity to easily provide a better or possibly an amazing experience.
- It allows a business to transfer thoughts onto paper which makes it clear what is happening. As a small business owner you usually already have an inkling where the issues are. The journey map will confirm this and along with your business partners and staff enable you to articulate these findings visually.
Since a a journey map conveys a unique experience between your business and your customer, it also reveals how you can stand out from your competitors.