How do you map customer experience?

How do you map customer experience?

From continuously observing behavior to iterating based on customer needs, here are 14 answers to the question, “What are your best tips for customer experience mapping?”

• Constantly Reevaluate
• Enable Multi-Channel Customer Support
• Customize for Different Marketing Strategies
• Seek Cultural Insights
• Identify Issues and Bottlenecks
• Separate the Onstage from the Backstage
• Hire an Unbiased Research Firm
• Allow Customers to Pick Up Where They Left Off
• Prioritize Touch-Points
• Use Personas
• Build Customer Segments and Map Them Specifically
• Ask for the Customer’s Opinion
• Map Out Multiple Journeys
• Continuously Iterate and Improve

Constantly Reevaluate

Keep looking at your visitors’ behavior that leads them to become customers.

Do this repeatedly, no matter the data you gather, because your customer journey trends are bound to go through different phases. Do not bet on them staying exactly the same permanently.

Miles Beckett, Co-Founder and CEO, Flossy

Enable Multi-Channel Customer Support

Offering multi-channel customer support allows you to cater to the needs of your target market more efficiently. By enabling a live chat feature on every platform, it will be easier for your customers to raise questions about your offers and get immediate answers.

This is a game-changing experience because they can get responses quickly, unlike when they email or call customer service, where they are in a long queue.

For seamless customer experience, customer support should be consistent across all channels. That means whatever is shared by a live chat representative should match the information given by the email support team or the specialist over the phone.

That way, customers won’t get confused and will trust your services regardless of where they’re getting the help from.

Allan Stolc, Founder, Bankly

Customize for Different Marketing Strategies

Determine your customer experience maps for each marketing strategy you use. For example, you might have a different customer experience map for when you do Facebook ads versus when people find your website through a basic web search.

This will enable you to think deeper in terms of the psychology of your viewers, which will help convert them to leads or customers.

Marilyn Zubak, Marketing Lead, Snif

Seek Cultural Insights

To improve customer experience mapping, it is crucial to understand the cultural norms and context of use for your customers. By utilizing ethnographic research methods, such as observation and in-depth interviews, businesses can gain a deeper insight into their customers’ cultural patterns and behaviors.

This information can reveal the cultural context in which customers interact with the business, including the norms and expectations they bring to the experience.

By incorporating this knowledge of customer experience mapping, businesses can create a more nuanced and culturally sensitive experience that aligns with their customers’ cultural norms and context.

By doing so, businesses can ensure that the customer experience is functional, culturally relevant, and meaningful.

Matt Artz, Business Anthropologist, Matt Artz

Identify Issues and Bottlenecks

When experimenting with customer experience mapping, it’s important to get feedback and be able to identify bottlenecks and issues in order to improve the customer journey and understand which stages of the customer experience map are currently facing issues.

You can do this by getting feedback from existing customers and testing it out within your target audience.

Denise Hemke, Chief Product Officer, Checkr

Separate the Onstage from the Backstage

The onstage (what the customer can see) and the offstage (what goes on behind the scenes) aspects of a touchpoint are equally important to consider when assessing its value. In the car-buying scenario, for instance, interacting with the sales representative would be an onstage action.

Credit checks for financing happen behind the scenes. Make sure you are aware of the effects of backstage activities, such as internal communication, on the audience’s perception of the performance.

Offstage actions occur in journey maps differently or placed below a “line of visibility.” No matter how you designate them, it’s helpful to separate the customer’s authentic experience from the operations that support it by differentiating offstage actions from those that are customer-facing.

Tiffany Payne, Head of Content, Pharmacy Online

Hire an Unbiased Research Firm

My tip for mapping a customer journey or experience is to work with a third-party research firm.

A third-party team will have access to high-quality tools that can help with the process. With the help of a team, you’ll be able to focus on sending out in-depth customer surveys, locating key areas of opportunity to focus on, understanding customer shopping patterns, and more.

Lark Allen, Content Marketing Specialist, Drive Research

Allow Customers to Pick Up Where They Left Off

Create a channel where customers can pick up where they left off when processing an order. Doing so encourages them to proceed with the transaction without starting over, which allows them to save time and effort.

It also helps if you send emails or app notifications reminding them of their pending order so they can fully process it at their most convenient time. Apply the same method when giving customer support.

An ideal customer experience mapping enables customers to reconnect with chat reps who they had previous interactions with. This will help prevent redundant conversations and give customers the impression that you value their time and experience.

Riva Jeane May Caburog, PR and Media Coordinator, Nadrich & Cohen

Prioritize Touch-Points

In customer experience mapping, each touchpoint differs in intensity. This means that there are some touchpoints that have a bigger influence over the customer experience and decision-making than others.

It’s imperative to prioritize the more intense touchpoints first and make sure they’re covered before moving to the less impactful touchpoints. It is efficient to focus on the most important 20% of customer experience points.

Lilia Koss, Community Manager, Facialteam

Use Personas

Using personas can help you gain a deeper understanding of the customer’s journey and experience it from their perspectives. This can help you identify areas where to improve the customer experience.

Also, assuming the personas of your audience can help remove assumptions and generalizations that can occur when developing an experience map. You’ll have to base your map on a solid understanding of what the customers actually need.

This way, you can ensure that it accurately reflects the customers’ needs and goals. For instance, a common misstep in developing customer experience maps for web-based services is assuming that all customers are tech-savvy. This often leads to less user-friendly interfaces and confusing web copies.

Jonathan Merry, Founder, Moneyzine

Build Customer Segments and Map Them Specifically

Segment your customers by type and create a different map for each. A one-size-fits-all approach to customer experience mapping is ineffective.

Each customer group has distinct needs, demands, and purchase behaviors depending on their demographic, so you must map their experience to cater to these specifications.

A millennial customer persona may not enjoy the journey you created for Gen Z customers, taking away your chance to provide a positive customer experience. Identify which elements work best for each customer group.

Gen Z may find videos or GIFs more engaging, while older generations may prefer written texts. These nuances and details can make or break the customer journey you want to deliver.

Grant Polachek, Head of Branding, SquadHelp

Ask for the Customer’s Opinion

Involving customers in creating a customer experience map ensures an accurate reflection of their needs, desires, and expectations.

To do so, have interviews, provide surveys, or form focus groups. Try to understand how customers interact with the company and its products or services, as well as their overall satisfaction level.

This will give you a point of reference when hearing insights and giving feedback from customer service representatives as well.

Gabriel Bogner, Co-Founder, Mate

Map Out Multiple Journeys

In the same way that people change their minds, and often have crossroads where they make a decision that can ultimately lead to the same outcome, it is important that we map out multiple customer journeys because they can lead to opportunistic insights.

For example, think about entering the customer experience. Once action occurs, there is room for different outcomes. Map your customer experience from start to finish from a single point on multiple journeys or avenues.

Peter Reagan, Financial Market Strategist, Birch Gold Group

Continuously Iterate and Improve

Customer needs and desires are constantly developing, and it’s important to review and update your customer experience map regularly to ensure it remains relevant.

By regularly iterating and improving your map, you can stay ahead of the curve and deliver a truly exceptional customer experience.

Sven Patzer, CEO, Sven Patzer

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