Having a competitive price and product quality has always been the talk of the town piling up several success stories. It is not new to us anyway, however, while it reveals a totally favorable result, the thing is, the world is continuously changing and adapting to a new and highly diverse environment.
CX consulting firm Walker’s prediction that customers’ experience will take over the price and product quality as a brand differentiator is gradually making it into the core, helping companies position their products appropriately.
Knowing and understanding what your customer is thinking is a tough and difficult path to take. You might go haywire thinking why are they up to, assuming that you’ve already considered their wants and needs but something bizarre keeps you static.
Are they buying your strategies? Are they still weighing their options? Or, they’re just not interested at all?
Those people who change to another supplier/brand are more likely to do so because of poor service, and they are equally likely to broadcast this. The ability of a supplier to deliver positive customer experiences with the product or service, which reinforces the brand at all points, can make a significant difference. This is the basis of “experience-based differentiation.”
Advertising campaigns of many leading brands today communicate the experience of a brand or product, rather than its product features.
As Bernd Schmitt (2003) defined, Customer Experience Management is “the process of strategically managing a customer’s entire experience with a product or company.”
Schmitt’s definition emphasized that it is a strategic process and thus embedded in all a company does and that it is a process that travels the entire period of the customer’s journey, from start to finish. Ideally, it even extends beyond this point, as a company seeks to re-engage and win back any lost customers.
As the name itself suggests, the Customer Journey Map (CJM) is a visual tool designed to outline the customers’ experience and what is the process they go through before making a purchase. From the trigger, need, or pain point that motivates them to begin using your product, through the actual use through to resolution and the achievement of their goal.
It is a set of events that define key experiences in the life cycles of customers. Customers will progress through such a journey in their evolving use of a service. The aim is to have
them gravitate towards an ideal use case. Data can be used to quantify how many customers sit at different points of the journey
In Layman’s terms, it is a diagram that shows visually the stages a customer goes through when using your product. It is not something to assume or predict based on your internal perspective. A customer journey is very specific to the physical experiences your customers have.
It is a map from the customers' point of view allowing you to know how they get from point A to point B and everything in between. For example, you have a WordPress website and sure, you have visitors, however, you keep wondering why haven't they reached the trial-sign-up page.
This tool holds an important role as it helps you visualize the experience of your customers while interacting with your brand. By understanding your customer’s points of view, you get to know the reasons behind their buying decisions and read their behaviors. Now, if that’s the case, you can easily align strategies and better deliver their expectations.
A Customer Journey Map should therefore include: