We define Customer Journey as every interaction across every touch-point that a customer has with a company. Every one of those interactions contributes to the overall Customer Experience.
At a high level a customer’s journey starts when they first show interest in doing business with you. At a more detailed, specific level Customer Journeys can become quite complex as a customer may go through many different journeys during the course of your relationship.
Here are a few examples of customer journeys:
- A welcome journey when the customer first joins the company
- Journeys around queries that customers may have with a product or service
- A complaint or returns journey when things go wrong or need to be sent back or replaced
- A contract renewal journey for a service such as insurance or utilities
- A cancellation journey when a customer wants to leave
- Each of these journeys may take place in one or multiple channels.
The channels can include:
- Website
- Webchat
- Helpline
- Text
- Social Media
- Branch or Store
Each journey is different for each customer because they have different needs, and different expectations and will experience different emotions at every touch point in the journey. However by studying the current steps your customers take to reach their goal you can establish the main journeys in your business and identify where there is room for improvement.
This is where Customer Journey Mapping comes in.
