Traditional customer journey maps are dead. Yep, that’s a big statement with a sprinkle of clickbait. Still, most organizations need help building successful journeys because they need an updated mindset of how digital consumers engage with their brands. The linear, transactional journey no longer aligns with the dynamic, multi-dimensional experiences humans engage in today. This shift is further accentuated by the challenges posed by generative AI due to its inorganic nature. Success today depends on how relevant you can be to your customers and employees at any given moment. These real-world, lateral experiences disrupt the customer journey maps companies are still focused on today.
The Limitations of Transactional Touchpoints
Brooke B. Sellas recently posted, “Not all digital touchpoints need to be transactional.” She continued to explain that engaging with would-be and current customers about topics beyond purchasing can be incredibly rewarding. A great example is Discover Financial Services, which now has an active campaign to differentiate its brand in the marketplace. It expresses that you can talk to a real person, and more specifically, “Treating people special is kind of our thing.” My personal experience backs this up. As a customer, every time you call, agents are more than willing to talk about anything you’d like before, during, or after you share the reason for calling today. It doesn’t have to be about Discover.
By focusing solely on transactions, businesses risk overlooking the multifaceted nature of their customers, who have feelings, agendas, and problems that extend beyond any single company. People explore, dart in and around, and engage in many activities that excite them, leading them through a daily journey that may touch your business and your competitor’s business simultaneously.
Moving Beyond Transactions
If your conversations, digital strategies, experiences, and touchpoints don’t include areas outside your business, then you view your customer solely as a transaction. This approach is not only limiting but also counterproductive. We have all heard the saying and seen the stats. People don’t like to be treated as numbers. “The 84’s” are a fantastic set of stats to remember.
- 84% of consumers say they buy from brands they feel emotionally connected to. (Sprout Social)
- 84% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that provides a personalized experience. (Dynata)
- 84% of people said that “being treated like a person, not a number, is very important to winning their business.” (Salesforce)
We must look beyond traditional journey mapping to truly understand and connect with customers emotionally and dynamically. This perspective encourages the creation of ecosystems that connect people not only to your business but also to other companies that intersect with their life journeys. By doing so, experiences become more emotional and interconnected and adapt as the customer evolves.
An Ecosystem of Journeys: Embracing a Holistic View of the Customer Experience
When we examine our own experiences as individuals, it becomes evident that we often engage with items before and after the “defined journey.” Take, for example, a typical travel experience. Throughout this journey, we may use 7-8 different apps, encompassing airlines, hotels, weather forecasts, maps, calendars, transportation services, restaurant reservations, and banking. However, as individuals, our journey can be succinctly described as “I’m going on a trip.”
This simple phrase belies the complexity and challenges consumers face as they navigate through the siloed, individual “journeys” strategically mapped out by companies. Each of these journeys is designed to satisfy the specific needs of the business, often without considering the interconnectedness of the consumer’s overall experience. As a result, consumers are left to piece together these disparate journeys, seeking coherence and continuity where there is often none.
This disconnect highlights a fundamental issue in the way businesses approach customer journeys. By focusing solely on their segment of the journey, companies miss the opportunity to provide a seamless and integrated experience that aligns with the holistic nature of the consumer’s journey. To address this, businesses must broaden their perspective, taking an outside-in view to recognize that their journey is just one part of a larger ecosystem of experiences that collectively define the consumer’s journey.
Building Ecosystems that Include Competitors
Ecosystems that include your competitors allow you to build and adjust these journeys to meet the customer and adapt to them. By acknowledging that your business is part of a larger ecosystem, you can create more meaningful and relevant customer experiences. This approach recognizes that the customer’s journey is complex and multifaceted and that success lies in adapting to their needs in real time.
The Need for Seamless Integration
To bridge this gap, companies must start looking beyond the confines of their organization. They must understand their customers’ broader journey and create experiences that interface with other businesses. This lateral approach recognizes that a customer’s interaction with one service is often part of a more extensive journey that involves multiple interfaces across different sectors.
By acknowledging and embracing the interconnected nature of these journeys, businesses can create more meaningful and seamless experiences for their customers. This requires a shift in mindset from focusing solely on individual transactions to understanding the customer’s overall journey and how it intersects with other services and experiences.
The traditional journey map, the lateral journey map, and the multi-dimensional journey map each offer unique perspectives and insights into the customer experience. Let’s explore the differences between these three approaches:
Traditional Customer Journey Map
A traditional journey map is linear and focused on a single business unit. It typically outlines a step-by-step process a customer goes through when interacting with a business, from initial awareness to post-purchase. This map type helps identify critical touchpoints and pain points within a specific part of the customer journey. However, it often fails to capture the broader context of the customer’s experience, including interactions with other businesses or external factors that influence their decisions.
Lateral Customer Journey Map
A lateral journey map expands the scope to include multiple businesses or touchpoints that appear before, after, or alongside the main journey. This map type recognizes that customers often engage with various services or products as part of a more extensive experience. For example, a lateral journey map for a travel experience might include airlines, hotels, transportation, and dining, each represented as parallel paths that intersect with the main journey. This approach provides a more comprehensive view of the customer’s experience but may still need to be improved to capture the full complexity of their interactions.
Multi-Dimensional Customer Journey Map
A multi-dimensional journey map goes even further by incorporating lateral, linear, and intersecting paths and multiple businesses, ecosystems, and experiences. This map type acknowledges that customer journeys are often non-linear and influenced by many factors. It visualizes the customer’s journey as a dynamic, interconnected web of interactions across different industries and touchpoints. A multi-dimensional journey map provides the most holistic view of the customer experience, highlighting the interdependencies between various elements of the journey and offering insights into creating a seamless and integrated experience.
Embracing the Complexity of Real-World Customer Journeys
Consider a real-world example: you’re shopping at a grocery store, planning dinner as you navigate the aisles. Suddenly, you remember a bill that needs to be paid. In the middle of the store, you pull out your phone, pay the bill, check your balance, and then return to your shopping, perhaps removing an item or two due to the recent change in your budget. This scenario exemplifies how journeys overlap, intersect, and create moments that require businesses to be adaptable to the customer’s needs.
According to a study by PwC, 73% of consumers point to experience as an essential factor in their purchasing decisions, behind price and product quality. This statistic underscores the importance of understanding and catering to the multifaceted nature of customer journeys. Businesses must recognize that customers’ lives do not revolve around their interactions with a single brand. Instead, they move fluidly between different activities and needs, expecting businesses to provide relevant and seamless experiences that fit into their broader life context. By acknowledging and adapting to these overlapping and intersecting journeys, companies can create more meaningful and satisfying customer experiences.
A New Paradigm for Customer Experience
The future of customer experience requires a shift in perspective. Businesses must move beyond the confines of their journeys and embrace the complexity of real-world customer experiences. Doing so can create more adaptable, relevant, and meaningful interactions that meet their customers’ needs. In this new paradigm, the customer’s journey is the focal point, and businesses must be ready to adapt at every twist and turn.
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