This is my week 5 review of the CXL Minidegree in Growth Marketing. You can preview it here: Growth Marketing Minidegree | Training Program by CXL Institute. Alternatively, you look at the other programs that CXL offers here: Digital Marketing Training Delivered by The Best. (cxl.com)
Why Customer Journey Mapping?
Customer Journey Mapping helps us to clarify what we know, and then clearly communicate that to our colleagues across the entire organization. This has traditionally been done using personas but Customer Journey Mapping is a better way to do this.
Sometimes personas aren’t always the right tools, because sometimes they don’t always focus on the right things. However, the biggest problem with personas is that they are static. They are just snapshots of time. They do not reflect the process of continuing customers, the process of reaching the point of conversion, or even the step of becoming a customer. They have different problems, concerns, and feelings, which will change over time.
An example used in the course is that of booking a vacation. During the booking of the vacation, our feelings, problems encountered and any concerns that exist will change. So when we first decided to go on vacation, we were very excited, weren’t we? We were leaving! Then we started to study our options and there were certain questions on our minds. Do you know if it is a long-haul flight or a short-haul flight? you know? What will we do when we arrive? How much will it cost? That kind of things. Then when we start narrowing down the options, we start asking more specific questions, like, “Will the children do enough?” Or “What specific place do we go to each place?” “When it comes to shopping, all of a sudden our feelings can change. We may be a little nervous or worried about the amount of money spent. Also, we want to know when to go and then once we reserve the tickets, we hope to go on vacation. The excitement started again, and we started having other questions about what to pack. Therefore, as you can see, the whole trip has different characteristics.
What is a customer journey map?
We know that as the customer interacts with us, the journey will change and continue to the point where the purchase is made. The customer journey maps show a visualization of that journey. But of course it will not be 100% accurate and should be quite simplified, because we cannot show how each different user interacts with the company because they will all behave in slightly different ways. Also, we may have to simplify it, because sometimes there will be a lot of swings, indecisions and things like that. So, treat it like a story, okay?
This is the story of a prototype user’s journey. This helps us understand what happened. People are often caught up in the process of making the customer journey accurate. So they finally experienced a journey that split and doubled and completed all of these complicated things. And in the end, it is so complicated that it is often unreadable and difficult to use. Therefore, it finally appeared in a drawer somewhere and was forgotten. A precise journey is almost impossible, because each user’s journey will be slightly different. Rather, this is a story designed to help us conceptualize the journey.
What does the customer journey map contain?
The customer journey map actually contains two parts. The first is the various steps of the journey, and then the second, at each step of the process, you want to collect information about the user. It consists of columns (steps in rows) and rows (steps in rows), and the rows are the information that is collected in each step. Now, the steps of the journey will largely depend on the customer journey.
So for a typical ecommerce journey, you may find that you need to buy a specific product. Then the product can be researched. Then you could be buying the product, delivering the product, and then with after-sales support. However, for your particular product or service, it may be completely different. However, the information you want to collect at each step of the journey is usually very consistent.
So it’s about the problems users are having, the tasks they want to accomplish, how they feel, and the touch points they find. Now the point of contact is any interaction between them and your organization. Therefore, the point of contact can be your Facebook page, email, or website. However, it can also be an offline point of contact (like a TV commercial) or walk into a store. So touch points are worth testing, because you start to create a picture of touch points where you need to use the points of your journey. At any time, this will be the most effective. However, in fact, this is a sample list where you can add whatever you need. Sometimes it also helps to track down what has disappointed customers. Therefore, in the process, you may need to write down some special weaknesses on the journey. Therefore, it also collected this information. So you know that when people come to the point of purchase, for whatever reason, you will fail them. Maybe the payment process is too complicated or other factors.
What applications does the customer journey map have?
You can use customer journey maps in various situations. So, for example, when you sit down and decide where to invest your budget, for example, because your marketing budget is limited. You can look at the customer journey map and ask yourself, “Well, where is the weakness?” What is the most disappointing place for us? “Because there is an opportunity, this is where you should invest. So it can actually help define the project that you are producing. But when you do a specific project (for example, you run an email campaign), you can look at the customer journey map and say to yourself, “Well, where does this email campaign fit in the customer journey? ” Then you will see, at that particular point, what questions, objections, tasks and feelings there are. Because, in general, when you are in a meeting, and to some extent you discuss the project to be carried out, and in the intense discussion of the project, it is easy to forget the client. However, if you post a large customer journey map on the wall, you can refer to it often. And you may ask yourself, “Does this really meet the customer’s needs at a specific time?”
So customer journey mapping is visualizing what we know about our audience and how they interact with your organization – a very good tool. It can also help you determine the framework for your campaign, allow you to understand how your campaign fits into the bigger picture, and support the entire journey. However, remember that customer journey mapping does not mean 100% accuracy.