4 ways to prioritize Customer Journeys

07-06-2020

Customer Journey Mapping

In an organisation with multiple Customer Journeys, it can be hard for a Customer Experience (CX) professional to pick one to get started with. Optimizing the right journey that has added value for your target group, can be done using the available resources, and fits your planning is quite a challenge. In the end, there might not be one journey that matches all of these requirements. In order to help you make the best possible choice, we discuss four different methods to prioritize Customer Journeys in this post. 

Background

In the past few months, we’ve interviewed Customer Experience (CX) managers at different organisations. We asked them what their biggest challenges were going to be in the coming months, related to Customer Journey Management. Four things stood out:

1.      It remains challenging for organisations to look at their own processes from a customer’s point of view, an outside-in way of working is often still missing or lacking. The structured Customer Journey Mapping methodology helps but is often not being applied enough throughout the organisation.

2.    It becomes increasingly difficult for organisations to understand the meaning behind measurements done at different times. These span across different channels, target groups, processes, and KPIs, which can make them difficult to interpret. In addition to this, the phrasing of questions often isn’t identical, making interpretation hard and reports impossible to compare. This indicates that there are insufficient measurements being done at Customer Journey and Touchpoint level. 

3.     The number of Customer Journey maps within organisations is growing. Made by different people, in different systems, and in different formats, and thereby losing the overview of Customer Journeys within the organisation. 

4.    Organisations are having a hard time prioritizing Customer Journeys and deciding which touchpoints need to be improved first. 

I don’t know what steps I need to take in order to positively influence my NPS score.

CX manager Insurance company

In this blog, we’ll take a further look into the fourth issue: the prioritization of Customer Journeys. It’s a way to organize potential and existing Customer Journeys, creating an order in which you can tackle them. There are multiple ways to prioritize Customer Journeys, what way fits your situation is mainly dependent on factors. 1. The amount of available data and 2. the time available for the prioritization of Customer Journeys. Check which method fits your current situation and organisation in the list below. 

Prioritizing Customer Journeys: 4 different methods

1.      Quick and dirty – Little data and little time
You, as a CX professional, decide which Customer Journey to tackle first, without any analysis or discussion. You select a Customer Journey at the highest level, like ‘I become a customer’ or ‘I buy product X’. You select a Customer Journey that aligns with the organisation’s goals. 

2.     Smart and simple – Little data and enough time
Once you’ve compiled a list of Customer Journeys, you can use the following method. Create a matrix like the one below, and start adding the Customer Journey names to the different fields. 

Matrix to prioritize Customer Journeys

Once you’ve sorted all journey titles into this matrix, you can decide which one to start working on. The advice is to tackle the Customer Journeys first that are ‘important for both’ and ‘occur often’. Visualize this Customer Journey using our 6 step Customer Journey Mapping method and make sure to include customer satisfaction metrics or qualitative interviews. This way you’ll be able to find out where in the Customer Journey you need to work on improvements, like a specific channel or episode for instance. 

3.     The good way – A lot of data and enough time. 
When data is available from multiple visualized journey maps, it’s possible to create a formula to prioritize Customer Journeys. For example: The journey ‘I move house’ requires you to collect the following information and score accordingly: 

–      The number of times this journey occurs – number of times over a certain time period

–      The cost of this journey per customer – amount in Euros (or other relevant currency)

–      Complexity of the processes and channels that need to be adjusted – score from 1-100

–      NPS/CSAT/CES/etc. – score over a specific time period

–     Impact on the customer, both functionally and emotionally  – score 1-100

–      Impact on the organisation, the contribution to strategic goals – score 1-100

–     Potential sales – score 1-100

Using this information, you can calculate the highest-scoring Customer Journey that needs to be improved upon first. 

4.    The automated way – A lot of data and little time
When Customer Journeys have been visualized, data is being collected to measure their performance and information has been collected for the parameters mentioned above, it’s possible to automate prioritization. Using the CX Life Cycle Model in the Milkymap platform as a framework, you’ll be able to create an overview of concerns in every stage of the life cycle your customers go through. Based on the available data connected to each Customer Journey, a prioritized list action list can be made.

Prioritize Customer Journey and analyze CX metrics


‘The automated way’ might not always be possible, maybe because not every Customer Journey has been visualized, or because data isn’t available or connected yet. It’s important to be aware of the basis for your prioritization and to get started. It might not be wise to visualize Customer Journeys and collect data before you start prioritizing. You might be working on the wrong Customer Journeys, losing time better spend on improving Customer Experience someplace else. Look at the state of your organisation, your business goals and start prioritizing. The sooner your customer notices something you’ve improved in the Customer Journey, the better. Aim to use ‘the automated way’ at some point, it’s the clearest, takes up the least amount of time, and is always up-to-date. If you need help prioritizing, don’t hesitate to get in touch, we’d be happy to help.

We’re finally able to improve our Customer Experience in a targeted way, without discussions about necessity and added value.

Marketing manager University

 

With Milkymap you can quickly and effectively visualize, present, and share Customer Journeys, as well as collaborate to enhance your Customer Experience.

We’re happy to show you how the platform works and answer any questions you might have during a free demo