31 October 2024
Analysis of customer feedback enables businesses to build dynamic customer journey maps that reflect shifting customer attitudes. That was the key takeaway from Relative Insight’s latest Spotlight Series webinar.
“Most companies that we speak to on a daily or weekly basis agree that customer journey mapping is a really important thing to do,” Relative Insight CRO James Cuthbertson stated during the session, adding: “What we’ve learned is that a customer journey map often aims to simplify extremely complex customer behavior into quite simple stages.”
He concluded: “Our view is that without intricate analysis of that behavior, which is only really possible through the language exhibited, a customer journey map is less useful than envisioned.”
James was joined on the webinar by Sergio Gomes, Senior Researcher at Relative Insight. During the session, the pair:
- Outlined the key elements of dynamic customer journey maps
- Highlighted the types of feedback you can analyze at each stage of the customer journey
- Shared examples where customers had used analytics to enhance their journey maps
Want to see the webinar in full? You can watch the full 30-minute session on demand using the button below. This blog summarizes the key points made by both speakers.
Static maps don’t reflect customer touchpoints
To begin the webinar, James outlined six key stages in the customer journey. He discussed how the use of analytics can help you bring these stages together to pinpoint to the root causes behind customer metrics — such as why your NPS is falling.
He stated that combining analytics with the clarity businesses already have from mapping customer journeys enables data-driven decision making in real time. This supports efforts to improve customer experience and refine your customer journey.
Why is it important to incorporate analytics, rather than follow unrefined maps? James cited research stating that 47% of companies that mapped their customer journey subsequently made no updates to these maps in the following 12 months.
He believes this lack of dynamic customer journey maps is holding businesses back, with customer teams adhering to processes that don’t address customer pain points. “What that means is there’s a clear indication that people are not learning from what they’re seeing across their customer journey,” James argued.
He added: “Therefore, whether their customer journey is fantastic, poor, or somewhere in the middle, they’re not actually dynamic and they’re not making changes.”
Applying analytics to journey maps
Sergio highlighted the two key challenges all businesses face around customer data analysis: lack of time and an ever-increasing amount of data. He outlined how brands use analytics to overcome these challenges.
He shared an example around CSAT chatbot submissions for a hospitality business. After guests’ hotel stays, they’re asked to rate their experience, plus give a reason for their score. Sergio explained how the Relative Insight platform analyzes this traditionally difficult date through quantitative meta data points and comparative text analysis to reveal customer likes and dislikes.
However, this doesn’t just apply to one customer touchpoint. Sergio demonstrated how this analysis applies across all areas of a standard customer journey map. Using the same hospitality example, he shared a multi-stage analysis of customer touchpoints.
This included customers praising ‘relevant deals’ but pushing back on ‘pushy comms’ at the loyalty stage, as well as feedback at the onboarding stage signaling customers liked personalization, but faced problems with missing bookings.
Tips for building an effective dynamic customer journey map
James his perspective on the effectiveness of journey maps, gleaned by working with CX teams across a range of brands. Helping these brands to build analytics into their journey maps has given him a clear idea of what works and what is less effective when it comes to journey mapping.
While caveating that dynamic customer journey maps should be tailored to individual businesses, James’s experience suggests simplicity around maps tends to produce the best outcomes.
He said: “What I’ve seen works well is when a company hasn’t overcomplicated their maps and made them too busy. They’ve tried to limit themselves to one customer journey per product line, per business unit.”
“While they might have multiple forks or branches within that one journey, they haven’t got simultaneous journeys within one product line. That allows people to focus in on one single source of truth.”
James argued that on occasions where this wasn’t the case, there is a lack of focus on the customer journey. This erodes the importance of a customer journey map and impacts customer experience.
Want to learn more about applying analytics to dynamic customer journey maps? Our latest ebook contains tips and examples of how to do just that. Click on the banner to download it now.
