DATASHEET

Customer
Journey
Mapping

8 steps
to mapping what
matters when it
comes to
sustaining great
experiences

© 2014-2015 VereQuest Inc.

All rights reserved
Visit www.verequest.com
by Sharon Oatway
President & Chief Experience Officer - VereQuest
MOST COMPANIES understand how their compa-
nies work. They have carefully mapped out in detail
the processes that drive
their businesses. They
have analyzed them for
greater efficiencies and
productivity. Every step
has been counted and
refined over the years.
Cost saving measures have been realized and em-
ployee productivity enhanced.
And yet when asked about how customers experi-
ence the processes, channels, policies and proce-
dures, very few companies know. Among mounds of
consumer research, there is very little insight into
how customers feel about these things.
Over the last few years, we have seen a growing in-
terest in the ‘customer experience’. Along with this,
a number of methodologies related to how to see our
organizations from the customer’s perspective have
emerged.
The VQ Approach
The following steps highlight how VereQuest ap-
proaches a customer journey mapping exercise. As
you will see, the process is based on building a fun-
damental understanding from the customer’s per-
spective and then drilling down to greater detail.
1 Get involved.
Making a decision to use internal resources or not is
not just about budgets. It’s about retaining the
value knowledge of the customer’s journey inter-
nally. That’s why we prefer to work with your inter-
nal team as a ‘’facilitator’ — as opposed to a classic
consulting engagement. While consultants are great
to do the heavy lifting at the outset, when they leave
you want to make sure they leave the insight and
expertise behind as well!
2 Identify the stages.
Although you may think the customer journey is a
simple one, it has many layers which must be un-
derstood for full appreciation. Given the complexity
of a multi-channel, multi-touch environment, it is
important to break the customer journey into stages.
2 © 2015 VereQuest Inc.
By focusing on one stage at a time, you will be able
to dig deep without getting caught up in a quagmire
of detail.
For example:
3 Understand the question.
Whether you are trying to solve a single problem or
need to fix the entire end-to-end experience, it is
critical that you clearly define the problem that
needs to be solved or the opportunity that needs to
be exploited.
The most effective approach is to phrase the problem
as a question, starting with the words: “How to…”
For example, “How to rejuvenate spending among our
high value customers?” [For more information about
this process, see Innovative Intelligence by David
Weiss & Claude Legrand.]
4 Gather what you know.
Before starting, it is important to know where you
have insight and where gaps exist. This includes
gathering and reviewing all primary and secondary
research, speaking with stakeholders and interview-
ing front-line staff. This helps to identify areas
which may require further research.
5 Map it.
The initial map to prepare is your benchmark — a
map of your understanding of the customer’s experi-
ence. Not only is this used as the jumping-off point
for further mapping, but it also offers you a unique
perspective on gaps that may exist within your or-
ganization about how you think about the customer,
internal processes and policies.
The mapping workshop is facilitated by a VereQuest
coach and includes a few individuals who have a
broad understanding of what customers experience.
Typically this would include a tenured product man-
ager, frontline staff, customer service representative,
research analyst and customer experience leader.
The workshop is not intended to fully document the
experience but rather to better understand the
touchpoints, decisions and resources customers
must engage with.

If you haven’t already done

so, now is the time to bring
in VereQuest. An inde-
pendent third party has no
preconceived notions about
how things should work or
what barriers exist to pre-
vent the type of experience that customers may ex-
pect. We can add important perspective at this
point.
As each step is evaluated and validated, observa-
Importantly, it can tions are gathered about how the experience feels
be extremely labor- (e.g. I felt frustrated. I was pleasantly surprised.
intensive to trans- Etc.) A comprehensive, detailed map of the experi-
late your post-it ence is produced.
note diagram into a

7 Determine what matters most.

graphic image you
and others can un-
derstand. It makes
sense to engage a
company like Vere- With a detailed journey map in place, you will now
Quest to help you do that. You will want to do this be in a position to understand how the experience
as soon as possible after your workshop, while works for a customer. You will likely see a host of
things are still fresh in your mind. The sooner you issues that may be concerning to and should be
can start to share the map, the sooner you can en- fixed or refined.
gage other groups to help fix the experience.
It is important at this stage to understand what mat-

6 Walk the map.
Depending on the amount of customer research you
have, it may make sense to ‘walk the map’. This will
give you an independent view of the experience from
a typical customer’s perspective. VereQuest will
typically engage individuals who meet your cus-
ters most to customers. Where are the ‘pain points’?
— those areas of the journey which are troublesome
or frustrating but not enough to stop or deter a cus-
tomer from proceeding. And where are the
‘combustion points’? — those areas of the journey
where the customer cannot or will not proceed.
Some areas will be obvious and others you may want
to conduct some additional research.

tomer’s profile and/or one of our Customer Insight Once you have identified where the high priority
Specialists (many of who are experienced actors and gaps lie, measurement is critical. If you fixed this
business coaches) to ‘walk the map’. problem, how many customers or how much more
revenue would be generated or saved? This is the
This may include a hands-on simulation across most challenging part of the entire journey mapping
channels, from internal to external resources and exercise.
back. We may visit branches/retail locations, call
each service and sales point, apply for and/or buy
products or services. Whatever an actual customer
does. In some cases we will listen to live customer
conversations, reading emails or blogs; in other
cases we will deploy our Customer Insight Special-
ists as ‘mystery shoppers’.

© 2015 VereQuest Inc. 3

 8 Innovate.
At this point you should know (a) how customers are inter-
acting with your company, (b) how they feel about the in-
teraction and (c) what they want. You will be able to draw
upon the data gathered from call listening as well as other
‘walk the map’ efforts.

All this hard work will be for naught if you don’t change
the experience. As we know only too well, it is one thing to
have identified the customer journey gaps and to have
quantified the value to the company (and the customer) in
closing the gaps — it is another to know how to close them.

Now is the time to engage your team in a 1-day Problem

Resolution & Innovation Thinking workshop.

This Workshop not only help you develop innovative and actionable solutions to close gaps but you and your
team will also be provided with the foundational tools and skills needed to innovate around other barriers
going forward. Given that creating great customer experiences takes time — and is ever changing — having
the skills to close gaps and map other experiences is critical to sustaining great results!

VEREQUEST is a consulting firm specializing in customer experience diagnostics and transformation. We

help our clients, each a leading organization in N.A., to strive to win the hearts and loyalty of customers.
Through our unique team of customer experience connoisseurs, proprietary technology and wealth of exper-
tise, we provide clients with reality-based analysis and meaningful insight into their customer’s experience
with their organization. As our name suggests, wherever possible, we strive to tap into real experiences and
actual customer behavior. While we acknowledge the value of qualitative insight, we work to quantify each
element of the interaction so that they can be prioritized against the next. We are recognized for our high
quality work and great value. Our recommendations are grounded in practicality and ROI. Importantly, we
deliver results, cost effectively. And it doesn’t hurt that we are easy to work with!

For more information, please go to www.verequest.com

© 2015 VereQuest Inc. 4