The progression from Customer Satisfaction to Customer Journey via Customer Experience has been gradual and in many ways unremarkable. Organisations have achieved service mediocrity by stealth.
For many, the concepts have remained firmly rooted in rhetoric, with management content just to be seen to be “customer-focussed” or “customer-obsessed. For others, investment in “continuous improvement” projects has been wasted by a lack of rigour and real customer insights.
The combination of feedback from safe customer survey questions with traditional fixed project methodologies has led to projects that please shareholders over other stakeholders. The late testing of functionality has shattered the ambitions of many expensive projects as it becomes clear that it is too late or too expensive to bridge the gaps between what is needed and what is possible. How many projects do you know that have been either ‘de-scoped’ or abandoned after months of hard work, cost and distraction from day-to-day activity? How many projects do you know that have delivered only incremental change (some may say excremental)?
The root cause of these problems is a culture of improvement by people with their backs to the customer. Many organisations pre-judge customer needs based upon claims that they understand their customers. Very few organisations consider direct customer consultation or involvement in the development of service improvements.
At Customer Journey Consultancy, we believe that it is essential to obtain customer insights first-hand, using observation, shadowing and service testing to understand how processes and services work. We know that understanding the difference between what people think they do and what they actually do is a critical element. These insights should be blended with desk research to provide a relevant and accurate catalyst for generating improvement ideas.
In order to be sustainable in terms of performance and quality, the customer journey must work as well for service providers as it does for customers. Understanding this will increase employee engagement whilst simultaneously building customer advocacy. Insights gathered from stakeholders from both key groups will ensure that ideas are based in reality; early ‘lo-fi’ testing of ideas will provide the critical piece of the business case jigsaw that is usually missing before investment decisions are taken.
Customer Journey Consultancy will help you to understand and map the customer journey in a way that ensures relevant journey design and successful implementation.
Talk to us about your customer journey insight and service transformation challenges
