THE REAL CUSTOMER JOURNEY STARTS WHERE YOURS MIGHT STOP
Customer journey frameworks popped like mushrooms after the rain sometime 5-7 years ago, when it became clear what the real meaning of the expression – “The Customer is the King” is and how depended companies became on high customer’ satisfaction and great reviews.
And whilst there is nothing wrong with any of the existing frameworks, as they definitely created an opportunity of differentiation, they also all became quickly a hygiene factor as customers became used to this NEW NORMAL and no longer a form of differentiation.
Most of the companies look at customer journey INSIDE-OUT. They define it as the journey when it comes to interacting with US… They are trying to map customers to their own company and perfect the touch-points. Nothing wrong with that, except customers are human beings and as such their lives extend way beyond the realm of your own company. The real customer journey is an outside-in perspective that follows the fluid customer’s day to day life, trying to map the company to the customer and not the other way around.
You see, whether your customer is busy or not with your products or services, it does not really matter. They live their lives and are on THEIR own journeys. And you as a company should be there in the for- or in the background, involved in their jobs-to-be-done, or at least know about them.
Did you ever stop asking why Facebook allows Deepak Chopra meditation services to use its customer credentials (username and password) ? Or why Amazon acting primarily in the e-commerce arena, developed Alexa ? Many successful companies define the customer journey outside-in, which means, it starts where yours might stop. Doing that they create a perception that leads many times to a ‘wow-customer- experience’ and also new interesting business models.
And so, when it comes to customer journey – always try to curiously extend your definition to truly follow the customer, not only your existing internal processes.
Food for Thought !