The Customer Journey
Focusing on process is important, it’s cliché but, the inches we need really are all around us. And by focusing on improving their processes businesses can make great headway in increasing their efficiency, consistency, and profit margins. But, as Rob Davis points out in his paper “Process in Practice”, the most important thing is the journey that the customer goes on when they interact with our processes — something that is often overlooked when focusing too much on perfecting internal processes.
Davis outlines six key characteristics to determine if a customer had a good experience: “(1) Did they get what they wanted?,(2) Was it correct (did it work?), (3) Did they get it when they wanted it?, (4) Was it easy to order or request?, (5) Was good help and support provided? (6) Was the price right?”. These are all helpful factors to consider but the problem is that experience is subjective and therefore we cannot actually design someone else’s experience. That said, we can identify common processes between customers that are determined by a business’ process and use that intersection to increase the probability that customers will have a good experience.
The main input into whether a customer has a positive or negative experience is their expectations. Some people even say that the equation to personal happiness is happiness = reality — expectations. This is how important expectations are to our view of reality and, in this context, satisfaction in procuring service. But we cannot set other people’s expectations at zero so that they are automatically happily surprised by a business’ processes. Expectations are necessary to function in society and a customer’s expectations will be influenced by their perception of a brand, factors outside of the business’ control, and their experience with competitor businesses.
So how do we go about designing the process for a good customer experience? Davis recommends a framework called “Customer Journey Modelling” which we as Service Designers call “Journey Mapping” if there is a single actor whose experience is being visualized and “Service Blueprinting” when there are multiple actors whose experiences are being visualized simultaneously. For this paper, we will use Davis’ language. Customer Journey Modeling is a way to visualize often intangible and complex processes that the customer is following, the business is following, and how the two interact with one another.
The “swimlane concept” is used in Customer Journey Modelling and the “pools” represent “private processes” specific to each actor. These private processes are abstracted versions of key steps that the actor takes in the process. Interactions between actors are then notated as lines between the lanes with labels for the type of touchpoint being used for interaction between the customer and internal business actor, or even multiple internal actors. The more granular key activities are broken down, the greater ability for fine-tuned analysis and optimization of process and consequently the potential for positive impact on customer experience.
While specificity is valued, some moments are more important than others, for both customers, business, and the interaction between the two. Moments of high importance to a specific actor are called “Moments of Truth”. For example, a moment of truth for the customer may be trying a product they bought for the first time to see if it meets their expectations — but for the business, the closest moment of truth may be the delivery of the product to the customer. As previously mentioned, moments of truth are not necessarily interactions between multiple actors, but they can be. Nonetheless, they are pivotal moments in an actor’s experience and thus are important to be recognized as such when visualizing processes.
The difference between the customer’s moments of truth and a business’ moments of truth is important for setting relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). If a business only focuses on their internal processes for setting KPIs it is unlikely that they will be as relevant to the customers’ experience and cause their experience to be mishandled. Davis suggests a “Cycle of Service Diagram” based on a detailed customer journey model as the way to remedy this possible discrepancy. The Cycle of Service Diagram shows the key steps in both the customer’s and business processes, the interaction points, and the moments of truth — all in a circle like a clock face. Time-based KPI differences between customers and a business can then be clearly seen.
Both the customer journey model and the service cycle diagram allow businesses to evaluate their current processes and test new processes. But, for these tools to be successful, it is paramount that the information being used is from research, not assumptions. Customer surveys, interviews, and ethnographic research must be performed to make sure that these visualizations are accurate to the actor’s experiences. Concepts like Voice of the Customer, Voice of the Business, and Voice of the Process are helpful for thought experimentation but ultimately, they need to be integrated into one holistic perspective, like that of the customer journey model and the service cycle diagram, for business to consistently offer outstanding experiences.
