The Torture of Customer Experience Journey Mapping
The customer-centric mindset is a tricky thing: To win with it, you have to know how to lose.
A cool mist hung on Lake Geneva as I arrived at a posh lakeside hotel in Lausanne, for what was to be a two-day workshop. The audience: four dozen high-performers from my client’s company, some having flown in from Japan, Korea, North America, and other far-flung markets. The topic: Designing the Customer Experience Journey Map to rule them all.
I was there as part of my client’s team, rather than as a service provider. The workshop was organized by another consulting firm, a big one, that had clearly spared no expense in the process. Big team in color-coordinated outfits. Slick color-coordinated posters and presentations. Lots of American buzzwords thrown around with posh British accents. Silicon Valley meets Eton College.
It’s always interesting to see how the sausage is made elsewhere, and in this case, I had front-row seats to witness how talented chefs following the right recipe with quality ingredients can make terrible sausage.
I first smelled a rat when they unveiled their proposed Map template. The client’s various teams around the world had been creating, over the last few years, dozens of different experience journey maps, with varying methodologies, approaches, and results…
