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Turning your Customer Journey Map into a Navigation System

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Maps are defined as a representation of the features of an area.  They’re very useful when establishing where you are, identifying landmarks and the many possibilities for reaching your destination.  Navigation systems take mapping to the next level, providing step-by-step guidance for the most efficient route to your destination.

A customer experience wheel – or customer journey map - is a visual depiction of the steps customers take to interact and, hopefully, engage with a company.  The map can depict a timeline of the series of interactions across the entire customer lifecycle.  Or it can depict the detailed processes within a specific interaction (Onboarding, Customer Support) or channel (online, in-store or by phone). 

Building a customer experience wheel, customer journey map or customer lifecycle diagram is a valuable experience but, once it is complete, there are some critical areas that build that value.  So, once you have gone through all the processes to build one, what do you do with it?

1. Share the customer experience wheel with the organization.  Stakeholders across the organization need to understand the insights so they can work together to improve customer-facing processes.  It also helps build a common vocabulary around customer insights – moments of truth, building company champions, raving fans, etc.
2. Make progress for the customer.  The customer experience wheel is a way to prioritize which processes need to be improved and how they should integrate across the organization. 
3. Embed continuous improvement in the company culture.  The customer experience wheel can provide organizational motivation as improvements are seen and celebrated. 

Building a customer experience wheel and understanding the organization from the customer’s viewpoint is just the beginning.  As a living document, the result of customer journey mapping can become the organization’s navigation system.