Why customer journey mapping matters more than ever

We had the honor to talk to CX expert Sumita Mullick to discuss the importance of customer journey mapping to businesses today. Customer journey mapping is gaining popularity as a valuable visualization and storytelling tool, and it’s a practice that Sumita recommends to all businesses seeking to improve the customer experience.

Sumita is the Vice President of Customer Service and Operations Analytics at Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield. She’s worked at and consulted for a wide range of organizations across multiple industries, and has helped them measurably improve CX.

Here are some key takeaways from the webinar.

Organizations are prioritizing improving CX

Sumita said that most of the organizations she’s worked/consulted for have had a very deep focus on customer experience. And those who didn’t start with that focus eventually got there, she said, because of the challenges they were facing.

At her current organization, a separate department that focuses only on customer experience was created. They look at customer interactions and map out customer journeys to determine what makes or breaks the customer experience. From there, they identify where these moments are in other parts of the business and gather further feedback from customers.

Customer journey mapping is the “missing piece” for enterprises when it comes to customer experience

When enterprises talk about customer experience, they often only look at customer service and the call center. This is only a piece of the puzzle, and isn’t telling the whole story.

“For you to measure your end-to-end customer experience, you have to look at the end-to-end journey that the customer goes through,” said Sumita. Customer journey mapping involves mapping out the touchpoints of a customer’s journey, starting with the very first interaction. This could include the first time they visit your website. Or their shopping experience … a payment transaction … or any touchpoint they have with your brand.

When companies don’t invest in mapping the customer and business journeys, they miss out on identifying the real points of inflection.

Data can help you identify opportunities for CX improvement

When trying to improve CX, Sumita said to look at your interactions with customers and escalations data. “We as organizations need to be listening to what the customer is trying to tell us,” she shared.

This means looking at why customers are contacting you, as well as the feedback they provide.  If customers often contact you looking for specific information, perhaps you can improve CX by proactively providing this information as a notification, for example. Or if you’re suddenly getting a large call volume related to one aspect of your business, that tells us that it’s time to look deeper and consider how we can change or evolve the business to better meet customer expectations.

Data doesn’t only pinpoint the “bad.” It can also reveal your strengths — things about your service that your customer likes and appreciates, and that you should continue offering. Your customers are sharing it all — the good and the bad — and companies that turn all that information into action will add immense value to the business.

Read: How to use data to enhance your customers journey

At the end of the day, customers want these three things

When it boils down to it, Sumita said there are three things customers want:

1. For you to respond to them quickly, when they want, and how they want
2. For you to respond accurately
3. An ease of doing business with you

“If we keep those things as the focus when we are designing our strategy, I think it will help us provide clarity and where we want to invest and how we want to invest,” Sumita said.

Investments like Glance’s Guided CX can transform customer interactions by putting you right on your customer’s screen when and where they need you most. It can lead to faster, better service that’s better for the customer, the agent, and the business.

Watch the webinar replay to learn more from Sumita about the importance of customer journey mapping and CX to improving critical, enterprise-wide business goals.