The Customer Journey is a tool to help you get insight into, track, and discuss how a customer experiences a problem you are trying to solve. How does this problem or opportunity show up in their lives? How do they experience it? How do they interact with you?
This tool helps in looking at your products and services the way that your customers experience them. Mapping this Customer Journey will provide you with insights into how customers experience a product or service, as well as how they might be better served or even delighted. This is especially true when co-creating the journey together with your customers or when validating your assumptions with them.
As a designer, it is your job to understand the moments when customers engage so that you can design better experiences for them in the future. What are the circumstances? How do customers feel throughout? What are the moments when the experience can best be improved?
HOW TO USE THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY CANVAS
We recommend first filling in The Persona Canvas before you and your team fill in the Customer Journey Canvas.
We see five different key moments in the Customer Journey of Richard Williams.
1. Richard is not satisfied with his current car. He has an old car and it needs to be repaired regularly. He really wants a new car, and he is thinking about getting an electric car. He would like to live as sustainably as possible and he has a friend who also drives an electric car who is very happy with it.
2. After another reparation he started with searching the internet to look for a new car. Richard also asked his friend and family for advice and experiences with (electric) cars. He is excited about the idea of buying a new car, but he also feels that it takes a lot of time to get clear and enough information about which car fits him best.
3. After a few weeks of research, he made a couple of appointments with car dealers (electric and nonelectric.) He is satisfied about the appointment, but he is not totally convinced which car he should choose.
4. The next step in his journey is comparing his three favorite cars with each other. He tested all three cars, which was really fun.
5. Eventually, after a long thought he decided to go with the electric car, and he is very happy with it!
Of course, no customer journey is totally complete or made without assumptions. Mapping the customer journey is based on the knowledge and insights of your team. This tool simply helps you understand and explore from the customer’s point of view. The customer journey is one to continue to explore in your company.
SO WHAT?
The Customer Journey Canvas helps make things real. Through the mapping exercise you can identify where customers get stuck, where they have great experiences, and why. One outcome of using this tool with your team will be the so-called low hanging fruit that you can deliver on immediately. Once you have co-created and assembled the customer journey maps, you can add real customer data gathered through customer safaris, interviews, and feedback. This will enable you to make informed decisions based on reality. The customer journey is relevant for everyone. Everyone on the team, and in your company, must understand what your customers experience, how they feel, what they struggle with, and how you can improve the experience. The underlying goal: to solve our customers’ problems and make them happy. If you want to make your own personas with your team, have a look at the step by step guide.
EXPERIENCE IT LIVE!
Do you want to learn more? There is no better way to learn about the tools, cases and mindset behind Design a Better Business than experiencing it in a two-day workshop, hosted by the authors and designers. We’ll do a deep dive and help participants become designers. Join our experience this October in Amsterdam or in New York. Are you one of the lucky participants?
