omer journeys: 3 reasons to improve customer experiences and profitability

If an organization wants happier customers, it should consider the whole customer journey. You can’t just improve individual touchpoints. When it comes to the customer experience, marketers need to look at the bigger picture.

Joana de Quintanilha VP, Principal Analyst at Forrester said at The MarTech Conference that “the ability to focus and reorientate your organization around the customer journey is a great ‘unlock.'”

Three big benefits await organizations who adopt a journey-centric strategy.

1. Customers journeys that focus on what they really want

The entire journey of a customer can provide organizations with greater information and insight about their intent. This is because the actions of customers are now viewed in the context of the entire journey.

De Quintanilha asked, “What are they doing? What are they trying?” “[Customer Journeys] also provide] context, touch points, channels, and the location they are in while they are trying accomplish these goals.”

Marketers can also gain insight into the emotions behind these interactions by measuring engagement and sentiment.

De Quintanilha said, “Bringing context and emotions together helps us understand and focus on the real wants of customers and use this to deliver customer-related as well as business results.”

ING Financial Services, for example, used a journey-centric strategy to learn more both about B2B and consumer customers. In some cases customers opened a bank to transfer money. In many cases, the opening of a new bank account was also a secondary need, like paying taxes.

Some of these secondary requirements weren’t met when bank accounts were opened on the internet. ING realized that by satisfying these secondary needs through the digital experience, it could increase customer satisfaction and identify more business opportunities. These opportunities would not have been found without a journey centric approach.

2. Increased revenue and cost savings can be achieved by improving the customer journey

By focusing on the whole journey, organizations can streamline their processes and become more efficient. Forrester Research found that improving customer journeys could increase customer advocacy by 20% to 40%, and reduce costs between 15% and 25%.

De Quintanilha said, “We’ve seen that companies use ‘journey centricity’ not only to acquire new customers but also to upsell, cross-sell, and drive retention, loyalty, and customer lifetime value – so, really, throughout the entire relationship with a customer.”

Nissan, for example, increased customer retention through a focus on seven key journeys across digital and physical locations. According to de Quintanilha, when organizations improve customer journeys, they can increase revenue by 10% to 20%.

Explore: 4 platforms that support the customer journey orchestration

3. Your business model and customer journey can be disrupted by the customer journey

Although it may seem counterintuitive at first, disrupting your operating model or business could benefit your customers and their experience in the end.

De Quintanilha stated that traditional operating models, while functional in most cases, are not always designed for delivering great experiences to partners, customers, and suppliers.

The customer experience in the food delivery business has changed dramatically with the advent of apps. Pizzas may be delivered by third parties after being made by a restaurant. Customer service for an ordering app may be managed by a different entity.

The transformation brings customers greater convenience. However, if the experience is compromised, it may be hard to identify due to the many parties involved. It is important that organizations look at the entire customer journey, and that they break down silos so that previously separate teams can work together to benefit the customer.

De Quintanilha said, “A customer in a journey does not care whether you are from a marketing, IT, product development, or digital function.” “It is just a person who wants to do something, to achieve a goal. Sometimes it’s a functional goal and sometimes it’s a more aspirational goal. To deliver better experiences, we need to rationalize our own organization and create links – bridge silos – within our own organization.

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