Mapping Customer Experience Ecosystems

Data alone can often feel impersonal and hard to relate to but professionals have found an interesting way around it - at least in the consulting world. I found it interesting that Bain & Company tackles this by using "customer journey mapping" - an approach that transforms data into vivid narratives about relatable customer personas. The process starts by creating detailed personas that represent key customer groups. For example, when working on the UK rail network, Bain created the persona of "Sarah" - a suburban working mom whose struggles with delays making her miss her daughter's events felt all too real. With personas established as protagonists, Bain meticulously maps their end-to-end journeys, breaking it down into a narrative arc highlighting every interaction and pain point. Using techniques like visual storyboards and real customer anecdotes elevates this beyond just experience mapping into visceral storytelling. The impact is clear - one study found a 35% boost in stakeholder buy-in when Bain packaged its conclusions as customer journey stories versus dry analysis. By making customers the heroes and positioning themselves as guides resolving their conflicts, Bain taps into the power of storytelling to inspire change. Whether mapping personal experiences or bringing data to life, leading firms realize stories engage people and shape beliefs far more than just reciting facts and figures. Narratives make even complex ideas resonate at a human level in ways numbers alone cannot.

Gain a data-driven understanding of your customer through Importance-Performance Maps. In today's competitive business world, differentiating your brand by understanding and delivering what truly matters to your customers is crucial. That’s where Importance-Performance Maps (I-P Maps) come in, providing a powerful visual tool to drive strategic decisions. What exactly is an I-P Map? It's a two-by-two grid that allows you to evaluate how well your brand performs in the areas that are important (as well as *not* important) to consumers. The vertical axis represents the importance of various attributes in consumers' eyes, while the horizontal axis shows your brand's performance in those areas. You can include other brands in your market, too, in order to see how your brand stacks up against the competition along those. When done correctly, every critical attribute of your offering -- whether it's product quality, customer service, or pricing -- is plotted on the I-P Map based on these two dimensions. Why does it matter? I-P Maps reveal your brand's strengths and areas where improvement is needed. Here's a breakdown of the quadrants: - Keep It Up (High Importance, High Performance): These are your strengths—attributes that are both highly important to customers and where your brand performs well. Maintain focus here to keep your competitive edge. - Concentrate Here (High Importance, Low Performance): These are critical areas where your brand is underperforming, despite their high importance to customers. Improving performance here can significantly boost customer satisfaction. - Low Priority (Low Importance, Low Performance): Attributes that are less important and where performance is lower. These areas may not require immediate attention but should be monitored for any shifts in customer priorities. - Possible Overkill (Low Importance, High Performance): Here, your brand may be over-delivering in areas that are not as important to customers. Resources invested here might be better allocated to areas of higher impact. How do I use I-P Maps? Use I-P Maps to make informed decisions backed by data that align with customer expectations. Fix those areas of underperformance that are important to consumers. Stop investing in attributes of your product or service that consumers just don't care about. Prioritize investment in product offerings, elevate aspects of customer service, or reallocate resources to close competitive gaps or strengthen your advantages. Use I-P Maps to make informed choices that improve your business performance in impactful and efficient ways. Art+Science Analytics Institute | University of Notre Dame | University of Notre Dame - Mendoza College of Business | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | University of Chicago | D'Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University | ELVTR | Grow with Google - Data Analytics #Analytics #DataStorytelling

How do you and your teams synthesise and select which customer needs or pains to progress in your #product, #design, or #innovation projects? Imagine you've just completed some great customer discovery research, including observing, interviewing and being the customer. You've built some good empathy for who your customers are, what is important to them, what pains them, and what delights them. Then you unpack your findings into some form of empathy map, and you've got 100s of sticky notes everywhere. You've then started to narrow them down to the most promising and interesting observations, but this still leaves you with a sizeable collection and you want to add some rigour to your intuition on which ones to take forward first. Well, here are 3 different methods that I’ve used and iterated over the years: Number One – The Opportunity Scale This first one is the simplest and is inspired by how Alexander Osterwalder et al rank jobs, pains and gains in their book Value Proposition Design, 2014. As a team, you take your short list of observations from your empathy map and rank them from how insignificant/moderate to how important/extreme the need/pain is for the customer with the most important/extreme being prioritised to explore further first. Number two – The Opportunity Matrix A The opportunity matrix increases the rigour and confidence of your prioritizing by adding ‘strength of evidence’ as another dimension. Strength of evidence at this stage of journey can be determined by the number and type of data points. For example, if you heard from several customers that a pain point was extremely painful then you could be more confident this was worth solving than one highlighted by only one customer. Likewise, observing customers do something provides stronger evidence than customers saying they do something. Here you prioritise the most important needs with the strongest evidence first. Something to watch out for is when your team selects an observation that has strong evidence but isn’t that important of a need or pain to customers. Teams can be blinkered by numbers and end up over-investing in time wasting-opportunities. Number three – The Opportunity Matrix B The third method swaps out evidence for fulfilment of the need - how satisfied are customers with their ability to fulfil the need/solve the pain with the solutions they use today? By matching this with the importance of the need/pain we can select those observations that we understand to be the most important and unmet for our customers. You can then overlay the strength of evidence across this ranking to make your final selection even more robust. And to take it to a whole new level and really de-risk your selection you can test your prioritised observations, written as need statements, in quantitative research with customers. This is something that Antony Ulwick shares in his book Jobs To Be Done, 2016. I hope you find these methods useful. #designthinking #humancentreddesign

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐩 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐃𝐢𝐞𝐬 Imagine walking into a discount store. You expect minimal frills, functional service, and low prices. Now, picture stepping into a high-end ⌚luxury brand store. Your expectations shift—you anticipate impeccable service, premium products, and an experience to match. This difference in expectation mirrors what customers experience every day, whether they’re choosing fast food over fine dining or economy seats over first-class luxury. It’s in the gap between what’s expected and what’s delivered that customer loyalty is born—or lost. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 The higher your brand's position in the mind of the customer, the more extraordinary their expectations. Luxury isn’t just a price tag—it’s a promise of an elevated experience. And when that promise isn’t met, dissatisfaction grows exponentially. 🤔Consider this simple formula: ✅Higher experience than expectation = success ❌Lower experience than expectation = failure McDonald’s customers don’t expect white-glove service—they want fast, consistent meals. A Michelin-starred restaurant, however, carries the weight of diners’ high expectations for exquisite food, perfect service, and an unforgettable atmosphere. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐟𝐟 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐬 𝐊𝐞𝐲 No matter your industry, your team’s ability to meet—or exceed—customer expectations is critical. Their behavior must align with the brand’s promise. In a discount store, friendliness and efficiency might suffice. In a luxury boutique, customers expect personalized attention, deep product knowledge, and a sense of exclusivity. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥’𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦. Lessons from Everyday Comparisons 🏬 Uniqlo vs. Prada: Practicality vs. Prestige. ✈️ Economy vs. Suites: Convenience vs. Comfort. 🍽️ Fast Food vs. Fine Dining: Speed vs. Sophistication. Each comparison highlights how expectation sets the bar, and the experience delivered determines loyalty. 🤔 Remember To build loyal customers, focus on closing the gap: * Train your staff to embody your brand’s promise. * Understand the expectations your customers bring with them. * Strive to exceed those expectations with every interaction. Because in the end, whether it’s a cup of coffee or a luxury suite, customers don’t just buy products—they buy experiences. 📌 Want more content like this? Follow me Andrew Calvert, PCC Follow Serendipity Engine

Bad customer experience (CX) is costly. But worse than the cost is the damage it can do to your business. We’ve all seen the fallout from poor customer interactions—lost sales, negative reviews, and damaged reputations. That’s why it’s crucial to prioritize and enhance CX. Here are key strategies to implement: ➡ Map the Customer Journey: Each click and interaction shapes their perception. Create detailed personas to uncover needs, behaviors, and pain points. ➡ Process Inventory: Identify inefficiencies, like delayed shipping, by mapping the customer journey and tracing issues back to their roots. ➡ Ethnographic Research: Study customers in their natural settings to gain insights data alone can't capture. Align strategies with genuine customer expectations. ➡ Cultivate a Customer-Centric Culture: Follow Tesla’s lead—ensure every employee is driven to enhance CX, fostering continuous feedback and adaptation. ➡ Leverage Data: Use a 360-degree view of each customer to predict needs, personalize interactions, and exceed expectations. Don’t cut corners when it comes to improving CX. Focus on these strategies to drive loyalty and revenue. It’s worth it.

As a Business Analyst who’s worked across multiple domains, I kept asking: "How can we analyze and improve processes while ensuring alignment with customer experience, automation opportunities, and real-world execution constraints?" So 𝐈 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐬 & 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 called 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄—designed for Business Analysts, by a Business Analyst. 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 A structured 5-step approach to analyze, redesign, and implement better business processes. ✅ T - Touchpoint Mapping Map every customer, system, and employee interaction throughout the process. ⏩ Why? Because pain points often lie hidden between handoffs and touchpoints. 🔸 Example: While improving a claims process in insurance, we mapped the customer journey and discovered that 4 out of 7 delays occurred during internal handoffs—not external approvals. ✅ R - Root Cause Discovery Go beyond symptoms. Use tools like 5 Whys, Fishbone diagrams, or even process mining to get to the bottom of inefficiencies. 🔸 Example: A healthcare provider noticed repeated data entry errors. Root cause? The patient registration interface required double entry into two systems due to poor integration. ✅ A - Automation & Adaptability Assessment Assess which parts of the process can be automated (RPA, AI, workflow engines), and how adaptable the process is to scalability, policy changes, or compliance. 🔸 Example: In a telecom project, we flagged a manual SIM activation step as a bottleneck. After RPA automation, processing time dropped by 85%. ✅ C - Change Impact Analysis Evaluate how proposed changes will impact stakeholders, systems, SLAs, and compliance. Build readiness through a Change Impact Matrix. 🔸 Example: In a bank’s loan onboarding process, changing document verification impacted 4 systems and 3 departments. Early impact analysis helped us prep all affected users and avoid go-live delays. ✅ E - Execution Blueprint Create a visual and documented blueprint of the improved process: • Swimlane diagrams • RACI matrix • System handoffs • Success metrics 🔸 Example: For a logistics firm, we redesigned the inventory return workflow. The execution blueprint became the training, UAT, and SOP foundation, saving 2 weeks of rollout effort. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬: ✔️ Human-centric (starts at touchpoints) ✔️ Analytical (root cause and impact driven) ✔️ Future-ready (focus on automation and adaptability) ✔️ Grounded in BA tools (flows, matrices, UAT, change analysis) ✔️ Outcome-focused (delivers real, implementable blueprints) 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐘𝐨𝐮: Would you try TRACE in your next process improvement initiative? 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐁𝐏𝐌𝐍 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐦𝐞: https://lnkd.in/eYHriqm3 BA Helpline

Great journey maps start from the intersection of user touchpoints. A customer journey map shows a customer's experiences with your organization, from when they identify a need to whether that need is met. Journey maps are often shown as straight lines with touchpoints explaining a user's challenges. start •—------------>• finish At the heart of this approach is the user, assuming that your product or service is the one they choose to use in their journey. While journey maps help explain the conceptual journey, they often give the wrong impression of how users are trying to solve their problems. In reality, users start from different places, have unique ways of understanding their problems, and often have expectations that your service can't fully meet. Our testing and user research over the years has shown how varied these problem-solving approaches can be. Building a great journey map involves identifying a constellation of touchpoints rather than a single, linear path. Users start from different points and follow various paths, making their journeys complex and varied. These paths intersect to form signals, indicating valuable touchpoints. Users interact with your product or service in many different ways. User journeys are not straightforward and involve multiple touchpoints and interactions…many of which have nothing to do with your company. Here’s how you can create valuable journeys: → Using open-ended questions and a product like Helio, identify key touchpoints, pain points, and decision-making moments within each journey. → Determine the most valuable touchpoints based on the intersection frequency and user feedback. → Create structured lists with closed answer sets and retest with multiple-choice questions to get stronger signals. → Represent these intersections as key touchpoints that indicate where users commonly interact with your product or service. → Focus on these touchpoints for further testing and optimization. Generalizing the linear flow can be practical once you have gone through this process. It helps tell the story of where users need the most support or attention, making it a helpful tool for stakeholders. Using these techniques, we’ve seen engagement nearly double on websites we support. #productdesign #productdiscovery #userresearch #uxresearch

As founders, we're bombarded with advice: "Know your customer!" "Listen to your audience!" But amidst the buzzwords, a crucial question lingers: how do we truly understand what matters to our customers, beyond the surface-level preferences and fleeting opinions? My journey as a founder has been a constant dance between chasing "customer feedback" and uncovering the deeper desires fueling that feedback. I've learned that listening isn't enough; we need to actively decode and prioritize what truly resonates with our users. Enter the Customer Value Compass: Step 1: Chart the Terrain: 1. Gather diverse data: Collect feedback through surveys, interviews, user observations, social media sentiment analysis, and support tickets. 2. Identify recurring themes: Analyze the data for common threads, challenges, and desires expressed by your customers. Don't get bogged down in individual details; look for patterns. 3. Categorize by impact: Segment your identified themes into two categories: "surface-level preferences" and "core value drivers." Surface-level preferences: These are fleeting opinions, often influenced by trends or personal experiences. They can provide valuable insights for specific features or campaigns, but shouldn't define your core offering. Core value drivers: These are deeply held needs, desires, and motivations that underpin customer behavior. These are the true north stars you need to align with. Step 2: Calibrate the Compass: 1. Dig deeper into core value drivers: Conduct in-depth interviews, focus groups, or user testing to truly understand the "why" behind these themes. 2. Prioritize based on impact: Not all core value drivers hold equal weight. Assess their prevalence, intensity, and alignment with your business goals to determine which ones deserve the most attention. 3. Validate with data: Look for quantitative evidence to support your qualitative findings. Analyze usage data, conversion rates, and customer satisfaction metrics to ensure your understanding aligns with actual behavior. Step 3: Navigate with Confidence: 1. Align your product and strategy: Use your Customer Value Compass to inform product development, marketing messages, and customer support initiatives. 2. Communicate with clarity: When making changes or introducing new features, explain how they address the core value drivers you've identified. 3. Continuously iterate: The Customer Value Compass is a living document. Gather new data, conduct regular reviews, and be prepared to adjust your understanding as your customer base and market evolve. Remember, the Customer Value Compass is not a destination, but a journey. By prioritizing what truly matters to your users, you build a foundation for sustainable growth, loyalty, and success. So, silence the buzzwords, listen deeply, and let your customers guide your voyage. #FoundersJourney #CustomerInsights #DecodingValue #ValueCompass #CustomerCentricity #BuildingForUsers

The best journeys consist of six building blocks: 🔴 Metrics, 🟠 Personas, 🩷Journeys, 🔵 Insights, 🟣 Opportunities, 🟢 Solutions. While journeys change constantly, the key to managing the customer experience across teams is using a consistent system everyone understands. Not just your service designers. It’s just 6 of these you need to power a journey-centric workflow across your teams. 🔴 Metrics Tracking customer journey performance using data visualization of KPIs like NPS, CSAT, conversion rates, and customer effort scores. Metric building blocks can span the entire journey or measure a specific step. For example NPS can say something about the entire customer journey, while a Conversion metric will say something about customers progressing from one step to the next. 🟠 Personas Creating need-based profiles of your customers provides a useful filter for all your journeys. Personas are building blocks you use to standardize your insights. Personas are like filters to quickly segment and compare journeys. The thing I love about journeys as a business tool, is how they are typically visualizing the emotional experience for different personas based on all insights you have. (more on this on insights) 🩷 Journeys This one is the most interesting: Journey building blocks enable you to create a framework of journeys. This helps to break down complicated customer experiences into manageable pieces. Typical structure to begin with: L0: Framework journey (i.e. customer lifecycle) L1: Macro journeys (i.e. purchase experience) L2: Micro journey (i.e. buying a phone online) 🔵 Insights The most used building block of them all. Get facts from research, surveys, support tickets, VoC programs and service calls. Then synthesize these into insights in the context of your journeys. Customer Pains, Gains, and Needs. 🟣 Opportunities The opportunity is another version of the classical problem statement from service design, but in journey management it is used as a building block to prioritize against opportunities from other journeys. Insights + Journey + KPI = Opportunity for the business. 🟢 Solutions Generating new ideas or concepts to improve customer experiences is one way to use these in a journey map. A better way is to or align existing work items (like Epics, Ideas or Initiatives) to your journeys - so you can track progress from different teams - right there and then. Bonus points if you link them to opportunities. #cx #servicedesign #design #customerjourney #journeymapping

7-Stage Customer Buying Journey Framework. With 37 Questions to complete it: A. Awareness 1. Push or Pull The buying dynamic is different depending on the customers' state; they can be searching for a solution (pull) or in a passive state (push). - Are your customers coming from inbound or outbound? - Do they have a buying intent? - Is there a need or problem pushing them to talk to you? - Are they already using a solution similar to yours? 2. Need Recognition To buy, customers need to be aware of the buying need. - Do they have a precise problem or pain point? - What is the pain point's level from 1 to 10? - Are they aware of their need or pain? - Do they have a dream outcome/ideal situation? - Do they need education about your solution? 3. Offer Analysis Customers will assess if your offer can solve their problem in a pragmatic way. - What criteria do they use to analyse your offer? - What are the mandatory elements they are looking for? - How are they assessing your offer? - Are they following a precise checklist? If yes, which one? - Who are they reporting to for this analysis? - Are they comparing the offer to other solutions? 4. Understand the Value After analyzing your offer, customers will evaluate you and subconsciously build a "perceived value". - Is your offer solving a problem painful enough? - Are they satisfied by the offer's features? - Is the dream outcome clear in their mind? - Is the perceived likelihood of achievement high? - Do they grasp the offer's value? - If yes, because of what specific benefit/feature? - If not, what is it they don't grasp? 5. Objections and Blockers Once a customer understands the value, they will run a through a series of objections to eliminate the remaining doubts. - What are the most common objections? - Which objections are leading to deal breakers? - What are the blockers? (independent from their will) - Do you have an answer to each objection? - Are they comparing you to competitors? If so, which ones? - In their list of options, are you 1st, 2nd or 3rd? - Does your price fit their budget? 6. Buying Triggers Some messages, features, or benefits resonate more than others; they are "buying triggers" that lead to a purchase. - What are the most common buying triggers? - Are they emotional or analytical? - Which buying triggers are the most persuasive? - Is there a "aha" moment? What is it? 7. Signature Even with a strong buying intent, a deal can be lost at the signature stage. - What are the last blockers at the signature phase? - Who is in charge of the last "yes"? - Is there a buying committee? - How long does it take to go from a yes to a signed contract? *** This whole process can last minutes or years depending on your industry and offer. So adapt the framework to your case: → Ask the questions to your sales team, customers, and prospects. → Map the buying journey with the answers. → Use the mapping to list marketing actions. → Run the actions and assess the results.