Unveiling the Nine Deadly Sins of Customer Journeys
Years of doing customer experience design research for clients across industries have revealed nine deadly sins related to customer journeys—shedding light on the missteps that can jeopardize the overall customer experience. Let's delve into each sin and explore how organizations can avoid these pitfalls to create seamless and meaningful customer journeys.
Sin #1: Adopting a Linear Mentality
Some customer journeys are and should be linear. But so many really aren’t. We see a tendency of organizations to force a linear mentality for their journey work, even when linearity might not be appropriate. Depending on the product or service, customers tend to bounce around, step back, and delay, creating a non-linear path. This is especially true when they are in research mode. Organizations must recognize this behavior and build flexibility into their design to accommodate their journey work appropriately—whether it be sporadic, episodic, circular, or linear. We develop rich research stimulus that helps us uncover the best journey type for the jobs that customers are trying to get done.
Sin #2: Assuming Internal Processes Define the Customer’s Journey
Companies often make the mistake of assuming that their internal processes accurately reflect the customer’s journey. In reality, customers may be undertaking steps that the company is unaware of or not involved in. A prime example is the gathering of documents for a loan application, where the customer may face significant hurdles unbeknownst to the financial institution. Acknowledging the true customer journey is crucial for avoiding distractions, abandonment, and emotional turbulence and determining how to best support the whole job to be done.
Sin #3: Overlooking the Broader Customer Journey
Many organizations (or departments within organizations) make the error of narrowly defining the customer journey based on their services or areas of responsibility alone, missing the broader context of the customer's overall journey. For instance, a hotel might see a guest’s stay as a trip, but the guest might be on a once-in-a-lifetime, Eat, Pray, Love-type of transformation. Recognizing and embracing the customer’s broader journey opens up opportunities for greater engagement and customer delight.
Sin #4: Neglecting Shifting Emotional States
Companies often fail to recognize and respond to customers' changing emotional states during their journey. Whether dealing with health, finances, or personal issues, customers can experience emotional highs and lows. Failing to address these emotional fluctuations may lead to dissatisfaction, frustration, or even emotional distress, jeopardizing the overall experience with the product or the brand. Map out not just the emotional states of the journey but also how they change throughout the journey.
Sin #5: Assuming Uniform Paths for All
A common misstep is assuming that all customers, personas, or segments follow the same path. Designing a journey without considering personal situations, mindsets, or the jobs to be done can force customers down an unsuitable path, resulting in dissatisfaction, abandonment, or a lack of perceived value. We often ask about modes in our journey mapping work, a great way to understand both mindsets and situations more deeply.
Sin #6: Delivering Time Poorly Spent
No company intends to deliver poor experiences, but several often unintentionally deliver experiences that customers perceive as time poorly spent. (You can probably think of an example right now.) If customers cannot achieve their goals by the end of the journey, if brand promises are unfulfilled, or if personal performance is not improved, they may feel their time and money were wasted. Examples range from failed weight loss services to slow restaurant service or making customers unnecessarily repeat information.
Sin #7: Extreme Fragmentation of the Journey
A significant issue arises when different departments within an organization own different pieces of the customer journey, creating extreme fragmentation. In healthcare, this is exacerbated by data fragmentation across insurance companies, providers, and pharmacies. Bridging internal departmental silos and fostering a shared understanding of the customer is essential for a cohesive and enjoyable journey. The journey map, if done correctly, can be an important alignment document.
Sin #8: Putting the Onus on Customers to Fix Problems
When processes break down, often customers are burdened with fixing the issues. Whether due to system bottlenecks, digital tool failures, or inefficient processes, companies must avoid placing the responsibility on customers to rectify problems. This can lead to frustration, dissatisfaction, and a questioning of the value provided by the company. Journey maps are a great way to highlight these often overlooked, long-standing processes that become time poorly spent and frustrating pain points for customers.
Sin #9: Abandoning Customers Too Early
Lastly, companies may prematurely abandon customers before their personal journey is complete, especially in larger journeys that span multiple organizations or departments. Failing to smoothly transition customers between stages can create confusion, concern, and emotional distress, impacting their perception of the overall journey.
Conclusion:
Understanding and addressing these nine deadly sins of customer journeys is paramount for organizations committed to delivering exceptional customer experiences. By doing the appropriate internal and external research, developing the right questions and interview exercises, and leveraging key experience frameworks, you can develop effective customer journey maps that lead to time well spent and build loyalty, trust, and positive associations with your brands throughout the entire customer journey.
