The Value of Creating a Customer Journey Map for You and Your Team
What do you know about your customers? This is a question that all companies ask themselves, and likely try to answer on a regular basis. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent annually on learning more about the customers that shop our stores and visit our places of business. Much of that data does not reach the front lines to be used for practical, everyday interactions. It may influence marketing, online targeting, or overall strategy, but generally, this information is used for the global good of the company. Of course, your store or district should benefit from that, but there are alternatives to help you connect best with your customers.
The idea of customer journey maps is another process that is typically handled on a company-wide basis. Perhaps you have seen them before. They usually included a breakdown of who the most common types of customers are - many times receiving a categorization ‘heavy shoppers’ or ‘frequent users.’ The better journey maps will help to identify where they begin their shopping experience - online, in-store, mobile application, etc. These are great tools, but as I mentioned, they are not always available in a way that you can use to the best of your advantage in your location today.
Create a simple customer journey map
You may not have the ability to collect all of the data that big companies use in building their organizational maps. Still, you should be able to develop a simple customer journey map that can help you and your team better serve your customers on a day to day basis.
The first thing you will want to give some thought to is, ‘what do you want to know about your customers?” Is it about the frequency of visits? What areas of your business do they shop? What areas of your business are they unfamiliar with? What is their definition of excellent service? What do they like most about your store and company? What do they like least? Once you have an idea of what you want to know, you can pull together some of the information you will need to develop a better picture of who your customers are and what they are looking for.
Use the information you already have
Most retail locations have more data than they realize. You likely have access to some level of daily sales data. You can use this to track which days are your busiest. Many times your scheduling system or, if you have traffic counters in your location, will have all of this information already pulled together. This can be very handy for building better staffing schedules and understanding when your customers are visiting most often.
Even basic point of sale information can be helpful. You should be able to see daily sales and sales by hour. You can take that information and manually track which days and hours are your busiest. It will not be as simple as having a system for this, but it can be done.
If you receive customer satisfaction surveys, you can use that information also to help understand what your customer is looking for. Sit down and review all of the information you have objectively. Don’t try to justify why the customer may have responded the way they did. Look at it from the customer perspective. They will not care if someone called out sick that day, or if you just received a big shipment. Spend time analyzing the customer point of view and match it up to your other sales data to see how they might connect.
You should be able to get a good picture of your business with the information you already have at your fingertips. It will be an investment of time, but one that should pay off for you in the long run.
Conduct observations
First-hand experience and knowledge are very valuable in helping to build your customer journey map. This step seems very simple. However, it can also feel a little awkward and takes discipline to do. It involves standing back and watching. Watch where your customers go in your location. Which direction do they turn when they come into the store? Where do they go first? Next?
You can draw a simple store layout map if you don’t already have one. Draw the path that your customers take as they enter your store. Do this at different times of the day and on each day of the week over a period of time. This will give you the best view of how your customers are shopping your store.
You may also take this one step further and add a point where your customers either sought assistance from your team or where your team engaged the customer. Did that lead to purchases? This is also an excellent way to gather the information that you can use to coach your team. Not only do you learn about your customer patterns, but you can also gain insights into your team’s activities as well.
Ask your customers
Finally, if you want to know what your customer is thinking, you can always ask them. Many customers are very willing to answer a few short questions about their experience right on the spot. Knowing what you want to learn helps in most instances - you can have your two to three questions ready to ask as they are leaving or approaching the checkout.
This is a great way to get to know your customers. When you introduce yourself as the manager and state you want to understand more about how they shop your store and the experience they had, it builds an immediate connection with the customer. The vast majority of your customers will be happy to provide some feedback at that point. This step alone can help to build repeat business. Plus, you get the added benefit of learning more about what your customers really want from your store. My experience has been that customers will not hold back much. They will tell you what they like and don’t like about your store and even the company overall when you engage with them. This can be tremendously valuable in building out your map.
Do something with the information
The most important part of all of this is to do something with the data you have collected. Share this with your team in as much detail as they can. If you want them to buy in, talk to your team all the way through this process. Let them know what you want to accomplish, how they can help, and what you are going to do once you have gathered information.
This could be an excellent topic for a team meeting or a series of huddles. Take them through everything you learn from your observations, data analysis, and customer interactions. “This is what our customer is telling us” is the theme of what you are sharing. Stick to facts you gather and the assumption you have made from the data collected. Stay objective and ask the team to do the same. There are always reasons for the experiences people have, but you need to look beyond those and begin to solve for what the customer is saying. There will never be enough payroll or every piece of merchandise that every customer is looking for, but I am willing to bet there are options you have to begin solving for any of those scenarios. That is the action you and your team will need to take.
Congratulations on wanting to serve your customers in the best possible way. Taking part in an activity such as this can set you apart from other businesses. If you desire to provide the best possible customer experience, this is a necessary activity to engage in. The world is full of options for customers to take advantage of. The only way to be successful for the long-term is to connect with those that shop your business today and ensure you are serving all of their needs for the future.
Have you ever used a customer journey map before? How did it help your business?
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