What is a journey map? In the Consumer Experience (CX) world, journey maps are a common starting point for those looking to improve or redefine their relationship with their customers. In many instances, a journey map takes the form of an infographic that visually represents the consumer relationship with an organization - its brand, services or products - as a plot of the consumer’s emotional landscape over time and across touchpoints.
Journey maps are informational, and often backward looking. Do you print directions from MapQuest to get to your meeting across town? Probably not in today’s world. You likely use something like Google Maps with real-time traffic alerts, and directions that give you the most efficient route. You use a dynamic map that’s predicting the future (or at least when you’ll arrive).
Setting the Stage
At The ExperienceBuilt Group, instead of creating current state maps, we help clients set the stage for the experience that fits optimally with their brand by creating future state maps. A future state map lets us know where we are heading and what the ideal experience looks like.
We believe that successful experience staging requires three objectives:
Be Holistic - Account for all possible touch-points
Reduce Friction - Allow people to engage with the brand or service in the way that is most convenient for them
Integrate Emotion & Context - customer empathy is a key part of any interaction
With a future state map built, we then overlay the disconnects between the future state and the current journey. This helps us identify where the largest disconnect exists; those touchpoints then become the critical path. By focusing on these key areas, we help companies take internal action in areas that will have the most impact.