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How Enterprise Companies Are Implementing Customer Journey Mapping

Authors: Todd Lebo Todd Lebo
Posted Under: Customer Experience
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How Enterprise Companies Are Implementing Customer Journey Mapping

Now, more than ever, companies are taking time to outline the steps that customers go through when engaging with them, whether it be an online experience, retail experience, or a combination of both.

Customer journey mapping is an effective tool for improving customer experience.  

But how are enterprise-level companies effectively implementing a customer journey mapping strategy?

Ascend2, in partnership with Ansira, surveyed 112 marketing professionals from enterprise companies to learn more about how they are effectively implementing a customer journey mapping strategy. 

Here are a few noteworthy findings and tips from the research study, The Enterprise Perspective on Customer Journey Mapping. 

Finding #1: Enterprise Companies have Bought-in to Customer Journey Mapping

Customer journey mapping is widely adopted across larger companies. Over two-thirds (68%) of enterprise marketers report currently building out and testing their journey maps or are already operating with defined journey maps in place. Another 22% are planning to create journey maps in the future. 

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Tip: Your customers have inherent needs when they engage with your brand that is both functional and emotional. The best place to start documenting and gaining a baseline for how effectively your brand is meeting these basic needs and expectations is by mapping their journey. 

Finding #2: How Many Journey Maps Do You Need? That Depends. 

For enterprises, journey mapping can be a complex and intricate process involving many variables. About one quarter (24%) of those surveyed report having six or more different journey maps serving as the foundation of their strategy. Over half (55%) say they fall in the range of having between three and five journey maps.

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Tip: When determining the number of customer journey maps that you need, there is not a ‘one size fits all’ blueprint for success. Journey maps can be used in a variety of ways – from high-level, future state visioning to rally support by a north star, to detailing journeys identifying critical paths, dependencies, and versioning to drive integrated delivery across teams. It is also a good strategy to start small, with a few journey maps, and build additional maps as you gain experience and expertise.

Finding #3: Barriers to Success – Be Prepared to Fix Your Data Problems

Enterprise marketers are finding it difficult to allocate time, staff, and resources to execute a journey mapping strategy, according to 41% of those surveyed. It is a major challenge to implement successful journeys without quality data, which is an issue that 37% of enterprises are facing as well. 

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Tip: Having centralized, first-party customer data across the intersection of engagement and purchasing behaviors is critical to success. Without it, even the best marketing and data science technology can’t understand, or much less act on, customer journey paths. 

Finding #4: Data Collection

Data, both analytical and assumptive, is the foundation of any successful journey mapping strategy. According to enterprise marketers, customer feedback surveys (53%) and market research (47%) are the two most effective ways to collect data to build journey maps.

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Tip: The most effective journeys are developed from the right balance of quantitative behavioral data and rich qualitative data. Once you’ve collected the right data, examine and interpret it, create a strategy, and get started with execution.

Finding #5: Cross-Department Involvement (AKA – play together nicely)

Creating a successful customer journey mapping strategy requires input from a variety of departments, so don’t try to do it alone. According to enterprises surveyed, marketing (60%), customer service (56%), and sales (48%) are critical to collect insight from during the customer journey mapping process. 

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Tip: Creating a seamless customer experience should involve input from teams across an organization. A variety of perspectives provides a well-rounded customer journey. For enterprises, it is important to identify key stakeholders from select departments. 

Final Thoughts

How are you planning to improve the experience of your customers in the year ahead? Please leave a comment and share what is working for you. How are you overcoming challenges, collecting data, improving the quality of your data, allocating budget, allocating staff, attributing ROI, and using technology for customer journey mapping? Help the community by sharing your insight and real-life examples.

You can download the entire The Enterprise Perspective on Customer Journey Mapping for more data, tips, and strategies to plan, implement, and optimize your customer journey mapping strategy. 

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