by Debashis Rana -
No matter the scope, scale, or size of your organization, one ingredient is essential to the recipe for success: knowing your customer.
Today, more tools, best practices, and approaches than ever before are available to capture and tap into available data so organizations can better understand their customers. However, all that data creates a new challenge—knowing how to develop a robust, consistent, and repeatable approach to turning customer data points into actionable insights.
A long, successful customer relationship can be ruined by one bad touch point, so addressing these hurdles appropriately is critical to supporting a modern customer experience (CX). That’s where standing up a robust customer journey analytics program comes in.
What is customer journey analytics and how can utilizing it take your organization’s CX to the next level? Let’s dive in.
It may be hard to put into words (let alone numbers), but the last time you had an amazing customer service experience, you walked away feeling heard and understood in a way that was personal to your needs, interactions, situation and preferences—and that was a very real sensation.
Customer journey analytics is about putting the mechanisms in place to capture, organize, and analyze data surrounding experiences like those from across all of your engagement channels, for every touchpoint. In turn, your organization will have the data and capacity to:
Together, these elements proactively identify and resolve any pain points for customers, align products with their preferences, and direct customers on the most effective path toward a successful sales and experience.
The benefits of investing in a customer journey analytics program for your customers—and, in turn, your operations—are numerous. Some of the more prominent benefits include:
Every organization’s customer journey will be unique to their needs and preferences, but the key elements of a successful analytics program that can shape an organization’s successful path are well-placed in best practices.
The five key steps, processes, and tools involved in a customer journey analytics program include:
From inside your organization, the touchpoints, actors, systems, and processes that interact with your customers are obvious. To your customers, their experience is only defined by the system, people, and touchpoints they see and experience.
Begin by mapping each of the interactions, processes, and systems that your customers interact with—and the data they provide—from first touch to last.
Based on your customers’ journeys, identify which data points, systems, and tools are needed to capture, organize, and analyze your customer behavioral data, populate key metrics, feed analytic models, and make data-driven decisions.
In addition to digital elements, also identify any training or change management investments your organization needs to make to provide employees with the tools they need to perform effectively.
Depending on their needs, goals, and preferences—as well as their history with your brand—customers can have very different journeys from each other.
With integrations, analytical tools, and metrics programs coming online, ensure that proper testing occurs to document the required data across all engagement channels and touchpoints. Then fine tune, as needed.
The value of CX analysis is not in reaching a singular, defined finish line. Instead, it is about continuously adjusting, refining, and evolving your processes and products to meet changes in customer preferences for as long as the relationship exists.
In other words, building a customer journey analytics program isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it effort. Focus equal attention on putting in the necessary policies and controls to continuously monitor and optimize your customer journeys.
This is where the rubber hits the road. As trends, anomalies, and patterns emerge, use those data points to identify specific actions or investments to meet those needs. The same data can be used to:
At the most fundamental level, customers are the reason that businesses exist, so investing in the aspects of your operations designed to consistently deliver delightful customer experiences is critical to sustainable growth.
This is why it’s essential to establish and maintain your own customer journey analytics program and give your employees the data, recommendations, and tools they need. With the right information, they’ll not only meet the expectations of today’s customers but also anticipate the needs of future customers.
Whether your organization is just beginning to learn about the value of having a customer journey analytics program or if it already has one in place, a trusted advisor like RCG can accelerate and amplify the impact of your investment. Leaning on our extensive experience in customer journey analytics, RCG can:
Ready to learn more about how to take your organization’s customer journey program to the next level? Connect with an expert from the RCG team today.
1. HubSpot "What Is Customer Experience? (And Why It's So Important)" Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/service/what-is-customer-experience