Developing a journey map to identify opportunities for improvement

The Ask

A software company specializing in human resources came to Territory with the long-term goal of improving their customer experience and an immediate need to clearly map their current customer experience across their product’s entire lifecycle. They described a fractured and inconsistent experience—one not in line with their company goals or values. They rightly recognized that a solution must begin with alignment and clarity, both things they weren’t sure they had, as their process had not been mapped end-to-end in all of its complexity. Accordingly, the firm sought to map their current programs and customer experience across all users, personas, and segments.

The Solution

Territory began by performing a comprehensive audit of the company’s current customer experience journey, employing a variety of discovery methods, including several facilitated workshops, employing an iterative progression of discovery, evolving with each facilitated session. Territory worked in close collaboration with the company in order to get a complete understanding of the current processes and stakeholders involved in the customer experience journey.

Once the information had been gathered on all users and personas, the focus shifted to the development of the journey map. In order to effectively display the information gathered, Territory leveraged the online whiteboard tool MURAL. This tool was chosen with flexibility in mind, as the client wanted a tool that could be modified with the evolution of their customer journey. The same tool was used during the discovery sessions, which meant that the client was already familiar with MURAL by the time the final map was delivered. 

The final map shows the emotional state of all personas throughout the customer’s journey. This includes both the customer and all other relevant stakeholders within the company. 

The map uses a color-coded scale to map the sentiment of the different users as they interact within the customer journey, providing a simple but effective way to identify pain points, where users are the least satisfied. The map also includes other relevant information, including how the company is supporting the various personas throughout their journeys. Along with this map, Territory delivered some insights into what the data in the map suggested, including some key questions for the company to consider when implementing changes to their user experiences. 

This map can be used as a centerpiece of discussion surrounding the improvement of customer experience. The company plans to integrate the map into their working groups and use the information in the map to inform their decision-making going forward. Since it is easily modifiable, the company can continue using the tool as their processes evolve and guide their work well into the future. The map effectively visualizes a complex journey and provides the foundation for significant organizational improvement.