Reading; Competing on customer journeys

Intro

This guide summarizes the key concepts from the reading "Competing on Customer Journeys" by David C. Edelman and Marc Singer. It is designed to help you study for your exam by breaking down complex marketing strategies into simple, actionable points.

1. The Big Shift: The Journey is the Product

In the past, companies would wait for a customer to decide they needed something and then try to "catch" them during their search. Today, because of the explosion of digital technology, the power has shifted.

• From Reactive to Proactive: Instead of just reacting to how customers shop, companies now shape the path the customer takes.

• New Competitive Advantage: The journey itself has become as important as the product being sold.

• Goal: The ultimate goal is to create an emotionally compelling customer experience (CX) that leads to repetitive buying and makes the brand "iconic"

2. Streamlining the Decision Journey

The reading compares the "Classic" way people buy things to the "New" digital way.

The Classic Journey

Traditionally, a customer goes through these steps :

1. Consider: Thinking about a need.

2. Evaluate: Comparing different brands.

3. Buy: Making the purchase.

4. Enjoy: Using the product.

5. Advocate: Telling others about it.

6. Bond: Feeling loyal to the brand.

The New Journey (The Loyalty Loop)

Modern companies try to compress or even eliminate the "Consider" and "Evaluate" stages. By making the journey so easy and personalized, the customer goes straight from Buy to Enjoy and then back to Buy again. This is called the Loyalty Loop.

3.The Four Key Capabilities

To win at customer journeys, companies must master four specific digital capabilities:

A. Automation

This involves taking manual, "painful" steps and making them digital and simple.

• Example: Mobile banking apps that let you deposit a check by taking a photo instead of visiting a branch.

• Example: Hospitality apps that allow for instant reservation confirmation or check-in.

B. Proactive Personalization

This means using a customer's past data to instantly customize their current experience.

• Example: A food delivery app remembering your favorite dessert and adding it to your order as a surprise or recommendation.

C. Contextual Interaction

This is about understanding where and why a customer is interacting with you right now. It's more than just a transaction; it's about making the interaction feel natural to the customer's current situation.

D. Journey Innovation

Best practitioners don't just fix the current journey; they expand it. This means finding new ways to provide value so the customer interacts with the brand even more.

• Example: Sungevity (solar panels) uses Google Earth to show customers exactly what panels would look like on their own roof with one click, taking them directly to custom calculations.

4. Real-World Case Studies

Company	Strategy in Practice
Sungevity	Used a 6-click process including Google Earth URLs, live rep connections, and reference names to make a complex purchase feel simple .
LEGO	Uses LEGO Life to collect info via surveys and games. They automate help via QR codes for assembly instructions and innovate by providing replacement parts if any are missing.
Snapshot	Changed the auto insurance journey by using a "gizmo" in the car that tracks how you drive to personalize your rates.

5. Organizational Changes: The Journey Product Manager

Because the journey is now the "product," companies have changed how they are organized.

• The Journey Product Manager: A new role responsible for the entire end-to-end customer experience, not just one department.

• Cross-Functional Teams: These managers lead "Scrum Teams" that include people from Design, Development, Analytics, and Operations .

• Disruption: Digital technology is disrupting traditional marketing by forcing Sales, Product Management, Marketing, and Service to work together using the same data and intelligence

Conclusion for the Exam

When studying, remember the quote by Wally Lamb included in the slides: "The seeker embarks on a journey to find what they want, and discovers along the way what they need". For a company, success means being the one to guide that discovery so perfectly that the customer never wants to leave the path you've built.