Customer Journey Mapping

Presentation by Jason Huffman, Senior Vice President and Director of Customer Experience at Atlantic Union Bank.
Focus on the importance of journey mapping for understanding the customer experience during the buying process.
Emphasis on how journey mapping helps identify pain points, opportunities for differentiation, and overall improvement in the marketing mix.

Journey mapping is described as a visual representation of the customer's journey.
It is a straightforward process but yields crucial insights.
Relevance to Banking:
- Significant environmental changes in banking (e.g., modified branch lobbies, changes in drive-through operations, and altered customer journeys).

How to Ride a Bike:
- Personal anecdote about two different approaches: traditional training wheels vs. a balance bike.
- Importance of balance in learning to ride a bike, analogous to balancing different aspects of the customer journey.
- Key lesson: innovation in methods can outperform traditional approaches.

Hotel Room Experience:
- Companies invest in decor and ambiance, but minor details can impact customer perception negatively (e.g., hangers designed to prevent theft sending a mistrust message).
Banking Experience:
- Banks often lack awareness of how certain practices or precautions can negatively impact the customer experience (e.g., securing pens leading to distrust).

Importance of providing empowering environments for employees to voice issues.
New employees encouraged to analyze the customer experience from a fresh perspective.
Gas Station Exercise:
- Group exercise to brainstorm innovative ideas for a gas station that meet competitive customer needs.
- Participants often fail by overcomplicating experiences, losing sight of fundamental needs.
- Discussion on common frustrations at gas stations (need for basics like easy bathroom access, functionality of card machines, cleanliness, free air, etc.).

The Four Eyes
- Insights: Understanding customer needs.
- Impact: Focus on resulting business value.
- Issues and Opportunities: Identifying what hinders or could improve customer satisfaction.
- Innovation: Designing solutions that benefit both customers and organizations.

Traditional approach using post-it notes and markers encourages participation in visualization and collaboration.
Acknowledgment that virtual journey mapping can be effective but may lack the dynamic of in-person collaboration.

Doug Dietz - Chief Engineer at GE; significant experience in designing MRI machines.
Encountered a distressing scenario witnessing a child’s traumatic MRI experience; realized the importance of addressing customer (patient) experience.
Persona Development:
- Creating specific customer personas, such as a child undergoing an MRI (Sofia), to comprehensively understand the customer journey and emotional responses involved.

Steps in Sofia's journey include pre-MRI processes, feelings of anxiety, and emotional needs for safety.
Identification of all involved parties during each stage (doctor, nurse, tech, etc.).
Utilize a methodical approach to capture feelings and communications (e.g., thoughts that a young child might have during the process).

Doug's realization that reimagining the MRI machine experience could drastically improve patient comfort.
Proposed a camping theme for MRI experiences, incorporating elements that appeal to children's senses (sounds, visuals, and smells).
The success of revamped experiences shown through decreased sedation rates and improved emotional responses from young patients during MRIs.

Importance of researching and understanding target personas, recognizing that marketers may not share the same experiences as their target customers.
Discussion on a new persona, Jen, highlighting demographic and psychographic elements.
Acknowledgment of the varied motivations that influence purchasing decisions, particularly the environmentally conscious consumer.

Steps in Jen's journey for a rental car:
- Fitting for a bridesmaid dress, making transportation decisions, discovering alternatives to traditional car rentals (e.g., ZoomGo).
- Exploration includes creating accounts, making reservations, and experiencing issues (e.g., car problems leading to frustrations).
- Emotional highs and lows detailed throughout the process illustrating the customer experience with the car rental service.

Differentiating between moment needs (practical requirements) and emotional needs (social perceptions, personal adequacy) in a consumer's journey.
Identifying significant emotional motivations tied to consumers' experiences (e.g., wanting to maintain an image during peer interactions).

Following journey mapping, encouraging brainstorming for improvement ideas where "no idea is a bad idea."
Group analysis to identify which ideas meet feasibility, viability, and desirability.
- Feasibility: Can we actually build or implement this solution?
- Considers technical capabilities, available resources (time, budget, personnel), and operational constraints.
- Focuses on the practicality of execution.
- Viability: Is this solution sustainable and beneficial for the business?
- Evaluates the business model, potential for revenue generation, cost-effectiveness, and alignment with strategic goals.
- Asks if the solution makes financial and strategic sense.
- Desirability: Do customers actually want and need this solution?
- Explores customer pain points, unmet needs, emotional drivers, and the potential for genuine customer satisfaction and delight.
- Centers on the human element and perceived value by the end-user.
Final Recommendations:
- Develop insights into emotional needs of the consumer during their journey and create actionable solutions that meet both business objectives and customer desires.

Continuous improvement is emphasized; journey mapping is an iterative process that requires feedback and repeated assessment.
Emphasis on excluding assumptions when targeting demographics outside one's personal experiences and ensuring thorough market research informs persona development.
Importance of focusing on both the emotional and the practical when addressing customer journeys to drive improvements in consumer experience within businesses.