The complete guide to Customer Journey Management

What, why, how, and for which industries?

About this guide

The purpose of this presentation is to give you a clear understanding of what Customer Journey Management is.

The following questions are addressed:

What is Customer Journey Management?

Why Customer Journey Management?

How does a Customer Journey Management System work?

Which industries need a Customer Journey Management System?

Note: Different organizations use different naming for their target groups. Hospitals serve patients, the public sector serves citizens, and businesses serve customers. All such target groups are hereinafter referred to as customers.

What is Customer Journey Management?

What is Customer Journey Management?Customer Journey Management is a relatively new term and often referred to as the process of optimizing the customer journey.

In our opinion, it's more than that. Customer journey management is not only about creating happier customers but also improving the operations for employees and managers.

Understanding your customers’ journeys help you gain a broader perspective of how people engage, providing the insight and resources you need to succeed.

On the next slide, we’ll take a closer look at some of the functionalities in a Customer Journey Management System.

Appointments schedulingThe customer experience starts long before the physical visit. By offering customers to schedule appointments, organizations can estimate the expected number of customers.

Segmenting customers upon arrivalA Customer Journey Management System enables organizations to segment customers in different queues, rather than entering all customers in the same line.

Staff planningGathering real-time data, the Customer Journey Management System can facilitate the manager's staff planning. It helps managers get a balanced and controlled waiting period.

Informing customersWith a Customer Journey Management System, customers can get a notification on details such as the number of open counters, services offered, current waiting, and transaction times.

Customer surveysAfter the physical visit, organizations can engage the customer in other value-adding activities like answering customer surveys.

Reports and follow upBy gathering data throughout the customer journey, such as service times, and waiting times, managers can get a complete overview of their service performance.

Examples of functionalities in a customer journey management system

Why Customer Journey Management?

Why Customer Journey Management System?According to our global survey from 2018 which involve over 600 decision-makers across healthcare and public services:

• 71% reported they felt busier as there were more demands on their time than a year ago

• 67% saw increased demand from customers to use apps and social media for engagement

• 61% stated customer were complaining more about waiting or queuing than a year ago

• 80% were interested in seeing what is possible through customer journey management

Three main reasons why you need to consider a Customer Journey Management SystemThe primary purpose of Customer Journey Management is to improve the interactions between organizations and customers.

In this section, we have chosen to focus on three main reasons why you should invest in a Customer Journey Management System:

• Improve the customer experience

• Increase operational efficiency

• Provide service in a safe way

Why Customer Journey ManagementImprove the customer experienceChallengeThroughout the customer journey, there can be a variety of friction points. Some common examples are lack of customer information, long waiting times and insufficient service levels. Each friction point has a severe impact on the customer’s experience.

SolutionCustomer Journey Management is about identifying and reducing friction points throughout the entire visit from pre-arrival to post serving.

A customer journey management system helps you improve the customer experience by:

• Enable customers to schedule appointments

• Keep customers entertained with media solutions in the waiting area

• Allow customers to wait wherever they prefer with a mobile ticket

Why Customer Journey ManagementIncrease operational efficiencyChallengeSenior leaders and operations managers within service organizations often indicate they are suffering from skill shortages and acquiring talent to maintain a high level of service. As well, they face budget cutbacks, forcing them to reduce cost while trying to deliver to increased customer expectations.

SolutionWith customer journey management, companies can use integrated business intelligence to identify where friction occur throughout the customer journey.

A customer journey management system helps you increase operational efficiency by:

• Enable staff planning and increase staff mobility

• Identify bottlenecks and minimize administration

• Match the right competence to each case

• Improve personalization of service delivery

Why Customer Journey ManagementProvide service in a safe wayChallengeSince the beginning of 2020, we are all facing new situations in our everyday lives. The COVID-19 outbreak led to new customer behaviors and legislations. In the future, service providers need to a greater extent make sure they stay compliant with regulations regarding social distancing by providing safe queuing.

SolutionWith customer journey management, you get full control of your customer flow and can ensure social distancing is practiced while you deliver excellent services.

A customer journey management system helps you provide service in a safe way by:

• Enable customers to follow their queue progress in their mobile device

• Make it possible for customers to wait remote from your premises

How does a Customer Journey Management System work?

How does a Customer Journey Management System work?To make it easier to understand how a Customer Journey Management work, we’ll look closer at three phases of the customer journey.

Pre-serviceAppointment booking

ServiceCheck-in, waiting, serving

Post-serviceCustomer feedback

At the end, we will also look at the possibility to improve your business with business intelligence, as the system gathers data from each customer touchpoint.

Pre-serviceWhat is an appointment scheduling software?

A very important part of a Customer Journey Management System is the appointment scheduling software which makes it efficient for service providers to manage appointments. Two examples of appointment scheduling software are:

• Online booking

• Mobile app booking

• Booking through call center

How does an appointment scheduling software work?

When installing an appointment scheduling software, your customers can easily schedule appointments before arrival. It reduces the pain of waiting and improves the customer’s experience.

For you as a service provider, it enables you to control and steer the flow of your customers away from peak hours to less busy parts of the day. It’s also possible for you to gather pre-visit data and provide it to your staff who can deliver better customer service.

ServiceCheck-inAn app or a self-service kiosk can be connected to the Customer Journey Management System, allowing you to, based on data, place the customer in the appropriate queue. The customer can also use mobile check-in; checking-in to their appointment via an SMS reminder and issue a Mobile Ticket upon arrival.

WaitingBy using media solutions connected to your Customer Journey Management System, you can keep the customer entertained and informed while waiting, which decreases the perceived waiting time. By enabling customers to issue a Mobile Ticket, they can safely wait outside the premises without any staff interaction until called.

ServingWhen the staff uses software connected to the Customer Journey Management System, they can access data such as; previous visits, who they saw and what the enquiry was about. Staff can also seamlessly move customers between appropriate queues or add additional services along their journey, without the customer having to start over in the system.

Post-serviceCustomer feedback

Another valuable source of information is the customer’s feedback. You can use a Customer Journey Management System to send surveys and gather feedback such as staff competence and areas of improvement.

Let your customers respond when it suits them the best. With a customer journey management system, you can send an online questionnaire of different types, e.g., star rating, multiple-choice, and free text. The questionnaire can also contain conditional follow-up questions.

Business intelligenceAs the Customer Journey Management System documents each customer touchpoint throughout the entire visit, you can quickly access up-to-date insights.

Real-time management dashboards

Staff can get an overview of the number of appointments in a specific day, identify when peak times is likely to occur and the current waiting times—helping them to make the right decisions at any time, wherever they are.

Analyze for optimization

Managers can easily use insights to identify the most crucial business metrics, trends and exceptions. Customer segmentation, staff scheduling, media content, etc. can be tested, evaluated and optimized. These insights can be considered together with customer feedback in order to constantly improve the journey.

Which industries need a Customer Journey Management System?

Which industries need a Customer Journey Management System?Public sectorCity halls, tax offices, embassies and consulates are some examples of organizations which use Customer Journey Management to make the best use of resources and meet service objectives.

HealthcareHealthcare providers use Customer Journey Management Systems to improve the quality of care to more patients and overcome the challenge of limited available resources.

FinanceBanks use a Customer Journey Management System to improve the customer journey, maximize sales, build trust, and strengthen the customer relationship.

RetailRetailers use Customer Journey Management Systems to improve the customers’ shopping experience, collect data for defining areas for improvement and increase the operational efficiency.

Thank you!The benefits of a Customer Journey Management System are significant. In short-term, it can increase sales and productivity by up to 30% and decrease costs by up to 30% by ensuring that the right customer is at the right place, at the right time, and greeted by the most appropriate staff member.

Click on the button below if you want to talk to an expert about how a Customer Journey Management System can improve your customer experience.

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