The chapter on customer experiences in the strategy book during my studies used to have a clear beginning and end, and most customers followed the same journey. But the traditional customer journey no longer exists. Today, the journey is more complicated. Unforeseen things happen and are shared, and only a few companies manage to exploit this. If you work strategically with customer experiences, you need tools that are more suited to service design than product development.

Read how to create great customer experiences.

What does a customer journey look like?

Most companies continue to view customer experiences far too traditionally. If something suddenly fails to go entirely according to plan, they think: what’s wrong with the product, how can we fix it? Move the button, make it more legible? But well before you start thinking along these lines, you should focus on the experience that makes customers choose you and brag about you and your choices to friends and acquaintances!

But long before you think these thoughts, you should focus on the experience that makes the customer choose you and in addition brag about you and their choices to friends and acquaintances!

«In other words, it’s all a matter of engaging customers in an intelligent way»

The customer journey is at a crossroads

Those who are willing to go a little further for their customers will quickly find that customer-driven thinking can contribute both on the bottom line and to create loyalty. In other words, it's about engaging customers in an intelligent way.

In the digital world that we now live in, companies have the opportunity to follow their customers 24/7. Knowledge also brings with it opportunities to communicate and put relevant messages into words or turn them into talking points and so forge bonds with the brand. This is all well and good, but there are also many pitfalls. You have to come across as honest, people will see through everything else. Today’s customers are looking for honest products and companies that stand for something and don’t promise things they can’t deliver. At the same time, today’s consumers look long and hard for customer experiences that go well beyond the things covered in the operator’s manual. Most companies are aware of this, so it’s easy to show off that little bit too much. Don’t do it!

Sketch out the customer journey

Over the course of the day, in my capacity as a consumer I encounter products and services in a thousand different places and a thousand different ways, and it’s likely that I assess and reassess lots of different choices all the time. As a consumer, I’m the one sitting in the driving seat, and I’m the one who decides when and how I want to shop. And more and more frequently, my decisions are being based on other consumers’ experiences with the product. Experiences are key. If you sketch out the customer journey, this will help you to stop focusing on the individual product and start seeing the big picture. You’ll be able to see the experience formed between product and customer, and how this experience develops over time.

Customer-managed experiences – the key to growth

The travel industry is an industry that been particularly good at adapting and using customer-managed experiences to its own advantage – with airlines like the very best ones! It was no coincidence that Delta Airlines was behind the major upgrade to the JFK terminals in New York recently – the terminal where Delta has the most flights. The upgrade consists of a separate spa area, a much better range of food and drink, loungers for people flying in first or business class, and more security checkpoints in order to prevent queues. All these offerings indirectly led to Delta receiving lots of positive coverage, helping to enhance travellers’ experiences of Delta and the airport – invaluable assets in a market under major pressure, of course.

Health companies are another good example of an industry that’s just embarking upon learning, adapting and customising its services on the basis of the variety of needs patients have. I’m sure you’re thinking that only the private health companies are investing in these kinds of things, but in fact I’m actually thinking of municipal companies such as the Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority and Oslo Kommunale Legevakt.

In 2013, Oslo University Hospital (OUS) ran a project which they called “If patients could decide – assessment and treatment in cases of suspected breast cancer”. The hospital wanted to devise new care for breast cancer patients using service design as an innovation method. 90% of the waiting time for assessment was reduced. There were many different reasons as to why this was a success, but the key in how they managed to achieve this lay in the fact that the hospital included patients by means of interviews and discussions. Moreover, experts across the organisation were capable of working together and changing their working methods. We could allow ourselves to call this “user-managed experiences”. The example shows that listening to the customer is a critical success factor no matter what the industry, product or service.

To summarise, you should sketch out the customer journey for your product or service and define what happens before a customer has chosen your product, while they’re choosing that product and after they’ve chosen it. This will give you the best possible starting point from which to understand and analyse the important factors and the things that affect the experience and behaviour. In turn, this will provide the best foundation for prioritisation of operational efforts in the next phase.