03 Oct Create a Customer-Centric Journey Map with Qualitative Research

Customer Experience (CX) programs are constantly evolving past solely obtaining data to score or measure a persona or journey-type.

To best create a customer journey map, your organization needs to Dive Deep into the different channels you use, all while learning to incorporate new-found insights into the program.

Easier said than done, right!?

Well… sort of.

You must take the first step to capturing their customer experience – both the consumer and your client-facing employees – to make the customer-centric journey successful.

To do this – simply – listen.

Forming a deep understanding of your end-to-end customer experience is a powerful tool to enhance your competitive advantage. Your customers hold the key to your insights, and your client-facing employees can fill in the gaps in consumer understanding.

Journey mapping can also help organizations employ techniques that are built to measure and that are designed effectively – and situationally – to help your executives “buy-in” to the CX “moments of truth”.

So, knowing this –  how do professionals responsible for CX go beyond the standard approach of mapping only individual touchpoints?

Let’s dive in.

1. The answer is in qualitative research

Journey mapping is made through both customer research and employee understanding. And qualitative research assists by providing that “outside” perspective that should always include both the customers’ and employees’ views.

As a critical starting phase of any CX program (CXP), journey mapping – with the aid of qualitative techniques – should define the customer scope rather than the organization scope.

Your customer’s journey should begin at the moment they interact with your brand – whether searching for your product online, engaging with a sponsored social media advertisement or visiting your physical store, you must acknowledge that the experience begins long before the traditional boundaries of the CXP.

Customer journey studies are served well by multifaceted qualitative research methods. 

At Insightrix, we build our CX framework as though each customer situation is different. It is our responsibility to report on insights – from many sources – including using innovative qualitative techniques such as online communities, online focus groups, employee insights and more.

As a market research firm, we put together role-specific questionnaires and moderator guides to help bring clarity to the data findings and should ultimately help narrow the moments of truth in your customer’s journey.

2. Leverage Research Tools

Research tools are an important part of any CX journey mapping toolkit. In order to get the most out of your framework, utilize tools that drive your methodology. By using interactive, rich media methods – your consumer is given an advantage when attempting to explain their experience.

Qualitative techniques can benefit from a Market Research Online Community (MROC) platform. Online Communities allow CX professionals to easily consult with their customers and obtain the qualitative data they need to create a customer-centric customer journey map.

3. Use Solid Interview Questions

Customer-centric journey mapping has gone beyond the use of closed-ended questions. Rather, it has evolved to incorporate targeted, open-ended questions intended to grasp the full pulse of the customer.

Questions like these draw your customer out, and allow you to obtain qualitative data you can use to discover their key drivers and motivations.

Solid interview questions provide verbatim to uncover and understand pain points in your CX and allow you to “close the loop” with dissatisfied customers.

4. A customer journey map connects organizations with customers

CX measurement programs have evolved beyond obtaining data to create scores or measurement metrics. They have become customer-centric – focusing on the needs of the customer.

They have progressed to where CX programs provide detailed maps of the entire customer journey. These customer journey maps speak to the qualitative experience of your customers, and allow organizations to Dive Deep into their customer’s journey.

We recently developed a free whitepaper that deep dives into ways to set up a successful and insightful Customer Experience Measurement Program for your organization: