If Customer Experience isn’t about Transformation, it isn’t about anything

In the previous blog, we spoke about the fact that the real benefit of Customer Journey Mapping comes from the pain points, the moments of truth, the wow opportunities and commercial opportunities generated by the exercise, and that these elements can potentially form the basis of transformation activity across the organisation. The map itself is not the point of Customer Journey Mapping.

Transformation, however, typically sits with specific individuals across different functional areas who do not appreciate the real benefits of Customer Journey Mapping. If people in the business who are charged with managing Customer Experience do not always appreciate its benefits, it isn’t surprising that other functions don’t either!

Transformation is usually owned by people working in or coming from more of an operational background. Their approach to transformation is typically diagnostic in nature, whereby they look at the way in which the organisation works today, seeking areas of failure demand (where the organisation spends time addressing customer demand relating to commercial & operational failure) for improvement, and value demand (where the organisation spends time addressing customer demand relating to commercial & operational success) for enhancement. These people are often six-sigma practitioners and/ or business process engineers. 

Whereas there is absolutely nothing wrong with a diagnostic approach to business change (at Jericho, we often follow this practice for functional transformation projects, e.g. call centres & retail), the downside can often be that the customer may not be being taken into consideration. A diagnostic approach is the art of looking to improve upon what you already do, however can potentially miss the opportunity to create a world-class approach to improving customer experience. 

In the language of Customer Journey Mapping, the diagnostic approach may consider pain points & commercial opportunities, however may not consider the moments of truth & wow opportunities. 

So, Customer Experience professionals not only have an obligation to improve their own commercial practices, they also have a role in educating the people in the business charged with transformation to understand the benefits of Customer Journey Mapping. Ideally, Customer Experience should be working hand-in-hand with transformation; and in some instances business transformation can even be owned by Customer Experience Transformation practitioners. 

The age of Customer Experience Transformation needs to rise to stand alongside the age of Customer Experience Management.