• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, August 31, 2020

Mapping the customer journey is no job for amateurs. But most firms are trying it, or planning to, judging by Customer Journey Mapping, a study released Monday by Ascend2.  

Of the brands surveyed, 26% have and are using defined customer journey maps, and 24% are building or testing them. Another 30% plan to create and use maps in the future, and 20% have no such plans.  

And, of those active in mapping, 28% say they’re very successful at it, or best in class, and 59% say they are somewhat so.

Only 13% rate themselves as unsuccessful. 

That’s not bad, considering the many challenges companies face in journey mapping:  

• Lack of time/staff/resources to execute — 48% 
• Lack of quality data — 35% 
• Lack of budget — 33% 
• Inability to measure customer experience — 32%
• Lack of appropriate technology — 27%
• Attribution of ROI — 21% 
• Decentralized data/data silos — 20%
• Executive buy-in — 19% 

Email is by far the most actionable touchpoint in the customer journey:  

• Email — 52% 
• In-person meetings — 40%
• Social media engagement — 39%
• Phone calls — 38%
• Search/website — 35%
• Reviews/sharing — 29%
• Product demos — 23%
• Live chat/chatbots — 20%

Of those polled, 50% regularly update their email campaigns, and 13% every one to two years. Another 24% update them on an as-needed basis. And 12% rarely if ever review them.  

How do companies collect data for the journey mapping process? They use: 

• Customer feedback, surveys — 58% 
• Service/product usage analysis — 47% 
• Measurement of KPIs — 44% 
• Customer feedback interviews — 42%
• Market research — 41% 
• Focus groups — 19%
• Internal workshops — 18% 

Meanwhile, the study notes that journey maps are often based on personas associated with the target audience. A large majority — 87% — have five or less defined journey maps. But 46% have between three and five, and 9% have between six and 10.  

When it comes to organization, most firms seem to be taking a healthy cross-departmental approach. 

For instance, 66% say their marketing departments are critically involved in the process.  

Also very engaged are sales (53%), customer service (49%) and the executive/C-Suite (39%). In addition, 24% say their product departments are very involved. 

Ascend2 and its Research Partners surveyed 273 marketers. Of these, 42% were B2B, 29% B2C and 29% were equally active in both.