• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, November 12, 2020

Customer journey mapping is a complicated science. But bigger firms are grasping it, judging by The Enterprise Perspective on Customer Journey Mapping, a new study by Ansira done in partnership with Ascend2.

Of the enterprise companies, polled, 39% utilize defined journey maps, while 29% are building or testing them. Another 22% plan to do so in the future, while only 10% have no such plans. 

And 94% are seeing at least some level of success from their journey mapping.

Of the sample, 47% rate themselves as very successful, or best in class, and 47% as somewhat good at it. Only 6% say they are unsuccessful.  

The study defines journey mapping as “a process that, when executed strategically, allows large companies to identify opportunities and deliver a better experience at scale.”

That requires knowing who the customer is and where they are in the journey. 

But challenges abound. The barriers to success include:

• Lack of time/staff/resources to execute — 42%
• Lack of quality data — 37%
• Decentralized data/data silos — 32%
• Inability to measure customer experience — 30%
• Lack of budget — 30%
• Executive buy-in — 28%
• Lack of appropriate technology — 24% 
• Attribution of ROI — 22%

Email ranks as the most actionable touchpoint in the customer journey. 

• Email — 48%
• Social media engagement — 42%
• In-person meetings — 42%
• Phone calls — 40%
• Reviews/sharing — 33% 
• Search/website — 32%
• Product demos — 23%
• Live chat/chat bots — 19%

Despite its high ranking, some firms fail to update their email, and:

• update emails on a regular basis — 64%
• update emails every 1-2 years — 13% 
• don’t have a scheduled review process — 12%
• rarely/never review — 9% 

Here’s the lesson — that “email communications and the experience they support should be reviewed in line with all other touchpoints," the study states. 

Data collection is another challenge. Here are the most effective ways to collect data for the journey-mapping process:

• Customer feedback surveys — 53%
• Market research — 47% 
• Service/product usage analysis — 46%
• Measurement of KPIs — 46% 
• Customer feedback interviews — 33%
• Focus groups — 27% 
• Internal workshops — 25% 

Finally, you need more than one map. Of the firms represented here 59% have from three to five maps, 15% from six to 10, 21% two or less and 9% 11 or more. 

Who’s responsible for the mapping process? Here are the departments with critical involvement:

• Marketing — 60%
• Customer service — 56%
• Sales — 48% 
• Executive/C-Suite — 37%
• Product — 31%

Successful mappers bring in teams from across the organization to achieve an enterprise view, the study notes. 

Ansira, working in partnership with Ascend2, surveyed a panel of marketing influencers and research subscribers at companies with more than 50 employees, 49% of these having from 50 to 500. Of these, 40% are B2B, 26% B2C and 34% an equal combination of both.