Written by IFF Research

What is two-way customer journey mapping?

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Two-way customer journey mapping is an important customer service strategy that can help identify customer pain points and improve customer service. This article will discuss what two-way customer journey mapping is, how it differs from traditional customer journeys, and how you can use this technique yourself.

Traditional customer journey maps offer a linear perspective of the path that your customers take when engaging with your organisation.  If customer service is part of your customer journey, then it’s only one step in the process. In contrast, two-way customer journeys offer a more holistic perspective on how your service colleagues impact the customer experience.

A customer journey map is an effective customer experience tool when it’s deployed with both qualitative and quantitative data from customers, customer service agents, managers, and stakeholders.  A two-way customer journey starts with identifying what customers are feeling at different touchpoints in the complaints handling process.  It can help you identify how your customer service colleagues can improve customer service and identify where customer frustrations might lead to customer complaints.

It’s important to listen to your customers’ experience with their complaints customer journey, to understand:

  • During which customer touchpoint do they feel frustrated?
  • Why does this touchpoint make them frustrated?
  • What would they like you to do instead?

Resident depth interviews

When conducting our depth interviews with residents, we ask them:

  • Step-by-step what happened
  • To define the ideal customer journey
  • To establish what is important to them
  • To discuss the emotional impact of their experience at every touchpoint

Colleague workshops

Your work colleagues form the second part of the two-way mapping process.  In detailed workshops, you clarify and review the complaints process. During these sessions, invite honest and open dialogue, to:

  • Discuss barriers to providing a great experience
  • Find out what staff think customers value
  • Identify areas for improvement

Two-way customer journey mapping is perfect for customer-centric customer service.  It’s customer focused and looks at customer complaints in a holistic way to identify what internal and external customers are feeling at different points of the customer journey.

The benefits of this technique include:

  • A greater understanding of customer experience
  • More insights on how you can improve customer service for your staff and residents alike
  • Combined colleague and customer service experience
  • A better customer complaint handling process

How do you get started?

The first step to two-way customer journey mapping is getting a full understanding of your current customer journey map. You can do this through desk research, talking with customers, and conducting interviews. The next stage is identifying what customer pain points are at each touchpoint in the customer journey.  Once customer pain points are identified, the next stage is to work with customer service colleagues to identify what they think customers value and how the experience could be improved at each touchpoint in the process.

A blueprint for change

The final step in two-way customer journey mapping is using this information as a blueprint for change. It’s your chance to review customer service processes and customer touchpoints to identify customer pain points and improve customer satisfaction.

Interested to learn more?

If you are interested in two-way customer journey mapping for your complaints service, get in touch with our specialist housing research team.