Customer Journey Mapping + Competitive Analysis = A Powerful Duo
Research as an Art and a Science
Designing and conducting research is both an art and a science. What separates the experts from the novices are two things: the ability to select the right methodologies and the flexibility to adapt them to specific needs.
In this post, I will outline a project that combines two popular methods - Customer Journey Mapping and Competitive Analysis - and demonstrate how together they form a powerful combined tool in supporting companies in a customer-centric marketplace.
Definitions
Customer Journey Mapping is a strategic tool for gathering user data through capturing the entire experience of a customer has with a product, service, or brand. It outlines every touchpoint and interaction from the customer's perspective, focusing on their goals, needs, pain points, and emotions at each stage of the journey.
Competitive Analysis is a broad term that refers to activities that help a company understand where it stands in a specific market. SWOT, benchmarking, web analytics and many other methods assist strategic decision-making by identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats posed by competitors.
The Duo Lens
No business can thrive without customers, and no business can succeed without a competitive advantage. So naturally, by combining Customer Journey Mapping and Competitive Analysis, you gain a holistic view that aligns customer needs with business considerations, all to support making sound, impactful decisions.
An Application Example
This project took place 2 decades ago as personal banking was going through a rapid digital revolution. Key in-person services were moved to self-serve platforms starting with telephone banking then online banking.
Our client, a financial institute, had invested heavily in this initiative and needed to assess on their returns. Their internal data such as call centre logs did not tell them enough about one key thing: how they were viewed by all target customers out there online.
Customer Journey Mapping, as we know it today, did not exist then. Web presence was also a new thing for many companies. By integrating my knowledge across business and UX domains, I devised a holistic evaluation system to tackle the challenge.
The audit system started with a matrix across 5 stages of Customer Experience - Awareness, Research, Purchase, Usage, Support/Recommend. My colleague and I combed through all aspects of a bank’s web presence and ranked according to a list of heuristics. We then consolidated the data for a SWOT analysis. Finally, we provided recommendations for best practices.
A lot of work - and happily the report was very well-received.
Final Thoughts
I have since designed and conducted various research projects by selecting, blending, and tailoring tools. My experience has taught me not to blindly adopt “best” research methods without first critically consider the task at hand. I also believe that research does not have to be super lengthy or expensive affairs. For bootstrapped startups, in particular, there are always creative ways to collect data as long as you embrace research as both an art and a science.