LimitsCustomerJourneyThe concept of the customer journey is very demanding because, on the one hand, it requires a consistent orientation towards digital transformation, both in terms of the processes depicted as well as the organizational structures. On the other hand, a high-performance technical substructure is essential, or if the solution is to run in the cloud, IT must be geared towards cloud computing, e.g., with non-stop virtualization.

Therefore, many companies still find it difficult to set up a customer journey for their customers. Often the different sales channels and touchpoints are not yet integrated, so that customers are for instance finding different offers, depending on the channel. Usually, only certain touchpoints are recorded, and these are usually not those that can achieve the greatest effect, but those that require the least technical effort. Often, companies do not even manage to recognize their customers correctly. You can of course accompany customers on a customer journey if you are able to identify them at the respective touchpoints. The anticipation of customer behavior, which is again a prerequisite for optimizing the customer journey, is of course hardly possible – the company can already prepare the actions at the following touchpoints.

So, it is not surprising that so far only a few companies have exploited the possibilities of the customer journey. In most cases, this is less due to the inadequate technical prerequisites or too low a degree of digitization, but rather a misunderstanding of the basic idea of the customer journey: because it is about implementing a consistent customer perspective – the customer is actually the focus here.

The customer journey deliberately moves away from marketing aspects that revolve around sales and costs. It focuses on customer satisfaction or customer experience and treats sales and costs. Of course, customer-oriented companies must also earn money – as goals that can be achieved indirectly through better customer loyalty and higher customer satisfaction. The concept of the customer journey therefore also requires a new way of thinking – like so much in digitization.

By Daniela La Marca