Key Takeaways | From Silos to Synergy: Building a Unified Customer Journey Framework with Marion Boberg
With over a decade of international experience, Marion Boberg is a highly skilled CX leader with expertise in customer experience leadership, analytics, and strategy. She’s known for blending qualitative research with robust data analytics to uncover the “why” behind customer behaviours, helping businesses create impactful solutions.
Her recent masterclass, exclusive to our members, uncovered the secrets to building a unified customer journey framework. This article explores the key takeaways from her session, from understanding a customer journey framework to leveraging it as a strategic tool for collaboration and improvement.
Defining a Customer Journey Framework
A customer journey framework is a structured model that optimises and manages customer experiences by breaking down journeys into manageable components, such as key customer goals and tasks. Acting as a shared language, it fosters organisational alignment and provides a foundation for improving customer interactions across end-to-end processes and micro-interactions.
The Difference Between Customer Journey Mapping and Frameworks
Customer journey mapping and developing a framework are distinct yet interrelated processes. While mapping focuses on understanding individual customer experiences with specific products or services, the framework is a strategic tool to integrate these journeys across the organisation.
The Visual Framework
A well-designed framework is more than just a diagram; it visually represents the customer’s journey. The visual framework should be intuitive and customer-centric, highlighting how every interaction aligns with their needs and goals.
As we all know, the customer experience is not linear. You can come in at different steps in the journey, you can go out at different steps of the journey, and you might create thousands of journeys.
A circular, holistic visual model is more effective than a linear representation because customer experiences are rarely linear.
Leveraging and Scaling the Framework
Once established, the framework becomes a strategic tool for aligning efforts, guiding decisions, and measuring success. Rather than tackling all journeys simultaneously, prioritise key journeys that balance customer goals with business objectives. Start small, focus on a specific journey, and gradually expand to incorporate others, identifying patterns and insights to inform broader strategies.
As the framework evolves, it can scale across departments and markets, maintaining a unified approach while adapting to local needs. This iterative process ensures that organisations manage complexity and support the vision of the overarching customer experience.
Common Challenges in Creating a Framework
Many organisations need help with establishing a comprehensive customer journey framework. These challenges often arise from departmental silos and a lack of cohesion between units.
Disconnected Actions Across Departments: Different units (e.g., marketing, sales, customer care) often run their own customer experience initiatives, leading to fragmented efforts.
Product-Focused Mapping: Teams often map journeys around specific products or services rather than taking a holistic customer-centric approach.
Inconsistent Terminology and Tools: Various departments use different tools and terminology, making it difficult to standardise and unify the customer experience.
“The customer experience was everyone’s business; everyone wanted to own it. But then when it comes to accountability, there was not a single…team or person that could share performance on that”
Co-Creating the Framework with Stakeholders
Involving stakeholders early on is crucial for creating a robust framework. Co-creation ensures buy-in and avoids resistance from teams that are outside the process.
There are various phases to co-creating a robust customer journey framework:
Phase 1: Internal Engagement:
Secure C-level support and involve key stakeholders from departments like marketing, sales, and customer care. Conduct workshops to gather insights on current frameworks and identify universal components that can be integrated into the customer journey framework.
A crucial aspect of creating a customer-centric framework is validating it with actual customers. This ensures the framework is grounded in real customer experiences, using language that resonates with them rather than relying on internal jargon.
Phase 2: Customer Validation:
Invite new and long-term customers and those recently left to share their journey experiences and terminology. Avoid internal terminologies, like "onboarding," which may not align with how customers perceive their interactions.
Phase 3: Rollout:
Following that frame, create a template for customer journey mapping, make it available and accessible, educate internals about it, and communicate.
Building a Data-Informed Opportunities Map
One method for utilising a customer journey framework is through a data-informed opportunities map.
Inspired by Jeanne Bliss’s Chief Customer Officer, a data-informed opportunities map helps organisations triangulate insights from various data sources (e.g., NPS feedback, customer service data, and social media). This tool prioritises actionable insights rather than focusing solely on touchpoints, enabling a holistic approach to improvement.
Using Key Metrics to Measure Success
To evaluate a framework's success, focus on metrics that capture the entire journey, not just isolated touchpoints. Instead of measuring single interactions, assess how well customer goals are achieved across all stages. This shift provides a clearer picture of overall performance and ensures customer outcomes are met consistently.
Frameworks as a Tool for Governance and Collaboration
A well-designed customer journey framework can also serve as the foundation for organisational governance. It helps break down silos by encouraging cross-functional collaboration around the customer journey. By identifying key stakeholders and forming cross-functional teams, organisations can work together to address customer pain points and improve the overall experience.
For example, a telecom company identified its "usage" phase as a hotspot for negative feedback. By creating a dedicated team, they tackled specific challenges, improved customer satisfaction, and enhanced the overall experience.
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