How do you map the ideal customer journey across all touchpoints (marketing, sales, customer success)?

Mapping the ideal customer journey can be a great alignment exercise. The way I’ve done it is using the existing journey as a starting point, applying customer-centric thinking, and layering in metrics / data as later step to validate or disprove hypotheses and inform the ideal journey plus set goals:

1. Define the Goal: Start by clarifying the purpose of the mapping exercise. Are you aiming to educate executives, align stakeholders, or diagnose gaps in the customer experience? Setting a clear goal will guide the entire process.

2. Adopt a Customer-Centric Approach: Instead of focusing solely on internal metrics, take a customer-first perspective. Begin with a simplified chart of each major touchpoint. This avoids the complexity of minor nuances and focuses on the core customer interactions.

3. Align Touchpoints with Customer Needs: Evaluate whether each touchpoint effectively meets the customer’s needs at that moment. Are customers receiving the appropriate level of engagement and the right message for their position in the journey? This part can be highly subjective and that’s okay, definitely debate this with your marketing, sales and cs leaders.

4. Identify Mismatches: Highlight areas where there’s a disconnect between what the customer needs and what they are receiving. 

5. Incorporate data: Layer on the conversion metrics and data to validate your findings or challenge your initial assumptions. Assign a key goal for each major touchpoint (e.g. conversion to qualified lead, expansion revenue)

6. Map the ideal scenario against the existing one: With insights from the previous steps, map out what the ideal customer journey should look like. Comparing the current journey to this ideal state will reveal gaps in tools, processes, and strategies necessary to enhance the customer experience.

7. Analyze Drop-Off Points: Identify where customers tend to disengage or drop out of the journey. Understanding these points allows you to develop strategies to re-engage these customers and guide them back onto the desired path.

8. Stakeholder Engagement: Ensure alignment and buy-in from all relevant stakeholders before initiating this project (marketing, sales, cs should be aligned on the ideal journey). The success of redefining the customer journey relies heavily on the engagement and commitment from your go-to-market team.