Taking customer journey from mapping to guiding

I’ve recently gotten a lot of questions from colleagues about the need for software to create customer journey maps and this recent analyst report by Richard Snow, "Why All the Fuss about Customer Journey Maps?" confirms that it’s moving from interesting professional discussion to business trend.

Yes, as Mr. Snow discusses, its progress to move from inside-out looking, Post-it note-based journeys to tools that use data to map actual journeys that real customers take as they try to meet their needs across the myriad of channels available today. It seems akin to me to going from the Babylonian Map of the World to satellite images.

The Babylonian Map of the World is the earliest surviving map of the globe from circa 600 B.C. It is a figurative representation of the world, tied closely to the Babylonians' religious beliefs. And while the endeavor to create this map was likely a Herculean effort, the result is a map that doesn’t accurately represent the world and is skewed to favor the Babylonian’s vantage point.

When put that way, it's striking how similar this description is to how well-intentioned corporate teams — locked in conference rooms, buzzing with caffeine and great ideas — create customer journey maps.

There was a long, tech-fueled road of progress between this ancient map and satellite images. But now the stakes are even higher — satellite imagery and real-time insights are both at play when people navigate from point A to point B. Shouldn’t the journeys we provide our customers do the same?

The Teradata clients that move from mapping to real-time navigation are generating significant financial returns. A top 10 global bank that implemented real-time customer journey mapping realized $30 million in incremental profit based on improvements acquisition and cross-sell — and its technology investment cost was recouped in the first quarter.

Teradata has a proven architecture and the implementation experience to create an integrated analytics, marketing and customer experience ecosystem leveraging the best of open-source and Teradata technology, and builds on existing client investments in data, analytics and interaction capabilities. Teradata was the only vendor to be listed as a leader in three Forrester Wave reports published this year, spanning Customer Journey Analytics Orchestration Platforms, Customer Journey Analytics Visioning Platforms and Real-Time Interaction Management.

Customer journeys can be mapped, significant events can be predicted, and interactions can be poised and ready to react to use the breadth of customer knowledge to guide each customer to the optimal destination in an automated, "always on" system. When done right, customer satisfaction and revenue goes up, while marketing and customer care costs go down.

Customer journey mapping software will help you move from the Babylonian map to the satellite image. But the next step is integrating real-time navigation — something your customers are used to. Isn’t it time you provided it? Let me show you how!