if we look closely, most-if not all start ups, are trying to fill an unfulfilled customer need or experience gap of customers.
Established organizations which are better organized, therefore have a great opportunity to more easily identify the latent unfulfilled needs of their customers - and thereby grow faster !
Its so obvious, and yet so often rare that mature organizations that have teams, operating structures and systems, sometime don’t take out time to ask some basic questions or listen carefully to customer’s point of view-understand customer’s needs properly and continue to just push their products in the marketplace in a form & structure that maybe selling, but truly does not optimally meeting their customer’s needs fully.
don’t we experience this often in many b2c or b2b settings - where we often have felt that “wish the product/service was a bit different “ but the vendor’s product is the same that they’ve been selling for ages or they don’t seem to be sensitive to our full needs ?
So if we look at (I) how scanning emerged(and overtook photocopying), (ii) convenience that Digital cameras provided to customers over the rickety film camera’s earlier, (iii) the emergence of the “all in one” so very convenient handheld device - the mobile phone, (iv) the online convenience of e-comerce, (v) the growing importance of pick up & drop at home products & services, (vi) the convenience of online taxi services like Uber & Ola (vii) the convenience listening to online music, seeing video’s, entertainment & news - disrupting traditional full length fixed time movies & Cinema halls, (viii) convenience of booking low cost & fairly comfortable room nights at portals like AirBnb, Oyo rooms, (ix) the convenience of Coffee chains like Starbucks, CCD, etc where they provide free wifi and space to sit & work (with the right comfortable ambience + with no pressure to order or leave), (x) swiggy & similar home delivery of food overtaking restaurant sales - it all simply boils down to only “ Customer convenience” and “ customer experience”
And so not providing a great customer experience(CX) is the biggest threat to any business!
So instead of such customer experience(CX) gap leading to a new startup, why can’t mature organizations leverage their obvious strengths of people processes & technology - and use the very same approach that often start ups take for identifying customer experience (CX) gaps – and leveraging these strategic & operational insights to develop new innovative products/services, or upgrade their products/services?
Unfortunately, many organizations talk about CX, but don’t adequately focus on the end customer experience - and just continue to push the established product on the market- even though the world & the customer needs are changing fast
Now while this is important, how do we go about identifying these latent “needs” ?
Customer journey mapping (CJM) is a design thinking led methodology, which is very popular globally– and as Customer experience experts-our view is that this is a fast & great way to get going on this journey to identify some opportunity areas rapidly – i.e. CX improvement areas for your product or delivery.
In other words by leveraging the right tools & best practices it is possible to deliver not just good but a great & consistent customer experience on an end to end basis across all customer touch points- not when he just calls or reaches “sales” or “customer service”
In the Future:
· Customer needs led customisation of products & services will increase- across sectors.
· Organizational structures & processes will further evolve.
· While the Digital app will become even more common - other technology interventions will also evolve in areas such as automation, robotics, etc - to further improve the end customer experience!
So every organisation needs to consider doing customer journey mapping - periodically !
Give us a shout, if you want CJM done ….
Meanwhile while you reflect on this do share what do you think of this ?we are eager to hear about your views of your customer’s experience and your point of view on this matter ….so do write in below or just drop us a note at contact@hexagonconsulting.co