Customer Journey

Mapping
Guide for Practitioners
CONTENTS

Section 1:
Page 1
Introduction

Section 2:
Page 11
When to Journey Map

Section 3:
Page 19
Customer Experience Mapping

Section 4:
Page 55
Mapping the System (Process Mapping)

Section 5:
Page 79
Measuring the Experience

Section 6:
Page 91
End-to-end Case Studies

Look for these icons to help you find your way through the Guide

© Oxford Strategic Marketing

Section 1

Introduction
INTRODUCTION
Customer journey mapping is the process of tracking and describing all the experiences that
customers have as they encounter a service or set of services, taking into account not only
Introduction
what happens to them, but also their responses to their experiences. Used well, it can reveal
opportunities for improvement and innovation in that experience, acting as a strategic tool to
ensure every interaction with the customer is as positive as it can be.

Across all areas of government there’s a growing emphasis on getting closer to customers, to
understand what really drives behaviour and attitudes in order to design and deliver services
that meet the needs of people and businesses rather than the needs of government. This is
reflected in the recent cross-government Service Transformation Agreement, which set out the
need for departments, agencies and local government to show how they are improving
customers’ experiences of their services.
Journey mapping, focusing as it does on tracking and describing customer experience, is one
of the tools that can help do this. It sits alongside other approaches, such as mystery
shoppers and focus groups, that can bring you close to the customers that you serve*.
In helping bring customers’ stories to life, journey mapping can challenge preconceptions and
help change perceptions, acting as a call to action and contributing to culture change. The
insights that it generates can help shape strategy and policy, to improve people’s experiences
and lead to greater efficiency within government. At its best, journey mapping can be truly
transformational.
”“At its simplest, journey
This Guide for Practitioners sets out to demonstrate the use and value of journey mapping. mapping helps you tell a
Assuming no prior knowledge, it starts with a definition of what journey mapping is and customer’s story with passion
guidance about when and how to use it. It describes the circumstances in which journey and narrative, to drive insight and
mapping can be of most benefit, sets out the different tools and mapping techniques that exist build engagement. Comparing the
and gives practical guidance about using and benefiting from these. Three main techniques customer’s story with current
are described. There is a section of this guide relating to each of them, but the three are not systems and processes can help you
mutually exclusive – their benefit can be maximised by using all of them at the appropriate identify priority actions and focus
resources, and adding quantification
point in the lifecycle of a project.
to this tells you how many people
In putting the guide together, we have reviewed and drawn upon best practice. Some of the are affected, and the costs
learning has come from leading-edge companies in the private sector, but we have also involved. As you build the
included in the guide many good examples of how journey mapping is already being used layers of understanding you
within government. really come to maximise
the benefit.”

* The full range of such tools is set out in “Customer Insight in Public Service: A Primer’ – see page 9.

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 CUSTOMER JOURNEYS IN GOVERNMENT
Many of the customer journeys dealt with by government cut across departmental boundaries, and it’s for journeys
like these that customer journey mapping is particularly valuable. It helps you to see things from the customer
Introduction
viewpoint, cutting across silos and forcing you to think beyond your own priorities or policy agenda.

Leaving education
Birth or adoption
Starting school „ Further education
„ Maternity lea
ve „ Work, PAYE, tax Getting married
YS L
ca re „ Ofsted reports
„ Ante-natal
NE UA

„ Benefits
bir th „ Applying for school „ Benefits
„ Registering „ Student loan
UR ID

„ Pre-school „ Taxes
„ Benefits repayment
JO DIV

boosters „ Registration
„ Trust fund
IN

„ School meals „ Name change

By customers
we mean anyone
– people or
businesses,
who use either
central or local
Health & safety
government Starting a business Paying tax/complying Employing someo
services. ne
„ Registration
„ Registration „ End of year returns „ Jobcentre Plus „ HSE inspections
NE S S

„
YS

„ VAT „ VAT PAYE Local authority

„
UR NE

„ Financing „ NI and accounts „ National insurance regulations

JO U S I

„ Applying for grants „ Auditing „ Compliance „ Legal system

requirements
B

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 Introduction

use
Buying/moving ho Retiring Becoming a carer
Bereavement
„ Conveyancing „ Applying for „ Incapacity benefits
„ Registering death
„ Moving to new pension „ Disability benefits
„ Benefits
area „ Tax on retirement „ Pensions
„ Pensions
„ Council tax income „ Health services
„ Notifying change
„ Parking „ Age concessions „ Care homes of
circumstances

International trade
Closing down
„ Import and export
e,
regulations „ Changing nam
status
„ Tax and VAT address or
„ Visa services „ Redundancy
payments
ts
„ Tax and accoun

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 THE ROLE OF JOURNEY MAPPING
Journey mapping isn’t an end in itself – it’s one of a range of tools that can
contribute to better customer understanding. Nevertheless, the very process of
Introduction mapping the customer experience can have benefits. Getting close to customers
and walking in their shoes can lead to great insights, and the view of customers
that it affords can be a powerful way of winning hearts and minds amongst staff.

Journey mapping can be inspiring and powerful, but it’s not a dark art. As with
any research, best practice is to draw on the expertise of research
professionals, but journey mapping is scaleable - simple journey maps can be
drawn up by any well-informed practitioner following the processes described
in this guide.
At the Ministry of
Justice a project was
carried out before a
journey mapping budget
SIMPLICITY SCALEABILITY
had been secured, simply Although journey mapping can
There are lots of journey mapping
by hypothesising the
approaches and methodologies involve formal research and large
current and desired
future journeys through described here, but the basic budgets, it doesn’t have to be
the criminal justice approach is extremely simple. done that way. It’s possible to
system. Information It’s not just a science for experts start easily and cheaply – more
wasn’t verified by – anyone involved in developing, can be added later if needed.
research, but gave a delivering or communicating
good starting point, customer services can contribute.
building engagement and
support internally and
leading later to more
formal journey mapping
projects.

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 WHAT JOURNEY MAPPING IS USED FOR
Understanding the Designing and overhauling
reality of people’s lives systems and processes Introduction

„ Enable and deliver true customer „ Show instantly where issues

focus and insight arise for customers
„ Define things from a customer „ Ensure systems are efficient,
viewpoint (e.g. understand big effective and customer-focused „ Journey mapping in
„ Northumbria 101 lifestage changes) „ Understand transactions and Hammersmith &
partnership found „ Understand the differences between deliver solutions Fulham has helped
that 70% of calls people (needs, ability, ways of „ Take cost & complexity design new access
about anti-social doing things) systems. Capital
out of the system
behaviour were „ Use deep understanding to costs were paid
„ Design customer back in under 2
made outside design policy, delivery,
traditional office experiences years, and annual
engagement and savings of £4m pa
hours
communication are now expected
Bringing the outside
in; thinking and
working to a customer-
Facilitating inter- and cross- focused approach
Making decisions
departmental working

„ Understand processes
and transactions that cut
across more than one function
„ Make decisions on relative
„ Working across and/or department „ HMRC prioritised
priorities between, for
boundaries, ‘Tell „ Overcome silo thinking according to
example, different customer
us Once’ will „ Identify ‘baton-change’ moments customer need in
groups access policies
reduce customer „ Provide a highly visual way of „ Plan how to allocate for tax credits,
stress by enabling a looking at things, to help different
citizen to report a resources – people, so that face to
functions identify common ground infrastructure, budgets and face help is
birth or death only
„ Find the best way of working focused on those
once systems
together who need it most

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 BENEFITS OF JOURNEY MAPPING
Journey mapping helps you look at your business from the outside in – it’s perhaps the
best tool available to help think laterally, outside your own policy agenda. By engaging
Introduction
with customers you can move from incremental service improvement to genuine service
transformation. It’s a win:win opportunity - better customer experience and greater
operational efficiency; good customer understanding is also good business!

“The real BETTER CUSTOMER

breakthrough was GREATER EFFICIENCY
EXPERIENCE
finding out why
people found it so
difficult to deal Journey mapping helps you to: Journey mapping helps you to:
with us...” „ See and approach things from the „ Bring about change across government in a
customer’s point of view way that cuts across silos
„ Identify where customers are being „ Target limited resource for maximum
confused by different touchpoints, some of impact
which you may not even be aware of „ Plan the most efficient and effective
„ Meet expectations (often raised by private experience by reducing duplication and
sector experiences). Recognise people’s shortening the length of processes
time is valuable and be flexible about how „ Anticipate demands on the system and plan

+
and when they can access government so that you can meet these
„ Deliver a seamless, streamlined experience „ Prioritise between competing calls on
that cuts across silos by recognising where resources by showing when and where
“Outside-in thinking and when it makes sense to join things up needs are greatest and service most valued
led to a real culture for the customer „ Identify ‘baton-change’ points where service
change – it made an „ Understand how much you can expect or communication breakdown is most likely
impact on people people to do, and recognise where you
who’d not really „ Identify problems and issues without
might be imposing undue stress attributing blame
understood the
„ Get it right when it really matters e.g. when
customer before” „ Identify cheapest ‘cost to serve’, and
emotions are highest or need greatest influence people to transact with you in a
„ Look at the current situation and the ‘ideal’ way that minimises costs (e.g. use new
side-by-side, giving a chance to genuinely channels)
redraw the customer journey „ Set performance indicators and standards
„ Deliver information, messages and services so that you can measure and track
at the most appropriate time progress over time

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 A GREAT EXAMPLE OF JOURNEY MAPPING

Introduction
Tameside Free School Meals
Tameside Council identified that changes to the free school meals application process could deliver better customer
service and, at the same time, save money for the council.
Journey mapping helped them understand the process from the customer viewpoint, whilst quantifying the cost to the
council. Customers were abandoning claims, deterred by a complex process and the associated stigma. Meanwhile,
for the council, on-line applications cost 7p, compared to £10 for a face-to-face application.
Clearly a system overhaul that directed appropriate customers online could help both customers and council, but the Journey mapping
cost benefit could only be realised if the process could be followed end-to-end with no disruptions. isn’t just
something that’s
Using learning from the nice to know –
journey mapping they had FREE SCHOOL MEALS –ORIGINAL JOURNEY used correctly it
carried out, Tameside were can have very
able to implement systems tangible business
that allowed this outcomes, as
uninterrupted process. shown by the
Tameside
Applicants for free meals
example.
now enjoy a simpler, more
It’s a key tool
streamlined process that is to use in helping
much more cost-effective to deliver policy
for the council. objectives.

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 ABOUT THE JOURNEY MAPPING GUIDANCE
This guide is intended as a practical reference document for people who will be carrying out
Introduction the process of journey mapping. It’s been designed not to be read from cover to cover, but
rather to be consulted in stages according to interest and need.
It’s complemented by a range of other materials, each of which serves a specific purpose:

Customer Journey Mapping - Guide for Managers is Customer Journey

Mapping
This guide was written for a senior audience of service providers, Guide for Managers

commissioned from Oxford policy makers and strategists across government and
Strategic Marketing by the is relevant to all those involved in leading and
Cabinet Office and HMRC supporting cross-government service transformation.
jointly on behalf of the
Customer Insight Forum It suggests how journey mapping can be used to
(CIF). introduce more customer-focused thinking to
CIF enables service challenge organisational assumptions about the Customer
transformation by being an customer experience. Journey
advocate across government Mapping
for the role and value of There are a set of four online training modules that Module II
customer insight, promoting
serve as a quick introduction to journey mapping and
best practice and
knowledge. give an overview of key approaches, tools and
benefits. These can be found on the CIF website
(see facing page for address).
Customer Journey
Mapping
An expanded ‘toolkit’ is also available on the Expanded toolkit

CIF website and gives additional tools to the Section 2

ones included here. You will see references

to this throughout the guide, indicated by the
icon shown here.

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OTHER RESOURCES

Customer Insight Forum Website

„ The following papers have been published by the Customer Insight Forum and are available at their web site, which
Introduction
also contains the online version of this document, training modules and additional tools described on the facing page:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/public_service_reform/delivery_council/workplan.aspx
„ Customer Insight in Public Services: A Primer which aims to establish a common language for customer
insight and sets out some of the main sources of customer insight
„ Establishing an Effective Customer Insight Capability in Public Sector Organisations which sets out
some guidelines and examples that help to explain how to establish an effective customer insight capability in
a public sector organisation
The Customer
„ Published as accompanying guidance to the Service Transformation Agreement, Promoting Customer Insight Forum is
Satisfaction: Guidance on improving the customer experience in Public Services explains the role that the best starting
customer satisfaction and measurement research techniques should play in improving customer's point for more
experiences of their services and covers key issues such as the pros and cons of taking a common information, and
measurement approach for all public services. can help you
„ Accompanying this guidance but targeting a practitioner audience, How to Measure Customer Satisfaction: access the other
a tool to improve the experience of customers is a toolkit document designed to help public service resources listed
providers improve the experience of their customers by understanding how to undertake and make best use on the left.
of effective customer satisfaction measurement.
You can contact
Government Communication Network (GCN) Engage
the Customer
„ Gives information and advice on how to deliver customer-focused communication, with advice on journey mapping in Insight Forum by
this context. Go to www.comms.gov.uk emailing
Service Transformation Agreement customerinsight@
„ A Government-wide commitment to build services around the needs of citizens and businesses will be integral to the
cabinet-
achievement of each of the PSA outcomes for the next spending period (2008 - 2011). The Service Transformation office.x.gsi.gov.uk
or by telephoning
Agreement underpins delivery of the new PSA framework, setting out the Government's vision for building services
020 7276 3182.
around the citizen and specific actions for each department in taking forward this challenging agenda. The PSA
Delivery Agreements and the Service Transformation Agreement are all available at:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/pbr_csr/psa/pbr_csr07_psaindex.cfm
Customer Insight Protocol
„ Prepared for use by councils, partners and umbrella organisations in designing and analysing future local surveys
and in gaining extra value and information from existing data sources. It is available to download from the following
web address:
http://www.lga.gov.uk/content.asp?lsection=59&id=-A78492C2&ccat=1335
COI
„ The Research Unit at COI can offer consultancy and advice across the range of research methodologies and can
procure and manage projects on your behalf via their comprehensive research roster. In the first instance, please
contact Fiona Wood, Director of Research, 020 7261 8905, [email protected]

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 PRIVATE SECTOR CASE STUDY: EUROSTAR
Eurostar was not an immediate success. The management of Eurostar decided to use
Introduction journey mapping to improve radically the customer experience. Here’s how they used
different techniques to gain the insight they needed.

SENIOR STAFF OBSERVATION

A workshop was held with After the workshops, the
senior board members who senior board members were
Journey mapping did not, traditionally, have a encouraged to make the
was used to customer orientation. journey for real and ‘shadow’
improve the
journey passengers who looked like
experience and to the ones they had role-played
develop a really They were encouraged to role-play different customer in the workshops.
compelling groups, even dressing up in costume, in order to map the
proposition that highs and lows of the journey for different customers. By having them make the
would make journey in this way, a number
people want to of key outcomes were
use Eurostar achieved:
It also helped
the Eurostar
RESEARCH
The management appreciated that they couldn’t treat all
management to Independently of the role-
customers the same. Business people had very different
make decisions playing exercise, research was
needs from leisure passengers.
on which parts carried out amongst passengers
of the journey And they were able to suggest really practical and
by the French part of the
to invest in, and workable solutions to problems, which not only
organisation.
to set up improved the experience but reduced costs in many
customer cases.
satisfaction This confirmed the highs and lows for various traveler Manager participation and engagement enabled fast
tracking. types. action by having great ideas championed from the top.

Together these approaches enabled Eurostar to produce and verify detailed journey maps of the whole experience for
different customer groups, mapping the high and low points. In particular, the work identified the real ‘WOW’ factor of
travelling on Eurostar – the arrival right in the heart of the city, which was later developed into a compelling
communications proposition. See pages 96-97 for more information about the Eurostar journey mapping work.

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Section 2

When to Journey Map

WHEN TO JOURNEY MAP: INTRODUCTION
The four critical questions to help you get started:

SHOULD YOU BE JOURNEY MAPPING?

The ‘5Cs’ diagnostic to
help you decide ‘go’ or ‘no
go’
HMRC used journey mapping to help

When is journey mapping

reduce the high customer error rates
that had been a major component of
When to cost in certain areas
Journey Map
COSTLY:
„ High cost of
servicing The BIA used journey mapping to
DWP mapped the journeys of carers „ High risk of things understand and simplify customer
to understand the critical points at going wrong

When to
journeys that cut across other
which it was most vital to offer help

of greatest value?
„ Lots of wastage government areas, such as FCO
Some problems or and support
issues are more
likely than others to CLIMACTIC: COMPLEX:
benefitfrom „ Life or death issue „ Multiple customer
journey mapping „ Emotions run high groups
The diagram „ People vulnerable „ Multiple contacts
here gives or at risk NEED FOR AND „ Multiple channels
guidance, with „ Key moments of VALUE OF JOURNEY „ Cross-departmental
truth MAPPING INCREASE
examples, of

Journey Map
where journey IN LINE WITH THE
mapping can
FIVE Cs

See page 12
deliver the greatest
value

CHALLENGED: CHANGEABLE:
RBKC introduced online „ Highdissatisfaction „ Relationship is
parking permit with current service changing over time
applications, to meet the „ Where expectations „ The customer
needs of customers who are high (e.g. where experience is
were highly dissatisfied people pay for a DEFRA have used journey
changing
with having to come to a service) mapping to understand the
parking shop in person impact of growing customer
awareness of climate change
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DIAGNOSTIC QUESTIONS TOOL

Should you be journey Ticks here

mean you’re
very likely to
at the moment?
DIAGNOSTIC QUESTIONS

• Do you have gaps in your understanding of the experience that customers undergo

• Would it help you to have high impact feedback to challenge conventional thinking?
• Do you have intractable policy challenges – where you keep trying things but
When to
Journey Map

mapping to address your

benefit from
journey without getting anywhere?
mapping • Do you need to convince colleagues in other functions about the importance of a
customer-focused approach?

‘5C’ Diagnostic Use this tool to help

decide whether you
Costly Complex Changeable Challenged Climactic would benefitfrom
• Do pressures to • Does your • Are there • Is there is a high • Do you deal with journey mapping.

issue?
Any ticks in reduce costs customer’s advances in or rising number particularly The more ticksyou
this section threaten to affect
the customer
experience
include contact
technology or
comms that are
of customer
complaints?
vulnerable or at-
risk groups?
have, the greater
are also a experience in with other likely to affect the • Are you asking a • Is this an issue
the likelihood it
good an adverse way? departments or way customers lot from your that leads to could help.
indication that • Are you incurring
agencies? want to interact customers? emotional or
journey • Are there lots of with you? (What’s it costing heated
extra costs
mapping could through high error ways customers • Are you seeing a them in terms of exchanges with
rates or avoidable can access or shift in the time or money, customers?
be of help

Journey mapping is a tool,

contacts? experience your balance of and do they • Doe you deal with
service? channels used? accept this?) issues where the
• Do you offer the cost of failure can
same service to a be catastrophic?

See page 13
wide range of
people?

STOP and CHECK! Do you have the information you need already? Sometimes past

not an end in itself.

customer research may tell you what you need to know

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DIFFERENT TYPES OF JOURNEY MAPPING

There will be times when

There are three types of journey mapping process. Any one of these will add value alone, but
the greatest benefit comes from using them in combination. Start with either Customer
Experience Mapping or Mapping the System, and combine the approaches to drive
understanding and action. You can achieve optimal benefit by quantifying what you have
learned

What type of journey maps

When to

it’s an appropriate tool and

Journey Map

Qualitative,
focused on
emotional insights

other times when it’s not.

to tell a story with
passion and narrative.

exist?
All the types ofjourney map Powerful way of
engaging staff and
provide a way ofexploring an customers Quantifies
experience, to analyse what’s how well the
delivered and whether itlives experience is
delivered; links to
up to expectations. customer satisfaction,
metrics and tracking.
The following pages compare Combine both
QUANTIFYING THE
approaches for
the differentcharacteristics of

There are also different

EXPERIENCE for
incremental benefit
each type ofmap and give optimal benefit.
Allows you to
guidance aboutwhen and how quantify the effect
to use them of changes and

See page 14
contribute to
Maps steps in a business cases
process – also known
as process mapping.
Identifies where to

types of journey mapping,

act to make the
experience as easy,
pleasant and
efficient as
possible

For ‘Quantifying the

experience, see also CI F’s
guidance – “Promoting

each with its own

Customer Satisfaction”.

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© Oxford Strategic Marketing

strengths and appropriate

uses.
WHICH TO USE WHEN?
The different types of mapping reinforce each other – in many cases the best results will come from
using all three to help make strategic business decisions. This page shows the different
characteristics of the first two mapping methods, and illustrates how they can be used throughout a
project lifecycle.

Which should you use and Insightful and qualitative

Emotional – thinking and feeling
Analytical, logical, detailed
Rational – doing
When to
Journey Map

In this section, we
Experience

the System
Mapping
Mapping
Understanding what people do and why Understands what happens and when
Focus on (different types of) people Focus on process, steps and channels
Points in time with moments of truth Objective step-by-step approach
Looks outward Looks inward

when? address the four critical

Sees the wood for the trees Counts the trees

All three types

of mapping bring
BUILDING UNDERSTANDING THROUGHOUT A PROJECT benefits, but
you don’t

questions shown on the

necessarily have
Develop Engage Carry out Identify
Identify Plan to do all three
Customer
Experience
initial hearts and gap ways to
ways to actions, Design and to get positive
analysis – improve
mapping
customer minds of
where experience
improve based on a Put implement outcomes.
insight staff clear together an entirely
efficiency/

See page 15
does the (cross
cut costs knowledge the new CIF can give
Clearly current silos)
Mapping the define the system without
without of numbers business system guidance on the
damaging of people case, sell using
best approach

left to identify whether,

System current differ from damaging
customers aff ected, the project quantified
system the ideal? efficiency and internally. under- for you
Measure
quantified Implement standing
Measuring progress
costs of the plan from
the on an
acting or mapping
Experience ongoing
not acting
basis

Different types of mapping build a picture as a project moves on. Customer experience mapping brings the story to life and
delivers insight. A comparison with the process can identify where improvements can be made. This can be quantified to

how and when to use

make business decisions, and success can be judged by measuring and tracking on an ongoing basis.

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journey mapping.

These questions will help you identify which part of the guide to go on to.

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© Oxford Strategic Marketing
 SHOULD YOU BE JOURNEY MAPPING?
The ‘5Cs’ diagnostic to
help you decide ‘go’ or ‘no
go’.
HMRC used journey mapping to help
reduce the high customer error rates
that had been a major component of
When to cost in certain areas.
Journey Map
COSTLY:
„ High cost of
servicing
DWP mapped the journeys of carers The BIA used journey mapping to
„ High risk of things
to understand the critical points at understand and simplify customer
going wrong journeys that cut across other
which it was most vital to offer help „ Lots of wastage
Some and support. government areas, such as FCO.
problems or
issues are CLIMACTIC:
more likely
COMPLEX:
„ Life or death issue „ Multiple customer
than others to „ Emotions run high groups
benefit from „ People vulnerable „ Multiple contacts
journey or at risk NEED FOR AND „ Multiple channels
mapping „ Key moments of VALUE OF JOURNEY „ Cross-departmental

The diagram truth MAPPING INCREASE

here gives IN LINE WITH THE
guidance, with
examples, of FIVE Cs
where journey
mapping can
deliver the
greatest value. CHALLENGED: CHANGEABLE:
„ High dissatisfaction
RBKC introduced online „ Relationship is
with current service changing over time
parking permit
„ Where expectations
applications, to meet the „ The customer
are high (e.g. where experience is
needs of customers who
people pay for a changing DEFRA used journey mapping
were highly dissatisfied
service) to understand the impact of
with having to come to a
growing customer awareness
parking shop in person.
of climate change.
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DIAGNOSTIC QUESTIONS TOOL

DIAGNOSTIC QUESTIONS

• Do you have gaps in your understanding of the experience that customers undergo When to
Ticks here at the moment? Journey Map
mean you’re • Would it help you to have high impact feedback to challenge conventional thinking?
very likely to
benefit from • Do you have intractable policy challenges – where you keep trying things but
journey without getting anywhere?
mapping • Do you need to convince colleagues in other functions about the importance of a
customer-focused approach?

‘5C’ Diagnostic
Use this tool to
Costly Complex Changeable Challenged Climactic help decide
• Do pressures to • Does your • Are there • Is there is a high • Do you deal with
whether you
Any ticks in reduce costs customer’s advances in or rising number particularly would benefit
this section threaten to affect experience technology or of customer vulnerable or at- from journey
are also a
the customer include contact comms that are complaints? risk groups? mapping. The
experience in an with other likely to affect the
good adverse way? departments or way customers
• Are you asking a • Is this an issue more ticks you
lot from your that leads to
indication that agencies? want to interact have, the greater
• Are you incurring customers? emotional or
journey extra costs • Are there lots of with you? (What’s it costing heated the likelihood it
mapping could through high error ways customers • Are you seeing a them in terms of exchanges with could help.
rates or avoidable can access or shift in the time or money, customers?
be of help contacts? experience your balance of and do they • Doe you deal with
service? channels used? accept this?) issues where the
• Is the service cost of failure can
offered to a wide be catastrophic?
range of people?

STOP and CHECK! Do you have the information you need already? Sometimes past
customer research may tell you what you need to know.

13
© Oxford Strategic Marketing
 DIFFERENT TYPES OF JOURNEY MAPPING
There are three types of journey mapping process. Any one of these will add value alone, but
the greatest benefit comes from using them in combination. Start with either Customer
Experience Mapping or Mapping the System, and combine the approaches to drive
understanding and action. You can achieve optimal benefit by measuring and quantifying
When to what you have learned
Journey Map

Qualitative,
focused on
emotional insights
to tell a story with
passion and narrative.
All the types of Powerful way of
Measures
journey map provide a engaging staff and
customers how well
way of exploring an the experience
experience, to analyse is delivered;
links to customer
what’s delivered and satisfaction, metrics
Combine both
whether it lives up to approaches for
& tracking
expectations. incremental benefit Allows you to
quantify the effect
The following pages of changes and
compare the different contribute to
business
characteristics of each Maps steps in a cases
type of map and give process – also known
guidance about when as process mapping.
Identifies where to
and how to use them act to make the
experience as easy,
pleasant and
efficient as
possible

For ‘Measuring the

Experience, see also
CIF’s guidance –
“Promoting Customer
Satisfaction”.

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WHICH TO USE WHEN?
The different types of mapping reinforce each other – in many cases the best results will come from
using all three to help make strategic business decisions. This page shows the different
characteristics of the first two mapping methods, and illustrates how all three can be used
throughout a project lifecycle.
When to
Insightful and qualitative Analytical, logical, detailed Journey Map
Emotional – thinking and feeling Rational – doing

the System
Experience

Mapping
Mapping

Understanding what people do and why Understands what happens and when
Focus on (different types of) people Focus on process, steps and channels
Points in time with moments of truth Objective step-by-step approach
Looks outward Looks inward
Sees the wood for the trees Counts the trees

All three types

of mapping bring
benefits, but
BUILDING UNDERSTANDING THROUGHOUT A PROJECT you don’t
necessarily have
Develop Engage Carry out Identify
Identify Plan to do all three
Customer
Experience
initial hearts and gap ways to
ways to actions, Design and to get positive
analysis – improve
mapping
customer minds of
where experience
improve based on a Put implement outcomes.
insight staff efficiency/ clear together an entirely
does the (cross
cut costs knowledge the new CIF can give
Clearly current silos)
Mapping the define the system without
without of numbers business system guidance on the
System current damaging of people case, sell using
best approach
differ from damaging affected, the project quantified
customers
system the ideal? efficiency and internally. under- for you.
quantified Implement standing Measure
Measuring progress
costs of the plan from
the on an
acting or mapping
Experience ongoing
not acting basis

Different types of mapping build a picture as a project moves on. Customer experience mapping brings the story to life and
delivers insight. A comparison with the existing process can identify where improvements can be made. This can be
quantified to make business decisions, and success can be judged by measuring and tracking on an ongoing basis.

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 DIFFERENT TYPES OF JOURNEY
Some examples of different ‘journeys’ are given below. In some cases we’ve given examples
relating to one department, but journeys of each type can cut across more than one
department and cross organisational boundaries

ACTUAL: TRANSACTIONAL:
When to A literal, physical journey, e.g. Going through a process with fixed
Journey Map prisoners being taken from court to steps, e.g. applying for free school
prison. meals or setting up a business.

Depending on the
nature of your
issue, you can EXPERIENCIAL: EMOTIONAL:
map different An ongoing experience of a service A mental journey that is
types of
or linked services; e.g. using the experienced over time; e.g. going
journey, from a
Health Service or going through through a separation and making
literal, physical
journey to the the benefit system. arrangements for children.
way people’s
thoughts and
actions change
over time.

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING: RITE OF PASSAGE:

The development of a relationship A major life change or lifestage
over time; event (very often cuts across many
e.g. a business customer working parts of government) e.g.
with government to grow a bereavement or birth of first child.
business.

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SOME POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS FOR
JOURNEY MAPPING
Once you get familiar with the types of map and the different journeys, you will see many
more possible applications using the insights you get from journey mapping.

Mapping Satisfaction
Types of Journey Customer Experience When to
the System Mapping
Journey Map
ACTUAL How to use finite manpower
How to engage people to begin
e.g. Moving from effectively at the point of
the process of rehabilitation
court to prison arrival

TRANSACTIONAL How to ensure smooth fit

How to ensure all applicants are
with other services, such as
e.g. Applying for free offered an appropriate timescale
clothing grants, with the You can use journey
school meals and number of contact points
same eligibility criteria mapping:
Understand the steps leading to „ At the start of a
EXPERIENTIAL Setting and
diagnosis and treatment, and
Identify ‘baton-change’ project, to understand
e.g. Using the Health points – DH, charities, social measuring the experience better
opportunities to engage patient appropriate
Service in their healthcare
services, local authorities
metrics – not and help with a
just outcomes business case
EMOTIONAL Identify how to get unwilling but highs and „ During the course of a
How to plan call centres –
e.g. Going through a absent parents to take lows across project to help identify
nature, size, skills required
separation responsibility for their children time issues, opportunities
and actions
RELATIONSHIP See cumulative effect of cross- „ At the end, to validate
BUILDING Identify and reduce red tape
government legislation from a
and migrate business to your conclusions and
e.g. Business and small customer viewpoint across
most cost-effective channels to assess the
government the year effectiveness of the
Understand differing need for De-duplicate the system so actions you are taking.
RITE OF PASSAGE support and opportunity for people don’t have to give
e.g. Birth of first child positive lifestyle change by the same details to multiple
customer segment agencies

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 AN EXAMPLE FROM OUTSIDE
GOVERNMENT: HIGH STREET RETAILER
BACKGROUND OUTCOME
The retailer runs warehouse type stores and had traditionally been Journey mapping helped identify and understand a
successful in keeping costs low through an operationally-driven range of different shopping occasions, and the
experience was reshaped to reflect customer needs
When to approach.
rather than what was convenient operationally.
However, what was efficient for the retailer was not necessarily
Journey Map delivering a good experience for the customer. People who didn’t know Online business has been fully integrated with
the stores were being put off by what appeared to be a complex and conventional stores so that, for example, people can
time-consuming operation, especially for relatively inconsequential check availability and reserve goods online for in-
purchases. Journey mapping was used to understand the ups and store pick-up. The operation today prospers as an
downs of the customer experience. award-winning multi-channel retailer.

Everyday
High Purchase
Street Retailer – Heart Occasion
Monitor – Buying an Iron

Seem to have
loads of irons - 14 pages of Tap code into Efficient payment
<

Good Customer Experience

worth dropping in
Store’s in
irons - really < stock checker -
Great iron!
It’s close to M&S -
I'm going there
< town centre -
great choice;
all good
two in stock
close to M&S
anyway brands
Write order -
Irons 3 different
clearly coloured
indexed forms. Which
Need an iron this do I use? Are
Thank
weekend - not they different?
Go to catalogue goodness I
going to make a Short wait
desk - lots free didn't buy
special trip for goods
more!!

CONSIDERATION BUYING PROCESS PAYMENT AND COLLECTION TAKE HOME POST-

PURCHASE
Looks the Intrusive No apparent sale 2 queues - do I
Borrow music Do I want the
same as

Bad Customer Experience

prices - despite join 'returns' or
one from 2910 or 2930 Huge box! Notice on the
6 years all the sale signs unmarked
neighbour £148 - is that model? I Say to way out home
ago when queue?
- bit out of
date
I last
good?
Should I look
< No home
can't see
what they
assistant, delivery. Is
No catalogue -
they used to < Window
went
elsewhere <
Top price model has
delivery? look like and
Queue
again -
"that looks
heavy to
that just
clothes? <
there's no only 5 carry home" What does it Handles See it £10
deliver books not very free ironing board one to ask minutes cost? break half- cheaper in
door-to-door enticing 26 'Sale' worth £39 - but I discount
Don't think they signs - way to car
can't carry it to the store a week
do on-line or floor car and I can't pick Find I've joined No Struggle later - and I
phone ordering, cluttered up from the store - the wrong queue! response! up Handles cut could have
do they?
double yellow - He just steps my hand parked
lines/bus lane bags it outside store

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Section 3

Customer
Experience Mapping
INTRODUCTION
Customer experience mapping is a qualitative mapping technique that focuses on
generating emotional insights for customer engagement. The starting point is
always the customer.
Knowing how your
In this section we describe how to plan and construct a customer experience journey map, customers think and feel
starting from a deep understanding of what customers really think and feel, and moving is the first step in
through to taking action and evaluating results. creating a customer-
There are five steps in the process: focused organisation.

Customer
Experience
Mapping

Set up – the Walking in the Evaluating

Constructing Taking
mapping customer’s results
the map action
context shoes

For simplicity, in the pages that follow, we have focused primarily on one particular mapping
output, which is simple and concrete, and which can be applied in most situations. However,
This section describes the
there are other ways of mapping the customer experience, with different levels of detail, and
first of our three mapping
some examples of these are given on the following pages. approaches and sets out
steps and tools to help.
Core tools are
included in this
guide but there
are more in the
online toolbox.

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 THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MAP
The customer experience map shown here is the basic format you’ll be using in this section. It tracks the
main steps in a customer’s experience and records how he or she thinks, feels and acts at each step. It’s
qualitative rather than quantitative and is used to drive a deep customer understanding.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MAP

Customer
Experience Objectives,
scope &
Customer
segment
Mapping journey type

Moments
of truth

Key
Key Journey
journey
Steps
steps
This section
takes you
through how to
complete a map.
However, before
starting to fill Actions,
out any formats, feelings,
thoughts and
there are a
reactions at
couple of vital each step
steps – Set up
and “Walking in
the customer’s
shoes”.

Touchpoints

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ALTERNATIVE MAPPING FORMAT
An alternative mapping format is the “heart monitor”, shown below, which plots the highs and
lows in the customer experience.

HEART MONITOR

Customer
Objectives,
scope & journey
Customer Experience
segment
type
Mapping
Moments
of truth

Key
Key Journey
journey
Steps
steps

The heart
monitor can be
quantified and so
is described and
used as the main
Ups and tool in Section 5
downs of the of this guide.
customer However, you
experience
can create a
qualitative heart
monitor using
the same basic
process
described here to
create a
Levers for customer
solution hunting experience map.

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 OTHER FORMATS
There are other formats for journey maps. There are no hard and fast rules about this – although we focus here on a
particular type of journey map, use whatever works best for you and your particular issue.

Customer Journey: Mum with 4 Month Old

Baby to plan communication impact for The research tell us about the current customer experience and helps
healthy weaning identify the potential future customer journey. The gaps are identified.
What is a I think I’m paying too much The person I finally
See Receive Read article on See poster in local Receive mailer coding notice? tax. I want to phone for
I’ve got another job and I’ve
spoke to was helpful –but
healthy weaning What is a got another code. I don’t
launch TV door drop playgroup about from local I don’t know, I help but I don’t know
understand. I could not
could only change my tax
in women’s NINO? Do I think I will put which number to call
infant swimming council about have one? remember my NINO.
– she said I had to call
weekly it away the tax credit office too
sessions: send activities
mag SMS for in the
Customer more info area I trust my tax
is right, my

Experience employer
sorts it out

Call helpline to See ads in Take baby to Receive SMS alert Original journey
Mapping

Analysis
register for special women’s weekly the local on Friday with •No self help •No single •No plans to
magazine about swimming pool suggestions for •No plans to

Gap
offers on healthy tools contact point take holistic
healthy things to do work through
weaning food Just got my
•No channel •No flexibility approach to
weaning at the intermediaries
NINO. I know it’s preference in outbound customer’s
weekend important and my record contact total income
number to be
used for benefits
and tax
Receive mailer Go shopping and see
with money roadshow in
off coupons shopping centre- I got an email from
and leaflet chat to HMRC telling me Got a second job. I know
Just started work, I let HMRC know It was easy to update what I am entitled
about healthy other mums and I handed in my about my disability my details on line and it
all my tax and credits will
to and explaining be sorted automatically
weaning share tips. NINO and so my and asked for them to was good to know I my tax because I used my NINO.
tax will be right contact me by email could phone if I got I went on line to check.
stuck

Department of Health used simple Future journey Range of

Integrated Flexible Single clear

& progress
descriptions and pictures for each step of interventions

Planning
Channel outbound statement of tax
used effectively
management contact fits with position. Self
to support
the journey to map the potential impact of with contact
history
channel
strategy.
help tools for
customer
customers

a communication campaign for weaning

babies.

The DVLA HMRC mapped current

mapped journeys and future journeys with
for electronic commentary and
vehicle licensing identification of gaps that
which they needed to be addressed
summarised (work that was done
using visual some time ago and has
imagery. now been actioned).

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SET UP: THE CONTEXT
The very first step in any journey mapping project is to be clear about the
context. This is a useful tool for a set-up team work session. You can use it as This planning phase is
an agenda or checklist. the crucial point at which
to get up-front stakeholder
buy-in. Without this you
could find yourself with
useful maps but no
effective way of
CONTEXT CHECKLIST actioning them.

Customer
„ Identify key users, current expertise and Experience
knowledge or use of customer experience maps Mapping
Who will „ Agree how these key users will be involved in the
process – the more involvement the better
use the „ Identify additional stakeholders and agree how
maps? they should be involved/informed
„ Ensure that everyone is clear and aligned in their
expectations of the process and outputs DWP mapped the
experience of becoming
„ Confirm what the maps will be used for and the a carer to understand
level of detail/robustness required the challenges they face.
How will „ Ensure you have set clear, measurable objectives
This work highlighted the
problems encountered as
maps be for the exercise people become carers and
applied? „ Are you also mapping the system? If so, how identified opportunities for
will you consider the two maps together? service improvement, and it
continues to provide insight
across Government. A
practical lesson in the use
„ Confirm the budget and timescales of insight generally was also
What is „ Agree how and when other departments and identified as part of this
agencies should be involved process – it is essential that
the stakeholders are sufficiently
„ Do an insight audit – what do you know already? prepared to be able to receive,
scope? understand and act on the
„ Make an initial plan of the approach, process and
anticipated outputs insight generated.

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 SET UP: BROAD DEFINITION OF THE
JOURNEY
You need very early on to define broadly the journey you are interested in to ensure it’s
the most appropriate one for the issue you are addressing.

Check your definition

Make a clear and unambiguous
„ Would your description be clear to
statement of the journey that you are
interested in mapping. someone coming fresh to this project?
„ Are you thinking about and defining
This should be the usual, “typical” the journey from the customers’ point
journey experienced by customers,
Customer of view, using their language?
not an unusual or aberrant event.
„ When you come to check it with them,
Experience will they recognise it?
Mapping
Check how many journeys:
Think about whether what you are
„ Have you hypothesised a clear start
interested in is really a single journey.
and end point for this journey?
Are there distinct components that
„ Does it cover all the key parts of the
should be split out or, on the other
customer’s interaction with you?
The precise hand, is this part of a wider journey
„ Does it cover a long time period?
definition of the that need to be looked at in its totality?
journey needs to be (Very long journeys may benefit from
confirmed after being split across more than one map)
customer input.
However, you need to be
clear up front about the Check inter-dependencies
broad parameters in which
Look beyond your own area to identify
other departments and agencies which „ Have you started from the customer’s
you are working.
impact on your customer’s journey - not viewpoint, and not in terms of how
just government but also appropriate government is organised?
NGOs. Does their involvement suggest „ Have you consulted relevant
or dictate an amended journey stakeholders?
definition? Talk to colleagues and „ How do these alternative viewpoints
stakeholders to make sure you impact on your journey as currently
understand all the inter-relationships. defined?

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SET UP : WHICH CUSTOMERS DO YOU
WANT TO ENGAGE WITH? Journey mapping
Here we look at which customers or customer groups you need to focus on for the helped DfT to identify and
understand key customer
mapping process. The starting point for journey mapping must always be the customer, segments such as ‘goods vehicle
and the initial step is to decide which customer(s). operators’ and to suggest how
access to services from various
Can you map all customers together or do Check your scoping DfT Agencies could be joined up
you need to segment and map different „ Can you truly map all customers together? to benefit these segments
groups? It’s quite unusual if you can
You need to be clear on available resources, „ How many groups do you need to map?
and decide how widely you can engage with „ What are the essential things you need to
customers. know and the big knowledge gaps? Customer
Experience
Look at the information you have already Check customer groups Mapping
about your different customer groups. Do „ Have you clearly defined any customer
you have a customer segmentation and, if groups or segments? You need to be crystal clear
so, is it relevant for the map you want to „ Are they distinct from one another? about which customers you
create? If you don’t have a researched „ Have you thought not just about who map.
segmentation or it doesn’t seem relevant, A good segmentation is a
people are, but what they do and how
great starting point but, if
brainstorm types of customer who make the they think and feel? you don’t have this, you can
journey you’re looking at. Frontline staff, „ Is this the best way of dividing people up use people who are close to
knowledgeable people, delivery partners and for this particular purpose? customers to brainstorm
past research may help. and prioritise possible
groups.
If you don’t need, or have the resources, to Check your prioritisation: To learn more about
engage with all customer groups, you need to „ Does it feel right intuitively? segmentation, contact
prioritise based on factors like: „ Do people in the know (e.g. frontline staff) the CIF (see page 9)
„ Who has the greatest need? agree with it? or see the journey
„ Where is the current experience least „ If you get it right for these people will the mapping online
satisfactory? problem be solved? toolbox. This
„ Which customers represent the greatest contains other tools
number of journeys? such as a pen
portrait.
For local government
Create brief pen-portraits of your priority Check your pen-portraits there is also helpful
customers (an example of what these might „ Are they written in non-technical advice in the
look like is given in the online tool box). They Customer Insight
language?
Protocol – see page 9
will help create a shared understanding of „ Will they help you identify people to for details.
who customers are, and allow you to identify involve in the mapping process?
which customers to journey map.
You can build on the portraits later.

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 SET OUT THE MAP(S) YOU WANT TO COMPLETE
Having thought about the context, broadly defined the journey and identified which customers you
want to engage with, you can now set out your map or maps, filling in the first two boxes:

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MAP

Customer
Objectives, scope and Objectives,
Experience scope &
Customer
journey type segment
journey type
Mapping What this mapping needs Moments
to do. of truth
Single, well-defined
Key
Key Journey
journey
journey with clear start Steps
steps
and end points.
Define your
customers in Customer segment
the way that is The specific group you’re
most mapping here, with key
Actions,
feelings,
appropriate for defining characteristics thoughts and
this map. This to distinguish them from
reactions at
each step
may be to do other groups.
with who they
are, but it
could be based
instead on
behaviour or
attitudes. Touchpoints

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WALKING IN YOUR CUSTOMERS’ SHOES
You now need to head into a research phase to explore your customer’s journey. Really
understanding your customers – not just what they do, but how they think and feel - is at
the absolute heart of customer experience mapping.
One decision you will need to make early on is whether to research the customer journey
yourself or to use an agency to do this. The tool below compares the two approaches. It’s not
necessarily an either/or choice; you may decide to do some parts of the exercise in house and
then go out to an agency for follow-up work, or vice versa.

Customer
IN-HOUSE OR AGENCY? Experience
Mapping

In-House Agency

9 Getting personally close to the 9 Big projects where you need

extra resource
customer and seeing thing for
yourself 9 Complex or emotive subjects
9 Opening the eyes of staff to the requiring specialist interviewing What we cover over
issues experienced by real
skills the next few pages are
people 9 Cross-government projects some qualitative
where no one has clear
9 Engaging staff in the process and
ownership
‘customer closeness’
benefits of journey mapping
9 Where it helps to use a third techniques. More
9 Projects with limited time, scope quantified approaches,
party, seen to be independent of
or budgets
government used where
9 Lending credibility to a study measurement is
important, are
• You need to be aware of MRS • Ensure that the findings are described in Section 5
codes of conduct that apply to all really brought to life with of this guide.
research. Even if you’re not photographs, videos and
using an agency, be sure to talk verbatim comments – not just The pages that follow
to your own research team about summarised in a prose report describe four key
what can and can’t be done tools for walking in
• Be very careful not to come into your customers’
this with internal view or
shoes.
preconceptions. Start with a
completely open mind

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 DECIDING ON A MAPPING EVENT
There are different ways in which you can collect the information you need to map your
In an ideal world, customer’s journey – we’ve called these ‘Mapping Events’.
recruiting actual customers is
generally the best way to really The key priority here is to understand the customer’s journey as it really is now, although sometimes you may also
understand the emotional want to use the opportunity to explore how it could be improved by asking customers to describe their ‘ideal’
impact of an experience. But journey.
there are alternatives that work
well in many situations. WAYS TO MAP JOURNEYS
SOME EXAMPLES

Recruit actual customers Within the Ministry of Justice, HM Courts Service (HMCS)
Customer from the appropriate followed this approach to map the experiences of victims,
Experience segment to walk through the jurors and witnesses going through the legal process. The
journey for real. resultant maps showed a detailed emotional journey and
Mapping
- Happens in real time in the were used to help improve the experience and make it less
real world. stressful for those involved.

Recruit real customers to In mapping Carer journeys, DWP carried out in-depth face-
recall the journey (e.g. to-face interviews using their own External Visiting
choosing a school). Officers. This resulted in very detailed journey maps with
The decision about
- Done through focus groups deep emotional understanding, that have helped to identify
which event to choose the points at which carers most need help and support.
will depend on: or interviews, as soon as
possible after the event.
„ What’s feasible given your
timescale and budget?
Get knowledgeable staff to
„ What sort of journey is ‘walk the journey’, recalling Eurostar used staff to go through the total customer
it? Is it a literal journey highs, lows, needs and experience of travelling between Paris and London, from
(e.g. travel to school) or emotions they see in booking to arrival. The exercise helped engage staff in the
virtual (e.g. choosing a customers. need for change, and resulted in the identification of
school)? tangible service improvements.
- Can do this as “mystery
„ Over what timescale does shoppers”.
the journey take place?
„ What’s your objective? Construct the journey from When Tameside Council mapped the application process
E.g. if you need to get a review of past research, for free school meals, they recognised all customer groups
staff engagement and staff views and knowledge had the same experience. Their Corporate Improvement
culture change, getting and customer experiences. Team were able to map this single segment effectively and
staff involved can be a
- Ideally using a group of introduce an experience that was quicker, cheaper and
big plus.
people in a workshop. easier for customers.

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TOOL: MAPPING EVENTS
“Staff and customers
used completely different
CHOOSING BETWEEN MAPPING EVENTS language when talking about
the same journey. That was
a real eye-opener – we’d never
thought about it before.”
Customers walk through Real customers recall
the journey for real or anticipate the journey
9 Actual, literal journeys 9 Journeys that take place over long
9 Getting a powerful and true impression Customer
periods of time
of actual emotions 9 Journeys where it would be impossible Experience
9 Gaining first-hand evidence with high
levels of credibility
to follow the customer Mapping

• Memory can be deceptive; projected

• Use enough people to get an objective future actions even more so
view of a ‘typical’ journey • Recalling events, people are apt to
play down the strength of the emotion
they feel at the time Use this tool to
help decide
which event best
Knowledgeable staff Journey is constructed from
suits your
‘walk the journey’ existing research and knowledge
purpose. You
9 Building staff engagement 9 Getting team buy-in will often want
9 Tapping into knowledge & experience 9 Building on existing research and to use more
of front-line staff expertise than one
9 Mapping areas where there may be 9 Projects with limited time or money approach – a
sensitivities involved in asking range of methods
customers e.g. very emotive areas, or will always make
mapping a child’s journey your work more
robust.
• Be careful that staff take an external • Ensure you really have the knowledge
view of the process, not an internal one and information to build an accurate
• Be sure not to reinforce existing journey
prejudices or perceptions • May lack credibility with colleagues

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 TOOL: PEELING THE ONION
Getting to the heart of what really drives customers is like peeling an onion. The outer layer -
Over the next four pages, we
introduce tools that can help
what they do and say – gives some clues, but a really deep understanding can only come
when walking in customers’ from looking at the heart of the ‘onion’ – deep emotions and passion points.
shoes, highlighting what each
tool is good for and giving
some watch-outs. Tools
can be used on their own or “PEELING THE ONION”
in combination depending on Deep Understanding Tool
the mapping event being used.

Customer
Experience Layer 1: Actions
„ What people do
Mapping „ Why – what’s
driving them?
Layer 4: Feelings
„ What are they
feeling? Trust?
Layer 2: Responses Comfort? Irritation?
„ What people say „ What’s causing
9 Delving behind „ Why – what’s this?
what’s apparent behind the words?
on the surface „ How honest do you ````
9 Emotive and think they’re
sensitive issues being? Layer 5: Deep
9 Extended, depth emotions
interviews „ What are their real
Layer 3: Language loves and hates?
• Don’t hypothesise „ How people say „ Where are the
what lies behind things passion points?
people’s words – „ What words do
look at the they use? Capture
evidence real quotes
• Don’t over-weight „ What’s the body
any one part of language?
the “onion”. All
the layers are
important Use this tool whenever you’re talking to customers. Be prepared to ask difficult questions
(sensitively!) and gauge all the layers of response. Videoing people can help analyse some of
their responses and language later (but be sure to get permission).

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TOOL: CRITICAL QUESTIONS
Use this tool when you can’t actually accompany a customer during their journey to plan,
Aim where you can to ask
prepare and review the outputs from interviews. It can also be used with frontline staff open-ended questions (that is,
and others who have customer contact. ones to which customers
can’t simply answer ‘yes’ or
‘no’). If you use this type
of questioning, it encourages
respondents to speak.
“CRITICAL QUESTIONS” BUT… avoid rhethorical
questions – ask tangible
Interview Planning Tool things that people can answer.

Customer
„ What are the top three questions about this journey that you can’t answer?
Experience
„ How typical is this person’s journey? What’s unique to them/likely to apply to all?
Questions Mapping
„ Who or what aspect of the process influences them most?
to Ask „ How strongly do they really feel about this?
Yourself „ What are the real passion points?
„ What surprised you from what you heard? What was new to you?
9 Planning and preparing
… General … For process improvement interviews where going with
the customer on the actual
„ Tell me about… „ What parts of the process were really journey isn’t possible
9 Keeping your questioning
„ What did you think when…? essential?
focused
Questions „ How did you feel when…? „ Where did things get held up or take too 9 Getting the most from
„ What were the high and low points in long? interviews
to Ask
your journey? „ Did you have to do the same thing more • Don’t over-plan. Be
your pragmatic and respond to
„ What really stood out for you (good or than once?
Customer what people tell you
bad)? „ Did you ever feel you were going • One size doesn’t fit all.
„ If you could change on thing what would backwards? Tailor your questions to
it be? „ Were any steps unnecessary? your customer
„ Why? (see ‘5 Whys’ Tool) „ Were you clear who you were dealing
• Be aware that people may
not tell you their
with at every point? information in a sequential
way – they may jump around
so you will have to piece it
together later

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 TOOL: THE 5 WHYS
The ‘5 Whys’ is a useful tool to get to the root of a difficult issue. It is also known as
“laddering” – moving through the ‘Whys’ is like climbing the rungs of a ladder.

“THE 5 WHYS”
Questioning Tool

„ As you talk to people, or investigate your issue, keep asking ‘Why?’ every
Customer time you are given an answer
Experience „ This is particularly good for probing issues about which people have deep-
Mapping seated feelings and emotions
9 Getting to the „ It can also help probe root causes when you are tracking a series of events
root of a difficult
issue
9 Investigating
complex subjects ‘Emotional’ ‘Root Cause’
9 Gaining a deeper
understanding of an example from HMRC example from the NHS
issue or an action
“ I don’t want to renew my tax credits even “ A patient got the wrong medicine” … Why?
• Don’t irritate though I’m still eligible” … Why? “ The prescription was incorrect” … Why?
people by “ It’s too much stress” … Why? “ A wrong decision was made by the doctor”
constantly
parroting “Why”!
“ They don’t care about customers” … Why? … Why?
Think about “ Last time they overpaid me and that was a “ The patient’s record did not contain all the
different ways to real problem” … Why? information the doctor needed” … Why?
probe deeper
• It doesn’t have to “ They wanted a lump sum repayment and that “ The doctor’s assistant had not entered the
be 5 whys. You was out of the question” … Why? patient’s latest test results” … Why?
may get to the “ I’ve no savings – the money me and my kids “ The lab technician had phoned the results
heart of the live on is what we get week to week” through to the receptionist who forgot to tell the
matter with more assistant”
or fewer
questions In this case, understanding the real pain The root cause is the absence of a formal
caused by overpayments had led to new system for recording test results. A new
processes to handle them within HMRC system could guard against this in future

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TOOL: LOOK OUT!
There’s an art to watching people! Use this tool when you’re following a journey yourself,
accompanying a customer, or taking a trip into the customer’s world. Note down what you
observe and use your notes to guide you when constructing your map.

“LOOK OUT”
Observation Tool

Find an appropriate vantage point where you are able to

watch events without being caught up too closely in
Customer
them. Experience
Be prepared to be patient. The more time you take, the Mapping
more you’ll get from the exercise. Think about the BBC
9 Gathering clues from a
photographer who spent three years in Siberia to shoot lot of people
three and a half minute’s broadcast footage of a snow 9 Learning about physical
leopard. No need for quite such extremes here, but put journeys
in the time you need! 9 Identifying the impact of
things like signage &
queue management

Visual clues that can help you understand journeys better

„ Are people alone or with others? • Doesn’t replace listening
„ How fast are they moving? Are they hurrying, dawdling, impatient? – the two things work
together
„ What are they wearing and carrying? Impact on the journey?
• Don’t risk being taken for
„ Are they doing anything else (talking on phone, listening to music, reading)? a peeping tom! Keep the
„ What do they stop or pause, and why? observation public and
„ What do they notice/look at/read? Do they see signage? don’t zoom in on one
individual
„ Who do they talk to? In what way? Animated, anxious, confident?
• Don’t ever record, film,
„ What’s their demeanour/body language? or photograph people
„ What changes as they go through the journey? What are the triggers? without permission

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 CASE STUDY: HOLLOWAY PRISON
HMP Holloway was seeking to improve communications with arriving women prisoners.
Induction and settlement procedures weren’t helping women escape difficult circumstances, and
incidences of self harm and even suicide had occurred in the period following admission.

Journey mapping was carried out amongst both prisoners and prison staff to
understand the process from each point of view. Focus groups were held with
prisoners and they kept diaries recording how they felt as they moved through the
system. Prison officers went through the admissions process themselves, to
Customer build understanding of what prisoners experienced.
Experience A number of changes were made as a result. There were new initiatives to
Mapping explain the system to arriving prisoners, and a buddy system was set up, where
trusted existing prisoners spent time with new ones. Together the changes have
had a real impact on the state of mind of incoming prisoners, improved the
chances of rehabilitiation and contributed to reduced rates of self-harm.

One of the outcomes

T y p e o f jo u rn ey T ravellin g fro m cou rt to H o llow a y P rison
from the exercise was a
redesign of materials given
to incoming prisoners.
H o t spo t
Fifty separate, text-
intensive documents were Le a ve T ra ve l to C he cke d in R ub -do w n P ho to and A cce ss to S trip T a ken to
replaced by a much Jo u rn ey step s
cou rt H o llo w a y from va n sea rch ID ph one sea rch ce ll
simpler, more accessible
F eel dirty and
induction pack. I can m ake a
E x p erien ce a t S hock and
D e- call, but w hat
asham ed –
I’ve rea lly
realisation U ncom fort- haven’t been
ea ch step : W ant to get in able
personalised
A gain feel I’m
am I going to
able to w ash
reached rock
B eing D on’t k now hear? bottom .
touch w ith N o one to being for tw o da ys
processed w hat the y’re W hat’s W hat are the
•a ctio n s people but reassure m e processed W hy are the y
through the look ing for happening to other people
• th o u gh ts can’t T ired, dirty,
s ystem S ham ing – no
S uddenly I’m
m y ch ildren/
doing this?
in here going
• fee lin g s T old w hat to don’t k now
N o turning privac y
a num ber, not
fam ily?
W hat are
to be lik e?
do, no w hat’s going a person the y look ing
• rea ctio n s freedom of to happen
back – I’m W hat are
for? W hat do
H o w w ill I be
really here the y th ink ing able to cope?
action the y th ink of
about m e?
m e?

Inform ation
E xplain T alk to T ell people E xplain w h y E xplain w hat S om eone to
K ey Issu es/ about w hat’s E xplain w h y
process at people on the about it’s being ID num ber is sta y w ith you
o pp o rtu n ities this stage journe y adm issions done for
happening to it’s necessary
for first hour
fam ily

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CONSTRUCTING THE MAP: INTRODUCTION
Having carried out your mapping event, you can now move on to filling in the rest of
your customer experience map. The following slides describe how to do this. Usually It often helps to
this is best done by a team of people in a mapping workshop – at the end of the section map not just what happens
we describe how to run one. now, but also the ‘Ideal’
journey that you’d like
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MAP
customers to take in the
future. See page 46 for
details.
Objectives,
Customer
scope &
segment
journey type

Moments
of truth Customer
Key
Key Journey
journey
Steps
steps Experience
You should have filled in Mapping
the top boxes of the map
Actions,
feelings, in the set-up stage.
thoughts and
reactions at
each step
In this stage we’ll cover
how to fill in all the
remaining parts of the
map.
Touchpoints HEART MONITOR

Objectives,
Customer
© Oxford Strategic Marketing scope & journey
segment
type

Moments
of truth

Key
Key Journey
journey
Steps
steps

A few simple principles for filling in the map:

„ The starting point must always be the customer. Forget the internal perspective –stand in the Ups and
downs of the
customer
experience

customer’s shoes
„ Understand deeply people's thoughts and feelings as well as their actions. A customer Levers for
solution hunting

experience map isn’t just about what people do – it’s also about understanding why they do it © Oxford Strategic Marketing

„ Write in everyday customer language and avoid internal terms or jargon As before, this section
„ Be realistic in the steps you choose to map. In a detailed process with many steps, try to focus focuses on the customer
on the important areas rather than getting lost in unnecessary detail experience map as shown on
the left. If you are
constructing a heart
monitor, you’ll follow the
same basic steps but see
Section 5 for detailed notes
on filling out the map.

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 HOW TO CONSTRUCT A MAP

CONSTRUCTING YOUR MAP: KEY STEPS

Step 1: „ Now you have carried out your in-depth mapping event, review the
work of the set-up phase to confirm type of journey (with start and
Confirm the end points) and customer segments
journey and
„ Ensure definitions of these are clear and that everyone has a
customer common understanding of them
Customer
Experience
Mapping Step 2: „ Start by noting down all the journey steps people go through. It’s
useful to put these on Post-it notes so they can be moved around
Identify key
„ Arrange these in chronological order and challenge to make sure
journey steps you’ve got the sequence right. Ideally you want to map around 6-
10 key journey steps
„ Ensure you’re clear which channels people use at each step

This page „ For each step, and taking the customer’s viewpoint, write down
shows the
Step 3: what they do and how they think and feel
steps you need Actions, feelings, „ Write this in the everyday language customers use – put it in their
to go through thoughts and own actual words where possible
to construct a reactions „ Say what people’s emotions are and how strongly they’re felt
customer „ Use emotive words – they help bring people to life
experience map
like the example Step 4: „ Again, for each step in the journey, write down what the
opposite. Touchpoints touchpoints are. A touchpoint is a point in the process where you
have some sort of interaction with the customer
The following „ Think about physical interactions (e.g. buildings), human contact
pages give hints (face to face or remote) and communications
to help in each
step of the
process. Step 5: „ Now, looking at the whole journey, identify the moments of truth
Moments of truth „ These are the key points in the journey where customers may
pause and evaluate the experience, or make a crucial decision
„ Aim to be discriminating here – don’t be tempted to label every
step as a moment of truth!

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 BORDERS AND IMMIGRATION
AGENCY EXAMPLE

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MAP

Objectives, scope
Applying for entry clearance to the UK
Customer
Short-term student from China (Sichin) Customer
& journey type segment
Experience
Moments Mapping
of truth

Query from Receive

Key
Key Journey
Journey Finds Application Payment Biometrics and
UK Visas interview VISA received
Steps
Steps information submitted processed
received request
interview

Sichin

Sichin has Contacted for Visa arrives in

Sichin applies Application
details of her Payment has interview. Attends her the post.
online and and checks
course and gone through Worried – interview. Hugely
sends have shown
Actions, feelings, tries to find out but she’s biometrics Nervous – relieved and
supporting one of the
thoughts and about visa heard nothing sounds building can now look
reactions at each application.
documents by
yet. It’s a big
documents is
alarming. intimidates forward to and
This is based on an
step Finds the
secure post.
sum of money
missing.
Anxious now her. Hope it’s finalise her actual example of
Expensive but Sichin finds
website easily
can’t risk
– hope all’s
this but more
about timing – gone OK but plans for mapping done by the
and is
losing them
OK
expense
all taking a hard to tell coming to Borders & Immigration
encouraged long time England
Agency. It’s been
reworked into the
formats used in this
Website; Currently no Payment goes Query sent by Letter sent Face to face Postal delivery guide.
needs to be contact. through bank email. out. contact with of visa
easy to access Opportunity to – no direct Opportunity to Opportunity to interviewer. Can be sent
Touchpoints 24/7 confirm receipt acknow- update on say more Could say with more info
Supporting ledgement progress and about the more about on immigration
phone line timing process process to
reassure

© Oxford Strategic Marketing

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 STEP 1: CONFIRM THE JOURNEY AND
CUSTOMER
Now that you’ve researched your customer journey you need to go back to the broad
definitions of customer and journey that you established in the set up stage to confirm
that you got it right at that point.

Confirm the journey DEFRA CASE STUDY

CLIMATE
„ Does your description of the journey match the
way that customers talked about it, using their CHANGE
language?
Customer „ Does it cover all the key parts of the customer’s On complex subjects you may want to map
Experience interaction with government on this issue?
more than one journey. Looking at how to
„ Based on your learning from customers, are you DEFRA wanted to plan when and how to
Mapping clear that this is best mapped as one single
communicate
communicate with
with people
people to
to get
get positive
positive
action on climate
action on climate change
change you may consider
If, as a result of this journey? Sometimes you need to map more
multiple journeys,
They mapped e.g.
six journeys:
review, you change your than one (see example on the right)
view on the journey or „ Have you got the right start and end points for
customer definition, amend the journey? (see opposite page) Planning and doing a weekly
your initial maps to reflect supermarket shop
new descriptions.
Consider whether you need Getting about every day
Confirm the customer
to do any further mapping
work at this stage. „ Based on your journey research, are you
confident that the customer groups you identified Running the home daily
are the right ones?
„ Are there shared needs, behaviours and
attitudes within the groups? Are the groups Home maintenance
Now is a good time distinct from one another?
to go back to and „ If you prioritised any groups earlier, was this
expand on the prioritisation confirmed by the research? Are Buying a new home
customer pen there any other groups that you should be
portraits you treating as priorities?
drafted earlier (see
the example in the Planning a big holiday
online toolbox if
you want to know
more).

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© Oxford Strategic Marketing They mapped six journeys:
STEP 2: IDENTIFY KEY JOURNEY STEPS
Don’t think about journey steps in terms of the contacts that customers have with
government - base them on the journey as they define it. It’s particularly
important to think about when a journey starts and ends.
Be careful about the number of steps you use; 6-10 is ideal. In simple journeys with few steps,
DWP found that
challenge these to see whether any have component parts that could be broken out. In long,
the journey for
complex journeys focus on the key steps; points where emotions run high, decision points, points older carers begins
where the cost (to the customer) is high and ‘baton-change’ points between departments. long before people
It can help to think about the experience in the three stages shown on the tool below: start receiving
benefits – the point
at which they are Customer
officially recognised
as carers. Experience
JOURNEY STAGES
Mapping

Start point Journey process End point

„ Is there a phase that’s „ Have you considered all „ Distinguish between
invisible to government the contact points that points where customers
before
Pic you become customers might have might choose to drop
involved? during the journey out of the journey and
„ Are other departments process, not just with the actual end of the
involved before your your own department journey process
own? but across government „ Think about whether the
„ What are the entry as a whole? journey might lead to When mapping the
points in to this journey? „ What is the impact of ‘customer remorse’ – mortgage process,
Do customers choose outside influences emotions, doubts, financial service providers
beyond your control that insecurities or may end the map at the
to enter in to the journey
might affect the dissatisfaction that point the mortgage is
or are they propelled in paid off and beyond –
to it? journey? needs tackling and
which may be a journey
„ Do you need to create „ Does the journey therefore should be of 25 years.
depend on, start after, included in the journey
awareness as a first The resulting ‘empty
step before the actual or lead into any other nesters’ may be ripe for
journey begins? experience that should buying a second or
be included? retirement home so the
journey may not even end
there!

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 STEP 3: ACTIONS, THOUGHTS & FEELINGS
When you are clear on your journey steps, enter them onto your map in sequence.
You’re now ready to go on to filling in the heart of the map – the actions, thoughts and
feelings that people experience at each step.

As you map, never lose sight of the customer.

Keep reminding yourself to stick to an external
perspective and don’t use ‘internal’ knowledge
to fill in any content.
It isn’t a great customer experience map unless…
If you really don’t know how a customer feels
… it truly brings the customer to life
Customer at a given point, don’t make it up. Ideally go
back to the customers or staff who did the … it’s build on a deep understanding of thoughts
Experience and feelings
mapping and find out the information you need.
Mapping If that can’t be done, and the missing … it’s clear and easy to follow (no jargon!)
information isn’t crucial to the process, log it as … it engages people in the issue
a gap in your understanding to be tackled as
an action point coming out of the process. … it’s totally unambiguous.

Example step:
Tax credit applicant
receives notice to repay
overpayment
The action steps you Initial reaction of shock,
record don’t have to followed by anger and When DWP carried out their work mapping carers’
simply be black words on despair. Real fear of the journeys, they carried out initial interviews on which to
white paper. Don’t consequences – no
base their maps. Then, following work to set out the key
money for Christmas this
necessarily stick to an A4 year, could even lose flat journey steps, they went back to the carers and reviewed
page – you can use much the steps with them to ensure that they truly reflected their
“I can’t believe they can
larger maps and make them be this incompetent” actions, thoughts and feelings at each point.
highly visual. Include
photographs and verbatim
comments if they help.
The output shouldn’t be
academic – it should
engage and inspire.

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STEP 4: TOUCHPOINTS
A touchpoint is a point in the journey where you have some sort of interaction with the
customer. It’s an opportunity to explain things and improve the experience.

„ Remember that all interactions are „ Think about touchpoints from the customer’s
touchpoints: point of view. To him or her, contact with any
Customer
– Physical interactions (buildings, car parks government department is a touchpoint; don’t Experience
etc just consider your own points of contact Mapping
– Human contact (reception staff, call centres, „ Just because you make a service or
frontline teams) information available doesn’t mean the
– Communications (advertising, websites, customer has seen it. Only count things that
literature) are touchpoints from the customer’s
„ Not all touchpoints have the same impact – perspective
think about their relative importance
Understand the
opportunities
The ‘Tell us once’ project is looking to reduce the number
of times that people have to contact government to report touchpoints open
a change of circumstance such as a birth or a up for you. Good
bereavement. use of them can
In doing this, the project team have identified and improve the journey
mapped touchpoints that span people’s whole experience for customers and
of government – not just one part of it. The objective is to make it smoother
remove the unnecessary touchpoints, that put an extra and more cost-
burden on the customer, but to make sure that the effective for you.
touchpoints that remain are enough to guarantee that
customers continue to get the information and support
that they need.

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 STEP 5: MOMENTS OF TRUTH
Moments of truth (also called “hot spots” or “voting points”) are key points in the journey
where customers may pause and evaluate the experience, or make a crucial decision
(e.g. whether to stay or go). Get it wrong here and you can lose them, but it’s also the
point at which you can make the strongest positive impression.
You can usually identify moments of truth by thinking about what people focused on during the mapping
event, or what they felt most strongly about during interviews.

Customer
Experience
Mapping „ Try to limit the number of moments of truth „ Moments of truth may not be the same for
you identify to no more than 3 or 4 per each customer segment. Plot each segment
journey so that you focus your attention on separately
the most important areas „ Even though it’s right to focus on moments
„ Choose the really pivotal points where key of truth, don’t forget other parts of the
decisions or choices are made – not simply journey. There may be quick wins
the steps that are most complex or take elsewhere
Focus your actions longest
around moments
of truth, to
maximise impact on
Think about moments of truth from your own
the customer and experience…
help you target y When you pressed 3, then 4, then 2, held for 5 minutes, then got
limited resource to transferred and finally got an engaged tone when calling to pay
your phone bill
where it
y When you queued for 20 minutes to get a passport application
will have most
form at the post office, only to be told you could download it
effect.
from the internet
y When you completed the insurance application form online, then
received a telephone call going over all the same questions
How did you feel?

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THE MAPPING WORKSHOP
Preparation Running Capture & Output

Make sure that

you capture the
understanding
behind the words
that were said.

WHO? WHAT TO BRING? WHAT TO CAPTURE? Customer

„ Customers/users of service or „ Clear description of, and „ Plan on the day to capture as
representatives (e.g. charities) evidence supporting, the much as possible. It’s easy to
Experience
„ Frontline staff segments you have chosen edit after the event, but not to Mapping
„ People from policy and strategy „ Customer profiles and pen recapture something that’s lost
„ Service owners portraits, pictures, anything WHAT OUTPUT?
„ Experts on any key research relevant that brings your „ Be prepared after the event to
„ Creative and energetic people customer to life tidy up and edit as necessary
who will join in and contribute „ Relevant research
„ Simplify where you can, but
„ People with a vested interest in „ Existing satisfaction measures
without losing the real
the project „ All inputs from mapping events
understanding that can come When constructing journey maps,
HOW MANY? HOW TO RUN? from the detail a workshop involving a core team
„ Ideally about 6-10 people „ Plan an agenda that’s realistic „ Look for output that is visual of people is usually the best way
„ The more you have the longer for the time and number of and arresting – with pictures to capture and articulate the
you’ll need…but you’re likely to people that you have (see and diagrams
journey or journeys you are
get more views, which could following page) „ Check back with customers or
lead to a more robust result „ If you need to cover more than staff who took part in mapping mapping.
WHERE? one journey or customer group, events – does your output really The mapping workshop is the
„ Location can really affect quality
be realistic. Consider splitting reflect their experience? engine room of the process.
of people’s input and therefore your participants into teams to
handle multiple journeys, or Bringing together all your
your final output
„ Offsite is usually best
divide tasks across more than customer research and
one workshop understanding in an inspirational
„ Choose a location that is The BIA case
setting with creative and energetic
creative or relevant to the study in Section 6
journey you are mapping people should be a hugly engaging
gives further
experience for them, and result in
See following page examples of
transformational journey maps.
See online toolbox for an outline agenda creative ways to
for workshop and workshop capture output
planning checklists approaches

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 RUNNING A MAPPING WORKSHOP
Obviously any workshop plan will vary according to your specific objectives, inputs and participants, but
here’s a suggested outline agenda and some possible mapping approaches.

OUTLINE AGENDA
For a full day workshop

Introduction and ice breaker 15 mins

Setting the context 30 mins
WALLPAPER WORKING
Customer „ Project background and journey mapping principles
Recreate the steps of the journey
Experience „ Objectives for today
on a long sheet of wallpaper.
Mapping Getting to know your customers better 60 mins Show all entry and exit points,
highlighting different routes,
„ Share research and inputs from mapping event
options, and what’s happening at
„ Cover each segment (where applicable) each stage.
Defining the journey 15 mins
„ Agree definition including start and finish points

Be creative! Build journeys (see approaches on the right) 60 mins POST-IT PARKING
„ Build journeys for each key segment Use Post-it notes to detail each
By all means „ Work in groups as necessary step of the journey, arranging them
use the agenda in order to create the sequence of
here as a base, Share outputs 15 mins events. This can be used
but don’t be LUNCH alongside the wallpaper approach.
afraid to add or Remember to photograph final
Reprise morning work to ensure shared 30 mins
substitute your output and/or number the Post-its
own ideas. understanding of all journeys so the order of each step is not
lost.
Identify touchpoints and moments of truth 30 mins
„ Work in groups as before
Share outputs 30 mins MAKING AN ARRANGEMENT
PRO-FORMAS
Identify opportunities to make changes 60 mins Hot Spot
Print off pro-forma worksheets and
„ In groups as before, focused against key objectives Journey
Steps
Pre-
separation
The Break Up
Immediate
aftermath
Getting help
Period of Making Trying to
adjustment arrangements make it work
Review &
revise
Ongoing End of
management arrangement
ask participants to compete them.
„ Think about how to implement and monitor Experience: xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
Make them large (at least A3) to
„ Actions
„ Thoughts
„ Feelings
maximise impact and encourage
Share outputs 30 mins „ Reactions
detail. Make them colourful and
Key issues/
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
xxx:
„ xxx
specific to each target segment,
Agree next steps and close 15 mins opportunities
for us to
address: using photographs and pictures.

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TAKING ACTION - INTRODUCTION
Developing a set of customer experience maps is not the end point of your process, it’s just
the beginning. The most important part of the whole exercise is what you do with the maps to
improve or transform the customer experience.

There are a number of steps you need to go through when planning actions:
„ Go back to the context checklist from the set up stage, and remind yourself
how you intended the maps to be used and by whom. Keep sight of your
objectives
„ Think about what the ‘ideal’ journey might look like in comparison to the one
that the customer experiences now (see following page) Customer
„ Plan how you can move towards the ideal. Don’t just look for incremental
improvements – spend time thinking about the opportunities for truly
Experience
innovative solutions Mapping
„ Plan how to engage other people in the work you have done. You should
have been seeking stakeholder involvement right from the set up phase, but
now’s the time to really sell in what you’ve done and engage people in it

Hammersmith and Fulham Council combined sophisticated

Action areas to think about: CRM systems with customer journey mapping to transform
Identifying touchpoints
„ The products and services you offer their customer access strategy. and moments of truth will
Transactional services were completely reorganised into one have helped show where
„ People and delivery department, run by a new ‘Residents Direct’ team. The new you need to focus your
„ Environment operation combined front and back office with slick phone efforts and resources.
and web services.
Use them to help plan
„ Channel Simple transactions were directed to the web, whilst face to
face interaction was focused on the relatively limited number
actions.
„ Communications of people who were identified as really needing help. Think here, too, about
whether you know enough
about the how the
system works – it there
value in mapping the
system too?

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 DEFINE THE IDEAL JOURNEY AND
IDENTIFY GAPS
Defining the ideal journey can be a powerful way of helping to drive out possible actions. By
comparing the current with an ‘ideal’ experience it’s possible to identify where gaps exist
between the two, and these can become the focus for your actions.

Moments of Truth Checklist It’s often particularly

Complete this for each moment of truth to identify helpful to focus your efforts
changes that need to be made: on moments of truth, these
Customer Moment Current Desired being the points at which
of Truth Experience Experience customers are most likely
Experience
to form strong opinions
Mapping and make decisions about
whether to stay with or
leave the process.
The moments of truth
You may have already checklist on the left is a
talked to customers useful tool to use here.
about the ideal journey.
If not, hypothesise it
based on the highs and
lows that are HMRC mapped the customer experience to look at current and ideal
experienced now and experiences of PAYE. Mapping the two side by side, they identified
test it, ideally with where the greatest gaps lay, and used the analysis to generate ideas
customers but for short, medium and long-term improvements to the service.
otherwise with The short-term focus was on using comms to give the customer more
frontline staff or and better information so they knew what to expect of the system and
others involved closely where to go for help. Meanwhile, initiatives were put in place to
in the mapping process. simplify the customer interface, so improving the experience. The
final, longer term, actions aimed to simplify the product and process in
order not just to improve but to transform the experience.

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 EXAMPLE OF COMPARING A CURRENT
AND IDEAL EXPERIENCE

FREE SCHOOL MEALS –IDEAL JOURNEY

Tameside Council mapped both the

current and the ideal journey when
re-designing their free school meals
application process. Customer
By plotting the two side by side they were Experience
able to identify where the customer
experience needed to change, in what ways
Mapping
and over what timescale.

FREE SCHOOL MEALS – CURRENT JOURNEY

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 IDENTIFY PRIORITY ACTIONS
Coming up with clear, specific actions is absolutely central to the customer
“After we’d done the journey mapping process. Maps that people find interesting and then put away
mapping, the issue was on a shelf somewhere are never going to transform the customer experience.
what to do with it. If we
were doing it again now Use the analysis you have done so far
we’d engage people earlier (touchpoints, moments of truth, gap
on and think about actions analysis) to identify where the greatest
from the start” need for action lies.
Think about what you can do in the short,
Customer medium and longer term to address
Experience issues raised (the prioritisation tool on
page 76 in Section 4 might help here).
Mapping Then think about the tangible steps you
need to take and create an action plan,
using the normal common-sense
principles:
„ Be clear and specific
Within the Ministry of Justice, HMCS mapped
„ Put time limits against actions
how jurors, witnesses and victims of crime felt
When you’re creating an action „ Assign specific responsibilities
whilst going through the court system.
plan, try to think of both „ Indicate targets and how progress will
Findings were communicated throughout the
shorter-term, practical things be measured organisation using interactive workshops, and
you can do right away, and „ Be realistic in terms of what you
an action plan was worked up as a formal
also the ‘big wins’ that you expect in what timeframe. project with work-streams that included:
may be able to achieve in the Never lose sight of the need to carry staff „ Improving the front of house experience to
with you and to establish wider buy-in
longer term. Don’t let current create better first impressions of court
across the organisation.
practice constrain your „ Better call routing to the appropriate contact
„ Improving staff knowledge
thinking – be prepared to think
„ Facilitating better dialogue with judges
big, challenge and stick to your
„ Improved information for witnesses on what
guns! to expect in the court process, provided in
DVD format.

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LEVERS FOR IDENTIFYING ACTIONS
When you are considering the actions you might take, it’s useful to think about the different
‘levers’ that are available to you, as shown below.
Identify the lever(s) that will have the biggest impact, and specify where you will use them to improve the
customer experience. Think from the customer’s perspective and think in terms of joined-up services, not silos.

CONTENT CHECKLIST
LEVERS FOR IDENTIFYING ACTIONS
Customer
Channel /
Experience
Product / Service
Does it meet customer Proposition Environment Mapping
expectations and Can customers easily
Is your proposition
deliver on their needs? access your product /
clear, engaging and
Are your services service? Are they
motivating?
joined up with those of made to feel
other departments? welcome?

Think about what is driving the

Communication Value Provision Partnerships
need for change.
Do you have a strong Are there areas Are you working with
voice with your where you are over- the right partners in Is this an internal resource
customer ? Are you delivering (or the right way? Are management/optimisation issue?
communicating in the duplicating) or under- you and your partners
Or is the need to change driven
most effective and delivering and failing consistent in your
compelling way? on your proposition? service delivery? by a mismatch of customer
experience vs. expectation?

Customer Face Process Reputation Aim to understand the root of

Are your customer- Is the process smooth Do your customers the problem you are trying to
facing colleagues with easy transitions? recognise who you fix. It is important to treat
effectively briefed, Are customers are and what you are the cause, not just manage
and are they satisfied with the there for? Are you symptoms.
delivering to required experience you distinct in what you
standards? provide? offer?

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 EXAMPLES OF TAKING ACTION

TAKING ACTION

TYPE OF JOURNEY EXAMPLES OF ACTIONS YOU MIGHT TAKE

Customer Actual
„ Identify most appropriate times and ways to deliver information & messages
A literal, physical journey; e.g.
Experience „ Improve the environment at key points
prisoners being taken from court to
„ Train staff to recognise and respond to moments of truth
Mapping prison

Transactional „ Establish new channels so that customers can access government more
Going through a process with fixed easily and efficiently „ Plan and
steps, e.g. applying for free school „ Look for ways of reducing journey times (re)allocate
meals „ Remove duplication from the process resources to
focus on
Experiential „ Build staff engagement and empathy for customers areas of
This tool gives greatest
An ongoing experience of a service „ Encourage cross-silo working to deliver a consistent customer experience
some examples or linked services, e.g. using the „ Find ways increase patient engagement through improved communication need
of the sort of Health Service „ Plan resources around times of peak demand
actions that „ Set
Emotional performance
are likely to A ‘mental’ journey that is
„ Identify priority customer groups who need most help
indicators
„ Train staff to know when to intervene and when to stand back
come out of experienced over time e.g. going and
„ Change systems to reduce demand on customers at times of greatest
the mapping through a separation and making
emotional stress standards so
arrangements for children
process. that change
Relationship Building over time
Note that The development of a relationship
„ Establish ongoing communication channels with low cost to serve
can be
these don’t all with government over time; e.g. a
„ Identify times when customers will and won’t welcome contact from you
measured
„ Segment customers according to the stage they’ve reached in their
have to be large business customer working
relationship with you
government to grow a business
scale and
Rite of Passage
expensive – „ Link systems to reduce need for multiple contacts from the customer
A major life change or lifestage
there are often event that can cut across many „ Focus resource on ‘baton-change’ points where customers can be lost
quick wins too. parts of government, e.g. „ Train staff so they understand their role vis a vis that of other departments
bereavement

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SELLING IT IN
A vital part of taking action is developing a strong sell-in to the rest of the
When presenting
organisation. This is vital if a really transformational experience is to become a
journey mapping
reality. to a senior group
Think widely in terms of who you want to communicate to in the selling-in process. Think of managers,
about all stakeholders, and be sure to include both senior managers and front line staff. HMRC used
actors to bring
Tailor your communication to the audience, both in terms of what you say and how you
customer
say it – senior managers will want to know results and implications and front line staff are experiences to
likely to need more detail to get to grips with the issues. Both will welcome presentation life.
styles that bring the issues to life, and journey mapping is ideally suited to this. “We used actors Customer
to highlight that
Selling it to staff there really is a Experience
„ Encourage staff to look at what they do from the customer’s customer.” Mapping
perspective
„ Give very clear reasons for any actions that are being taken,
based on the customer experience
„ Ensure staff are aware of all internal input to the process (e.g. in HEART MONITOR
putting the maps together)
„ Present things as visually and engagingly as possible – win hearts
Customer
and minds Objectives,
scope & journey
Track the process experienced
to improve levels of service
by jurors
segment
Jurors

type

Moments
of truth
Deliber- Delivery of Post trial
In court In court –
Receive Jury ation verdict
Key Journey pre-trial during trial
summons selection
Steps
Judge thanks Finishing
Receive letter was a relief
Getting wider buy-in within the organisation Great
– looking
forward to it
Judge was
‘professional’
jury – much
appreciated
+100
„ Ensure that journey mapping is seen as a means to an end, not Expenses
Trial was
impersonal
‘a hassle’
an end in itself Customer
Satisfaction
Easy to
change date
Locked
in Victims Not sent
Rating family start information
by email
„ Focus on the outcomes you will achieve Only small
amount of
to cry –
‘lowest
point’
about
sentencing
evidence No
„ Don’t overclaim in terms of what mapping can and can’t do – -100
Poor
Slow
selection
process
Late start
most days
useful preparation
for delivering
verdict
let the understanding speak for itself Comms: Manage Customer
face: Process: Comms:
Make jurors
Environment:
Provide adequate
Customer face:
Talk to jurors –
Comms:
Ensure follow-up
letter goes out re
Explain delays Simplify expenses stress the
expectations aware of role facilities
„ As with all staff, make it visual and engaging Levers for
Channel:
24 hour access
Environment: system
Make the wait as Look at time-
painless as keeping
played by all the
evidence
Comms:
Brief on verdict
importance of
what they’ve done
sentencing

solution hunting deliver

possible

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“In our experience, the
heart monitor has been
by far the most
powerful way to get
top management (and
Ministerial) attention”

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 CASE STUDY: LUTON AND
DUNSTABLE NHS TRUST
Luton and Dunstable NHS Trust, working with the NHS Institute for Innovation &
Robert, G and Bate,
S.P.(2006) Piloting, Testing Improvement, have pioneered a new approach to service improvement, using ‘experience-
and Evaluating Experience- based co-design’ to involve patients as co-designers of new products and services.
based design (EBD): key
findings and lessons for the
future. London. University
Patients and staff worked together to identify key touchpoints
College London
that had shaped their personal experiences of the head and
neck cancer service.
Customer Observation and staff interviews were followed by interviews
with patient volunteers and carers. Customer journeys were
Experience mapped, focusing on the emotions experienced by the
Mapping patients and the touchpoints that were identified, and these
were superimposed on a chronology of events.
This enabled the team to prioritise and implement a total of 43
service improvements, relating to efficiency (e.g. better
throughput of patients at clinics), patient safety (e.g. expanding
“..it was the patient
taking the interviewer staff competencies) and experience of the service (e.g. better
through every stage of environment and more choice about treatment).
his or her journey, … There were also unexpected knock-on effects as, for example,
sometimes passing over other outpatient clinics made changes based on the
points in the journey experience of the head and neck clinic.
which we and staff had
expected to be important,
and at other times Key success factors identified as a result of the study:
focusing on things which • Maintain a high profile for the project in the organisation
to us seemed almost • Invest significant time with patients up front to help them understand the process and their role
minor or trivial but which
• Use different tools to give patients a range of ways to get involved
to them had major
symbolic significance” • Allow patients and staff space and time to talk about their personal experiences
• Use an independent third party to observe and feed back to staff on existing services
• Have a local improvement specialist with dedicated time to co-ordinate the work
• Actively engage relevant clinical champions and gain senior executive support
• Use films to bring the stories to life
• Plan ahead for each successive phase by recruiting new participants (this also facilitates benchmarking
to see whether the experience has improved)

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EVALUATING RESULTS
Right at the start of the journey mapping process, in the set up phase, one of the
actions was to ensure that you set clear, measurable objectives. This is the point
at which you need to go back to these and test how well you are performing
against those.
There are two main ways of doing this; you can compare changes in your own
service over time or you can compare yourselves with other similar organisations.
This is called benchmarking.

Customer
Benchmarking over time Benchmarking against others
Experience
In most cases the best method to use, If you choose to benchmark against
because you can make a direct comparison of others, you need to identify a service Mapping
where you are now with where you were. that is directly comparable with your
You can look at whether customer journeys own.
have changed, in terms both of the journey This may be possible – a good example
steps and also thoughts, feelings and would be local government bodies
emotions along the way. facing similar issues to one another.
To do this, you need to ensure that the way However, you need to be careful –
you collect information or ask questions when obviously it’s hard to compare a wealthy
benchmarking is consistent with the original London borough, with a much poorer
exercise. You can use the same individuals if rural one.
it’s a journey they go through more then once;
otherwise aim for a matched sample of similar
people.
You also need to think about timing – allow
Section 5 of this guide gives more
enough time between the two exercises to
practical and detailed information
allow actions to be implemented and take about how to go about measuring the
effect. customer experience.

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 CASE STUDY: REDUCING THE ADMINISTRATIVE
BURDEN ON CITIZENS IN THE NETHERLANDS
“…if the administration…
could be simplified then In the Netherlands, as in the UK, improving service to citizens is a central part of government
this would make a big
difference. All those policy. A key objective is to reduce the administrative burden placed on citizens.
different declarations
amount to loads of red Work was undertaken in 2003 to
tape” understand the effect of this administrative
burden on a range of different people.
Some groups, such as older people and
carers, were found to have a
Customer disproportionately high numbers of
Experience interactions, and to give more insight into
Mapping these burdens the journeys of these
groups were mapped.
The experience of government (both local
and national) of all groups was tracked
across seven areas: identity, education,
health, work and income, housing, mobility
The administrative and ‘general’. A calculation was then made
burden is defined as:
“the number of
of the total amount of time this represented
hours required for over the course of a year.
citizens to comply The government set itself the target of
with their obligations reducing the administrative burden across
to provide information
as a result of all groups of people of 25%, through a
legislation and combination of existing and new initiatives.
government The government tracked the same
regulations”. journeys again at the start of 2007 to work
out what reduction, if any, had been
achieved.

For more information, see the

following website, which is in
English: Across all citizens, the administrative burden has now been reduced by around 23%.
www.whatarelief.eu Results for the specific target groups ranged from a 14% time reduction for the parents of a disabled
child, to 39% for a single mother on welfare. A ‘median family’ included in the study saw a reduction in time of 16%.
The study has given clear indications of where progress has been made, by customer group and by service area. This in turn
has given clear guidance on where to focus the next set of initiatives.
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Section 4

Mapping the System

INTRODUCTION
Also known as process mapping, mapping the system is about creating a graphic
representation of all the steps, actions, interactions and decision points of a
process in order to understand it and thus identify opportunities for improvement. Your first draft of a
system map may well be
made using internal staff
In this section we describe how to map a system, combining deep understanding of the rather than customers. This
customer experience with the practicalities of the system or process they encounter, and can then be compared with a
map drawn up with the help
moving through to taking action and evaluating results.
of customers to identify the
There are five steps in the process: gap between your
assumptions and their
experiences.

Mapping
the System
Set up – the Evaluating
Gathering Constructing Taking
mapping results This section describes
information the map action
context the second mapping
approach and sets out
steps and tools to help.
‘Mapping the System’ is great for:
„ Sharing what the current process looks like Core tools are
„ Showing relationships between steps and other departments involved included in
„ Identifying deviations from the norm – where do things go wrong? this guide but
„ Identifying duplication and other inefficiencies there are more
„ Identifying how and where things can be improved (and where further in the online
investigation is needed) toolbox.
„ Comparing the view of staff with the view of customers – you can do two
maps and look at the differences between them
„ Training – showing how things should be done
„ Serving as process documentation and setting standards

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 THE SYSTEM MAP

CONTENT CHECKLIST

Take care that you start

by mapping the system as
it really is, not as you’d Objectives/
End-to-end
Customer
like it to be. scope
system
segment
definition

Core Goal 1: Goal 2: Goal 3:

system
goals

Mapping
KEY STEPS IN SYSTEM/CUSTOMER JOURNEY
the System
Decision
Customer Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4a Step 5 point
Step 7 Step 8

Decision Decision
The basic tool for Dept 1 point
Step 3b point
Step 4b Step 6
Mapping the System is
shown here. As you
read through this
section, we’ll take you Agency Step 3c
through how to build
your own map. First,
however, we need to
cover the set-up phase NOTES ON PROCESS AND CRITICAL INCIDENTS
where you will consider
the context in which
you will be mapping.
Critical Critical
incident incident

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SET UP: THE CONTEXT
As with any journey mapping, as a first step you need to clarify the context. This tool
differs slightly from the one given in Section 3, to reflect the different type of mapping that
you are doing.

CONTEXT CHECKLIST

„ Identify key users, current expertise and knowledge or use of

system/process maps
Who will „ Agree how these key users will be involved in the process
use the „ Identify additional stakeholders and agree how they should
maps? be involved/informed Mapping
„ Ensure everyone is clear and aligned in their expectations of the System
the process and outputs

„ Confirm what the maps will be used for and the level of
detail/robustness required
How will „ Be clear whether you need to quantify the steps in the map
in terms of, for example, costs incurred or time taken At the start of
maps be
„ Ensure you have set clear, measurable objectives mapping, you need to
applied?
be clear about three
„ Are you also mapping the customer experience? If so, how
things that set the
will you consider the two maps together?
mapping context –
the who, how and
„ Confirm the budget and timescales what.
„ Agree how and when other departments and agencies
What should be involved
is the „ Audit your knowledge of the system – how much do you
know already?
scope?
„ Make an initial plan of the approach, process and anticipated
outputs

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 SET UP: INITIAL ISSUES TO CONSIDER
In the set up phase you need to put together an initial definition of the system you’re mapping
and the customer group or groups you need to focus on. You also need to think about who else
might be involved.

What’s the system/process?:

„ Clearly identify the end-to-end system or process you are mapping, taking particular care to define
clear start and end points based on both the internal view and also the external customer one
„ Think about whether you are building on an existing system or whether you need to develop a new
one from scratch. If it’s a new system you have to walk people through the process – don’t make
assumptions about how they behave
„ Try to avoid over complexity. Large systems can be broken down into component parts and
reassembled later

Mapping Which customers?

the System „ For system mapping you don’t usually need to segment and identify different customer groups unless
they have a genuinely different experience of the system, as opposed to response to it.
„ However, if you do need to segment customers, see page 25 in Section 3 for notes on segmentation
Precise
and where to find out more about it
definitions of the
system and the
customer may
change after
customer input,
but you need to
be clear at this
Which other departments?
stage about the „ Identify all intermediaries, departments, agencies etc. involved and ensure you have the ability to get
parameters input from all of them in building your map
within which you „ Pay particular attention to ‘baton-change’ points where departments interact
should be „ Think broadly and think from the point of view of the customer. Customers don’t necessarily
working recognise departmental boundaries and may consider contacts and communications from other areas
of government to be part of the process you’re mapping
„ Recognise the impact of:
– Both local and national government
– All ‘government’ communications from letters to websites
– NGOs such as Citizens’ Advice Bureaux or charities like Age Concern

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SET OUT THE MAP(S) YOU WANT TO COMPLETE
CONTENT CHECKLIST
Having defined your context, you can fill in the headers
on your system map or maps:
End to end
Objectives/ Customer
system
scope segment
definition

Core system Goal 1: Goal 2: Goal 3:

goals
„ Objectives/scope
KEY STEPS IN SYSTEM /CUSTOM ER JOURNEY

xxx Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 xxx Step 4a Step 5

Decision
point
Step 7 Step 8 „ End to end system definition
xxx
Decision
point
Step 3b
Decision
point
Step 4b Step 6
„ Customer segment
xxx Step 3c
„ Core system goals.
NOTES ON PROCESS AND CRITICAL INCIDENTS

xxx xxx
Critical
incident
xxx xxx
Critical
incident
xxx xxx xxx xxx
Make sure you map it as it is in reality, not in theory.

MAP COMPLETION CHECKLIST

Mapping
„ State overall objectives of the mapping exercise the System
Objectives/scope
„ How and by whom will the maps be used?

End to end „ Clear statement of what you’re mapping, with start and end points
system definition „ Is this an existing system or a new one?
Once you have
„ All customers or a specific segment? set out your
Customer Segment maps, the next
„ Include brief description step will be to
pull together
„ What are the specific things you want to achieve? the information
Core System goals and inputs that
„ Have you set clear, meaningful criteria for success?
you need in order
to complete the
„ Are you mapping one system or more? rest of the
How many maps? „ Are you mapping the current experience and/or the ideal one? maps.

„ Will you be comparing the view of staff with the view of customers?

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 GREAT EXAMPLES OF MAPPING THE SYSTEM
These are great examples of where good up-front planning resulted in successful outcomes from
system mapping.

ROYAL BOROUGH OF
BORDERS & IMMIGRATION
KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA

Mapping
the System
In a drive to build customer focus, the Royal Borough of When the Borders & Immigration Agency carried out
Kensington and Chelsea undertook initial customer system mapping to help manage immigration, they worked
segmentation work, and are now in the process of alongside an Implementation Manager from day one.
realigning their services and IT, based on a better Together he and the mapping team were thinking about
understanding of who their customers are, what they need possible actions and implications right from the start.
and which are their preferred access channels. The implementation manager was kept in the loop at the
Consultation and a predictive understanding of customers, pre-research stage and was directly involved as soon as
based on segmentation, revealed customer dissatisfaction findings became available.
about parking services (to renew parking permits, the The benefits of his involvement became clear when it came
system required people to come to a parking shop in to action planning. He helped engage staff, identify
person, during working hours). RBKC started work on a competencies needed and develop training programmes,
project to allow on-line permit renewals, and co-located all of which contributed to the successful introduction of
their residents’ permits team with other services in a new new processes and service standards.
customer service centre, with an aim to develop multi-
skilled residents teams. This has allowed better use of
information and increased resolution at the first point of
contact.

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 GATHERING INFORMATION
Before you start the actual process of mapping, you need to be sure you have the
information you need. Follow your own system, talk to colleagues and other departments.
Above all, make sure you reflect the customer. Ensure you know about all the following:
As you gather your
Activities: Inputs: Outputs: Metrics: Issues: information be sure to
„ What are the key „ What data inputs „ What are the „ How long does „ Are there different record and document
tasks and steps? are there? outputs from the each step take? entry or exit points? what you do, taking care
„ What generates „ What step(s) do process? „ What are the costs? „ What problems to clearly identify all
them? Why? they link to? „ How many are (to you and to the arise (nature and sources
„ Who’s responsible? „ What forms or there? customer) frequency)?
„ What’s the order of reports are used? „ Where do they go? „ What volumes are „ What causes them?
events? „ What computer „ How are they used? dealt with? (how „ How are problems
„ Are there options – systems are „ Who reviews them many people, and errors handled?
different journeys? involved? and when? forms, etc.) „ Are short-cuts
„ Who performs each „ What level of detail „ How do time taken taken? How?
step? How? is needed? and cost incurred „ Are there peak
„ Which channels? vary by journey? periods of demand?
Mapping
the System

SOME TECHNIQUES FOR INFORMATION GATHERING

Walk the walk Buddy up

When you map a
Take time to walk personally through the Accompany a customer and front-line staff system, you don’t
entire system/customer journey step by member going through the same process or need the depth of
step. system. Experience things exactly as they emotional detail
Make detailed notes focusing on time taken, do. Note down the steps taken and level of used in mapping the
duplication, points of high and low efficiency. satisfaction from both perspectives to customer experience, but
Compare thoughts with colleagues. compare internal and external experiences. you still need to approach
this from the viewpoint
Daily dissection Steal with pride of the customer. See
Section 3, page 27 –
Get customers and front-line staff to Identify agencies/companies/service
complete detailed diaries as they go through providers who have systems similar to yours
“Walking in the
the whole system. Keep close to them and (both public and private sector). Customer’s Shoes” for
give prompts/reminders to ensure no steps ideas about how to get
What do they do differently? Which parts of
are missed. the system are better/worse? What can you
close to customers.
Compare the experience from both angles. learn and use in your own system?

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 CONSTRUCTING THE MAP: INTRODUCTION
Having set out your maps and gathered information, it’s time to fill out the remaining
sections of each map and undertaking an initial analysis of it. The following slides describe
how to do this. This will usually be done in a mapping workshop, but not always, so we’ve
set out the steps to be taken and then, on pages 71-2, described some workshop
In many cases you’ll approaches
want to think about both
the current experience and CONTENT CHECKLIST

the ideal journey. This

section explains how to
End to end
Objectives/ Customer
system
scope segment
definition

build maps for both Core system Goal 1: Goal 2: Goal 3:

goals

KEY STEPS IN SYSTEM /CUSTOM ER JOURNEY

xxx Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 xxx Step 4a Step 5

Decision
point
Step 7 Step 8 You should have filled in
Decision Decision
the top boxes of the map in
xxx point
Step 3b point
Step 4b Step 6
the set-up stage.
xxx Step 3c In this stage we’ll cover
Mapping NOTES ON PROCESS AND CRITICAL INCIDENTS
how to fill in all the
the System xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx
remainder of the map.
Critical Critical
incident incident

Completing the
map is key, but „ Map the process as it actually „ Don’t attempt to start mapping until
the map isn’t an happens you’ve gone through the set-up
end in itself. „ Think about it across the whole of properly
When planning,
government „ Don’t map what you think might
always allow
„ Talk to lots of people who are happen – be honest and objective
plenty of time
after you’ve involved - customers, staff, other „ Don’t struggle on your own – use a
done the departments wider team!
mapping, to think „ In particular, involve frontline people „ Avoid getting bogged down in detail.
about taking „ Keep probing and asking questions If a system is really complex, try
action and breaking it down into manageable
„ Try to map at a fairly high level, at
tracking results. chunks
least initially

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SYMBOLS USED IN MAPPING THE SYSTEM
A large number of symbols can be used to create system or process maps.
The key ones that are used fairly universally are shown here:
There’s nothing
HOW THE SYMBOLS ARE USED: wrong with
Terminator A simple everyday example: adding to these
The start/stop point in Taking time off school basic symbols.
a process. However, be sure
START
Child wakes up
always to
feeling ill include a key so
that anyone
Process
Mum takes reviewing the map
Process or action step temperature
knows what it
- the most common all means.
symbol.
Is he STOP
well enough YES
Child goes
to go to
to school
school?
Decision Mapping
NO
Question or decision
Mum phones
the System
point, shown with school to say
alternative routes he’ll be absent

coming out of it.

Monitors
health
through
Connector day
An inspection point in Worsens so
the process flow. goes to doctor
who says it’s
infectious

Mum tells school

and asks how
Delay long before he
can come back School
Caused by a need for haven't yet
action by a party not Child is
advised how
long before
doing the process. feeling better
he can come
back More mapping
School says it’s symbols can be
Document okay to return found in the
online toolbox.
Mum writes sick STOP
note Child returns
to school

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 HOW TO CONSTRUCT A MAP

CONSTRUCTING YOUR MAP: KEY STEPS

„ Choose the level of detail you want to write at; either detail every simple
action, or just map enough information to understand the general process
„ Identify key steps that occur in the system. Include both what the
Step 1: customer experiences and relevant back office functions. Write them on
Identify post-it notes for easier sequencing
journey „ At this stage, focus on events, not decision points
steps „ List steps clearly and succinctly. Use enough words to say what happens,
but don’t write an essay
„ Be very clear on start and end points, and where people enter and leave
the system. Distinguish between completed journeys and early ‘dropouts’

Mapping Step 2: „ Put the steps in chronological order – after each one, ask ‘What happens
next?’. Work on a wall or large roll of paper. If you used Post-it notes, it’s
the System Sequence easy to move these around until you’re sure you’ve got it right
them and „ Don’t draw arrows at this stage – you’ll do that later
identify „ When you’re happy you have the right order of events, think about the
decision symbols to use for each step (see previous page)
This page „ Specifically, identify and add in decision points
shows the points „ Include a key for any symbols you use, especially new or unusual ones
steps you need
to go through „ Working downwards on your wall or roll of paper, list out all the parties
to construct involved in the process or system, starting with the customer and your own
Step 3: department and moving on to other departments, agencies, NGOs etc.
a system map
like the
Identify who’s „ Identify which are involved at each step in the process and move your
involved and Post-it notes up and down so they appear in line with the appropriate party
example shown „ Identify dependencies (see page 66). Once this is done you can add
opposite. dependencies
arrows to your map to indicate the flow. Working in pencil to start with
The following helps!
page gives
hints to help „ Final step is to annotate the map with notes – what’s going on and why?
you in the Step 4: „ You need to identify where problems and opportunities could arise (see
process. Add notes page 67 and the checklists on pages 68 and 69)
„ Highlight critical incidents – the points in the process that are real ‘make or
and identify break’ moments
critical „ You may also at this stage want to build the ‘ideal’ map and carry out a
incidents gap analysis – looking at the difference between current experience and
the ideal (see page 70)

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THE SYSTEM MAP: FREE SCHOOL MEALS EXAMPLE

SYSTEM MAP

Map Free School Meals

End to end Process of making a new
(FSM) to identify how to
Objectives/ application for FSM from Customer
deliver a better customer system becoming eligible through
All new applicants
scope service and achieve cost segment
definition to receiving meals
savings

Goal 1: Goal 2: Goal 3:

Core system Deliver an important benefit Minimise the number of entitled people Contribute towards a required 3%
goals consistently and without delays leaving the process without obtaining efficiency improvement across the
the benefit council

KEY STEPS IN SYSTEM/CUSTOMER JOURNEY Mapping

Leaves process Leave process the System
No No
Completes
application Receives
Becomes Finds out Do I Can I/ do Receives
form request for Sends extra Child starts
eligible/ about FSM want to I want to confirmation
Customer aware of and how to
(4 routes more information/
of FSM
receiving
apply? leading to information/ proceed? verification meals
eligibility apply Yes same entitlement
verification Yes
process)

No
Report sent
Tameside Receive Is all Bring up
Add claim to school The worked up example
child’s
of a system map is based
council FSM and check correct info dates and and
provided? record and
application Yes authorisation confirmation
section add note
to parent on the work done in
Tameside to review the
process for applying for
Receive
Provides free school meals.
School report on
entitlement
meals
This map, re-formatted
slightly to fit the
standard tool used in this
NOTES ON PROCESS AND CRITICAL INCIDENTS guide, reflects the
process as it stood when
Application Four Sometimes On-line Wasted Will continue
rates may different can verify applications materials to receive the mapping was first
vary by area; routes have
in some very
internally ,
sometimes
have earlier
start date
often
associated
benefit until
next review,
done.
places different
there’s more associated have to go than paper with this even if
stigma costs back to the ones step eligibility
Critical customer Critical changes
attached
moment moment

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 IDENTIFYING AND SEQUENCING STEPS
The tool here shows various types of dependency that are generally used in
mapping, and how and when to use them.

MAPPING DEPENDENCIES

Sequential Parallel Repetitive Optional

Dependency Dependencies Dependency Dependency
The simplest kind, Where two parties Where two parties Where one party can
where one party are involved in repeat the same change the process
Mapping depends on another activities at the same handover on a by opting out.
completing a task time, and both must number of occasions.
the System before they can begin finish before the next
their activity. step can take place.

A ‘dependency’ refers to the

relationship between two actions
in a process, where one can’t
happen until the other is Assemble
Look at cake Plan food for
completed. Bake cake
ingredients for
recipes the day
You’ll need to be able to identify cake
and express these on a map, but
don’t feel too constrained by Do the No Don’t
Will all
mapping ‘rules’. Express Pre-heat Mix No children
the family
dependencies in any way that suits oven ingredients deserve
bake
like them?
your process – just make sure cake?
today
you use notes or a key to show
what you have done. Yes Yes
Eat cake Assemble
Look at cake
Bake cake ingredients for
recipes
cake

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IDENTIFYING PROBLEMS AND
OPPORTUNITIES
Once you’ve produced your map of the current system, it’s often useful to think
about and identify problems and issues before drawing up the ‘ideal’ system. Use
the checklists on the following pages to help with this.

WORK WITH YOUR MAP TO

IDENTIFY PROBLEM AREAS

„ Work with a big copy – it helps to have space to write!

„ Using the checklist on the following pages, highlight problem areas using highlighter or marker pens.
You can use colour-coding to signify different types of problem, or use Post-its to add notes to your
map
„ Pay particular attention to what happens at decision points and critical incidents
„ Use the notes you’ve already made, but think beyond these. Look at your process from different Mapping
perspectives – your department’s, other departments’ and, vitally, the customer’s the System

SYSTEM
CONTENT M AP
CHECKLIST
Here’s the example map
M ap Free School M eals
Objectives/ (FSM ) to identify how to
deliver a better customer
End to end Process of making a new
system
application for FSM from Customer
All new applicants
from page 65, marked up to
scope becoming eligible through segment
identify problem areas. This is the first stage
service and achieve cost definition to receiving meals
savings

Use whatever method of of problem identification,

Goal 1: Goal 2: Goal 3:
Core system Deliver an important benefit M inimise the number of entitles people Contribute tow ards a required 3%
goals consistently and without delays leaving the process w ithout receiving efficiency improvement across the
the benefit board
marking you prefer, but it which you can do after
drafting your map of the
KEY STEPS IN SYSTEM /CUSTOM ER JOURNEY
Leave process Leave process helps to work on the map
No No

current process. You’ll

losing

Cust om er
Become
eligible/
Finds out
about FSM
Do I
Avoid

w ant to
Complete
here
people application
form
(4 routes
Receive
request for
more
Can I/ do
I want to
Sends extra
information/
Receives
confirmation
Child starts
receiving
itself so you identify exactly
come back to this again
aw are of and how to

where the issue lies.

apply leading to information/ proceed verification of FSM ??? meals
eligibility apply same verification
process)

Tam eside
council Receive
and check
Is all
correct info
Bring up
child’s record
Add claim
dates and
Report sent
in the ‘Taking Action’
section of the guide.
FSM provided to ???
application and add note authorisation
sect ion
h
Watc
out

Receive Provide
School report ??? meals

NOTES ON PROCESS AND CRITICAL INCIDENTS

Application Four ??? verify On-line Wasted Will continue
rates may different internally , applications materials to receive
vary by area; routes have functions have earlier often until next
in some very have ??? start date associated review even
places different
than paper with the ??? if eligibility
there’s ??? associated
costs ones changes
Critical Critical
moment moment

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 IDENTIFYING PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES
CHECKLIST 2:
CHECKLIST 1:
EFFICIENCY AND
THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
EFFECTIVENESS
„ Is the route through the system clear to
customers? Are there points where
they’re unsure where to go next? „ Is the overall timeframe acceptable?
„ Are they having to do the same thing Time „ How long does each step take now?
Complexity more than once? taken „ Where are the bottlenecks?
„ Are they clear where responsibility lies „ What caused delays? Why?
at each step in the process?
„ Are badly-designed forms or other
materials causing delays? „ Are any steps repeated? Why?
„ Does data get entered more than
„ How long does the whole process take once?
now? Duplication „ Does work get double-checked? Why
„ How long does each step take? is this necessary?
Time „ Do paper records duplicate electronic
Mapping taken
„ Are people satisfied with the overall
ones?
timespan and with time taken for
the System individual steps?
„ Where do delays occur and why?
„ Is there a clear reason why each step is
there?
„ Where and when are people coming Complexity „ Does it fulfill a unique purpose?
„ Are there ‘dog-legs’ in the system that
into this system? Are they coming in at
need to be ironed out?
the right points?
„ Once in the system, is signposting
Accessibility clear?
„ Does the customer see consistent
branding? „ Where do errors commonly occur?
The different checklists „ Are you offering appropriate channels? „ Where is rework taking place because
are here to help you think Errors of errors?
about problems from „ Who’s making errors and why?

different angles, but they „ What’s pleasant/unpleasant about the

experience now (customer experience
are not mutually Nature of mapping can help here if you don’t „ Are responsibilities clear at each step?
exclusive. Achieving experience know) „ At decision points is there a single,
better efficiency, for „ What are the real turn-off points? clearly-identified decision-maker?
„ Where are you losing people? Responsibilities „ Who captures and owns data?
example, can often go „ Are ‘baton-change’ points between
hand in hand with departments clearly identified and
smooth-running?
improving the customer
experience. „ What’s the cost to the customer at each
step in the process? „ Are there bottlenecks/errors/delays as
„ At which steps are costs seen to be a result of too few skilled people?
Cost unacceptable? People „ Where are people (our own or
„ Is the cost the same for all? If not, who partners’) failing to deliver fully, and
experiences most problems? why?

68 © Oxford Strategic Marketing

IDENTIFYING PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES

CHECKLIST 3: CHECKLIST 4:
COST TO SERVE CHALLENGING THINKING

„ What’s the direct cost to government at

each step in the process? „ Are you making assumptions about the
„ Where are costs particularly high? way things should be done based on
Overt costs „ Are some channels especially Assumptions what’s always gone before?
expensive? „ Are steps really adding value?
„ Are there avoidable contacts? „ Are decision-points really necessary?
„ Are some customers particularly costly?

„ What parts of the system have been

around for a long time without review or
„ Where might there be hidden costs
Hidden overhaul?
associated, for example, with
costs reworking, partner costs or costs not Inertia „ Where have steps proliferated because Mapping
something’s been tacked on to an old
directly incurred by your department?
system rather than rethinking the whole the System
thing?

„ Where are high costs adversely

„ Where are the touchpoints with other
affecting the level of service delivered
Impact government systems or processes?
to the customer?
„ Where are you incurring cost that’s Perspective Have you reflected all of these?
of costs „ Do you understand the impact on the
failing to deliver any value to
customer?
customers?

„ Are there points where you’re delivering

the same service to everyone, although
Choices not everyone needs the full process?
The ‘Tell us Once’ initiative „ Do you know what the cost/benefit
is seeking to join up government balance is for different customer types?
services across departments, not by
tacking together diverse systems but
by looking for a solution that starts
„ Are parts of the system becoming out-
from the viewpoint of-date?
of the customer. „ What do your customers think?
Relevance „ Are there points where the process has
failed to take advantage of new
technology (e.g. IT)?

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 BUILDING THE ‘IDEAL’ MAP AND DOING A
GAP ANALYSIS
There are two possible approaches to mapping the ideal process. Where you are dealing with
relatively small, clearly defined issues in single systems, it’s often enough to rework your current
map. However, for bigger issues and especially ones that cut across departmental boundaries it
is often better to start from scratch.

Use your current map as a starting Start from scratch, following the
point and edit it to remove unnecessary same approach that you used when
steps or make changes to the flow constructing the current map (page 64)
9 Thinking fundamentally about the process with
9 Systems or processes that have small, clearly-
no preconceptions
identified problems
9 Designing entirely new systems to replace,
9 Quick fixes when working within a tight deadline
rather than update, old ones
9 Re-designing systems that cut across more than
one department
Mapping
„ Allow enough time to do this properly – don’t
the System „ Avoid replicating existing practices simply
short-change this step just because you’ve done
because they’re there; challenge to ensure
you’re not missing something better this once already
After completing your „ Ensure you’re preventing problems not just „ Keep challenging. If you’re starting from scratch
current map and fixing those that exist use the chance to question all assumptions,
identifying problems with but…
the existing system, it’s „ …be realistic. You still need to take account of
constraints that can’t be overcome
usually helpful to think
about what the ‘ideal’
process would look like.
You can then compare
the two maps and When you’ve completed the CARRYING OUT A GAP ANALYSIS
identify differences
between them - a ‘ideal’ map, you can look at
process know as ‘gap how it differs from the current „ List out the key differences between the maps, identifying steps that
analysis. process or system by doing a need to be reviewed, processes that need to be changed, and
gap analysis. This can help differences in the list of departments/agencies involved
highlight the benefits of „ Identify changes to key metrics (this will help make the case for
changing the system and can change). Look at number of steps, number of inputs to the system,
time taken to follow it through, number of customer contact points and
be a valuable input to any costs to government and to the customer
business case.
„ Record any issues arising. You can follow up on these further at the
‘Taking Action’ stage

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THE MAPPING WORKSHOP
CAPTURE A mapping workshop
PREPARATION RUNNING
AND OUTPUT is a collaborative
event, bringing together
those who are involved
in the system day to
day as well as other
stakeholders or
catalysts for change
Plan ahead to get the
Who? What to bring What to capture? most from your
„ Frontline staff „ Evidence gathered during set up „ Capture as much as possible – workshop.
„ Experts on the process and planning you can always edit down later
„ People with detailed, first hand „ Descriptions of customers „ Be sure to photograph maps or
knowledge „ Any existing measures/metrics number Post-it notes so that
„ Structured, logical thinkers (satisfaction, time taken, costs) sequencing and links are not lost Mapping
How many? „ Materials to make mapping What output? the System
„ If you’re only mapping one visual and clear – different „ Tidy up and edit after the event.
process, about 4-6 people is coloured Post-its, coloured If possible use customers and
ideal pens, rolls of paper other people involved in your
„ If you are mapping more and How to run? process to sense-check what
need to break into groups 6-10 „ Plan an agenda that’s realistic you’ve done
would be good for the time and number of „ Make output visual and arresting
Where? people you have (see following – use colours and symbols with
„ Logistics are important – lots of page) a clear key
wallspace and room to move „ If you have a lot to cover be

around realistic. Split into groups or

„ You could choose an offsite hold a second workshop
location and/or one relevant to „ Stress that people need to pay
the journey you are mapping, attention to detail and spend
but this isn’t essential time on that

See following page

See online toolbox
for an outline agenda
for workshop
and workshop
planning checklists
approaches

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 RUNNING A SYSTEM MAPPING WORKSHOP
Obviously, any workshop plan will vary according to your specific objectives, input and
participants, but here’s a suggested outline agenda and some possible mapping approaches.

OUTLINE AGENDA
For a full day workshop INCIDENT ROOM
Set up a room or large section
of wall with lots of stimulus,
Introduction and ice breaker 15 mins e.g.
„ Photos from different points in
Setting the context 30 mins the system
„ Project background and system mapping principles „ Key documents issued
„ Customer communication
„ Objectives for today
materials
Understanding your system 45 mins „ Materials from other agencies
„ Quotes or insights gathered
(see approach on right)
along the way
Mapping „ Share pre-work and inputs from information gathering See BIA case study,
the System „ Define system start and end points pages 92-3.
Mapping symbols 15 mins
„ Introduce symbols with examples
Map systems (see approaches on the right) 60 mins
„ Cover systems for key segments and journeys
„ Work in groups as necessary WALLPAPER WORKING
Recreate the system on a
Share outputs 30 mins large sheet of wallpaper.
Show all entry and exit
LUNCH points. Identify
dependencies and decision
Problem analysis 45 mins points.
„ Identify where problems most often occur
„ Identify duplications, diversions, doglegs
Share outputs 30 mins
POST-IT PARKING
Map ‘ideal’ system for key segments 45 mins Use Post-it notes to detail
„ Work in groups as necessary each step, arranging them
in order to create the
Gap analysis 30 mins sequence of events.
„ Identify key differences between existing system and the ‘ideal’ Use different colours to
represent different mapping
Share outputs 30 mins symbols.
Agree next steps and close 15 mins Can be used alongside the
wallpaper approach.

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REVIEWING YOUR OUTPUT
If you follow the agenda shown opposite, by the end of your mapping workshop you should have
produced, at least in draft form, a map of the existing system or process, a map of the ideal process
and an analysis of the differences between the two. Before moving on to action, it’s worth spending
some time reviewing your outputs:

1. TIDY UP 3. CONSULT 4. FINALISE

Workshop output can be quite Before issuing and actioning Collate feedback received and
messy. Tidy and simplify if it’s final maps, get other people’s finalise the maps.
helpful – you can always add input. Particularly helpful Are there knock-on effects from
detail back in later. groups are: any comments received/charges
made? Is anything now
Customers
redundant?
Does your current map mirror the
Is anything still missing?
real experience? Is the ‘ideal’ Mapping
one really optimal? the System
Specialist functions
2. SENSE CHECK
e.g. IT, HR. Can they add detail
to the relevant parts of the map?
Go through the maps you’ve (You could carve it up for this
produced yourself purpose and stitch it back
Do they feel right? together afterwards).
Is the level of detail appropriate? Other stakeholders
Are outputs clearly captured and General feedback.
expressed? Are there any Use them as a ‘torture test’ to
ambiguities or inconsistencies?
really challenge what you’ve
produced.

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 TAKING ACTION
The work you’ve done to date should have given you current and ideal system maps and
some thoughts about differences between them. The next stage is to turn these thoughts
into a tangible action plan, and the checklists opposite set out many of the questions you
might be addressing
These checklists
are different from
the ones on pages CHECKLIST 1:
68 and 69. The CHECKLIST 2:
IMPROVING THE CUSTOMER
questions here IMPROVING EFFICIENCY
EXPERIENCE
focus not on
what’s wrong, but
on how you might CHECKLIST 3: CHECKLIST 4:
take action to put REDUCING THE COST ACHIEVING
it right.
TO GOVERNMENT TRANSFORMATION

Mapping There are four different checklists to encourage you to look at your maps from different angles, but they are
the System NOT mutually exclusive. Achieving cost savings and efficiencies can often go hand in hand with improving the
customer experience, as the examples on the back of the foldout sheet will show. Also on the reverse of that
sheet are notes and a tool to help you decide which of your possible actions to prioritise.

WORKING WITH YOUR MAP

TO IDENTIFY ACTIONS TO TAKE
Taking Action is the most
crucial part of the
mapping process. „ Use as a starting point the work you’ve already done in creating
your maps, specifically the identification of problems with the
Producing a beautiful current system, and the gap analysis (comparing current vs ideal)
system map isn’t an end in „ Use the checklists to prompt further thinking and add in any new
itself – it’s what you do issues or problem areas
with it that counts. „ Using the map on which you’ve recorded problem areas, use
Think here, too, about Post-it notes to record your ideas on actions and ‘solutions’
whether you know enough „ When you identify a potential action, think about any knock-on
about how people really effects that it may have
feel about the process– it
there value in mapping the
customer experience too?

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TAKING ACTION - CHECKLISTS
CHECKLIST 1:
CHECKLIST 2:
IMPROVING THE CUSTOMER
IMPROVING EFFICIENCY
EXPERIENCE
„ How can you avoid asking people to do
things they’ve already done (across „ Which steps cause most delays and/or
government as a whole)? are the priorities to be speeded up?
„ How can you ensure people are crystal „ How can you clear bottlenecks?
Make it Save time „ Where can you combine or eliminate
clear who’s responsible for each step?
simpler „ Can you redesign forms/other materials steps to speed up the process?
to make them simpler and avoid errors? „ Can tasks be automated? Which ones?
„ Should you provide somewhere to go for
help and advice? „ How can you eliminate repeated steps?
„ Can you link systems to avoid multiple

„ Which are the most time-sensitive steps Remove data entry?

„ Can you put in failsafe procedures to
that you should focus on? duplication
„ How can delays be avoided, or the effect
avoid the need for double-checking?
Make it of them lessened? „ How can you ensure paper records don’t
quicker „ Where slow progress is inevitable, how
simply duplicate electronic ones?
can you keep customers informed and
lessen negative responses? „ Can you remove any steps to smooth out
‘dog legs’ & make a simple path through?
„ Is all the data you collect really needed?
Reduce
Who uses it and how?
„ How can you ensure people enter the complexity „ What’s the simplest route from start to
system at the right point? finish? Can you apply this to everyone?
Make „ How can you improve signposting to If so, how?
it more direct people to the right place?
„ Can you make branding more consistent? „ Can you put in failsafe mechanisms to
accessible „ Should you be offering new or different prevent errors occurring?
channels? Reduce „ What would help reduce errors? Better
staff training? Simpler forms? More help?
errors „ Could you reduce errors by putting
sanctions in place if correct procedures
„ Which parts of the process should you be aren’t followed?
focusing on to improve the experience
Make and avoid losing people? „ How might you better clarify/formalise
it more „ Where should you set standards for the
responsibilities?
quality of the customer experience?
pleasant „ How rigid or flexible should you be? (e.g. Clarify „ How can you clearly specify ownership of
customers, data, decisions?
how prescriptive in call centres?) responsibilities „ How can you work more closely with
other departments or agencies to ensure
smooth ‘baton-changes’?
„ Are there particular steps (and particular
customer groups) you should focus on? „ Do you have the right number of people
„ How can you minimise the number of
Make it contacts you require customers to make?
involved?
Use people „ Do they have the right skills and training?
cheaper „ How can you use channels more „ Are they engaged and positive?
effectively to manage costs for the effectively
„ Do you have the right partners on board
customer? and are they delivering effectively?
 CHECKLIST 3: CHECKLIST 4:
REDUCING THE COST ACHIEVING
TO GOVERNMENT TRANSFORMATION
„ Which costs should you focus on?
„ What are the key cost drivers,
which can „ Challenge all assumptions
you control, and how might you reduce „ Look at the whole system. Where are the
Cut direct costs using these? Be blocks that limit capacity/speed/growth?
costs „ How might you save money by shifting challenging „ Imagine removing each step of decision
the channel mix? point in turn. What would the real impact
„ How can you best deal with the most be? Could you handle this?
expensive customers?

„ In identifying cost priorities, have you

„ Ifyou were starting from scratch, would
included direct and indirect costs?
you build the system this way?
„ How can you include and address costs
„ Can you really go on tweaking the current
Know the incurred by other departments or Welcome
real cost agencies? new thinking
system or do you actually need to build a Mapping
new one in order to operate effectively?
„ Do charges you make to customers
reflect the time it takes to serve them? Is
„ Can you remove whole parts of the the System
process to simplify dramatically?
it feasible to do this?

„ How does your system interact with other

government systems or processes?
„ How can you rework the system to
„ Are you sure you’re thinking broadly
eliminate avoidable contacts?
Examine Take a enough?
„ How can you encourage people to use
„ How can you move toward linking the
new options more cost-effective channels? broad view various systems seamlessly?
„ Where can you switch from paper records
„ How can you remove/reduce ‘baton-
and communications to electronic ones?
change’ points, so fewer people need to
be briefed?

„ Could you/should you prioritise, to give

different levels of service according to
Face up to customer need?
„ Looking at the cost/benefit balance, could
decisions you/should you reflect different levels of
customer need for transactional
processes?

„ How can you ensure the system is

flexible enough to accommodate likely
future changes?
Look to „ How do you become aware of macro-
the future trends and their impact on your
customers?
„ How can you be sure that you’re in line
with them?
© Oxford Strategic Marketing 75
 POSSIBLE ACTIONS AND EXAMPLES
BETTER CUSTOMER IMPROVED LOWER COST TO
EXPERIENCE EFFICIENCY GOVERNMENT

Cutting unnecessary steps out of a system

e.g. HMRC have streamlined the number of steps in a process as a result of journey mapping, contributing
to lower costs and greater customer satisfaction.

Giving more targeted

Putting in a failsafe to avoid double-checking
information e.g. HMRC target
e.g. Free school meal application system in Tameside now
extra tax advice to those who
automatically prompts renewal dates.
need it.

Switching appropriate customers to cheaper channels

e.g. Dudley Council’s channel strategy is currently being validated by considering the customer experience,
segmenting the customer base, addressing life events and avoiding departmental silos.
Mapping
the System Improving skills and training Reducing staff numbers
e.g. As a result of journey mapping, BIA have specified staff e.g. Putting services online
competencies and brought in new training to deliver these. means lower headcount.

This page shows the

sort of actions that can Reducing the number of decision-makers involved at key points
e.g. Having reviewed processes, Southwark Council have introduced new front office systems for call centre
come out of the system
agents to deliver work orders to field operatives without back office intermediaries.
mapping process,
identifying where they can
bring benefits. More support when needed Removing the need for paper records
e.g. The prison service’s use of e.g. When Tameside overhauled the system for free school meal
It shows how greater
buddies to sit with new inmates. applications, electronic records replaced many paper ones.
efficiency and cost
savings can go hand in
hand with a better Moving from multiple branding to a single brand
customer experience. e.g. DWP, DH, BERR and DEFRA linked their winter-warmth campaigns, aimed at older people, under one
brand. This resulted in fewer help-lines, focused comms and a much simpler customer offering.

Complete System redesign

e.g. The ‘Tell us Once’ campaign, led by DWP, will result in a linked system that will be much simpler for
customers, reduces errors and inefficiencies and will ultimately be much more cost-effective.

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 PRIORITISING ACTIONS
When you have identified the actions you might take
as a result of the mapping process, you can begin to
analyse and prioritise them. PRIORITISING ACTIONS
For each one, consider the relative costs and
benefits.
You can do this qualitatively using judgment, or
quantify it by setting measurable criteria based on
your particular objectives. Agree the weighting that
should be given to each criteria depending on its Kill off Requires leadership to
relevance and importance to your project. drive through
Some examples of possible criteria are:

Possible Criteria

High
„ Financial cost (one-off and ongoing)
„ Time cost
Cost „ People cost
„ Other resource Test fit with
„ Level of risk other initiatives

„ Better customer experience Cost

„ Improved outcomes
Benefit „ Reduced waste
„ Enhanced staff morale
„ Reduction in avoidable contact
Low

Once you have undertaken the analysis, you can

plot the results using the ‘Prioritising Actions’ tool on
the right. This is a relatively simple tool but can Quick wins
really help guide your thinking. A quantified tool for
Low priority No barriers .
prioritisation in included in the online toolbox.
When thinking about actions,
remember the importance of Low High
stakeholder commitment. You
need the support of stakeholders Benefit
to make things happen!
EVALUATING RESULTS
At the start of the journey mapping process, in the set up phase, one of the
actions was to ensure that you set clear, measurable objectives. This is the point
at which you need to go back to these and test how well you are performing
against them.

Make a judgment about the best time to THINGS YOU CAN MEASURE INCLUDE:
carry out an evaluation of the actions you
Inside out measures:
have taken. You need to allow enough time
for actions to take effect before doing this. • Total time taken to complete the journey
Your ability to carry out a quantified • Time taken to complete each step
evaluation will depend on the information • Volumes; e.g. number of customers dealt with
you collected at the mapping stage. The per hour, number of transactions per day
more metrics you used, the more effectively • Costs of completing each step
you will be able to analyse progress made. • Amount of rework required Mapping
However, if you mapped without using • Customer satisfaction
metrics, you can still go through an the System
• Number of complaints received
evaluation process by using benchmarking –
see page 53 in Section 3 for details. • Cost of handing complaints
Inside out measures:
• Number of steps
• Time taken for whole journey and for each
Section 5 of this guide gives more
step
practical and detailed information
about how to go about measuring • Time/effort/cost required to complete each
the customer experience. step

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 CASE STUDY: HMRC COST TO SERVE
HMRC have used mapping the system to look at the cost to serve. Their objective was to redesign
complex processes to provide a better experience to the customer at a lower cost to both customer
“By showing and HMRC. Customer focus and user engagement were key parts of the project right from the start.
that better customer
experiences can go hand
in hand with reduced
costs we’re hoping to HMRC started the mapping process by identifying the
shift people from a journey to be mapped. They looked at the current and
‘win-lose’ attitude to the ‘ideal’ experience and put in place metrics that Example Journey: Tax Repaym ent
a ‘win-win’ one.” would allow them to measure and evaluate results.
This included calculations of the cost, to the customer I telephoned to ask about a
repayment and was asked to Four further calls to chase up
put it in writing
and to HMRC, of using different channels.
The journeys were then mapped and costed, and Letter is lost.
No news. I visited an Enquiry Centre HMRC to contact employer
comparisons made to look at current versus the future to sort everything out

Mapping desired experience.

I spoke to the manager. She told me

the System Outputs were clearly laid out using a very visual the cheque was in the post

format. This can be shown in different formats to highlight the pattern of the
interactions

Customer Journey - Charlie now

I telephoned to ask about a repayment and
Customer Journey - Charlie future
I was asked to put it in writing. Web Email Post F2F Phone

I telephoned to check progress

Web Email Post F2F Phone
I made just one BACS SMS Post F2F Phone
Called to check progress. The people were nice each telephone call to ask about the repayment.
time and advised the matter is being looked at
Web Email Post F2F Phone
Called back by HMRC BACS SMS Post F2F Phone
I ‘phoned again and the person
says they need information from
m y employer to sort it out Web Email Post F2F Phone
Text message update followed by BACS SMS Post F2F Phone
Its been a couple more days and I’ve still heard nothing
electronic refund. HMRC were so good
so I call again and then decide to pop in. at sorting my problem out quickly.
Web Email Post F2F Phone

I didn’t want an appointment and spoke to the

manager. She looked into things and told me Web Email Post F2F Phone
the cheque was already in the post.

Individuals Individuals
Customer Unit Customer Unit

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Section 5

Measuring the
Experience
INTRODUCTION
Measuring the Experience is about getting a quantitative measurement of the
customer experience. It will often follow customer experience mapping and/or
This section
mapping the system, and allows you to measure customer satisfaction and describes the third
understand numbers and costs associated with a process, system or experience. mapping approach and
sets out steps and tools
to help.
In this section we describe how to apply measurement to a customer experience using deep Core tools are
customer understanding, moving through to taking action and evaluating results. In doing this included in this
we’ve assumed you have already mapped either the experience or the system, and so have not guide but there
repeated here all the tools in those earlier sections of the guide. If you haven’t carried out this are more in the
earlier mapping, refer back to the earlier sections as referenced in the text. online toolbox.
Five steps are covered in the pages that follow:

Measuring
Set up – the
the Experience
Gathering Constructing Taking Evaluating
mapping results
information the map action
context

Measuring the experience is important because it:

„ Enables you to understand the key things that are most important in
shaping the customer experience and driving customer satisfaction. This
means you can focus time and resource on the things that matter most to
your customers
„ Helps you understand the role that external factors play in influencing the See also CIF’s guidance
customer experience so you know what you can and can’t control – “Promoting Customer
„ Gets everyone involved in the customer experience aligned, focused and Satisfaction”, which has
motivated to deliver the service that will truly satisfy the customer. been used in producing
this section.

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 KEY OUTPUT
The Heart Monitor tool graphically illustrates the highs and lows of your customer
This is the key tool journey, mapping the output of quantified customer research. It can correspond to steps
we’ll be using in this on either a customer experience map or a system map.
section. You may
have already used a
Heart Monitor to map
HEART MONITOR
an experience
qualitatively, but here
we are using it to
map output from
quantified customer Objectives,
research. scope & journey
Customer
segment
type

Moments
of truth

Key
Key Journey
journey
Steps
steps

Measuring
the Experience Great
+100

Customer
Satisfaction
Rating

When you are using the -100

heart monitor with Poor
quantified data, the ratings
here will correspond to
those used in the
customer research that
you carry out. Levers for
solution hunting

© Oxford Strategic Marketing

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SET UP – CHECK THE CONTEXT
Assuming that you have already mapped the experience or system qualitatively, you should
have already defined objectives, scope and target customer segments. If so, you need here
simply to confirm that they still hold true for the quantitative research you are going to carry If you haven’t carried
out. out a qualitative mapping
exercise, you need to
Checking the context: establish the context
• Are the objectives and scope of your project the same as before, or have there been changes? for you mapping.
• Is the journey the same one that you defined earlier? Did any changes come out of earlier mapping exercises Go back to pages 23-25
that you need to reflect here? in Section 3 for guidance
• Are you still considering the same customer groups? Do you need to split any out or merge any groups on set up and the
together? mapping context.
If there have been changes to objectives, scope, journey type or customer segment, you need to carefully rethink
the implications of these. If necessary, go back to the earlier set-up sections (page 23 for experience mapping and
page 57 for mapping the system) and work through these again.

Once you’ve confirmed the context,

HEART M ONITOR
you can go on to set up your map
or maps as before:

Objectives,
scope & journey
type
Customer
segment Measuring
Objectives, scope
and journey type
M oments
of truth
the Experience
What this mapping Key
Key Journey
Journey
St
Steps
eps
needs to do.
Single, well-defined Great
journey with clear start +100

and end points.

Customer
Satisfaction
Rating
Customer segment
The specific group -100
you’re mapping here, Poor

with key defining

characteristics to Levers for
solution hunting
distinguish them from
other groups. © Oxf ord St rat egic M arket ing

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 GATHERING INFORMATION
Gathering quantified information for customer mapping will usually be done with
If you have already
carried out qualitative the help of an agency, who can handle large numbers of people and carry out
customer mapping, this statistical analysis.
should help to guide the
planning and execution of The best starting point is your Insight team if you have one. If not, talk to a member of the
your quantitative research. Customer Insight Forum, who will be able to advise on this (see page 9).
It will help define the
It’s also worth using the CIF publication – ‘Promoting Customer Satisfaction’,
exact journey you map and
ensure you are asking the which gives lots of general information about who to talk to and what to ask
right questions of the when conducting customer research. See page 9 for details.
right people. Remember to look also at what you already know about your customers, to
Make sure that any agency avoid duplicating existing work, wasting time and resource. Are you starting
is absolutely familiar with from scratch, or are you well on the way with an existing study that can
the work done already, and provide you with some of the information required?
keep stakeholders and
customer-facing staff
involved so that they can
input to the new
research. Sources of Existing Information:
„ Administrative Data : can be a rich source of information for organisations. This can include
Measuring call volumes data e.g. waiting times, ‘hang-ups’ and answered calls, website statistics e.g.
number of people visiting website, pages viewed and return visits, applications data e.g.
the Experience benefit claims over a period of time
„ Complaints Data : can be used to identify current areas for improvement as well as to inform
areas to be included in research to measure the experience
„ Mystery shopping data : many organisations conduct mystery shopping in order to monitor
the services being provided to its customers. This can be a valuable source of information
and can inform areas to be covered in research to measure the experience
The online toolbox
„ Existing survey data : taking time to find out what survey data already exists is a valuable
contains more tools
about gathering process that often gets overlooked. Different research may be carried out by different teams,
information so look widely
For local government
there is also useful
advice in the
Customer Insight
Protocol – see page
9 for details.

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BRIEFING AN AGENCY
You need to ensure that any external agency used for quantitative fieldwork is absolutely
clear about what information you need, why you need it, and how it will be used.
Talk to your insight and research professionals about agencies you might use (not all agencies will do this
kind of work) and how best to use them. You could use them just for the fieldwork, or could get them to
deliver a completed heart monitor. The tool here sets out key steps in the process of carrying out journey If you have an
mapping research and indicates which jobs are usually done in-house, which are generally done by an insight or research
agency and which can be done by either, depending on resource, budget etc. function, use it as
a first point of
contact.
Your brief can go to the
RESEARCH PROCESS AND RESPONSIBILITIES people in that function and
they will then select and
brief an agency.
In House COI have experience in the
is area and might also be
able to help, and
Establish
Identify CIF can advise and
research Select
insights support you.
need and and brief
and
choose agency
Draw up actions Measuring
approach
into Heart
Specify
Design Monitor the Experience
sample,
question- or other
method,
naire output
cost
formats
Analyse
Produce
Conduct data
data
fieldwork (statistical
tables
modelling)

Agency

Overleaf there’s a further tool you can use - a template, with headings and prompt questions, to help you to
brief an agency or internal research function.

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 BRIEFING TEMPLATE
Gathering quantified information for customer mapping will usually be done with the help of an
Research fieldwork (the agency, who can handle large numbers of people and carry out statistical analysis.
actual data-collection
part) can be done using
all the customer
closeness techniques RESEARCH BRIEFING TEMPLATE
described in Section 3.
When briefing agencies,
encourage agencies to be
creative in the • What you would need to tell someone who knew nothing about this in order for them to
approaches they use to Subject
understand what you’re talking about?
collect and feed back
information. Objectives,
• As laid down when you set out Customer • As laid down when you set out
scope and
your maps segment your maps
journey type

• What’s the overall challenge (as defined at the start of the project)?
What issues • Where do you believe the problems lie (based on your initial qualitative mapping)?
are you looking • Why are you doing this research – what are the key triggers (policy change, customer
to resolve? dissatisfaction, operational issues, cost issues etc)?
Measuring • What are the specific issues you need to address?
the Experience
• What critical questions do you need the research to answer?
• What exactly will you do with the results?
Why is this
• What benefits will result, to you and to the customer, if your project is successful?
important?
• How might the customer experience be improved?
• Are there any mandatory requirements that you have to deliver on?

• Identify the journey steps and moments of truth as you currently understand them
• What budget is available for this work?
• When do you need the results?
Practicalities
• Are there any immovable deadlines?
• Are there any issues that might cause problems or delays?
• In what format would you like the results to be delivered?

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CONSTRUCTING THE MAP: INTRODUCTION
When the research has been done and data is available, you can begin to complete
the heart monitor format. The core section is the middle part, where you need to plot
the scores recorded during the research.

HEART M ONITOR
Make the map as visual
as possible. It’s a
Objectives,
Customer
fantastic tool for
engaging people so use
scope & journey
segment
type

M oments
of truth outsize paper, colour,
Key
Key Journey
Journey quotes & photographs
to bring it all to life.
St
Steps
eps

Great
+100

You should have filled in

Customer
Satisfaction the top boxes of the map
Rating
in the set-up stage.
-100
In this stage we’ll cover
Poor how to fill in all the
remaining parts of the Measuring
Levers for
map the Experience
solution hunting

© Oxf ord Strat egic M arketing

A few simple principles for filling in the map:

„ As with all journey mapping, remember that the starting point is the customer – it’s the customer’s
heart you’re monitoring. Forget the internal perspective – stand in the customer’s shoes
„ The tool is at its best when you have quantified data for the journey steps, but where this isn’t
possible the heart monitor can be completed using qualitative information
„ Write in everyday customer language and avoid internal terms or jargon. This approach may be
quantified but it can still be emotive.
„ Be realistic in the steps you choose to map. In a detailed process with many steps, try to focus on
the important areas rather than getting lost in unnecessary detail

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 HOW TO CONSTRUCT A HEART MONITOR

CONSTRUCTING YOUR HEART MONITOR: KEY STEPS

This page
„ Review the research you have done to ensure that the journey steps
shows the Step 1: that you set out to investigate still hold true. Do customers agree
steps you need
to go through
Confirm the with the start and end points you identified?
to complete a key journey „ Look at the chronological order - challenge to make sure you’ve got

heart monitor steps the sequence right

like the example „ Ideally you want to map around 6-10 key journey steps. If you have
opposite. more than that choose the ones that are most important
The following
Use the research results to plot the following information:
page gives hints Step 2:
„ For each key step, identify the priority service elements from a
to help you in
Plot the highs customer perspective
this process.
and lows of „ Record each element, using customer language
the experience „ From your research, plot the satisfaction level for each element
Measuring „ Are there still gaps in your understanding? Consider further

the Experience research or analysis if so

„ Identify the pivotal points where customers are highly emotionally

Step 3: engaged or challenged (see tool for helping do this on page 88)
Identify „ You’re looking for 3 or 4 occasions where customers may consider
moments of quitting, coming back later or not at all
truth „ Do you understand what’s happening at moments of truth?
Customer satisfaction scores at these points are crucial to
understanding how to transform your offer

„ For each step, identify the things that are driving satisfaction levels
Step 4:
„ Confirm which of these are things that you can control, and assess
Identify levers which offer opportunities to optimise the customer experience
for solution „ Consult the list of levers on page 49 to decide which you can use in
hunting this process

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 EXAMPLE: MINISTRY OF JUSTICE
This is based
on an actual
example of a
HEART MONITOR heart monitor
created by
the MoJ and
HMCS. It’s
been
Objectives, shortened for
Track the process experienced by jurors Customer
scope & journey
to improve levels of service segment
Jurors simplicity and
type
reworked
Moments slightly into
of truth the formats
used in this
Key
Key Journey
journey Receive Jury In court In court – Deliber- Delivery of
Steps
steps summons selection pre-trial during trial ation verdict
Post trial guide
Receive letter Judge thanks Finishing
– looking jury – much was a relief
Great forward to it Judge was
+100
‘professional’ appreciated Measuring
Trial was
the Experience
impersonal
Expenses
Customer ‘a hassle’
Satisfaction Easy to Locked
Rating change date in Victims
by email family start Not sent
to cry – information
Only small about
amount of ‘lowest
Slow point’ sentencing
-100 evidence No
Poor selection Late start useful
process preparation
most days for delivering
verdict
Comms: Manage Customer face: Process: Comms: Environment: Customer face: Comms:
expectations Explain delays Simplify expenses Make jurors Provide adequate Talk to jurors – Ensure follow-up
Channel: Environment: system aware of role facilities stress the letter goes out re
Levers for
24 hour access Make the wait as Look at time- played by all the Comms: importance of sentencing
solution hunting painless as keeping evidence Brief on verdict what they’ve done
possible delivery

© Oxford Strategic Marketing

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 TOOL: FURTHER ANALYSIS

KEY DRIVER ANALYSIS:

IDENTIFYING MOMENTS OF TRUTH TOOL

Your research study should provide you with a list of the factors that will result
in an improved customer experience, but it may be quite long. You need to
uncover the key drivers, those we call the moments of truth.
Key Driver Analysis uses statistical modeling to isolate these important factors.
You’ll need to get experts involved in this bit. The output can be presented in a
user-friendly format that can communicate the findings and the necessary
actions to all staff, whatever their prior knowledge or experience.

You can bring the moments of truth to life by exploring them further through
qualitative research. This can also examine the issues in more detail to get to
the route cause of the dissatisfaction. For example, customers may be
unhappy with the Call Centre response, but it may be the connection process
Measuring rather than the staff dialogue that is driving concern.
the Experience Verbatim comments from customers can also illustrate the findings in a more
powerful way than charts or numbers. They can get to the ‘heart of the matter’,
key for this kind of measurement.

DEFRA used a review of existing research to identify moments of

truth or ‘pain points’ for farmers.
The exercise provided a valuable gap analysis for customer
needs, which informed decisions on policy and service delivery.

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 TAKING ACTION
You now need to use the all of the information you have pulled together.
To do this, you can use all the ‘Taking Action’ guidance in sections 3 and 4 of this guide – see The Heart Monitor tool is a
fantastic visual displays of
pages 45 to 52 for customer experience mapping and pages 74 to 76 for mapping the system.
where you need to focus
attention.
Use it in presentations, but
CHECKLIST 3:
also consider making a large
version available, putting it in a
REDUCING THE
COST CHECKLIST 4:
TO GOVERNME
NT ACHIEVING
„Which costs TRANSFORMATIO
should we focus N

visible location, e.g. by the

„What are
the key on?
Cut direct we control, and cost drivers, which can
how
costs using these? might we reduce

ACTIONS the customer LEVERS FOR IDENTIFYING ACTIONS costs „How „Challenge

PRIORITY is absolutely central tog and

might we save all assumptions
channel mix? money by shifting „Look at the
the Be whole
blocks that limit system where are the
y
IDENTIFY
„How can

then put awa

we best deal with
expensive customers the most challenging „Imagine
capacity/s peed/grow
th?
removing
point in turn. W each step of decision
ific actions
?
interestin rience. When you are considering the actions you might take, it’s useful to think about the different hat would the real

photocopier so that it acts as

with clear,
spec le find omer expe
be? Could you impact
s that peop
handle this?
form the cust
„In
Coming up ping process. Map
identifying cost
‘levers’ that are available to you, as shown below priorities, have
going to trans
included direct
and indirect costs?we
journey map ewhere are never
„How
Identify the lever(s) that will have the biggest impact and specify where you will use them to improve the Know the can we include
and address costs
incurred by other „Ifyou were starting
d done the
som
on a shelf
real cost agencies? departmen ts or
you build the systemfrom scratch, would
customer experience. Think from the customer’s perspective and think in terms of joined-up services, not silos
“After we’ issue was PRIORITISING ACTIONS
„Do charges
we make to customers Welcome „Can we really go
this way?
done so far the time costs system or do we on tweaking the current
, the
reflect new thinking
sis you have
it. If we
of serve? Is it

a reminder for staff.

mapping new one in order actually need to build a
do this? feasible to
gap
do with Use the analymom ents of truth, „Can
to operate effectively
what to
we remove whole
n now greatest ?
ts, ng Mappi
g it agai
parts of the
(touchpoin where the process toWhen
simplifyyou havelly?identified
the actions you might take
were doin people earlier to identify dramatica
analysis) the
as a result of the mapping process, you can begin to Syste m
engage lies. short, LEVERS FOR IDENTIFYING
CONTENT CHECKLISTACTIONS
actions
d need for action you can do in the Examine „How can we encourage „How PRIORITISING ACTIONS
we’ doesanalyse
k about
our systemand prioritise them.
t what Customer more cost-effec people to use government interact with other
on and thin the start”
ss new options tive channels? systems or processes
Think abou r term to addre on Experience
„Where can
we switch from
paper
„Are For
we sure each
we’re one,broadly
thinking consider
? the relative costs and
longe and communic
ations to electronic records Take a
from medium and (the prioritisation tool .
enough?
ones? broad view „How can benefits.
d

Keep it updated when new

we move
issues raise on 4 might help
here)
Product / Service Channel /
Mapping various systems toward linking the
You seamlessl
can do this qualitatively using judgment, or
Secti you we remove/reducey?
page 76 in
„How can
tangible steps Environment quantify it by setting
baton-pasmeasurable criteria based on
about the Does it meet customer points, so fewer
Customer
Proposition s
think an actio n plan, briefed? people need to
your particular be
objectives. Agree the weighting that
Then
and create expectations and Can customers easily
need to take al comm on-sense S mapped Is your proposition
Experience norm Justice, HMC crime felt
deliver on their needs?
clear, engaging and access your product / should be given to each criteria depending on its Kill off Requires leadership to
Ministry of
„Could
using the s of Are your services service? Are they we/should
relevance and importance to your project.
different levels we prioritise, to give
Mapping Within the and victim motivating? drive through

results are available. Detail

, witnesses court system. joined up with those of Face up to of service according
principles: made to feel customer need?
Some examples oftopossible criteria are:
and specific how jurors
through the ghout the other departments? welcome? Think about what is driving decisions „Looking
„ Be clear st actions whilst going comm unicated throu hops, and
at the cost/bene
fit balance, could
time limits again ities the need for change.
we/should we
reflect different Possible Criteria

High
Put customer need levels of
„
n specific
respo nsibil
ess will Findings wereusing interactive works for transaction
n formal Communication Value Provision Is this an internal resource
processes? al
„ Assig and how progr organisatio d up as a Partnerships
on ate targets worke
ting an acti plan was ed: Do you have a strong Are there areas management/optimisation „ Financial cost (one-off and ongoing)
„ Indic an action ms that includ rience to Are we working with
’re crea work-strea issue? Or is the need to

actions in progress and areas

be measured terms of what you
„How

When you think of both

voice with your where we are over can we ensure „ Time cost
tic in project with the front of house expecourt the right partners in
change driven by a
enough to accommodthe system is flexible
to gs customer ? Are you delivering (or Costate likely People
„ future cost
plan, try tical thin „ Be realis rame. ssions of
„ Impro
ving ct the right way? Are Look to changes?
what timef r first impre mismatch of customer
-term, prac y, and
communicating in the duplicating) or under- Test fit with
expect in need to carry n
staff e bette appro priate conta we all consistent in the future
„How do we become Other resource
aware of„macro-
shorter
creat g to the most effective and delivering and failing experience vs. expectation? trends and their
awa sight of the
do right r call routin our service delivery? impact on our„ Level of risk other initiatives
Never lose to establish wider buy-i
customers?
you

Cost
compelling way? on our proposition?
you can ’ that „ Bette
staff knowledge s Aim to understand the root „How
‘big wins
can we be sure
with you and ving with judge
in the
that we’re in line
n. „ Impro r dialogue
also the
with them?
achieve organisatio itating bette on what of the problem you are trying

where improvements have been

„ Better customer experience
able to across the for witnesses ded in
let current
„ Facil
may be to fix. It is important to
ation Process Reputation
. Don’t ved inform Improved outcomes
process, provi Customer Face „
„ Impro
longer term strain your in the court Is the process smooth Do our customers treat the cause, not just „ Reduced waste
to expect Are our customer Benefit
con think with easy transitions? recognise who we are manage the symptom
practice ared to
t. „ Enhanced staff morale
DVD forma facing colleagues
– be prep your Are customers and what we are
thinking stick to
effectively briefed and „ Reduction in avoidable contact
llenge and
satisfied with the there for? Are we

Low
are they delivering to

seen.
big, cha required standards?
experience we distinct in what we
Once you have undertaken the analysis, you can
guns!
provide? offer?
plot the results using the ‘Prioritising Actions’ tool on
the right. This is a relatively simple tool but can Quick wins
really help guide your thinking. A quantified tool for
Low priority No barriers .
prioritisation in included in the online toolbox.

Marketing
When thinking about actions,
© Oxford
Strategic
remember the importance of Low High
stakeholder commitment. You
48 need the support of stakeholders Benefit
to make things happen!

Measuring
the Experience
In particular, focus on the actions that you can take with confidence now that you have quantified
information, for example:
• Making a business case and selling an initiative to stakeholders
• Identifying the points in a system where you should focus effort and resource
“The power is in the
• Making decisions about priority groups story telling. We’re
• Deciding where and how to develop new channels. bringing in comms
people to tell the story
The prioritisation grid (page 76) can help at this point. – we’re working as a
team”

89
© Oxford Strategic Marketing
 EVALUATING RESULTS
When planning your actions you should have included how you will
measure success.
As before, you can refer back to the earlier sections of this guide for ideas on
evaluating results, such as benchmarking (page 74) and using metrics (page 77).

EVALUATING RES
ULTS
At the start of the
journey mappin
actions was to ensure g process, in the

Having this quantified

that you set clear, set up phase, one
at which you need of the
to go back to these measurable objectives. This is
against those and test how well the point
you are perform
ing
Make a judgment
about
carry out an evaluatio the best time to
n of the actions THINGS YOU CAN
you have taken. MEASU

study gives you a

You RE INCLUDE:
long enough to take need to give them Inside out measure
s:
effect before doing • Total time taken
this
to complete the
Your ability to carry • Time taken to journey
out complete each step
evaluation will depend a quantified • Volumes; e.g.
on the informati number
you collected at
the mapping stage. on number of transactio of customers dealt with per hour,
more metrics you The ns per day
used, the more • Costs of completin

perfect benchmark. By
effectively you will g each step
be able to analyse • Amount of rework
progress made required
• Customer satisfacti
However, if you on Mapping
mapped without • Number of complain
metrics, you can using
still ts received the System
evaluation process go through an • Cost of handing
by using complaints
benchmarking – Inside out measure
see page X in Section s:
for details 3 • Number of steps

Section 5 of this
guide
practical and detailed gives more
about how to go
information
• Time taken for
• Time/effort/cost
whole journey and
for each step
required to complete
each step repeating it again at
about
the customer experiencquantifying

some point in the

e

future, you can re-plot

EVALUATING RESU
LTS
process, in the set
of the journey mapping clear, measurable objectives. This
up phase, one
the experience and
Right at the start set
to ensure that you how well you are
of the actions was
is the point at which
performing against
There are two main
service over time or
you need to go back
those.
ways of doing this;
we can compare ourselve
to these and test

we can compare changes

s with other similar
in our own
organisations.
Customer
look at how people’s
rking. Experience
This is called benchma

BENCHMARKING
OVER TIME
BENCHMARKING
OTHERS
AGAINST Mapping

thoughts, feelings and

Measuring
rk
best method to use, If you choose to benchmato
In most cases the need
a direct against others, you
because you can make is directly
you are now identify a service that
comparison to of where

levels of satisfaction
own.
comparable with your
with where you were. – a good
look at whether customer This may be possible
You can local
, in terms both example would be

the Experience
journeys have changed also thoughts, facing similar
and government bodies
of the journey steps However,
along the way. issues to one another.
feelings and emotions –

have changed over

to ensure that the you need to be careful
To do this, you need to compare a
on or ask obviously it’s hard with a
way you collect informati rking is wealthy London borough,
questions when benchma exercise. much poorer rural one.
original
consistent with the ls if it’s
same individua
You can use the
through more then
a journey they go
once; otherwise aim
sample of similar
You also need to think
allow enough time
for a matched
people.
about timing –
between the two
Section 5 of this guide
practical and detailed
about how to go about
gives more
information
quantifying
time.
actions to be the customer experience
exercises to allow
take effect.
implemented and

90
© Oxford Strategic Marketing
Section 6

Case studies

Case Studies
CASE STUDIES - INTRODUCTION
In producing this guidance, we have come across a number of great examples of customer journey
mapping. We’ve reproduced four of the best ones in the pages that follow.

Page 92-3 Page 94-5

ine
PBS Process Outl
Documents Decision
Web/Post
2 3
1
- ECO entry decision
- Arrive at UK Visas - PROVISO file updated
- Application Received - Compliance checks - UK Visas issue visa
- Money Banked - ECO/CO casework Y/N
- Interview out country
- Process Starts - Document verification
opened - Biometric Visit arranged
- Customer Record - Sponsor verification - Sponsor informed
- Initial Score Issued
- Sponsor Certificate

Checks Extension
Arrival
5 6
4
- After 3 years (max)
TBC
- Sponsor checks - PEO Appointment
- Visastamp/vignette checked
- BRP issued
- Customer in country
. Customer in country.

up to 3 Years
Gap - no BRP for Gap - no NI or D/L
checks 2

Page 96-7 Page 98-9

Application for
Free School Meals
Oct2007 (To Be) – High Level
Overview- Verified
Apps.
Customer
FSM Section
School
Complete on-line
application form
one of three ways-
- self completion
online
FREE SCHOOL MEALS – CURRENT JOURNEY - in person at Customer
- over the phone Services
to Call Centre

MAP
JOURNEY
EUROSTAR
Can the application
automatically verified be
against
‘Locta file’ containing
the

Case Studies
Wow – I’m in
the NO See separate
council’s Pericles
benefits flowcharts
data?
city!
heart of the
Positive

YES

Term inal
Application verified
(guarantee
same day meal for
applications
before 11am – although
probably
even later in practice)

l
Leave tunne
Receive email notification
summary details with Receive automatic
Arrive confirming eligibility
notification confirming
eligibility.
email
FSM Receive automatic
notification confirming
email
FSM
eligibility.

Set off

Update schools EMS

system
Administer free school
meal
Impact

Set off Catering

Disem bark NB.

Check- Notification may

to clothing grant
also be sent
/ free
sections if successful travel

in/security applicant has ticked

box to
Negative

Enter tunne l
receive these benefits
also.

Boarding

For more information about these case

studies, or other examples given in this
book, please contact the CIF (contact
details on page 9).

91
 CASE STUDY: BORDERS AND IMMIGRATION
AGENCY
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Two years ago, the Borders and Immigration Agency set up a new Customer Service function, aiming to increase the
quality and timeliness of service provided to those wanting to visit the UK, and to achieve cost efficiencies in doing so.
The new function started by looking at how people felt about migration and how they went about making applications,
with a view to setting up a satisfaction programme to ensure applicants were able more easily to access clear and
consistent information. Journey mapping was identified as a powerful way of understanding customer expectations,
and identifying where and how the current system failed to meet these, in order to find ways of improving the system.

APPROACH

The process started with internal evidence-gathering

and segmentation work. The Customer Service team
talked to customer-facing people on the ground, plus
their managers, and also to related functions such as
the FCO and the British Council.
This was followed by a basic customer segmentation
and initial journey mapping, done in-house using
internal consultants to identify customer preferences,
process blockages, service touchpoints and moments
of truth, where service directly impacted on customer
Case Studies perceptions.
A postal survey of over a thousand customers
followed, focusing on service standards. The initial
journeys were re-worked to add depth and bring the
different customer types to life. A “working wall” was
established, where the maps were portrayed visually
- acting not only as a tool for those doing the
mapping, but also as a powerful way of capturing the The BIA ‘working wall’ captured both current
attention and imagination of stakeholders. and ideal experiences, for applicants and sponsors.
Throughout the process, the team worked alongside The original version, at the BIA’s Croydon head
an implementation manager who was thinking from office has been replicated in various hubs.
the start about action planning
Currently, BIA are continuing to develop their maps
further, to focus more on efficiency and cost to serve.
92
 line
PBS Process Out 1. Sichin Ho KEY LEARNINGS
Documents Decision
Web/Post Personal Profile
2 3 • Early involvement of an
1 Sichin has just finis
hed her compulso Female,
- Arrive at UK Visas
- ECO entry decisi
- PROVISO file updat
on
ed
a grade ‘A’ student
the books (much
and spent her teen
to the delight of
ry studies in Chin
age years with her
a. She is
nose in
Single, Implementation
- Application Recei
ved
- Compliance check
s
- UK Visas issue visa
older she’s getti
ng itchy feet and
her proud parents).
Now she’s 18,
- Money Banked
- Process Starts
- ECO/CO casew
- Document verific
ork
ation
- Interview out count
ry Y/N
ed
doesn’t want to
year out, as man
interrupt her stud
feels the need to
y plans so instead
travel. She Chinese. Manager meant that
d opened - Biometric Visit arrang y of her friends of taking a
Recor
her time by stud have, she wants
- Custo mer
- Initial Score
- Sponsor verification - Sponsor informed
- Sponsor Certificate
Issued
ying and travelling
simultaneously.
to make use of
action planning was We did a lot of
She did originally
want to go to Ame
her mind; a) that
(her second lang
in order to study
rica but two thing
in an English spea
s changed part of the process from marketing by stealth,
Checks Extension and the best place
uage) she woul d
need to improve
king country

Arrival the language). b)

around Europe and
to learn English
Engl and leaves her
is in England (as
in a
her English first,
the origin of
the start with persistent meetings
having a keen (extr good position to travel

4 5 6 philosophy, visiti
of many philosoph
ng Europe has a a curricular) inter
big appeal to her
ies. For these reas
est in
as the birthplace
• It’s important to talk to to get the buy-in we
as her study dest ons Sichin has chos

- Sponsor checks
TBC
- After 3 years (max)
- PEO Appointmen
t She has chosen
inati on. en Engl and
both managers and needed
tte checked to study economic
- Visa stamp/vigne s at university has
- Customer in count
ry - BRP issued
. Customer in count
like to be able to
as they grow olde
ry. provide for both
r. She believes
any future family
she woul d
and her parents
people on the ground –
lay the foundatio that a degree in
up to 3 Years ns to a high salar economics will
Gap - no BRP for Gap - no NI or D/L also
chec ks sees herself work
2
and has dreams
ied
ing in a fast-pace
job in a multicorporati
d, high-risk envi
on. She the greatest value
of power suits with ronment
attached to her a mobile phone
corporate employe
ear, an impressio
es.
n she has of all
permanently
high salaried
comes from contrasting
their views
Process - Applying for entry clearance as a short term student
• The working wall was a
Current
Business
UK Visas /
Outsourcing
UK Visas /
Outsourcing
UK Visas /
Outsourcing
UK Visas UK Visas UK Visas
hugely effective tool,
Office - Office - Office -
Touch post – post – post –
Points Beijing Beijing Beijing
Beijing Beijing Beijing
both for working out
As part of the mapping process, journeys and selling the
Sichin’s
Expectations Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6
• 3rd party do
Of Process Applying Payment Application The biometrics?

the BIA looked at broad process

Attend to
online and is and
sending
documents
processed documents
are joined
Risk
assessment
for
have
Biometrics
taken and
The ECO
makes
•How long and
what method
to they receive
outputs of the exercise
outline and built up detailed pen
via secure and a check the
Compliance for the decision the card?
post. Or
delivering to
an Outsource
is done to
ensure it is
complete
& biometrics
checks are
interview
• The sell-in needs to be
portraits of applicants in each post. completed

Questions • If applying • If applying • Can stage • Can the • Will the • Will the
extended and persistent
segment, as well as mapping their
online, will online, is 2 &3 be compliance customer applicant
they receive credit /debit completed and biometrics have to pay be able to
an personal
identity No.
the only
method of
simultaneously checks run
simultaneously
an additional
fee
contact the
decision – BIA had to earn their
own individual journeys.
payment maker

• Delays on • Payment • Application •Compliance •Problems •Being

resource and budget by
Problems Website not accepted not joined to check not booking the refused
•Documents
get lost in
the post
•Payment
not received
Docs
•Documents
incomplete
passed
•Biometrics
check not
appointment
•Missing
appointment
•No right of
appeal
•Being
proving the value of the
•Documents
lost
•Application
not
passed and having
to rebook
• Delays in
arranging an
required to
leave the
country work Case Studies
traceable appointment

ACTIONS AND OUTCOMES

The mapping work has resulted in a greater customer focus, delivered with improved efficiency.
Journey mapping has been used to re-design application forms and to design a new on-line points-based system for
applicants. Service and strategy standards have been defined, and service level agreements have been established with
different parts of the operation. Implementation plans have included the identification of staff competencies and new training
programmes to ensure people have the skills they need.
Most recently, a focus on metrics has allowed BIA to calculate costs and volumes, which they are applying to all priority
segments.
93
 CASE STUDY:HMRC

CUSTOMER UNDERSTANDING
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Journey Maps
With its objective of delivering
customer-focused services, HMRC
commissioned research to collect
information on the customer journeys of
individual tax payers and credit or
benefit recipients.
The research sought to identify patterns
in interactions from a customer
perspective, providing data that would
allow costs and opportunities to be
identified, whilst allowing HMRC to map
and costs structures and processes.

APPROACH

There were three stages of research:

- Alignment with internal stakeholders
- Qualitative, depth interviews
Case Studies - Quantitative telephone interviews.
The sample included a wide range of Pen Portraits

people to represent a spectrum of HMRC

customers.
A huge amount of information and
emotional insight had to be
communicated in fast and effectively, and
a cartoon approach was used in
presenting the results in order to bring the
journeys to life.
 KEY LEARNINGS

• Bringing the journey

to life visually has
a far greater impact
than black words
on white paper
• Many simple
journeys go almost
unnoticed – these
benefit particularly
from this approach
• Many journeys begin
with a shock or
occur at a time of
change – people
start in a heightened
Case Studies
emotional state
which it’s
important to
understand and
communicate
ACTIONS AND OUTCOMES
Although this work had only just been completed at time of writing, the approach adopted has already served to
bring the customer to life within the organisation in a highly motivating way.
The outputs will be used for a number of purposes, including to cost journeys and interactions and test potential
changes in services and processes, with the view of improving customer experience and departmental
efficiency. Overall, the work will be used to promote the use of customer understanding in policy, processing
and operational decisions
 CASE STUDY: EUROSTAR

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Eurostar was launched in the UK in 1994 giving

people, for the first time, the chance to take a non-
stop train to the continent. It had a potentially
Journey dramatic impact on travel habits and attitudes –
Britain’s status as an ‘island nation’ was changed,
and people were impressed by the futuristic design of
the trains and the incredible engineering feat of
tunnelling under the English Channel.

However, within Eurostar the magnitude of this

impact on people was not fully appreciated. ‘Old
school’ British Rail veterans had great technical and APPROACH
operational expertise but did not traditionally have a
customer orientation. There was no recognition of the Workshops were held with senior board members
importance of consistent experience delivery, and who did not have a particular customer orientation.
Eurostar was under-performing against forecasts. During the workshops they were asked to “walk in the
This meant that management time was being spent customer’s shoes”, which included dressing as the
Case Studies thinking about the City rather than thinking about customers and thinking through every step of their
passengers, and prices were being cut – experience.
exacerbating the ability to address under- After the workshops, the same board members were
performance issues. encouraged to make the journey for real, shadowing
customers who looked like the ones they had role-
The appointment of a new Chief Executive with a played, to verify that the journey that had been
marketing background acted as an important catalyst described was true to life.
in bringing about change. He recognised that the Results were plotted using a heart monitor to track
whole culture of the organisation had to change to the highs and lows of the experience for different
become more customer-focused, which involved customer groups. The outcomes were confirmed by a
rekindling the pride and enthusiasm of staff. separate and independent piece of research carried
out by the French Eurostar organisation.

96
 KEY LEARNINGS
EUROSTAR JOURNEY MAP Journey mapping
• The over-arching theme of the was
work that was done was instrumental in
Positive

Wow – I’m in the

heart of the city! ‘ownership’. Without this there moving Eurostar
Terminal could be no passion for from being a
delivery. All solutions and ‘train operator’
outcomes were defined by to being a
employees themselves ‘customer
Leave tunnel
• Cross-functional working was service provider’.
essential. Departmental
champions were appointed
Set off Arrive
across the company, ensuring
that no one part of the
organisation had responsibility
Impact

for the programme

Set off
• Manager participation and
Catering engagement was vital in
Check-
in/security enabling fast action by having
Negative

Disembark great ideas championed from

Boarding Enter tunnel the top

ACTIONS AND OUTCOMES Case Studies

Mapping identified the highs and lows of the journey – the points where people became bored, and the real fear
many experienced when entering the tunnel. Above all, the real benefit of Eurostar was clear – the ‘WOW!’
factor of arrival. This led to a proposition of ‘Inspiring travel’, which was subsequently (and very successfully)
executed as ‘Arrive right in the heart of the city’.
By making the journey themselves, staff realised the critical part that they played in determining whether the
journey was enjoyable or not. They appreciated the different needs of different customer groups, and that they
couldn’t all be treated in the same way.
Staff were also able to suggest really practical and workable solutions to problems, which not only improved the
experience but, in many cases, reduced costs too. Mapping helped give a basis for prioritisation, allowing
managers to decide which parts of the journey to invest in.
The exercise formed a basis for ongoing customer satisfaction tracking.
97
 CASE STUDY: TAMESIDE FREE SCHOOL MEALS
Application for Free
School Meals (To
Oct2007 Be) – High Level Overv
April 2007 iew- Verified Apps.
School Meals (As is)
Renewal of application for Free Customer
School FSM Section
FSM Section School
Customer
Complete on-line application
one of three ways- form
- self completion online
Get renewal file from - in person at Customer
cabinet for the Services

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

- over the phone to
relevant month Call Centre

Send out letter and

Can the application
renewal form to guardian be
automatically verified
against
‘Locta file’ containing

Following a residents’ opinion survey in the nineties,

the NO See separate
council’s Pericles benefits
flowcharts
data?

Tameside Council developed an ‘Access to services’ Complete & No

Send out reminder
renewal letter (one
YES

return? reminder only sent)

strategy. This linked front and back office services for Application verified
same day meal for
(guarantee
applications
before 11am – although
probably
even later in practice)

all functions and adopted a strong customer ethos. Yes

Receive renewal and
process as per
application process (see
flowchart)

Common IT systems were established to support all Receive electronic

notification via EMS weekly
Receive email notification
summary details confirming with
eligibility
Receive automatic
notification confirming
eligibility.
email
FSM Receive automatic
notification confirming
eligibility.
email
FSM

EMS Report produced of-

services, allowing Tameside to see how customers weekly and sent to all
schools electronically.
1. pupils receiving FSM
2 .pupils who have ‘failed to
renew’

accessed services, to track trends and to monitor Letter of confirmation

sent to guardian
Update schools EMS
system
Administer free school
meal

(including those renewing

costs. on-line)

File renewal application in

relevant month’s file to aid next NB.
annual renewal process. Notification may also
be sent
to clothing grant /
free travel
sections if successfu
l

This, combined with a target to achieve a 3%

applicant has ticked
box
receive these benefits to
also.

improvement in efficiency, put a strong emphasis on

costs, but Tameside were determined that costs System maps were produced for
should not be allowed to take over – they wanted to current and ‘ideal’ experience
ensure a better customer experience too.
APPROACH
The free school meals system was identified as a
pilot project to focus on, with the aim of demonstrating Tameside used its own Corporate Improvement team
that lower costs and a better customer experience to look at steps in the customer journey. They flow-
Case Studies charted the process and worked through the steps to
could go hand in hand.
calculate turnaround times and costs at each point.
Under the then current system, applicants for free A consideration of the customer base led to the
school meals often had to come in to the council conclusion that there was no need to segment people
offices to fill in a form, go to Jobcentre+ to get it for this particular service, but the team did map
stamped, go back to the council office to hand it in, customers geographically to compare take-up levels
and wait to be contacted by post, up to ten days later. by area.
There was an online channel for applicants but it Having mapped the existing system, an ‘ideal’
hadn’t been well marketed. The council saw a big experience was mapped, and this was used to re-
opportunity to improve the situation through a better design the way applications were made and handled.
understanding of the customer experience. This was followed up by a customer survey to
validate what had been done and monitor levels of
satisfaction.
98
 FREE SCHOOL MEALS – CURRENT JOURNEY KEY LEARNINGS

• Greater efficiency and a better customer

experience aren’t at odds with one
another – often they go hand in hand.
• Following a process right through “..(an)application
allowed the team to understand all for Free Schools
implications. In this case, the potential Meals benefits and
savings of migrating people to the the associated
cheaper online channel was realised clothing grant that
only when they were able to stick with often required 10 or
that channel from start to finish more contacts to
successfully
complete can now
be done in a single
visit”

Journeys could also be plotted using customer experience maps

ACTIONS AND OUTCOMES

A new, live online application system has replaced the old paper system. It supports both telephone and face to Case Studies
face applications so that, however people come into the system, the same back office process is used.
The whole customer experience has been dramatically improved. The process is faster and requires less steps.
Applications are pre-populated with known information to avoid duplication, and can now be validated
immediately. If someone applies for free school meals before 11.00am their child can receive a meal that day.
Great efficiency improvements have also been achieved. Avoidable contact has been reduced by cutting the
number of contact points and by flagging mistakes immediately, reducing the need for later rework. The free
school meals system has been linked to that for clothing grants, which uses the same eligibility criteria. People
applying for the former are now automatically offered the latter, eliminating the need for a separate application.
Take-up by channel is being tracked, so that Tameside can monitor channel migration and assess the impact of
marketing campaigns. Already, many more people are successfully using the online system from start to finish,
resulting in big cost savings. The cost of a face to face transaction is £10, telephone £1, whilst an e-transaction,
completed online from start to finish, costs only 7p.
99