Integrating Holistic Customer Journeys, Business Services and Service Ecosystems
What is an service organization and how can we map it? Organizations have traditionally been simplified in organizational charts and processes whereas the new view based on networks and interactions between its elements bring forth unprecedented complexity.
Managing for complexity requires us to constantly map and revise our understanding of the territory. This requires us to attempt to align our customers, operations and partners around our common customer-oriented and business-generating goals.
Service designers use customer journey mapping to answer to holistic customer demands. Customer journey maps provide an understanding of how the customer interacts with the business within a defined scope. The scope of a customer journey map can range from a single interface to the whole customer lifecycle (before — during — after).
The interaction can be defined by stages which can be broken down into steps. The difference between these two can be defined by level of granularity. For example a stage in buying a new television might be “research and planning” which consists of steps such as “looking for deals” and “locating technical information”.
To tie the customer journey map to the business we need to add the channels by which the customer engages with business. Channels might include print media, shops, WWW-pages, apps, IT-systems and the like. Touchpoints enable customer steps within channels. A customer will often go through multiple touchpoints over multiple channels before making a purchase. Service blueprints help us map the customer journey to channels, touchpoints and capabilities/backstage operations.
The customer journey does not stop at the purchase. The internet enables interaction between customers by providing platforms for sharing their experiences with products and services. The brand, product and service images of customers are influenced by social medium and it is a big reason why the moment of exchange is no longer the focal point of business but rather the relationship with the customer.
US marketing professors Robert F. Lusch and Stephen L. Vargo call what has happened the transition from a goods-dominant logic (GDL) to service-dominant logic (SDL).
“S-D logic embraces concepts of the value-in-use and co-creation of value rather than the value-in-exchange and embedded-value concepts of G-D logic. Thus, instead of firms being informed to market to customers, they are instructed to market with customers, as well as other value-creation partners in the firm’s value network.” (http://www.sdlogic.net/)
Asides being essential to doing business, the expanded customer relationship is a huge opportunity for any company. Whoever is able to integrate resources around customer demands will succeed in the networked business environment. Uber does not own any of the resources that it uses to fulfill its customer needs as it does not have any cars or drives. Instead Uber integrates these resources around the customer needs and enables the transaction with its application. Those companies who are able to fit their services to purpose and are creative resource integrators create success stories of today’s networked economy.
As customer journeys consist of multiple steps embedded in multiple touchpoints, the business has to be able to enable all the channels it deems necessary to interact with its customers. Developing and maintaining these channels require capabilities which consist of the internal resources which must be aligned to enable this interaction. We have multiple ways of mapping these resources: organizational charts, processes, services, IT systems and the like. Enterprise architecture has emerged as a discipline which enables attempts to map and align the organization in a holistic manner.
But enterprise architecture frameworks arise from the ICT disciplines and often fall short in integrating business and ICT. These frameworks are often missing key components such as business impact, customer experience and platforms of partners which would enlighten key dimensions of the whole.
Outside-in viewpoints on the business such as customer journeys and inside-out alignment diagrams such as service blueprints are often missing a key perspective. The reality is that it is very hard for a single business to maintain and develop all its channels and all its touchpoints by itself. A channel such as a web page might be built on a content management system which is provided by one vendor, coded and developed by another and hosted by a third. Customers may access the web page with a variety of browsers on multiple operating systems on differing devices. The actual business ecosystem begins to emerge.
In the networked economy a single company no longer can be seen as the provider of all the services a customer needs. Business ecosystems which enable collective value-creation employ multiple platforms provided by multiple companies. To create an integrated customer experience many businesses and organizations must work together in order to fulfill the customer demands. Mapping ecosystems and platforms is an emerging practice of high promise in uncovering another view which brings forth business complexity and interdependence.
Internal and external resource integration around meaningful customer journeys requires enablement and alignment. Mapping assists us in establishing alignment within a fit for purpose context.
