Customer JourneyCreating seamless experiences
A well thought-out customer journey is the key to long-term success and customer loyalty. Our experts support you in the strategic planning, analysis and optimization of all touchpoints with your customers to create a seamless and personalized customer experience.
The customer journey as a success factor
Digitalization is changing the way we communicate, making it ever more extensive and complex. As a result, the possible marketing channels are also growing: emails, websites, social media, blogs, messengers, to name but a few.
According to surveys, customers are predominantly dissatisfied with communication with companies. Multiple contact attempts, long waiting times for support, repetition of requests and complicated automated telephone menus are a thorn in the side.
People spend most of their time online not in browsers, but using apps and messenger services, which is why customers expect to be able to use the communication channels they are familiar with from their private lives in a business context too.
Finding the right communication medium to get closer to the customer is one of the most important tasks in the digitalization of a company and requires a good strategy for digital interaction.
The customer journey is part of the digitalization strategy, even though it includes not only all digital points of contact between a consumer and a company and its brand, product or service, but also all analogue/offline contacts.
A successful customer-oriented marketing and sales approach requires a comprehensive understanding of the entire customer journey, which extends from the pre-purchase phase through the transaction phase to the post-purchase phase, taking into account not only the direct but also the indirect contact points.
Customers know
In order to create the foundation for a customer journey, it is no longer sufficient to simply name the company’s target group(s). Rather, it is necessary to know and understand the different people (groups) behind the abstract word customer.
How old are these people and what are their living conditions? Are they employed and what hobbies do they have? What is their value system? To name just some of the detailed information.
The more precisely the people are known, the more targeted the communication with them can be. It makes sense to have different communication strategies for different people (groups) and to define individual customer journeys.
All customer contacts at a glance
It is also necessary to describe all points of contact that the different groups of people have with the company, its products and services. Analog contacts are just as important as digital contacts.
As the groups of people can be very different, the points of contact also vary. In any case, all points of contact should be recorded, not only those during a transaction in an online store, for example, but also those that take place before and after.
It is important that these contact points reflect the customer’s needs; if necessary, a corresponding analysis/survey should be carried out in advance. In addition, it is advisable to structure all contact points so that the end result is as complete and clear a picture as possible of the ways in which people have contact with the company.
Evaluation of the customer experience
The groups of people and points of contact are connected in two further dimensions.
On the one hand, the different contact points have different meanings for different groups of people. On the other hand, the emotions that people have at a particular point of contact also play a major role – both positive and negative.
Both the meaning and the emotion should be recorded and described as precisely as possible for each contact point and group of people.
All findings are summarized in the customer journey. With this knowledge, communication with the different groups of people can be designed in such a way that negative experiences are avoided, that contact points are prioritized and that the important points of contact also trigger the most positive emotions possible. This builds proximity to the customer and promotes customer loyalty.
Align communication channels
In order to implement the described customer journey, the various communication channels must be aligned accordingly.
The aim should be to implement customer communication that is as proactive as possible, ideally anticipating interactions and making them as efficient and pleasant as possible for the target group. This is how customer communication is evolving from simple messages to guided conversations.
Digitalization and the use of artificial intelligence make it possible to network the various communication channels with each other, carry out intelligent routing, use voice-controlled chatbots, integrate human interactions and interpret customer reactions.
This ultimately benefits not only the customer, but also the company itself, from marketing and sales to customer support.
Analyze and understand
Tracking customer behaviour via digital channels, analyzing the customer journey, measuring KPIs and, last but not least, the results of regular customer surveys provide important insights for the ongoing optimization of customer communication.
For example, it is important to understand whether the interaction between the channels and the contact points is rather beneficial and synergies are used, or whether they cannibalize each other.
It is also valuable to understand whether the last point of contact alone was decisive for the order of a product or whether this was the result of the interaction or a certain sequence of several contacts.
All these insights are not only important for optimizing customer communication and improving the customer experience, but also for using the available resources efficiently and in a targeted manner.
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