What is CX process mapping and how can companies use it to level up CX?

Customers govern today's economy. They choose exactly when and exactly how they want to engage with your organization — and they expect white glove, personalized, and frictionless experiences when they do.

Companies like Microsoft and Amazon know that to stand out from competitors, they must create memorable, exceptional customer experiences. Gone are the days when companies could compete on price, product, or quality alone. According to a Martech Alliance survey, 78.5% of Chief Marketing Officers agree or strongly agree that amazing customer experiences provide a powerful competitive advantage.

The stakes have never been higher to invest in customer experience. But it can be difficult to determine where your organization should focus your efforts. Sometimes, it’s best to look inward.

Your internal processes impact the overall experience you deliver to your employees and your customers. Unfortunately, it’s often challenging to pinpoint where processes are causing problems or pain points, let alone resolve them. That’s where CX process mapping comes in.

What is CX process mapping?

CX process mapping is a method that uses customer experience techniques and design thinking. It helps to find problems and opportunities in a specific internal process via visual representation. The goal is to understand and improve the customer experience and improve it for better business results.

At TTEC Digital, we break out CX process mapping projects into seven distinct phases.

1. Data request & analysis

During this phase, we analyze a series of data points to understand gaps and pain points in your process.

2. Customer & employee interviews

Phase two uncovers customer and employee perspectives through 1:1 interviews.

3. Current state process mapping

This phase enables you to map out the current state experience and align known pain points to the process.

4. Design thinking

We use design thinking to solve complex problems by understanding and addressing the root causes of issues for your customers and employees.

5. Technology scoping

Next, we determine the best-suited technology solutions to implement across the process to solve known problems. We will also identify metrics to measure success during this phase.

6. Future state process mapping

We will evaluate your current technology set-up. Based on this evaluation, we will decide where to add new solutions to the current process map. This will create a future process that solves problems for both customers and employees.

7. Executive summary

Finally, TTEC Digital provides detailed recommendations and strategies that outline what is needed to achieve your ideal future state experience.

How CX process mapping can benefit your organization

Companies often struggle to pinpoint and solve internal process issues that cause problems for customers or employees. CX process mapping helps organizations solve this common challenge and provides numerous additional benefits:

• Diagnose employee and customer journeys within a single process
• Foster cross-functional collaboration
• Focus on data-driven insights from your customers and employees
• Improve the process based on actual employee and customer pains
• Scope technology solutions best suited for your unique goals and needs
• Drive business outcomes like higher efficiencies, lower costs, and increased revenue
• Enhance the customer experience

An example of CX process mapping

Service Corporation International (SCI), a funeral, cremation, and cemetery services provider knew there were challenges and opportunities to address within their collections process. SCI wanted to assess pain points, collect feedback, and diagnose customer journeys throughout the entire collections process.

TTEC Digital and SCI worked together to analyze the collections process, identify customer experience issues, and understand customer feedback through Voice of the Customer programming.

TTEC Digital used quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods to understand the collections process better. After analyzing data, we spoke directly with customers and agents to better understand the collections process. Agents provided perspectives on work-from-home limitations, manual agent tasks, user authorization, and location. Meanwhile, customers touched on topics like statements, the fog of grief, phone payments, and the overall experience.

TTEC Digital and SCI found ways to make collections process better. They made it easier to pay, use self-service tools, get help from agents, upgrade systems, set up accounts, and communicate.

TTEC Digital gave SCI a detailed plan. The plan focused on prioritizing technology solutions. It also aimed to increase on-time payments, enhance agent accountability, improve data processes, and enhance the collections experience.

Delivering the experiences customers expect is not always an easy task. For a company like SCI, providing a smooth customer experience is compounded by navigating families’ most difficult, personal, and challenging times. However, CX process mapping can bring significant business value to any organization, regardless of its size, industry, or maturity level.