Step 1: Define the scope
Before going further, identify the best journey to initiate the process — the entire lifecycle end-to-end, acquisition only, servicing, or specifically onboarding. In some organisations, the journey to revamp is already defined; in others, it's still under discussion. The main question is: "Where can I create impact?" The most exhaustive, complex journey lets you revisit most processes in one go; the journey with the highest dissatisfaction or churn addresses the sharpest pain; the highest growth-potential journey serves a different priority. This depends on priorities and the flexibility of the business processes you'll need to adapt.
Step 2: Define your business objectives and KPIs
Once the first journey is selected, discuss with stakeholders to clearly understand their objectives, pains, challenges, and customer knowledge — since it's with them that the journey will be defined and delivered. Identify the business objectives and KPIs the project will be evaluated on, and check priorities: boosting sales and acquisition calls for a different orientation than reducing churn or operational costs.
Step 3: Pick your team wisely
Build a transversal team with all impacted stakeholders — marketing, communication, product, digital, sales, contact centre, IT, CRM, operations. These "resource individuals" are often already in charge of a specific, closely connected project in their own department. Associating them with the project turns them into experts with a clear view of what's operational and when, sparring partners with precise insights, and ambassadors who facilitate adoption and communication across departments — sometimes with a financial contribution to the future implementation budget.
Step 4: Collect insights
Map all the pains of the current experience — this is where you can make the biggest difference.
- Make the journey yourself. Mystery shopping, from A to Z. Talk to customer-facing staff, ask questions, complain, understand how they interact with people day to day. Put yourself in your customers' shoes.
- Talk to your customers. This may look overrated, but it's still the best way to delight them. Use studies to reach people representative of your customer base, and map segments and their significant behaviours, including channel use.
- Benchmark competition and experience leaders. Don't underestimate this step or run a quick, superficial comparison — pay attention to detail. Compare your experience with best-in-class players, even outside your own sector.
- Crunch the data. Look at how the journey performs end-to-end, and compare current performance with targeted KPIs to identify where the journey needs improvement and where your main leverage points are.
Step 5: Map your AS-IS journey
Now that you have a better understanding of the customer's experience, map the journey:
- Define the key steps — start with life triggers and build a timeline of the different steps of the customer lifecycle: search for information, purchase, after-sales servicing, daily experience, problem resolution, end of contract.
- List the channels — set up areas for digital, remote, and human interactions under the timeline, noting that each channel often includes multiple touchpoints working in sync.
- Tell stories through the mapping of steps and touchpoints, integrating emotions based on the touchpoint and satisfaction level at each step.
A few tips: speak about the different, especially negative, experiences from the insight phase using "I" in every sentence (e.g. "I do an online search and visit the brand website"); use icons to visualise key actions; look at existing customer journey examples online for inspiration; and use graphic design software rather than PowerPoint to save time.
Then position business objectives on the different steps (share of voice, contacts, conversion, turnover, satisfaction, word of mouth, repurchase), and map the areas of improvement using current performance gaps, customer feedback, and experience breakouts.
Step 6: Start designing your TO-BE journey
Go the extra mile on each step of the journey — you can still phase and prioritise the efforts, but it would be a shame not to take the opportunity to innovate and design a genuinely cutting-edge end-to-end experience. Use brainstorming tools with your team of sparring partners to turn the journey into a positive experience based on the key pains and opportunities identified in the AS-IS map. Design the TO-BE journey with possible readjustments to the original elements, set up the guiding principles of each interaction — the role, objective, and quality level for each touchpoint — and turn the new journey into concrete value propositions and SLAs.
Step 7: Build a roadmap phasing the roll-out
Companies typically need to invest in new assets to deliver TO-BE journeys, which is when negotiations start with other departments across implementation stages. Map all the enablers and the effort required to build them, and motivate the investment with a business case where needed. There are many ways to plan the roll-out — the only question to ask is "What do I want?" If the priority is to be first to innovate, focus all effort on delivering that innovation; if the priority is to scale, use a test-and-learn approach with minimum viable projects before industrialising. In any case, the guiding question is: "What is the shortest route to reach my destination?"
Frequently asked questions
Where should a customer journey redesign start?
By clearly defining the scope — which journey, and where the project can create the most impact — since that choice shapes every step that follows.
Why involve a transversal team instead of working within one department?
Stakeholders from marketing, digital, sales, IT, and operations bring expertise, sparring input, and act as ambassadors who facilitate adoption across the organisation.
What's the fastest way to understand the current customer experience?
Combining mystery shopping, direct conversations with customers, competitive benchmarking, and data analysis — each surfaces different blind spots.
How much of the TO-BE journey should be designed before prioritising?
Aim high first — design the full cutting-edge experience — then phase and prioritise the roll-out based on effort, business case, and strategic priority.
