Why Customer Journey Mapping is not enough: introducing CJ Benchmarking

Understanding how customers choose to purchase products and services is essential to companies. Consumers do not act only based on a rational evaluation of pros and cons or the quality and cost of a service or product. Their decisions are also influenced by emotional factors and the shopping experience provided by a given brand.

Therefore, it is fundamental for companies to carefully study their clients’ customer journeys, the complete path followed by a consumer and all of their points of contact with a brand that led to the purchase of a product or service. This is achieved by Customer Journey Mapping.

Markets are undergoing increasingly rapid transformations, and this constantly places companies in a state of hyper-competitivity. A client-centric approach is no longer sufficient. Companies must expand their horizons and understand how their competitors are operating.

UNGUESS has developed a new tool with this goal in mind: the Customer Journey Benchmark Research. 

CJB: What is it and what are the differences from the CJM

The Customer Journey Mapping approach is brand-centric. It studies the path of clients towards a purchase, extending the experience of an individual or a select group to that of all stakeholders. Indeed, every single client undertakes an individual path to decide which product to purchase or to understand which service best suits their needs, by comparing the various choices available on the market.

Furthermore, companies face high competition. They need to innovate constantly as what is deemed fully satisfactory by a client at present, may only represent a fraction of what will be necessary to efficiently meet their demands and expectations in the near future.

Understanding how competitors operate is an excellent starting point to keep ahead of the game and keep providing an excellent service. This requires a benchmarking activity. Observing rival brands allows companies to collect new ideas on how to achieve their desired objectives.

Customer Journey Mapping is no longer sufficient. It needs to be enhanced. Companies need to not only analyse their buyer personas, but also study what their competitors are doing to attract consumers, win them over, and build customer loyalty. 

Mindful of the limits of Customer Journey Mapping and the needs of companies, UNGUESS has developed an innovative solution – Customer Journey Benchmarking – that monitors the activities of other actors on a given reference market and aims to achieve the satisfaction of final clients.

This process provides important answers. It identifies the weaknesses and strengths of competitors. It identifies touch points between other companies and consumers, and the reasons behind the failure of certain objectives.

Benchmarking activities applied to a customer journey provide companies with a previously inexistant qualitative analysis of the customer experience and allows them to understand the emerging needs of consumers.

What Customer Journey Benchmarking can do for your company

By conducting a qualitative analysis, UNGUESS aims to understand the development of competitors’ Customer Journey Maps, analyzing all points of contact, use, and client satisfaction. 

The final objective is to improve a company’s customer experience, allowing it to prioritize actions and investments with extreme clarity. Customer Journey Benchmarking also allows companies to understand how to differentiate themselves from competitors and gain a competitive advantage based on their weak points. 

The qualitative analysis developed by UNGUESS allows companies to compare the quality of their products and services with those of their competitors and learn about their activities and initiatives. This provides companies with a wide overview of their competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. In fact, it also allows them to identify the errors committed by rival companies and avoid repeating them themselves.

Click here to know more about the Customer Journey Benchmarking service offered by UNGUESS.