Customer Journey Mapping for B2B Organizations

Some companies, take customer journey mapping at a basic level to the point that it doesn’t encapsulate the maximum value that you can get out of this exercise. There are even companies with customer success teams that don’t have customer journey maps, which can be considered a loophole. Little did they know that customer journey mapping gives you the framework to be more customer-centric, most especially for companies that embrace such methodology. That said, this blog is written to enlighten you on how to properly do this in an organization.

Irit Eizips, Chief Customer Officer and CEO of CSM Practice, was recently invited by Planhat to talk about Customer Journey Mapping for B2B Organizations. With the goal of helping customer success teams, Irit Eizips shared that customer journey mapping’s goal is to not only set up the framework correctly but attach it to the company’s go-to-market so that it can grow profitably by implementing customer retention and expansion, selling methodologies, and value playbooks.

Customer journey mapping’s goal is to not only set up the framework correctly but attach it to the company’s go-to-market so that it can grow profitably by implementing customer retention and expansion, selling methodologies, and value playbooks.

The focus of this blog is to discuss the three common fallacies of customer journey mapping, three tips to ensure the success of the said activity and three resources that can be used as a guide throughout the conduct of customer journey mapping.

Common Beliefs

As discussed by Irit, there are three misconceptions we can see working in different companies.

1. The marketing team should define the customer success lifecycle journey map.

There’s a vast difference between what customer journey maps marketing teams create versus the ones that customer success teams should create. The customer journey map that the customer success teams create is usually referred to as the customer lifecycle journey map as a distinction. 

2. We can’t have a single customer success journey map for all our products and customers.

It’s significant to start with one single customer journey framework and then reiterate from multiple versions. The mistake that most companies make is that they can create a completely siloed customer journey map for multiple segments. 

3. The customer journey map is a simple visual representation.

To get the maximum value out of this exercise, you have to take it a step further, and you need to treat this not just as a map but a high-level visual of a customer lifecycle journey that you can share to some degree with your customers. 

The customer journey map consists of the following format and categories:

I. Major Categories

1. Event Trigger – What is going to kick us off to a particular lifecycle stage, milestone, or customer activity, the larger ecosystem of the journey?
2. Objectives/ Success Criteria – Guidelines to drive the team to a certain goal or outcome
3. Key Activities – High-level description of actions that need to happen within a particular event/milestone/activity
4. Deliverables – Outputs the CSM should drive towards per each particular event
5. Key Milestones – Include either a risk or a point of celebration

II. Roles & Responsibilities

1. Internal – The role each internal stakeholders has to play
2. External – individuals who the customer success manager will be working with on the client-side

Impact

The following impact as shared by Eizips is based on her experience working with different customer success teams. These impacts can be expected at the end of your customer journey mapping activity if executed successfully:

1. United teams with a common language
2. Set clear professional goals for the CSMs
3. Established an effective communication framework with customers
4. Defined clear cross-functional work processes and improve collaboration

Three Tips

In the session, Eizips also shared three tips for doing the customer journey mapping to make sure you optimize and align with the best practices:

1. Define actionable playbooks – the map must have a playbook for each specific lifecycle stage. Each playbook should have specific activities and resources supporting them.
2. Create a customer journey map for year 1 (separately from year 2+)
3. Plan ahead – avoid creating customer journey maps that sit on a shelf without considerable planning.

To further assist you in your customer journey mapping, we would like to offer these three resources to help you get started:

• The Ultimate Executive’s Guide to Customer Success Initiatives

• How To Build Your Customer Success Journey 

• Watch this video: Customer Journey Map | William Chesser & Shanna Daniel | VitalSource

How CSM Practice can help with your customer journey maps!

Setting clear goals is the first step in getting a great customer success journey map. CSM Practice offers a Customer Success Strategy that will create a full and detailed customer success journey map to drive proactive results.

CSM Practice specializes in the technology and services industry and offers a portfolio of enterprise solutions, that wish to achieve successful and scalable results. 

Take it to the next level!  Ask CSM Practice about the services we provide and learn how we can help you transform your organization into success.