Mapping a Customer Journey with the Mission in Mind
Design Thinking and the customer experience go hand-in-hand. While customer engagement with a Government agency can be difficult, an agency can navigate this tenuous process using a Customer Journey Map – a key tool in our Design Thinking approach. This can also inspire innovative ideas.
A Customer Journey Map is “a diagram that illustrates the steps your customers go through in engaging with your agency.” The map allows the agency to assess the entire customer experience, from the first initial interaction to the final engagement between the two parties. This enables an agency to take a more empathetic view of the customer experience. From this, an agency can identify the top areas for innovation and create new ways to interact, improving its services to better meet the customers’ needs. For example, an agency can ask questions like: What are customers doing at each stage? What are their motivations to go to the next stage? Why do they care? What do they like the most? The least?
By creating a more empathetic mapping experience, agencies make customers feel more valued, thus fostering a more collaborative spirit between both parties.
This is especially true in homeland security. For example, assume the Office of the Chief Data Officer or Digital Services is trying to break down culture barriers related to sharing information across components at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
With a specific DHS component in mind (take Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and their sensitive law enforcement data, for example), the Department-level program should map the interaction they have with ICE to identify their key concerns and the value they can bring.
To create a mission-focused Customer Journey Map:
- Engage. Understand ICE’s data that may be of value to other agencies, their concerns about privacy or data retention, and what problems you could encounter. Identify the mission value when key data points are connected across agencies
- Map. Map the interaction points – from the time DHS engages ICE to initially start discussing data sharing to the time an ICE dataset is fully onboarded to an information sharing platform. Who are the key stakeholders? What are the key interaction points? What are potential risks?
- Visualize. Create a graphic to show a summary of the map, so that it is really easy for everyone to see the critical points of interaction. Be creative and graphical to make the map engaging
- Use. Use the Journey Map to help new customers adopt the information sharing platform. Use it to identify ways to improve communication and processes. Are there opportunities for innovation?
- Innovate. Test and prototype the information sharing platform and process to identify ways to improve the process, introduce innovation, and enhance the customer experience
- Share. Customers share their experience with others. For example, ICE representatives could share their experience with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which would then bring new customers into the fold
- Communicate. Share the map and communicate improvements to further strengthen relationships with stakeholders to set the foundation for future information sharing
Government agencies should explore Design Thinking by creating a Customer Journey Map as they work on challenging problems. By taking an empathetic approach and gaining a step-by-step understanding of customers’ requirements, agencies can improve the overall customer experience and establish a collaborative relationship going forward.
About Arc Aspicio
Arc Aspicio is a management, strategy, and technology consulting firm that takes a mission-oriented approach to complex client challenges. As a rapidly growing company, Arc Aspicio has a bold strategy for 2016-2018 that drives growth through new capabilities in strategy, design, human capital, data analytics, information sharing, cybersecurity, and strategic communications. The company is known for a strong, collaborative culture that values gratitude – for its clients and its great team. And, #welovedogs! Follow us on Twitter @arcaspicio or learn more at www.arcaspicio.com.
