Does this involve striking a balance between being process efficient and prioritizing customer experience? From my understanding, utilities have to ask themselves whether they are mapping their customer journeys around customer needs or their internal processes. Often, at least from a customer perspective, it feels like these journeys are process-led and structured around siloed internal departments, which may take away from utilities truly understanding experiences from end-to-end.
I'm curious to learn more about when it is advantageous vs. disadvantageous for the scope of journeys to involve customers' emotions.
Hi Wendy - Spot on with your observation. Historically, utilities have mapped based on their own processes, as opposed to the customers' experiences. So, customer journeys must be from the customer perspective, rather than an internal view. And, you are right that without a customer view, the utility may lose understanding regarding the end-to-end.
As for adv/disadv of emotions:
1. Emotions influence us -- recent literature in behavioral economics illustrates that we make decisions due to our emotions, rather than apart from them.
2. Emotions explain the why -- without them mapped, a utility is left in the dark as to the reason behind behaviors. When a utility interacts to pay a bill, what is the feeling of a segment of residential customers who may be behind on their bills vs those who are on auto-pay in full? Knowing these differences in feeling will (see reason 3...)
3. Emotions help design -- if a customer feels stressed during a "moment that matters" (like paying a bill due to being in arrears) a utility can better determine how to properly build their product + process to cater to that emotion, rather than just the activity. With this in mind, a utility could proactively show financial assistance options when it comes down to pay, decreasing the balance a customer has to pay and the utility's arrears - a win-win!
Does this involve striking a balance between being process efficient and prioritizing customer experience? From my understanding, utilities have to ask themselves whether they are mapping their customer journeys around customer needs or their internal processes. Often, at least from a customer perspective, it feels like these journeys are process-led and structured around siloed internal departments, which may take away from utilities truly understanding experiences from end-to-end.
I'm curious to learn more about when it is advantageous vs. disadvantageous for the scope of journeys to involve customers' emotions.
Hi Wendy - Spot on with your observation. Historically, utilities have mapped based on their own processes, as opposed to the customers' experiences. So, customer journeys must be from the customer perspective, rather than an internal view. And, you are right that without a customer view, the utility may lose understanding regarding the end-to-end.
As for adv/disadv of emotions:
1. Emotions influence us -- recent literature in behavioral economics illustrates that we make decisions due to our emotions, rather than apart from them.
2. Emotions explain the why -- without them mapped, a utility is left in the dark as to the reason behind behaviors. When a utility interacts to pay a bill, what is the feeling of a segment of residential customers who may be behind on their bills vs those who are on auto-pay in full? Knowing these differences in feeling will (see reason 3...)
3. Emotions help design -- if a customer feels stressed during a "moment that matters" (like paying a bill due to being in arrears) a utility can better determine how to properly build their product + process to cater to that emotion, rather than just the activity. With this in mind, a utility could proactively show financial assistance options when it comes down to pay, decreasing the balance a customer has to pay and the utility's arrears - a win-win!