How MOMA defined its customer journey?

Customer journeys are at the heart of running any business, but particularly so in the environments where consumers are interacting with your brand and have certain expectations.

For example, in retail and hospitality we’ve all become a bit more demanding as we get used to ultra-convenience from brands such as Apple, Amazon, Whole Foods, Uber Eats, Deliveroo etc.

Failing to meet these expectations can mean you lose a customer before you were even aware of the fact that they were considering becoming a customer.

Before we begin any project, we ask our customers if they have defined all their customer journeys, an important question because without understanding and documenting those journeys how can the organisation know where it needs to improve and where additional opportunities may lie? This knowledge then opens the door for innovative technology to facilitate the improvements needed.

If you’re about to begin this process, we’d recommend the book “Outside In” (The Power of Putting Customers at the Heart of Your Business). It’s an exhaustive book on how to tackle this process and the power that it can deliver. Written by two Forrester analysts it’s an excellent guide and can help you develop the internal business case for tackling such a project.

So where does MOMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York City) come in?

A few years ago MOMA knew they had many areas they needed to improve on, and decided to go through the customer journey planning process to educate themselves on where they were failing to meet expectations, or causing service barriers to customers.

When documenting the customer journey, it’s important to categorise the elements into:

• The service experience
• The expectations of the individual
• The emotional experience

THE SERVICE EXPERIENCE:

This can cover several touchpoints with customers; Activities they are doing, Environments they are interacting within, the Interactions themselves, what Objects they encounter and who the Users (people) are.

As you can see in the image, MOMA identified a pre-service interaction that includes the taxi driver. An improvement here could include a web touch point for taxi drivers to determine the correct entrance to drop people off for example.

THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL:

This is a crucial part, we’re all demanding as consumers, and we expect the maximum in terms of convenience. Why can’t I interact with you any way I want? Why am I restricted because your systems don’t interact to give me the flexibility I need?

If a consumer is used to a convenient experience with one brand, being able to move seamlessly between devices for example without losing basket information, then they expect it with every brand.

THE EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE:

The final combination of the first two, the emotional experience is the permanent result that an individual is left with. As you can see in the image, it pinpoints exactly where the areas for improvement are, and where the largest risk of a lost customer exist.

This could be someone requiring more information, having more choice in terms of how they progress to sale (i.e. delivery options, product range etc).

Once the process is completed, technology can then be used to optimise relevant experiences, particularly if you’re hampered by systems not talking to each other in real time.

At one European retailer here at Enactor we were able to exactly replicate 16 complex customer journeys, creating a seamless omni channel experience for their customers. A digital hub that ensured that all points (unassisted and assisted) where technology interacted with the customer were connected seamlessly.