“Landmarks” Can Create Greater Customer Engagement, Impact

Customer journeys and customer mapping are very popular terms in the customer loyalty industry, but adapting experiences to consumer needs according to circumstance is crucial for brands seeking greater customer engagement.

Allegra Burnette, principal analyst, Forrester, discussed this theme during her session, “Finding Our Way,” at the recent Forrester CXSF 2016 Conference.

Prior to joining Forrester in May 2014, Burnette was the creative director of digital media at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, where she oversaw design and production across all interpretive technology, including the museum's website, MoMA.org, as well as mobile apps and sites, kiosks, and other digital displays.
Burnette used New York City’s world-renowned Central Park as a metaphor to illustrate customer journeys.

“It’s about the stories that put the person at the center,” Burnette explained. “It’s great to have all kinds of choice, but choice can be overwhelming. We need to think beyond individual touch points and mapping journeys. We don’t have to start from scratch. And there are differences between experiences between channels.”
Central Park in New York City is, basically, a “theater of people watching,” Burnette explained.

“You have rest areas or spaces where people can look out at the view, contemplate, socialize, and there are places of congregation where people can decide to branch off and while the rest can keep going down a particular path,” she explained.

Burnette referred to landmarks as orientation points “that create memories for us.”

What does it mean to Customer Experience?

“With journey mapping and paths, sometimes you want to take time at these points and other times you want to get them there as fast as you can,” she said.

Burnette noted the Starbucks Mobile Pay and Order Ahead app that saves customers considerable time when they arrive at the store.

“We should be thinking about these transitions across channels, the places for enrichment or exploration,” she said. “Landmarks are interactions that create impact. We might call them moments that matter or signature moments.”

USAA launched an app to prompt millennials (with a four-month trial period) to help them with their choices and how to better save. The standalone app was designed to help millennials and other members save or learn how to save more efficiently.

Known as Savings Coach, the USAA app combines voice recognition and text-to-speech technology and synthesizes financial transaction data to recommend daily amounts of money to deposit in savings. The app is available to all USAA members that have checking and savings accounts but is primarily targeted at millennials.
Landmarks, or orientations points, can help companies create better and more memorable customer experiences.

“It’s not just about customer journeys,” Burnette explained. “But, it’s also how we can map and help shape the experience around our customers so we can create a customer experience landscape.”

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