Simplified and Accessible Customer Journey Management
According to Forrester, the age of the customer started in 2010 . Thirteen years later, it’s still such a prevalent topic of conversation, it’s as if the age of the customer has only truly just begun.
Customer experience (CX) has plenty of room for improvement. Across 13 industries, CX quality dropped in 2022 for the first time since 2017. The average U.S. CX Index score across industries was 71.3 (out of 100)—a score equivalent to a “C."
One of the ways CX can make a comeback, in our view, is when more brands leverage Journey-as-a-Service (JaaS). JaaS helps brands manage journeys more quickly and easily, simplifying the improvement of customer experience. Keep reading to discover what is JaaS and how you can use it to improve CX.
What is Journey-as-a-Service (JAAS)?
A customer journey is the arc of engagement with a particular brand or service. As customers move through the five customer journey stages—awareness, consideration, purchase/decision, retention and advocacy—they interact with a variety of systems through multiple channels. Those systems span marketing, sales and service technologies. Customers may research, compare, and purchase products and services on company websites, pay their bills using an app, communicate with customer service via interactive voice response (IVR), and complete surveys via SMS.
JaaS is a self-service tool that enables CX, digital experience (DX) and marketing professionals to design, test and launch cohesive customer experience initiatives without getting seven teams involved. JaaS takes industry-specific best practices to address common CX issues and streamlines the implementation of a unified process across systems and departments.
CSG’s JaaS is a self-service portal that allows all users to input and change journey details without calling technical support or a professional services team. Using JaaS is like using TurboTax to prepare your tax return. The user-friendly software makes it easy to identify your CX challenge and deploy specific journeys to address those issues.
Benefits of Journey-as-a-Service
Here's what an effective JaaS tool can do to help brands improve CX:
Help brands and services guide their customers from initial contact through purchasing a product/service, paying monthly bills, seeking customer support, and renewing their contract or repurchasing
Allow brands and services to quickly launch and deploy industry-specific, pre-built customer journeys
Make it easy to start with a single journey (e.g., cross-selling) and then build a library of customer journeys across an organization
Examples of Customer Journeys that Can Be Deployed with Journey-as-a-Service
JaaS can manage many customer journeys related to researching, buying, onboarding, using, managing and receiving support for products and services. Here are a few examples:
Retail: Shopping Cart Abandonment
If a customer placed an item in the online shopping cart and then abandoned the website, the journey orchestration component of JaaS determines the communication channel where the customer has been most responsive (e.g., email or SMS). The system immediately sends a message and link via that channel, prompting the customer to complete the purchase. If the customer completes the purchase, the platform continues sending cart abandonment notifications in future instances.
Healthcare: Appointment Reminders
When a patient is scheduled for an upcoming medical visit, the JaaS system determines the optimal channel and time(s) for appointment reminders based on the patient profile. The system sends the reminder(s) via email or SMS, requesting patient confirmation. When the patient confirms the appointment, the systems sends a “how to prepare” informational message via the same channel.
Financial Services: Mortgage Loan Approval
When a loan applicant has not responded to requests for additional documents, the system determines alternative channels where the person may be more active. The system sends reminders over those channels (e.g., email, push notifications, or outbound IVR). After submitting the missing documentation, the person receives an automated message confirming receipt.
Telecom: Payment Reminders
When the customer’s account is at risk for becoming overdue, the system determines the message and timing based on segmentation, regulations and prior communications. Then the system sends proactive and compliant SMS payment reminders. After payment, the customer receives confirmation and a note regarding what to expect for future payments due.
Related Post: Retail Experience: Orchestrate Compelling Communications that Capture Consumer Attention
Best Practices for Journey-as-a-Service
CX initiatives are difficult to start, and they thrive on results and momentum. It's critical that they can demonstrate their impact quickly to help build support inside your organization.
Identify the biggest customer pain points. Where is your organization falling short of delivering positive experiences? For example, you might audit contact center calls to identify why customers are calling.
Are they confused by their bill?
Are they having a hard time redeeming promotional offers?
Are they angry that they haven’t received any updates regarding their internet outage?
Start by orchestrating one journey. Choose a journey that’s easy to improve and provides quick return on investment. Getting a quick win up on the board drives organizational awareness and board support for future CX investment .
Then deploy more journeys. You’ll see greater impact (better customer satisfaction, greater revenue) as you incorporate multiple journeys.
Now is the Time to Invest in CX
Improving CX pays off, directly impacting revenue. According to Forrester, a 1-point improvement in a large multichannel bank’s CX Index score can lead to an incremental $123 million in revenue . Realizing the potential return on investment, forward-thinking business leaders are investing in CX technology. The IDC predicts the overall customer experience software market to rise from $167.3B in 2021 to $295.7B in 2026.
To be competitive, your brand must deliver superior CX throughout the customer journey and work to simplify the customer journey. If you have been mapping customer journeys and/or employing journey analytics—or even if you’re just thinking about starting—now is the time to adopt JaaS.
CSG’s journey management software is user-friendly, allowing any user to analyze and orchestrate customer journeys without needing an army of technical resources. We help customers figure out where to start, and we provide industry-specific, pre-built journeys to get you up and running quickly. At the core of our Journey as-a-Service is CSG Xponent Ignite , our award-winning, industry-leading customer engagement solution that can help businesses supercharge their CX outcomes.
