So far, you have mapped the main stages of the customer journey. Then, you related that map back to your organization's view of the relationship using the sales funnel. Next you learned how to visually represent customer sentiment, relying mainly on instant feedback.
In this final chapter in part 1, you will learn about the final step in the customer journey analysis: interviewing the stakeholders - the people employed by your organization to deal with your customers.
Identify Internal Stakeholders
Here are the internal stakeholders in the car rental organization example:
The sales manager for the website.
A manager at the airport rental agency.
A manager for the fleet of cars.
An employee who works at the rental agency, car maintenance, parking lot, etc.
They all participate in customer service delivery, and are therefore good contact points for measuring customer experience.
As a manager, you should know that it’s motivating for employees to know the impact their actions have on customer satisfaction.
Each group’s work will be evaluated against a set of agreed metrics. These metrics measure service quality, particularly customer expectations and satisfaction.
Identify External Stakeholders
Providers must often make the financial choice between doing something themselves and having it done by someone else. As a result, many stages of the customer journey can be subcontracted to a third party.
This relationship is usually monitored by a service-level agreement (or SLA), which details the services to be provided and the minimum quality standards that the contractor must maintain.
Identify How Stakeholders Are Held Accountable for Customer Satisfaction
Incentives can take many forms, from simple recognition or awards to performance-based pay - bonuses, for example. These can apply to all team members from the top to the bottom of the organization’s career ladder. It's is how you become a customer-centric brand.
The goal is nearly always to use these incentives to align the interests of the teams, the organization, and the customer. It's one of the main reasons why the customer satisfaction calculation is often closely scrutinized and debated!
As you interview stakeholders, ask them if they are entitled to incentives and how they are calculated. It will help you dig even deeper into the current customer relations and how each team feels that they can be improved. It's often a precious source of information!
Keep GDPR in Mind at all Times
On the 25th of May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect. It updated the storage and personal information use rules. In addition, it significantly increased the financial penalties for non-compliance - don't take fines of up to 4% of the organization's total revenue lightly!
For the car rental company, the data gathered at each step along the customer journey was compiled into a table.
Step | Location | Rental Co. Info | Personal Info | Transactional Data | Behavioral Data |
A | Home | ✅ | IP address |
| Duration |
B | Home | ❌ | / | / | / |
C | Home | ✅ | IP address | Pre-reservation info | Competing websites? |
D | Home | ✅ | First Name, Last Name, Address | Payment method | Opt-in preferences |
E | Airport | ❌ | / | / | / |
F | Airport | ❌ | / | / | / |
G | Parking lot | ✅ | 2nd driver? | Transaction ID |
|
H | Parking lot | ✅ |
|
| Distance |
You should follow these six requirements to ensure your organization’s processes are GDPR-compliant:
Designate a data protection officer (DPO).
Map out the ways personal data are processed.
Ensure that all compliance actions are performed, and procedures followed.
If you have high-risk factors in your business, you must conduct out an impact analysis called a privacy impact assessment (PIA).
Organize your internal processes.
Document the compliance.
Make sure to ask customers’ and online visitors’ consent when collecting their personal data.
Let's Recap!
Some stakeholders may be external to the organization - such as subcontractors - whose work is measured through a service-level agreement.
During stakeholder interviews, capture information about any incentives they might receive, including how these are calculated.
GDPR has strict regulations governing how customer data is collected, stored, and used by all organizations. Keep GDPR requirements in mind when you are working with customer data.
Before jumping to the next part, practice the knowledge that you’ve gained in the quiz that follows.
