Companies spare neither expense nor effort to sell their products. They spend millions of euros to convince their customers of the value of their products or services. Customer satisfaction is the top priority for many companies. Often, however, only the external customer is considered.
Strictly speaking, employees in their role as users of IT systems or as participants in processes are also customers, but they are often neglected or not seen as customers at all.
Companies often lack a sense of whether or not their own users are satisfied with the processes or IT systems. Who is not familiar with the discussions in the hallway about the currently implemented IT system: Too complicated or even useless?
Wouldn't it be important to get this information in an official way in order to initiate targeted measures to improve the situation? After all, the goal of every IT department should be to provide users with an application that they accept and perceive as a relief in their daily work.
Here, a user journey mapping can help to achieve exactly this understanding by putting the user's perspective in the foreground.
The path to a better process with the user journey map
The user journey map is a modified form of the customer journey map method. The latter describes the customer journey or also called customer lifecycle and includes all interactions a customer has with a product - from discovery to purchase and beyond. The point in time when the customer decides to buy the product or not is called "moment of truth".
In the user journey map, the product is the business process or the supporting IT system. The Moment of Truth is the moment when it is decided whether the user accepts the process and the system as user-friendly and decides to follow the process and use the system in the intended way.
So it's about compliance? Not only. But compliance is one aspect. Traditionally, compliance is checked by means of audits. But does this really provide a realistic picture, considering that the audited organizational unit strives to avoid uncovering any process deviation if possible?
The User Journey Map is about changing the perspective and understanding the user better:
What are the user's touch points with the system/process?
At which points is he satisfied, at which not?
What emotions does he experience?
What are the reasons for deviating from defined processes or developing workarounds?
Often the following sentences are uttered: "That's why I built this Excel spreadsheet".
First and foremost, journey mapping is about finding weak points in the process or IT system in order to drive targeted improvements. The goal here is not to abandon the classic vulnerability analysis and the end-to-end idea of BPM. Rather, the aim is to enrich BPM with information from the user's reality.
User journey maps can be the first step towards a changed self-image within the company
User journey maps are therefore a suitable tool for recording internal processes with regard to the experiences and perceptions of users. The resulting approaches for a continuous improvement process should then be implemented consistently and in a process-oriented manner.
Through this approach, a company ultimately ensures increased user satisfaction, ensures compliance with processes, and ensures higher data quality along the entire value chain. The end result is holistic business process management (BPM), improved corporate governance, and an enhanced self-image that leads to a more efficient enterprise.
The trend is already recognized and lived
Questions about the user are also coming up more and more frequently in our projects: Why is a user not treated as a customer? Why aren't IT systems and processes treated like products?
So we observe a growing enthusiasm for the use of the User Journey Map on users. An enthusiasm that will continue and lead to a change in the way business processes and the entire business process management (BPM) are viewed.
This realization makes it clear that the right time to rethink processes is right now! The new perspective offers new approaches to designing more efficient process flows, so that companies can find their way to a future with holistic customer-oriented processes. And that for both external and internal customers.
The right support for implementation
The successful internalization of the new perspective on business processes can succeed with a strong partner. Scheer's holistic and process-oriented consulting approach aims at a holistic understanding of processes. The process experts support companies in understanding their business processes from all relevant perspectives through tool-supported business process management (BPM), thus paving the way for efficient and process-driven corporate management.
The process-oriented approach is supported by elements of Business Process Intelligence (BPI) as part of the strategic partnership with SAP. For example, the use of the SAP Signavio Journey Modeler can support the creation and evaluation of process-oriented user journey maps. This creates the necessary transparency to fully understand the processes within the company and to base further actions on them in the form of adjustments to the process landscape.
Do you have any questions on this topic, or would you like to learn more about Scheer as a reliable partner?
We will be happy to discuss your needs with you.
