How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map
Although many articles discuss customer journey mapping (CJM), both academics and practitioners still question the best ways to model the consumer decision journey. We contend that most customer journey maps are critically flawed. They assume all customers of a particular organization experience the same organizational touchpoints and view these touchpoints as equally important. Furthermore, management lacks an understanding of how to use CJM as a cross-functional, strategic tool that promotes service innovation. This article proposes a solution to the unwieldy complexity of CJM by linking customer research to the CJM process and by showing managers how to develop a customer journey map that improves a customer's experience at each touchpoint. Using the case of an actual retail mall, we show that common CJM assumptions about the equal importance of all touchpoints are fundamentally wrong, and how easy it is for retail managers and strategic planners to make incorrect judgements about customer experience. This article demonstrates through a case study how customer research helped a mall's strategic management team understand which touchpoints were more or less critical to customer experience. It also shows key strategic initiatives at each touchpoint, resulting in cross-functional input aimed to advance service innovation at the mall.
Authors :: Mark Rosenbaum, Mauricio Losada Otalora, German Contreras Ramirez
Swot Analysis of "How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map" written by Mark Rosenbaum, Mauricio Losada Otalora, German Contreras Ramirez includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cjm Touchpoints facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customers, Decision making, IT, Psychology and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cjm Touchpoints, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cjm Touchpoints operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cjm Touchpoints
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Cjm Touchpoints
Strengths How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cjm Touchpoints in How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Cjm Touchpoints is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Cjm Touchpoints in the sector have low bargaining power. How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cjm Touchpoints to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Cjm Touchpoints is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Cjm Touchpoints is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Cjm Touchpoints is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Mark Rosenbaum, Mauricio Losada Otalora, German Contreras Ramirez can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Organizational Resilience of Cjm Touchpoints
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Cjm Touchpoints does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Cjm Touchpoints has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Cjm Touchpoints is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Cjm Touchpoints has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cjm Touchpoints to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cjm Touchpoints to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Cjm Touchpoints in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Cjm Touchpoints has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cjm Touchpoints has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Weaknesses How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Lack of clear differentiation of Cjm Touchpoints products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Cjm Touchpoints needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map, is just above the industry average. Cjm Touchpoints needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Cjm Touchpoints has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Cjm Touchpoints is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Cjm Touchpoints needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Cjm Touchpoints to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Cjm Touchpoints has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Cjm Touchpoints even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Cjm Touchpoints has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map, in the dynamic environment Cjm Touchpoints has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Cjm Touchpoints has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Cjm Touchpoints is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cjm Touchpoints has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Cjm Touchpoints has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Opportunities How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Cjm Touchpoints can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Leadership & Managing People segment.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Cjm Touchpoints can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Cjm Touchpoints can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Cjm Touchpoints can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Cjm Touchpoints operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cjm Touchpoints is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Cjm Touchpoints can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cjm Touchpoints can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Cjm Touchpoints has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cjm Touchpoints can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Cjm Touchpoints has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Cjm Touchpoints to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map case study. Cjm Touchpoints can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Cjm Touchpoints can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Cjm Touchpoints can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Cjm Touchpoints in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cjm Touchpoints to increase its market reach. Cjm Touchpoints will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Threats How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Cjm Touchpoints with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Cjm Touchpoints will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Cjm Touchpoints has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cjm Touchpoints needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cjm Touchpoints in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cjm Touchpoints demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cjm Touchpoints can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map .
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Cjm Touchpoints needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Cjm Touchpoints in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Cjm Touchpoints can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Cjm Touchpoints needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Cjm Touchpoints
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Cjm Touchpoints.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of How to Create a Realistic Customer Journey Map is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Cjm Touchpoints needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.