What are some of the key skills and competencies for customer journey mapping facilitators?

A good way to understand the customer is to understand customer jobs in the context of who the customer is and what jobs (emotional, social, functional, etc.) they complete, what are their pains and gains while completing these jobs.

In my experience, handling a customer who is already facing issues can seem difficult. By approaching the customer empathetically, you can easily win their confidence. The use of the right probing questions will help identify most of the issues. Curiosity goes a long way. Start with open-ended questions and narrow down the issue using closed-ended questions. Most complex escalations are solved by very simple solutions. For example, there was a situation where my technical specialist was about to book a motherboard replacement, but I resolved the issue by guiding the customer to reseat the graphics card. By using effective probing questions such as, "Did you move your PC to a different location before you started facing this issue?"

Gathering a cross-functional team that is interested in helping the customer across the organisation for this exercise is immensely useful.

The approach of a facilitator varies somewhat depending on whether the workshop consists of customers or staff. Some suggestions for facilitating a customer workshop: Limit the workshop to 8 to 10 customers who have recently completed a journey Engage customers by asking them to approach the map as much as possible. Provide Post-It notes and ask them to place the note in the desired location. Then ask them to briefly provide a couple of key points about their note Throughout the workshop, the facilitator should synthesize the findings by understanding the details around touch points while also probing customers on how their progress through the map contributed to or detracted from their ability to complete the journey successfully

Creativity and innovation are important before we even get to solutioning experiences. It takes a great deal of creativity and innovative thinking to truly put yourself in your customer's shoes as you map out their journey. It takes a creative personality to empathize with customers each step and touchpoint along the way. Once you understand the full customer experience, then you can begin to identify and recommend areas that can be improved upon and your creativity and innovation will also be key for brainstorming efficiencies and determining how to implement process improvements.

“Customer Centricity” notion plays multiple pivotal in the functional strategic alignment .. Yet, it is core in the Customer Journey design otherwise, we are back to the classical schools of “inside-out” type of Businesses Being empathic about operational challenges whilst focused on “Customer Centricity” is a jack pot in the Customer Journey facilitation role Advancing the CX results of every Journey should be the most desired outcome from the various groups working on the redesign/optimization and rewarding that is to be tied to their objectives in their BSC as well !

Consider the importance of adaptability in customer journey mapping facilitation. Every workshop brings unique challenges and opportunities, requiring facilitators to adjust their approach on the fly. Flexibility allows for effective problem-solving and ensures that workshops remain dynamic and engaging for participants.