How to Map Contact Center Customer Journey [With Examples]

Today, every interaction with a customer can make or break their loyalty and perception of your brand.  

Imagine this: A customer reaches out to your contact center with a question or concern. At that moment, their loyalty to your brand is put to the test—not just by the resolution of their issue but by the entirety of their experience. Seamless communication, empathetic engagement and efficient solutions all play pivotal roles in shaping this experience. 

While the ultimate measure of customer loyalty may seem elusive, the pathway to cultivating it lies squarely within the realm of the contact center customer journey. As a contact center head or customer service leader, you wield significant influence over this journey.  

Throughout this blog, we'll delve into the intricacies of the contact center customer journey, examining its defining characteristics, key touchpoints, effective mapping strategies and actionable tips for enhancing the overall experience. 

What is a contact center customer journey? 

The contact center customer journey encapsulates the series of interactions and customer touchpoints that customers experience when they engage with a company's contact center.  

Unlike the traditional customer journey, which encompasses the entire lifecycle from awareness to post-purchase support, the contact center customer journey zooms in specifically on the interactions that occur when customers seek assistance, support, or information from the contact center.  

The contact center customer journey includes every contact center channel through which customers can reach out for support, including phone calls, emails, live chat, social media and more.  

By mapping out the contact center customer journey and identifying pain points, bottlenecks and opportunities for improvement, you can optimize your contact center operations, enhance agent training, implement better technology solutions and ultimately elevate the overall customer experience.

Why map the contact center customer journey   
According to a survey by Statista, 94% of customers are more likely to make repeat purchases after a positive customer service experience, with 82% even willing to recommend a company solely based on exceptional customer service.    

Since customer service experiences considerably influence purchasing decisions, it becomes paramount to meticulously map out the end-to-end customer journeys within the contact center.  

Here are the other compelling reasons to invest in mapping contact center customer journeys:  

• Identifying specific pain points: Contact center customer journey mapping reveals precise areas where customers encounter confusion, difficulty or dissatisfaction. Whether it's navigating IVR, engaging with customer self-service channels or enduring extended hold times, mapping your contact center customer journey magnifies areas that need improvement.  
• Recognizing channel inconsistencies: Shifting between customer service channels—be it emails, phone calls, or live chats—can occasionally disrupt the customer journey. Through contact center customer journey mapping, you pinpoint areas where expectations diverge across channels, emphasizing the necessity for smoother handoffs to ensure a seamless experience. 
• Optimizing resource allocation: Understanding the volume and nature of customer inquiries at each touchpoint allows for more efficient resource allocation within the contact center. This might involve workforce management, agent training optimization or implementing self-service options to handle common queries more effectively.  
• Driving continuous improvement: A mapped contact center customer journey is a baseline for managing contact center performance and tracking improvements over time. Regularly monitoring key metrics such as first-call resolution rates and customer satisfaction scores enables trend identification and goal setting and drives continuous improvement initiatives within your contact center. 

Key touchpoints in contact center customer journeys 

Here are some of the key touchpoints commonly encountered within the contact center customer journey: 

Initial contact 

The journey often begins with the customer's initial outreach to the contact center. Whether it's a phone call, email, live chat, or social media message, this first contact sets the tone for the entire interaction. Prompt and professional handling at this stage can instill confidence in the customer and ensure a positive experience. 

IVR and self-service options 

For many customers, the next touchpoint is the interactive voice response (IVR) system or the self-service options available. An intuitive and user-friendly IVR menu or self-service channels can empower customers to resolve simple queries independently, reducing wait times and enhancing overall efficiency. 

Agent interaction 

Customers who require assistance beyond self-service options interact with contact center agents. These interactions are pivotal in shaping the customer experience, as agents play a crucial role in addressing queries, providing solutions and delivering personalized assistance. Empathetic communication, active listening and practical problem-solving skills are paramount during these interactions. 

Resolution and follow-up 

The resolution of the customer's inquiry or issue marks another critical touchpoint in the journey. A swift and satisfactory resolution demonstrates the company's commitment to customer satisfaction. Additionally, prompt follow-up after resolution, such as confirmation emails or satisfaction surveys, reinforces the customer's perception of proactive customer service. 

Escalation process 

In cases where issues cannot be resolved immediately, the escalation process becomes a key touchpoint. Smooth and transparent escalations, timely updates and clear communication are essential to maintaining customer confidence and trust. 

Post-interaction support 

Even after the immediate issue has been addressed, the contact center customer journey continues with post-interaction support. This may include ongoing assistance, additional guidance or proactive outreach to ensure continued satisfaction and address lingering concerns. 

How do you map a contact center customer journey 

For easy understanding, let’s take the example of professional photographers and their potential journey in a contact center environment. Here is how a camera and photography equipment manufacturing company can begin with the contact center customer journey mapping. 

Step 1: Identify primary customer personas 

The camera manufacturing company can create a customer persona based on the following criteria. 

Persona Name: Pro Photographer 

Demographics: Male or female, aged 30-50, professional photographer or videographer. 

Preferences: Values high-quality equipment and technical specifications. Seeks expert advice and support for complex camera-related inquiries. 

Pain Points: Time-sensitive projects, technical challenges and the need for specialized features or accessories.

💡Sprinklr Pro Tip 

Enterprises may deliver subpar experiences if they perceive their customers as homogeneous. Hence, customer segmentation into groups with everyday needs and priorities enables the mapping of tailored interactions. Failing to recognize the key distinctions between demographic or psychographic profiles results in misaligned customer service and eventual customer disappointment. 

Step 2: Identify customer touchpoints 

The next step is to identify all the touchpoints or interaction channels that customers use to engage with the contact center. For example, customers fitting into the 'Pro Photographer' persona may interact with the contact center through various channels, such as phone support, online chat, email inquiries or in-person visits to company stores or service centers. 

Step 3: Map customer journeys 

• Initial contact: The Pro Photographer contacts the contact center via phone or online chat to inquire about the compatibility of a specific lens with their camera model.  
• IVR and self-service options: They may navigate through IVR options to reach the appropriate department or use self-service resources available on the company website to find answers to basic inquiries.  
• Agent interaction: Upon reaching an agent, the Pro Photographer discusses their photography project requirements and seeks expert advice on selecting the right lens.  
• Resolution and follow-up: The agent provides personalized recommendations based on the photographer's needs and ensures a satisfactory resolution. Follow-up may include sending additional resources or offering post-purchase support.  
• Escalation process: If the query requires specialized technical support beyond the agent's expertise, the issue may be escalated to a higher-level support team or a technical specialist.  
• Post-interaction support: After resolving the issue, the Pro Photographer receives proactive follow-up communication to ensure their satisfaction and address additional concerns. 

Step 4: Gather customer feedback 

The company may gather feedback from Pro Photographers through customer surveys, interviews or feedback forms following their interactions with the contact center. This feedback helps identify areas for improvement and ensures that the customer journey continues to meet the needs of this persona. 

Do you know: With Sprinklr's omnichannel survey software, you can easily track customer feedback across more than 30 digital and social channels, including voice. Moreover, Sprinklr AI+ can help customer service leaders monitor conversations for various signals and predict real-time CSAT scores. 

Step 5: Analyze and identify pain points  

Analysis of customer feedback and interaction data may reveal pain points such as long wait times for specialized support, a lack of technical resources, or inconsistencies in information provided across channels.

Step 6: Implement improvements

Based on the identified pain points, the company may implement initiatives such as dedicated support channels for professional photographers, specialized training for agents on technical topics, or the development of a knowledge base tailored to the needs of this persona.

Step 7: Monitor and iterate

Continuous monitoring of key contact center metrics and refinement of the customer journey ensures that the company remains responsive to the evolving needs of Pro Photographers and maintains high customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Bonus Read: How to Map Omnichannel Customer Journey [Steps + Best Practices] 

5 tips to improve contact center customer journeys 

Leading brands seeking continuous improvements devote themselves to optimizing critical contact center customer journey touchpoints. Consider the following tips:  

• Develop in-depth customer personas  

Customer-centric enterprises should create detailed archetypes documenting preferred channels, common objections, motivations, and support expectations for each key customer segment. They should also recognize essential differences between groups to align journeys accordingly. For instance, a professional photographer may have different expectations than a casual hobbyist.   

• Connect data across channels  

Ensure interaction history and customer preferences are seamlessly integrated across all communication channels to provide reliable and consistent interactions tailored to their needs.

Good to know: Today, you can effortlessly handle multiple customer interactions by accessing their comprehensive details, conversation history, and past purchases from a single screen. This unification is possible through the unified agent console, which also reduces average handling time by up to 30%, enabling you to streamline your interactions with customers like never before.

•  Hire for soft skills and emotional intelligence  

Recruit contact center agents demonstrating warmth, customer empathy, communication abilities, problem-solving aptitude and a natural motivation to help. Empathetic agents can build rapport with customers and provide personalized support tailored to their needs.  

• Make support ubiquitously accessible  

Exceed benchmarks through accessible channels to prioritize customer satisfaction and responsiveness. Utilize callback functionalities and chatbots to improve customer response times and enhance customer satisfaction. For instance, implementing self-service options like FAQ chatbots or knowledge bases can empower customers to find solutions independently. 

💡Do you know: Today, with advanced AI-powered omnichannel routing software, you can effortlessly create a dynamic omnichannel routing logic for inbound queries. As a result, your agents can handle cases seamlessly across channels without the hassle of channel-specific configurations. But that's not all. By harnessing the power of AI, you can fine-tune your workforce efficiency in real time, adjusting agent capacity and utilization rates on the fly. Learn more about omnichannel routing.

• Compare real-life scenarios against optimal journeys  

Capture how different personas engage with contact centers using data and qualitative insights to reveal pain points at each stage. Contrast against best-in-class examples to identify gaps representing enhancement opportunities tied directly to alleviating customer friction. For instance, analyze how delays in issue resolution impact customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Optimize contact center customer journey with Sprinklr Service 

Amidst the ebb and flow of contact center operations, one pain point remains persistent: the need for a comprehensive solution that tracks every step of the customer journey, streamlines processes, unifies data and empowers agents to deliver personalized support seamlessly.  

Enter Sprinklr Service, a game-changer in contact center optimization. By centralizing communication channels, integrating data across touchpoints and empowering agents with real-time insights, Sprinklr Service enables you to exceed customer expectations and drive unparalleled loyalty.  

But don't just take our word for it. Experience the transformative power of Sprinklr Service firsthand with a free trial.