Experience Mapping
A visual representation of the complete experience a person has with an organisation, capturing actions, thoughts, emotions, and pain points across every stage and touchpoint of their interaction.
In-Depth Explanation
Experience mapping is a strategic visualisation tool that captures the holistic experience of interacting with an organisation. While related to customer journey mapping, experience mapping takes a broader view, often including emotional states, behind-the-scenes processes, and opportunities for improvement.
Types of experience maps:
- Current state map: Documents the experience as it exists today
- Future state map: Envisions the desired experience after improvements
- Day-in-the-life map: Captures the broader context of a person's daily experience (not limited to interactions with your organisation)
- Service blueprint: Adds backstage processes and support systems to the experience map
- Empathy map: Focuses on what the customer says, thinks, feels, and does
Experience map components:
- Stages: Major phases of the experience (awareness, consideration, purchase, use, support)
- Actions: What the customer does at each stage
- Touchpoints: Where interactions occur (channels, platforms, locations)
- Thoughts: What the customer is thinking at each moment
- Emotions: How the customer feels (often shown as an emotional journey line)
- Pain points: Frustrations, barriers, and negative moments
- Opportunities: Areas for improvement or innovation
- Backstage processes: Internal processes that support the experience
Creating effective experience maps:
- Base maps on real customer research (interviews, observation, data)
- Include diverse customer perspectives and segments
- Involve cross-functional teams in the mapping process
- Focus on emotions and pain points, not just actions
- Make maps actionable with prioritised improvement opportunities
- Update maps regularly as experiences evolve
Business Context
Experience mapping helps organisations see their business from the customer perspective, identify gaps between intended and actual experiences, prioritise improvement investments, and align teams around a shared understanding of the customer experience.
How Clever Ops Uses This
Clever Ops uses experience mapping as a foundation for automation strategy, identifying the touchpoints and processes where automation can eliminate pain points, reduce effort, and create more consistent experiences for Australian businesses and their customers.
Example Use Case
"A property management company creates an experience map for new tenants, revealing that the onboarding process involves 12 separate touchpoints across 4 different systems. They consolidate this into a single digital onboarding portal, reducing the move-in process from 2 weeks to 3 days."