Jul 2022
Jul 2022
Mapping the end-to-end guest experience
Nordic Choice Hotels intends to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty by optimising their customer journey and improving their digital services.
With multiple brands, around 200 hotels, and fragmented ownership of the guest experience there was a lack of oversight and control of the customer journey. Being in a transformational phase, there was a strong need to align the organization and take a holistic approach to design future experiences.
shared oversight of the customer journey and laying foundation for user centred decision making
*image taken during service safari at a Nordic choice hotel
(Stickdorn Service Design Process, 2012)
scoping and
planning
creation
reflection
facilitating implementation
- Stakeholder interviews
- Service Safaris
- Observations
- Customer Service Shadowing
- Contextual inquiries
- Customer journey map
- Insights directory
- Desktop walkthrough
- Reflection sessions
- Setting up Framework
- Ways of working
- Structuring Parking lot
implementation
exploration
- identifying user segment
- mapping phases
- defining deliverables
- -------
Major tasks conducted during the project
I co-delivered the project with another service designer with support from the team from Nordic Choice Hotels.
I took lead to draft and adapt the structure of the map, analysing insights and helping the team setup future processes.
Output
- Detailed baseline customer journey map (digital tool)
- Supporting physical print of the journey map
- Adaptable framework and guide to use
- Insights directory
Outcome
- Foundation to start the work, lowered threshold for using customer journeys
- aligned awareness of the current state
- increased trust in the holistic approach
- catalyst for acting on critical pain points
I think many of the issues raised are known to us in product, but I think highlighting them like this put the problems in a context where we can understand them more, and also create awareness throughout the organisation of the need to address them, and the responsibilities.
- Project Manager, Nordic Choice Hotels Product
The top management looked at some of the pain points and got a bad feeling in the stomach about our lack of control .....a lot of work to be done going ahead.
- Customer Journey and Product Development team
Laying the skeleton
inspiration
search
book
waiting
check-in
in-stay
check-out
loyalty
The first step was to understand and establish different phases of the guest journey. This served as a structure :
- to scope the breadth of the work and establish which parts needed more in-depth inquiry
- to narrow down the stakeholders that needed to be involved
Bringing a new dimension to light
The linear structure of journey phases was not representative of the actual journey, as we proceeded with the work we added the dimension of time (when is the user doing these actions) and space (is this happening at the hotel or not) to the visual representation to give a high level, but more accurate reference for alignment to the organisation. Also, challenging the way they viewed the customer journey.
Gathering data and insights : ASK, SEE, EXPERIENCE
We had the collect more and then distil approach, so we started with digging into existing research followed by open ended stakeholder interviews and experiencing and observing the service.
18
Stakeholder Interviews
Service Safaris
Observations
Shadowing Customer service
Product, Web, App, Strategy & growth, Operations, Customer success, Content, Salesforce, Digital tools
2
5
Frontline employees
Contextual interviews
Translating insights to the map
We gathered a lot of data, we tried to divide it into three chunks.
Further analysed it to add insights, pain points and questions related to different user actions/steps. The analysis also helped us see the structure of the map, and what elements to be included.
Feedback and validation
To start familiarising the team with the map, getting their inputs early, to test the structure we conducted a desktop walkthrough workshop with the team. Allowing them to add post-its. This helped us identify gaps, validate details thus plan the next steps. This included talking to more stakeholder in Operations, and analysing other pathways in digital journeys.
The baseline journey map
The deliverables of the project were a digital detailed map, to be used as a tool that can be updated regularly and a physical copy to go on the wall to start conversations around customer experience.
A structured PARKING LOT with insights and opportunities, supported by quotes, observations and data to accelerate future work.
Guide and framework to work with the tool
The aim of the project was to establish the practice of using customer journeys in the team. To enable the same, we created a detailed guide and framework along with the template to easily update the map.
Sharing work and setting the stage for continued use of customer journey maps and user centred decision making
We conducted a journey walkthrough for the different teams to make them aware of the tool, the possible impact it can create and the current state of the guest experience at Nordic choice hotels.
We conducted a workshop with the team discussing fears and hopes with the work. This was followed by
- setting processes and ways of working
- next steps to validate the map
- next steps to enrich the map including data, ownership
- potential ways of incorporating customer journeys for decision making: vision setting, including KPIs etc.
The work increased the trust of the organisation in this work and started the conversation improving different touchpoints. The major win for me was the discussions around improving the frontline employee experience to improve end-user experience.
