Home / Resources / Published Articles

Brand Experience Mapping for

Brand Alignment

By Debra Semans, Senior Vice President

 

One of the keys to delivering services that are aligned with customer expectations – and therefore supportive of the brand position – is the ability to describe key service process characteristics objectively. It is important to depict these service characteristics so that employees, customers and managers alike know what the service is, can see their role in its delivery, and understand all the steps and flows involved in the service process.

Services are delivered through integrated systems consisting of three basic elements. First are the steps, tasks and activities necessary to render the service; in other words, the service process. Second are the means by which the tasks are executed, typically some combination of people and goods. Finally is the evidence of the service or how the customer relates to the service delivered. All service systems can be visualized by understanding these three elements and their interrelationships. Service brands are managed by, among other activities, making sure that these elements are aligned with the brand vision and create the service experience that supports the desired brand position.

Brand Experience Mapping is a technique that addresses the challenge of understanding intangible service delivery systems. Brand Experience Mapping was first introduced to the field of services marketing about 10 years ago as “service maping” for use in continuous quality improvement programs. The technique works equally well to evaluate the impact of the service experience on the brand.

What is a Brand Experience Map?

A Brand Experience Map is a picture or map that accurately portrays the service system so that different people involved in providing it can understand and deal with it objectively regardless of their individual point of view or role in the process. A Brand Experience Map visually displays the service by simultaneously depicting the process of service delivery, the roles of customers and employees, and the visible elements of service. It provides a way to break a service down into its logical components and to depict the steps or tasks in the process, the means by which the tasks are executed and the evidence of service as the customer experiences it.

What are the components of a Brand Experience Map?

The key action areas of service blue prints are illustrated below:

• Customer Actions – steps, choices, activities, and interactions that the customer performs in the process of purchasing, consuming and evaluating the service.
• Contact Employee Actions – These are the steps and activities that the customer contact employee performs. These are divided into two categories. The first, “onstage activities”, are those actions that are visible to the customer. The second, “backstage activities”, are those employee actions that occur behind the scenes, that the customer cannot see but which are necessary to move the service forward.
• Support Processes – internal services, steps, and interactions that take place to support the customer contact employees in delivering service.

These key action areas are separated by horizontal lines representing the interaction of customer with employees and customer contact employees with internal processes. Anytime the lines of interaction are crossed by an activity, a contact point is established. Contact points are important as they increase the risk of service non-delivery. Customers’ and Contact Employees’ activities are separated by a line of interaction. Onstage Contact Employee Activities and Backstage Contact Employee Activities are separated by the line of visibility. And finally, Backstage Activities and Support Activities are separated by a line of internal interaction.

What are the Benefits of Brand Experience Mapping?

Brand Experience Mapping:

• Provides an overview so employees can relate “what I do” to the service delivered as an integrated whole and to the desired brand position.
• Identifies fail points and weak links of the chain of service activities, which can be targeted for improvement.
• Highlights the points of service activity where the customer is impacted, contributing to the experience of the brand.
• Clearly identifies what the customer will see and what employees will be in contact with customers.
• Clarifies interfaces between internal departments, leading to improved inter-relationships and a common goal.
• Provides a basis for evaluating and allocating resources based on the impact of each point of contact to the overall brand experience.
• Supports message development for both internal and external marketing.
• Relates tangible evidence of the service process to the overall brand experience.
• Identifies and supports quality improvement efforts.

How Do We Develop A Brand Experience Map?

1. Identify the process to be mapped.
Brand Experience Maps can be developed a various levels of detail, and agreement on the level must be gained before beginning. For example, maps may differ by market segment. Additionally, service segments can be “blown out” to show more detail. Service process variations will create additional detail. The level of detail required should be appropriate to the questions to be answered.

2. Map the process from the customer’s point of view.
Chart the choices and actions that the customer performs or experiences in purchasing, consuming, and evaluating the service. In this step, agreement must gain on who is the customer or what segments will be mapped. (Note that each segment may require a separate map and that, if this is an internal service, the employee will be the customer.)

3. Draw the line of interaction.

4. Draw the line of visibility.

5. Map the process from the customer contact person’s point of view, distinguishing on-stage from backstage actions.
Front-line operations personnel are questioned about what they do and what activities are performed in full view of the customer and what activities are carried out behind the scenes.

6. Draw the line of internal interaction.

7. Map internal support activities.
Similar to step 5, the activities performed internally to support the customer contact personnel and deliver the service to the customer are identified and added to the map.

8. Link the customer and contact person activities to needed support functions.
In this step, linkages of activities to customers and their impact on customer perception of the service and brand becomes apparent.

9. Add evidence of Service at Each Customer Action Step.
Add into the map the delivery of any tangible evidence of the service.

10. Add information for increased clarity.
Additional information can assist in interpreting the findings of the map. Demographic information, financial data, information from customer satisfaction surveys on importance of various elements of the process to brand perceptions can help clarify the map and allow actions to follow.

Reading the Map

The map can be read in several ways, depending on what you want to evaluate and learn. If you are interested in learning more about the customer’s experience, read the map from left to right, tracking events in the customer area. Questions that might be asked are: How does the customer initiate service? What choices does the customer make? Is the customer involved in creating/delivering the service or is the customer passively receiving the service? What physical evidence does the customer receive of the service? Is the evidence consistent with the brand?

If the purpose of the map is to understand employees’ roles in delivering service, focus on the customer contact employee activities section. Some questions to consider are: How rational, efficient and effective is the process? Who interacts with customers, when and how frequently? Is one person responsible for the customer or is the customer passed off from one contact employee to another?

If the purpose is to understand the integration of the various elements of the service process, or to identify for particular employees where they fit into the bigger picture, the map can be analyzed vertically. Some questions to consider are: What tasks and which employees are essential in the delivery of service to the customer? Are the linkages from support actions to contact employees to the customer appropriate? How are hand-offs from employee to employee are being made?

If the purpose is to redesign the service process, look at the map as a whole. Assess the complexity of the process, how it might be simplified, how it might be changed to better deliver the service to the customer, and whether it meets the goals and objectives of the organization. Most importantly, assess whether the process supports the delivery of the desired brand experience. Does the evidence delivered fit with the desired brand image? How does the customer perceive the brand through the experience?

Summary

One of the key purposes of a map is educational. When the map is complete, weak links and gaps become obvious. In the process of developing a map, issues are discussed and agreements reached. In the process of building a map, people are forced to look at the service delivery process in different ways, yielding a new understanding and perspective on their role in the customer brand experience.

Sources

Services Marketing, Zeithaml and Bitner, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1996.

Advances in Services Marketing and Management, Swartz, Bowen and Brown, JAI Press, Inc., 1992.

"Making your Service Blueprint pay off!,” The Journal of Services Marketing, Summer 1990.

"The ABC's of Service System Blueprinting," 7th Annual American Marketing Association Service Marketing Conference Proceedings, 1988.

"Enabling is as Important as Empowering: a Case for Extended Blueprinting," 8th Annual American Marketing Association Services Marketing Conference, 1989.

"Blueprinting for the Bottom Line," 8th Annual American Marketing Association Services Marketing Conference, 1989.

"The Use of Blueprinting to Achieve Quality," 8th Annual American Marketing Association Services Marketing Conference, 1989.

"Mapping: Why We Do It," 8th Annual American Marketing Association Services Marketing Conference, 1989.

 

Debra Semans is the Senior Vice President for Polaris Marketing Research, with responsibility for Account Management, Marketing and Business Development. With more than 25 years of marketing experience, Debra brings rich and varied experience to her clients.