Customer journey innovation: a practice-based approach
(A2026-133905)

AUTHORS

Farah Arkadan, American University in Dubai; Emma Macdonald, Strathcyde Business School; Hugh Wilson, Warwick Business School/University of Warwick

ABSTRACT

Customer experience management focuses on customer journeys, a customer’s sequence of touchpoints with the firm and its brand. Firms use satisfaction data on touchpoints to address quality issues but miss opportunities for more radical journey innovations that create customer value. Through interviews and observation, we explore how ten firms innovate customer journeys and identify three social practices. First, managers unpack journeys not just with surveys but using empathic insight, immersing researchers in the customer’s world, and sharing obtained insights empathically across the organization. Second, they segment customers not on demographics or product needs but on journey goals. Third, they co-design segment-specific journeys with cross-functional journey teams as well as customers and partners, using an iterative approach. Through these practices, journeys can be viewed not as a hygiene factor but as a core unit of value creation.