Viewpoint

From sticky-notes to implementation
Customer journeys in the energy sector – Getting it right the first time

Customer journeys are a way for energy companies to record every interaction with their customers, getting an end-toend view of the journeys and processes the customer goes through. It allows them to see processes from the customer
perspective, which is a powerful tool to steer the customer experience. However, according to a recent study, more than
93 percent of companies fail to implement customer journeys successfully. In particular, utilities, for which the idea of acustomer is comparatively new, frequently fail to implement customer journeys. In this Viewpoint, we make the case forstronger customer involvement, clearer governance, quantification of value, and focus, as we find these to be the fourmain reasons for failure. Customer journey insight allows businesses to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, retain
customers, and increase sales.

“We serve customers, don’t we?”It was only a decade ago when utilities didn’t have to think interms of customers. They worked in natural monopolies, serving
points of consumption. In this realm, it was most important toensure correct and timely billing, as well as speedy collection ofoutstanding payments. Prevailing IT systems were structured
by meter numbers and contained little or no information on theactual customer. However, following market liberalization, thenumber of players in power and gas retail markets grew.
More pressure was put on utilities through competition, andthey began to recognize the human beings behind the points ofconsumption, who liked to be more than numbers. At the sametime, a customer’s energy supplier was a faceless organizationthat was easily interchangeable. Moreover, companies in otherindustries, such as Apple and Starbucks, seemed to attributelarge amounts of their success to the ability to understand theircustomers and develop products and services for which thosecustomers were willing to pay a premium – to the point ofcamping out in front of a store for multiple nights to be the firstto receive a new iteration of a product. Inspired by this, utilities
such as Endesa, E.ON, RWE/Innogy and local energy providers
started large-scale programs to also make themselves morecustomer centric.

Customer journeys are a common methodology used tofoster customer centricity. As illustrated in the below figure,the customer journey method follows a clear approach thatcomprises five steps, complemented by a continuous mind-set
transformation and establishment of journey governance. Thisapproach is exemplary and might see adaptations between
different companies.

Five-step journey approach
Customer journey approach
EngageGet theorganization
involved

Discover

DesignCreate theUnderstand target picture
VoC,and plan
VoE and VoP how to getthere

DeliverDevelop

Improvecustomerexperience

Measure andcontinuously
improve

Build up capabilities

Transform mind-set
Implement journey governanceSource: Arthur D. Little

Once the approach was set, utilities, from retail companies togrid operators and regional providers, hired design companies
and staffed their own customer experience teams to kick-start
implementation. They developed customer journeys using
journey-mapping methodologies. They brought together peopleViewpointfrom different departments in large workshops to map journeys
end to end, which often revealed main points of breakdown
for the first time. Top management got involved, and hailed
the need to focus on the customer. They sat in focus groups
and proclaimed new key performance indicators (KPIs) andgovernance systems to accommodate journeys within theexisting structures.
You probably remember the first time you were invited to acustomer journey workshop, or even initiated one. You would
have come into a room fully prepared, with large brown papers
serving as a blank canvas or already containing a first sketchof a journey. Next to these, someone would have constructed
personas of your customers. Hundreds of colorful sticky-notes
and markers would have lain ready to be used. You would
have been introduced to various colleagues from different
departments, whom you had never met, but who were all, in
one way or the other, involved in this particular journey.
The workshop would have lasted hours, or even days.
Discussions would have been fruitful and inspiring, and revealed
many issues and points at which the experience could beimproved. By the time the different groups presented theirsummaries, the boards would have been covered in dozens ofsticky-notes, a marker line would have shown the emotional
curve of the customer along the journey, and artifacts, such as
customer letters, social media posts and advertisements, would
have been collected and matched to each of the touchpoints.
Everyone would have left the room motivated and empowered,looking forward to implementing the ideas discussed.

The bubble bursts
However, often nothing happens after such an initiative. Andeven if something is changed in the workflow, suddenly thelegacy IT system doesn’t allow for any changes. This is when
the organization first realizes that there is more to customer
journeys than colorful sticky-notes and creative workshops. It is
hard work to get the improvement measures implemented. This
first glimpse of frustration frequently leads to less motivation
and an approach that is not followed through.
Until now, most companies, and especially utilities, have failed
to properly implement customer journeys. Researchers statethat 93 percent of customer experience initiatives are failing. We
have identified four main reasons for this.
below summarizes the reasons for failure and approaches togetting it right, which we will outline below.

1CustomerThink (2018), Link

2

From sticky-notes to implementation

Main failures and solution for successful journeys
From…

To…

My journey

Customer journey

Brown paper

Governance & KPIs

Clear costs

Clear benefits

All at once

Focus

Source: Arthur D. Little

1. From my journey to the customer journey
The basis for taking a customer journey approach is tounderstand who your customers are, and which behaviors andexpectations they have.

Not your customer
A common trap within customer journey design is when thejourney is set up for a customer who is not yours. Utilities
tend to have the wrong picture of their actual customer groups
because they lack customer information in their systems andinward focus on their organizations. Therefore, the journey isdesigned for an “ideal” customer instead of the real customer.

Thinking like your customers
The second trap you might have fallen into is subjectivity.
Many have taken the right steps to develop journey maps ininterdisciplinary workshops, involving people from all partsof the journey. However, customers are often still not directly
involved, and therefore the real customer view is missing. Theseinternal journey workshops are prone to drawing on anecdotal
evidence rather than real facts about the customer. Confirmationbiases and “groupthink” ensue. The resulting subjectively
perfect journey often does not reflect the reality of the main
customer group. It does not identify the real pain points andmisses out the right improvement measures.

Get it right – A 360-degree view of the customer journey
To protect yourself from this trap, you need to get a 360-degreeview of the customer journey. This means involving customers
directly, through focus groups, home interviews and codesign workshops. This qualitative input needs to be pairedwith quantitative analyses of received issues, complaints andsuggestions, as well as customer quotes. After designing it,
you should validate the journey again with customers to ensure
it really mirrors their views. Besides the customer view, you
should not forget to map out the process journey and theemployee journey. Only if you include the voice of the customer(VoC), the voice of the employee (VoE) and the voice of theprocess (VoP), do you get a holistic picture that allows you tofind the best leverage points to improve the experience. For allViewpoint

three of these “voices”, it is important to map the as-is and to-bepictures, as illustrated below.

logic in short iterations to quickly pick up speed and showcase
results.

“Voices” to listen to when creating the to-be experience

At the same time, changing the customer experience needs tobe rewarded. KPIs such as the Net Promoter Score (NPS), needto be included in management’s scorecards and dashboards aspart of their decision-making. Figure 4 below shows the different
KPI levels throughout the journey. At each of these levels, there
needs to be a breakdown to the main value drivers of eachtouchpoint. KPIs need to be defined and tracked accordingly.

Outside-in and inside-out perspectives of customer journey mapping
Voice of employee(VoE)

As-is employee
experience

To-beexperience

Voice of customer(VoC)

As-iscustomer experience

To-beexperience

Voice of process(VoP)

As-isprocess map

Targetprocess map

The driver tree example in the below figure shows a typical KPIrelationship for a “payment journey”, in which issues with theSEPA payments are a main driver for the overall cost to serve.

Source: Arthur D. Little

KPI Hierarchy & Driver Tree

2. From brown paper to clear governance and KPIs
The main reason for nothing being implemented after thefirst wave of adoption was lack of empowerment for middle
managers to push customer journeys across the functional silosof their organizations. In addition, customer experience would
take a backseat as long as incentives and KPIs at this level werenot updated.

KPI hierarchy

BusinessOverarching metrics
that optimize E2Ebusiness value

Journey

Get it right – Customer journey governance and KPIs

Stages/touchpoints

For customer journeys to be implemented properly, companies
need to establish clear governance systems with defined roles
and KPIs.

Source: Arthur D. Little

Good practice is dissolution of traditional hierarchy and shifting
towards a governance system centred around journeys. This
governance system includes different roles and responsibilities.
The main role is the journey manager. He or she is responsible
for the overall journey work for one particular journey. Thejourney manager should be a team leader managing a team ofstage- and touchpoint managers, as well as the journey value
manager.
The stage manager is responsible for one or several stages/
processes within a journey and oversees a team of touchpoint
managers, who are in charge of improving the customer
experience at one or several touchpoints within the journey.
The journey value manager is an analyst who tracks the journeybased on predefined KPIs. Additionally, he or she always revises
the journey and continues steady improvement of the customer
experience together with the whole journey team.
To make sure the journey has enough attention within theorganization, and for escalation reasons, a sponsor – ideally amember of the management team – should act as a sparring
partner. The team should work closely together, defining a target
picture with an overarching backlog, but then operate with sprint

Measures to evaluate
individual journey’s
performance
Measures toevaluate
performance at thetouchpoint level

Driver tree

Cost to serve(EUR)# paymentcomplaints% of declined
SEPA payments"Payment Journey"

3. From costs to quantified benefits
Another major reason for the failure of customer journey
programs is lack of quantification of financial benefits froman improved customer experience. Being able to only show
clear costs, with an unclear upside, makes it hard for journeymanagers and sponsors to defend their efforts.

1

Get it right – Build your caseTo pull this lever, companies need to analyze existing customer
cohorts, look ahead using analytics, and build momentum
around quick wins.
As a start, companies can use historical data about existingcustomers to construct financial indicators for soft customer
KPIs. These values can then be put into business-casecalculations, which will showcase the monetary benefit of anincrease in customer satisfaction by improving the service levelon a journey.
Secondly, utilities should further invest in data analytics tobe able to better divide the main drivers of financial benefits.
Identifying the strongest relationships between KPIs further
helps to refine KPI pyramids and dashboards for decisionmaking.

From sticky-notes to implementation

3Viewpoint

Thirdly, there are quick wins. Most journey work reveals simple
customer issues that can be solved with minimal efforts at highfinancial benefit to the company.

4. From doing all at once to clear focus
In the 1990s, customer journey mapping was straightforward.
There was only an offline world. Now, given the extended timecustomers spend on their devices, the amount of customer
journeys and their complexity increase tremendously.

Contacts
Austriataga.karim@adlittle.com

Belgium

pankert.gregory@adlittle.com

Chinaharada.yusuke@adlittle.com

Czech Republicbrabec.dean@adlittle.com

FranceOften, utilities try to solve the whole web of journeys in one go.
Instead, they should apply the “agile” mind-set, which they havealready taken on as part of their digital transformation projects,
to journeys.

Get it right – Focus, focus, focus
The key is not to over-engineer customer journeys and get lost in
the detail. It is important to take a hands-on approach, designinga first set of customer journeys with different entry points,
but with clear focus on the journeys which most customers
go through. Afterwards, it is important to identify the mostcritical touchpoints and pain points along a journey. Having
identified these, think about measures to take to improve thosepain points, and prioritize them. Prioritization should consider
constraints, customer value, company value, measurable
impact and ease of implementation. Breaking these prioritizedmeasures down into simple tasks is the first step. These tasks
should feed a backlog, which should then be worked off in an
iterative fashion.

bamberger.vincent@adlittle.com

Germany

opitz.michael@adlittle.com

India

srinivasan.srini@adlittle.com

Italy

agresti.giancarlo@adlittle.com

Japan

ito.yuma@adlittle.com

Korea

hwang.hoonjin@adlittle.com

Middle East

merhaba.adnan@adlittle.com

The Netherlands

eikelenboom.martijn@adlittle.com

Nordicthurmann-moe.lars@adlittle.com

Russialuzbuh.pavel@adlittle.com

Singapore

ito.yuma@adlittle.com

Spainportal.jesus@adlittle.com

Switzerland

kruse.michael@adlittle.com

Turkeybaban.coskun@adlittle.com

UKrogers.stephen@adlittle.com

USguzman.rodolfo@adlittle.com

Latin Americamonzon.daniel@adlittle.comAuthors
Kai Karolin Hüppe, Nils Niemeier, Michael Kruse

Arthur D. Little
Summary
Customer journeys are a powerful tool to bring customer
centricity to life, and it does not take much to get started. The
key is prioritization and the ability to link the improvements tomonetary benefits. To integrate customer journeys into daily
business, companies need be bolder in moving away fromtraditional organizational structures or matrix layouts and givejourney governance the priority. Clear KPIs, along with incentives
for middle management, will anchor the new organization.

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