In April 2024, we embarked on our initial Customer Journey Mapping Workshop, diving deep into the experiences and touchpoints of new customers applying for a DKB banking account. This was just the beginning of our journey to see our processes through the eyes of our users. Fast forward to June 18th, we gathered once again for the second edition of that workshop-format. This time, 26 dedicated colleagues from various departments, all committed to providing the best possible customer experience, joined forces. Our mission? To map out different scenarios that our existing customers might encounter, whether they’re abroad on vacation, doing everyday shopping, or managing their personal finances.

Why Customer Journey Mapping Matters

You might think that companies today understand that innovation and product development can't happen in isolation from their customers. They should recognize the importance of incorporating customer needs and desires right from the start. Yet, there are still some holdouts – "innovation fossils" – who believe to know what users want without actively engaging with them. Fortunately, at DKB Code Factory, we don’t subscribe to this outdated mindset. We use a variety of tools and methods to truly understand our users' needs aiming at developing intuitive, user-friendly products. One of these pivotal tools is Customer Journey Mapping, which is critical for several reasons:

1. Changing Perspective: By visualizing the interactions between our customers and our products, we can identify the most critical pain points and challenges our users encounter. It also highlights key touchpoints, known as ‘moments of truth’, which are crucial for a positive customer experience. These pivotal moments can either make or break our customer relationships.
2. Overcoming Silos: It helps us break down the barriers of closed "working silos" where each team is focused on their own urgent tasks. This fosters interdisciplinary collaboration and allows us to see the holistic picture.
3. Facilitating Interaction: The workshop provides a platform for direct interaction between customers and employees. This exchange is invaluable as it allows us to ask questions, hear "real" experiences, and gather authentic feedback. This direct line of communication helps us make informed decisions that truly benefit our customers.

What Happened in the Workshop?

On June 18th, we made a second step — and certainly not the last — to change perspectives, overcome the limitations of thematic working silos, and open up the room for our customers. We started the day by dividing into four smaller teams. Each team mapped out the steps, relevant touchpoints, and underlying customer expectations that our existing customers face when using their cards and banking accounts in various day-to-day situations. We looked at tasks like creating a bank transfer, checking account balances, using card payments and dealing with fraud at the PoS, online and abroad, buying additional banking products, and handling different self-service tasks.

Throughout the day, teams noted aspects that remained unclear or questions they needed to consult actual customers about. This preparatory work led to a customer panel where five invited DKB customers shared their personal experiences regarding the addressed use cases.

After a good lunch, which provided more opportunities for gaining first-hand customer insights, we concluded the workshop by reflecting on the day's learnings. We worked out the Top 3 Insights, Pains, Touchpoints and Quick Wins that we as a holistic customer journey team could agree on, independently from our own individual “silo-tasks”.

Conclusion

The Customer Journey Mapping Workshop is a crucial step in our ongoing efforts to improve the DKB customer experience. By understanding our customers' perspectives, identifying pain points, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and facilitating direct interaction, we can continue on pursuing our goal to develop products and services that meet and exceed our customers' expectations. This workshop is not just a one-time event but a continuous process that must be maintained, regularly reviewed, and updated to help us stay aligned with our customers' needs and enhance their overall experience with DKB.

written by Kilian de Syo, Trainee at DKB AG