How to map your customer Experience Ecosystem

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How To Map Your Customer Experience
Ecosystem
by Kerry Bodine, February 26, 2013 updated: may 10, 2013
For: Customer
experience
professionals
Key TaKeaWays
ecosystem Mapping uncovers The dynamics of how Firms deliver
experiences
Customer experience initiatives frequently falter because companies have an
incomplete picture of what underlies an experience. Firms need to systematically
uncover and document their customer experience ecosystem’s hidden dynamics
through a process that Forrester calls ecosystem mapping.
Companies derive Benefits From ecosystem Mapping
Companies that utilize ecosystem mapping can expect multiple benefits,
including: detailed knowledge of customer journeys, greater understanding of
interdependencies, a prioritized list of root causes, and better communication
across functional silos.
ecosystem Mapping Complements BpM, Lean, and six sigma
approaches
Customer experience ecosystem mapping helps assess underlying processes in a
company, similar to business process management (BPM), Lean, and Six Sigma
approaches. However, ecosystem mapping differs in one key respect: its primary
focus on the experience.

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For Customer Experience Professionals
Why Read This Report
Customer interactions are shaped by a complex set of interdependencies that Forrester calls the customer
experience ecosystem. In order to make significant and long-lasting customer experience improvements,
companies first need to fully understand the interdependencies within their own ecosystem. To do this,
Forrester recommends a process called ecosystem mapping that can systematically assess and document
the ecosystem’s hidden dynamics and help plan future improvements. This report answers customer
experience professionals’ most common questions about this new tool. It is an update to “Executive Q&A:
Customer Experience Ecosystem Mapping” originally published on August 15, 2011.
Table Of Contents
Ecosystem Mapping Is Key To Customer
Experience Improvements
What Is Ecosystem Mapping?
What Benefits Should Companies Expect To
Get Out Of Ecosystem Mapping?
What Does An Ecosystem Map Look Like?
How Does The Process Of Ecosystem Mapping
Work?
How Does It Complement BPM, Lean, And Six
Sigma Approaches?
Who Should Be Involved In The Process?
What Kind Of Advanced Preparation Is Needed?
What Should Companies Do After They
Complete The Ecosystem Mapping Process?
Notes & Resources
Forrester reviewed various companies’
ecosystem mapping exercises in the writing
of this report.
Related Research Documents
Executive Q&A: Design Personas And
Customer Journey Maps
January 10, 2011
Service Design Creates Breakthrough
Customer Experiences
December 20, 2010
How To Map Your Customer Experience
Ecosystem
Assessment: The Customer Experience Ecosystem Playbook
by Kerry Bodine
with Harley Manning, Paul Hagen, Allison Stone, and Molly Murphy
2
February 26, 2013
Updated: May 10, 2013

How To Map Your Customer Experience Ecosystem 2
© 2013, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited February 26, 2013 Updated: May 10, 2013
Ecosystem mapping IS KEY TO customer experience improvements
Many customer experience initiatives don’t meet their full potential — or worse, fail completely —
because companies don’t have a complete picture of what the customer experience actually entails
or the dynamics that go into creating it. In order to break from their tunnel vision, companies need
to understand, and then take control of, their customer experience ecosystem: the complex set of
relationships among a company’s employees, partners, and customers that determine the quality of
all customer interactions.1
The first step is to systematically uncover and document the ecosystem’s hidden dynamics through a
process that Forrester calls ecosystem mapping.
What Is Ecosystem Mapping?
Ecosystem mapping is a collaborative process that helps companies identify the set of complex
interdependencies that shape all of their interactions with customers. Typically conducted in a
workshop setting, teams identify and document the people, processes, policies, and technologies
that create the customer experience. This includes those parts of the ecosystem that are in plain view
of customers as well as those parts that influence the customer experience from behind the scenes.
What Benefits Should Companies Expect To Get Out Of Ecosystem Mapping?
Companies that undertake ecosystem mapping exercises can expect multiple benefits, including
■ Detailed knowledge of customers’ journeys. When customers and frontline staff join
ecosystem mapping workshops, teams can construct a detailed picture of what customers
go through when they interact with their company. More often than not, teams identify
interactions that frustrate customers as well as opportunities where companies could interact
with customers but don’t. One business-to-business company discovered periods of up to
several weeks where customers waited in the dark for information about their order status.
■ Greater understanding of the interdependencies within the ecosystem. Ecosystem mapping
helps teams identify previously hidden people, processes, policies, and technologies — and the
customer interactions they influence. Business customers of TV service provider Charter
Communications were struggling to install a new software service on their routers. Through
ecosystem mapping, Charter’s senior vice president of customer experience discovered that sales
reps often failed to communicate the installation tech requirements during the sales process — but
the reps received bonuses based on sales, not successful installs. This “aha” moment clearly pointed
to the need to realign sales commissions so that sales reps would feel pain when customers did.
■ A prioritized list of root causes that need to be addressed. Understanding the complexities of
the ecosystem is a good start, but customer experience professionals ultimately need to know

which levers to pull in order to have the greatest impact on customers. Ecosystem mapping
helps teams identify the root causes of problematic customer interactions, which helps teams
prioritize fixes that will have the greatest ripple effects throughout the ecosystem. While
mapping its ecosystem, one company linked multiple customer experience breakdowns to the
fact that no single employee — not even the highest-level execs — had access to the complete set
of information required to close complex sales. The outcome was an initiative to re-evaluate the
firm’s core customer and financial data systems.
■ Better communication across functional silos. Ecosystem mapping gets people talking.
Companies that invite a broad cross-section of internal functions and external partners to
ecosystem mapping workshops often find it’s the first time that many of these people have
spoken, let alone considered work processes outside of their immediate roles in the context of
customer interactions. A customer experience professional who recently worked with a group
of peers on an ecosystem mapping exercise told Forrester that it “broke loose some of the bad
habits and stalemates” from previous internal conversations.
What Does An Ecosystem Map Look Like?
Ecosystem maps can take on lots of different formats. One format that Forrester finds particularly
effective is based on service blueprints: tools often employed by service design agencies during the
creation and planning of complex multichannel customer interactions (see Figure 1).2
A typical service blueprint starts by detailing the customer journey. Below each step of the journey,
the blueprint illustrates relevant customer touchpoints: branded communications, physical products,
digital interfaces, intangible services, physical environments, and frontline personnel. The bottom
portion of the blueprint outlines everything that happens behind the scenes — or, in service design
lingo, everything that happens “backstage.”
This tiered structure helps draw a distinction between things that customers see and have access
to versus things they can’t see — and it can be easily adapted to other visualizations. For example,
Virgin Media created an ecosystem map in the shape of infinity symbol — an appropriate
visualization to reinforce Virgin Media’s logo and connote the (hopefully) never-ending customer
life cycle (see Figure 2). The red strips on the outside of the diagram each list a different step in
the customer journey, while the differently colored sticky notes represent the activities of internal
departments throughout the customer journey.

Figure 1 Service Blueprint Created By Livework For Saverbox, An Energy Savings Finance Service
Source: Forrester Research, Inc.93541
Source: Saverbox; livework

Figure 2 Virgin Media’s Diagram Of The Customer Journey And Behind-The-Scenes Departments
Source: Virgin Media
How Does The Process Of Ecosystem Mapping Work?
The good news for customer experience professionals is that ecosystem mapping leverages work
they’ve likely already done to identify their companies’ most important customers and learn about
the quality of their interactions. To officially kick off the ecosystem mapping exercise, teams need to:
1. Pick the most important persona. This is the customer archetype that represents a company’s
most important behavioral customer segment (see Figure 3).3
2. Pick that persona’s most important pain point. This should be something that’s causing
pain (like increased service calls or missed sales opportunities) for the company as well as for
the customer.

3. Document the surrounding customer journey. Write down what the persona does, thinks, and
feels at each step and every touchpoint that he or she interacts with along the way.4
4. Collaboratively visualize the sources of the customer’s pain. Identify every person, process,
policy, and technology that affects that customer journey.
5. Conduct root-cause analysis. Use an approach like the “five whys” to uncover the underlying
drivers of experience.5
Teams that partner with experts like their company’s business process
optimization professionals can develop a more complete understanding of the ecosystem.
6. Identify and prioritize problem spots. Look for the signposts of broken processes, policies, and
technologies like unhappy employees, partners, or customers.
Figure 3 Reading Room’s Persona For An Automotive Company
Source: Reading Room

How Does It Complement BPM, Lean, And Six Sigma Approaches?
Customer experience ecosystem mapping helps assess the underlying processes in an organization —
and in that respect, it shares many similarities with business process management (BPM), Lean, and
Six Sigma approaches. All of these disciplines seek to understand the root cause of business problems
so that the underlying processes can be eradicated, aligned, or improved.
However, ecosystem mapping differs from these approaches in one key respect: its primary focus. In
most process-oriented initiatives, customer experience improvements are an objective but not the
driving force.6
For example, BPM ultimately improves — and where possible automates — business
processes, Six Sigma methods primarily seek to squeeze out defects, and Lean approaches strive to
remove waste.
In contrast, ecosystem mapping is laser-focused on improving the qualitative customer experience —
and its goal is to align both the processes and the participants involved in the delivery of that experience.
It seeks to bring firms business benefits ranging from additional brand equity to increased profits and
cost savings as a result of customer experience improvements. Ecosystem mapping is therefore a
primary input into BPM initiatives — helping create a customer-centered context for detailed process
improvement work that will follow.
Who Should Be Involved In The Process?
The effectiveness of ecosystem mapping workshops depends greatly on the people who participate.
Failing to invite someone from a key function will make it difficult for teams to fully identify
how that function fits into the overall ecosystem and affects the customer experience. In contrast,
including an exec who’s too senior might make lower-level employees clam up. To create a
collaborative environment, customer experience professionals should invite:
■ Employees. Select employees from every function that might possibly affect the particular
journey the group will focus on in the workshop. For this exercise, it’s better to err on the side
of casting a wide net. Include employees from various levels of seniority and company tenure.
Make sure the list also includes both frontline and behind-the-scenes staff. At Capital One, all
of the various associates who “own” a piece of a particular customer journey — like disputing
a charge or making a payment — reside in a conference room and work together until targeted
customer experience process issues have been resolved.
■ Partners. Select external partners to participate based on criteria similar to those used for
internal employees. Partners like parcel shippers and third-party retailers might be obvious, but
don’t forget partners that operate behind the scenes, like interactive agencies and recruiting
firms. To map English utility provider Southern Water’s customer experience ecosystem, service
design agency Radarstation talked with Southern Water’s subcontractors — including frontline
meter installers and back-office schedulers.

■ Customers. It might feel scary to invite customers to an internal working session. Get over it.
They’re the best source of information and will likely feel honored to get a glimpse under the
hood of a company they buy from. Identify good candidates from past customer research efforts
like ethnographic research or focus groups. Unhappy customers can join too, as long as they’ll
be able to be constructive during the process. Virgin Media held several ecosystem design
workshops and invited not only its own customers but also competitors’ customers.
What Kind Of Advanced Preparation Is Needed?
Even with minimal advanced prep, companies can still reap some benefits from this process.
■ At a minimum, take care to assemble the right list of participants. Companies that do just
this minimal amount of advanced prep work will, at the very least, foster better communication
across functional silos. Workshop participants are likely to leave with a greater understanding
of how they and their respective departments affect the customer experience — even if the
customer journey isn’t 100% fleshed out.
■ To get a head start, gather existing personas and customer journey maps. Companies that
leverage existing personas and journey maps will give workshop participants a leg up on the
process. Teams will spend less time at the outset deciding which customers to focus on and
figuring out what the customer journey actually entails. In addition, this prep work will ensure
that participants’ efforts are aligned with customer experience initiatives already in progress.
■ To make the most of it, conduct in-depth research with customers, employees, and partners.
It’s a challenge to convince attendees to sequester themselves from email and focus on any type
of exercise for an entire day — so teams should arm themselves with research that will help
participants make the most of their precious time. Find out what customers really do, think, and
feel as they interact with the company. Then collect details on how employees and partners act
and make decisions — both in plain view of customers and behind the scenes.
What Should Companies Do After They Complete The Ecosystem Mapping Process?
Ecosystems are by their nature alive and ever-changing. Therefore companies are never done with
the ecosystem mapping process, which needs to keep up with changes to people, processes, policies,
economic uncertainty, and volatile competitive landscapes — in short, business reality. In response,
teams wrapping up their first ecosystem mapping workshop should:
■ Conduct more investigation where necessary. The ecosystem mapping exercise will likely generate
a long list of questions like: What’s the complete list of touchpoints at this step of the customer
journey, who’s responsible for sending out these emails, why are our customer service reps
escalating so many calls, and why is this particular field required on our registration form? Teams

need to conduct whatever research is required to answer these questions and then update their
ecosystem maps accordingly, repeating this process until no major questions remain unanswered.
■ Attack the prioritized list of root causes. Once the group is confident that it has identified the
root causes of the issues plaguing the customer experience, they need to go after them. Some
fixes will fall into the “no brainer” category, while others — especially those in the technology
space — will require return on investment modeling to assess the potential impact of the
proposed change. The newly formed cross-functional team can help socialize the required fixes
throughout the company and partner organizations.
■ Create more ecosystem maps. Through the initial ecosystem mapping workshop, teams
identify core issues that affect not only the customer journey they focused on but also many
other journeys. This means that every subsequent ecosystem map can build off of this first effort.
Take advantage of this momentum by scheduling another workshop for several months down
the road — this time frame will give customer experience professionals time to implement some
key fixes and present results back to the group.
Endnotes
1
Even companies that make customer experience a strategic priority struggle to implement major long-
lasting improvements. That’s because they fail to connect behind-the-scenes activities to customer
interactions. These firms need a new approach to customer experience management: one that considers the
influence of every single employee and external partner on every single customer interaction.
2
Although the term “service design” conjures up images of customer service, service designers have a much
broader mandate: They plan and organize complex systems of people, products, interfaces, services, and
spaces. See the December 20, 2010, “Service Design Creates Breakthrough Customer Experiences” report.
3
Design personas are models of the key behaviors, attributes, motivations, and goals of a company’s target
customers. A persona is created from primary research with real customers and takes the form of a vivid
narrative description of a single person who represents a behavioral segment. See the January 10, 2011,
“Executive Q&A: Design Personas And Customer Journey Maps” report.
4
When executed well, customer journey maps can help customer experience professionals plan improvement
projects and communicate with employees across their organizations. Unfortunately, journey maps often
fall short due to missing content, overwhelming detail, and poor visual design. See the October 15, 2010,
“Assess The Effectiveness Of Your Customer Journey Map” report.
5
To use the “five whys” technique, pick an employee process or a partner sales policy and ask why it is the
way it is. When you find the underlying reason — another process or policy — ask why that is the way it is.
Continue this process until you’ve dug down five levels — five whys — deep. Although this type of analysis
is referred to as “five whys” and commonly goes five levels deep to get to the root cause of a problem,
practitioners sometimes get to the root cause in fewer levels or, conversely, have to go more than five

levels deep to find the root cause. For a basic discussion of this highly useful technique, visit the iSixSigma
website. Source: “Determine the Root Cause: 5 Whys,” iSixSigma (http://www.isixsigma.com/index.
php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1308:determine-the-root-cause-5-whys&Itemid=200).
6
BPM attempts to alleviate problems around productivity bottlenecks, customer channel integration, cycle-
time reduction, and customer service improvement. But while those are important challenges to address,
BPM also improves organizations at a more fundamental level by changing their core business operating
models. See the January 6, 2011, “Identify How BPM Can Improve Your Organization” report.

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