Planning a trip is often a mix of anticipation, excitement, and occasionally frustration. Companies looking to remove friction and pain points during a customer’s interactions with them during the travel process can turn to customer journey mapping. I recently became CX-PRO certified and one of the classes’ activities centered around multiple teams each creating a journey map for taking a trip, starting from researching vacation locations to boarding the plane. The similarities in the planning process were striking; however, it was clear to see how disparate each part of the process was, in addition to the added complication of what persona was traveling—business traveler, friends weekend participant, family vacation, etc. And this did not even consider the technologies that were potentially “touched” during this planning process. I recently traveled to my preferred airport and mapped out just that slice of my planning process—transport and arrival at the airport for a personal trip with a child.

There is nothing too dramatic in this mini process within a larger journey, but it does demonstrate the many touchpoints along the way during a seemingly simple activity. Multiple CX technologies were in play, mainly digital channels, such as websites, apps, and push notifications, but reputation management also was tapped into when looking at review sites, as well as social media. There were areas of friction (parking lot website), but also areas of unexpected ease (changing a flight in 5 minutes with no charge). By employing CX technology, such as journey mapping, some pain points could have been identified and potentially eliminated for myself, as well as future customers. Traveling during the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to be stressful, and customer journey mapping will be a critical tool for travel-related companies to employ as travelers seek to smooth out their CX.