Transforming customer experience data analytics and qualitative customer research into actionable insights through customer journey visualization

Purpose/audience: A successful customer experience (CX) requires change management to adapt to evolving customer behaviours and digital touchpoints. Small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) face challenges in CX management due to limited resources, but an effective strategy should outline customer journey stages and channels. While digital footprints and qualitative insights are valuable, they must be transformed into actionable knowledge for business growth. We explore how SMEs can improve their capabilities in generating customer insights for better CX. Methodology/approach: We conducted 26 interviews to explore how SMEs gather customer data during holistic journeys. By visualizing customer journeys, we analysed digital tools for data collection and automated analytics and identified gaps in insights, incorporating qualitative research to explain customer emotions and motivations. Findings: We highlighted challenges with CX data that leave customer understanding incomplete. Information gaps in purchase decisions and a lack of customer perception knowledge resulted in confusing service structures. Despite face-to-face interactions, companies often fail to utilize this unstructured data. Furthermore, software platforms integrating multiple customer interaction channels (omnichannel) may hinder the effective use of CX data. Implications for practice, society or research: Fragmented customer data require skills in data literacy and qualitative research. While SMEs recognize the importance of gathering these data, they often lack the resources to analyse these effectively. The study illustrates how a company’s customer journey analysis and omnichannel strategy visualization highlight information gaps and guide data analysis from various sources to achieve actionable insights for better CX through triangulation. Originality/value: SMEs often lack resources for CX data sourcing and insight building. Visualizing the complexity of CX from the customer journey helps identify information gaps and opportunities for lightweight data sourcing. This can support SMEs in utilizing simple, practical methods for prioritization and relevant multimethod data sourcing, leading to action-based insights.