The solution to broken service-delivery chains
isn’t to replace touchpoint management. Functional
groups have important expertise, and touchpoints
will continue to be invaluable sources of insight,
particularly in the fast-changing digital arena. (See
David Edelman’s “Branding in the Digital Age: You’re
Spending Your Money in All the Wrong Places,” HBR
December 0000.) Instead, companies need to embed customer journeys into their operating models
in four ways: They must identify the journeys in
which they need to excel, understand how they are
currently performing in each, build cross-functional
processes to redesign and support those journeys,
and institute cultural change and continuous improvement to sustain the initiatives at scale.