We Invented the Customer Journey Map for Eurostar and We’ve Still Got It

To succeed as a brand, we believe that you have to really know yourself and your customers.

The brands that stand out are the ones that offer experiences that are personalised, meaningful, memorable and ownable.

How good is your branded experience?

At Oxford, we've known this for a long time, creating customer journeys long before they became a buzzword in the marketing world.

The Customer Journey Map

In the mid-1990s, Oxford created the Customer Journey Mapping approach to support Eurostar in bringing their brand to life through their service. At the time, people were worried about going under the water through the tunnel and Eurostar wanted our help to make the journey a good one. Get it? That’s why we called it the ‘Journey’.

Since then, our method has shaped the strategies of so many brands. Our favourite is Premier Inn where we recreated the experience to be all about sleep. Let’s face it, the main reason we go to budget hotels is just to get a decent night’s sleep at a value price. They introduced the Good Night Guarantee, the personalised pillow menu and a mattress which is probably better than your own. This is still a core part of Premier Inn’s magic many years on.

Our recent work with John Lewis is a great example of how we’ve taken this expertise to the next level, reimagining what customer-centricity means in a multi-channel world. Recently reported in the Sunday Times: John Lewis invests in customer service to win back shoppers Aug 24 – this piece explored how John Lewis stepped up again this year. And we loved working with this fabulous client as a piece of the puzzle!

Partnering with John Lewis: Creating a Future-Focused Experience

John Lewis is known for its exceptional customer service, so we were delighted to have a hand in its future. Of course, we couldn’t do it alone – we always work in partnership with our clients.

Collaborating closely with over 200 John Lewis employees, we conducted 50 in-depth interviews, reviewed 200 key documents, and led 8 comprehensive workshops to create a robust, future-focused customer journey.

We based everything on the neuroscience behind the experience – so that what we recommended was strategic and scientifically validated:

“One of its main training courses is “signature services”, created to improve customer service skills. It worked with external behavioural scientists to design the programme, which is three and a half hours long. Thus far, more than 8,000 John Lewis employees have been trained on signature services across 16 stores since a pilot in 2022. Eventually it will be rolled out across the estate, which comprises 34 John Lewis shops and 329 Waitrose stores.”
The Times, Aug 24

Reinvention Through Collaboration

Our work with clients lays the foundation for a future where customer experience is at the forefront of the success of brands. By focusing on understanding customer needs and aligning them with brand values, we help brands build a more connected and engaging relationship with their customers and colleagues.

We're proud to continue to push the boundaries, helping brands like John Lewis create customer experiences that not only meet evolving expectations but also set new standards for service, engagement, and loyalty.

We look forward to creating more customer winning experiences in Retail, Services, Telecoms, Consumer Goods, Consumer Health and Life Sciences.

About the author

Laurie is on on a mission to deliver good growth: her passion is building businesses and brands. She works with great people on big ideas that are good for people, profit and the planet. To drive true transformation, she puts change theory at the heart of what we do.