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Journey Discovery - Introduction and Considerations

Journey Discovery - Introduction and Considerations

Owned by Pete Trevitt
Last updated: Jun 13, 2023
4 min read

This page provides a general overview of Journey Discovery, as well as some very important guidelines, assumptions and considerations in the following areas:

  • Ensure the correct Data Capture required prior to execution

  • Consider the length of Journey Journeys to drive Journey Discovery date range selection

  • Ensure a Data Transform has been agreed and published (Admins only)

  • Ensure a Location Map has been created

  • Considerations for the approach to Journey Discovery

Journey Discovery Overview

When Alterian CX collects Location data of interaction points by Visitors/Customers to the Brand, these can be viewed in either multi-channel sessions (Interactions), or a Visitor/Customers entire interaction history using the existing Journey Visualisation Sankey diagram. In this display, these sequence paths are overlaid with each other, to show the most common occurring behaviours.

Journey Visualisation allows the analyst to left align, or right align the Journey Visualisation view to focus on what happens before or after a specific Location, and this can be very powerful, but only when the Analyst knows the interactions they are interested in.

The Journey Discovery process uses machine learning and data mining functions to analyse the multi-channel sessions (Interactions) and find patterns or “Micro Journeys” of Locations that are occurring in the Interaction data, that the Analyst may not be aware of.

Using Journey Discovery requires a number of items or processes to be in place prior to its use. Journey Discovery should not be carried out without ensuring the following has been done.

  1. Capture the Correct Data Required for Analysis- See below

  2. Have a Period of Data Collection to the Production Event Stream - See below

  3. Create and assign an agreed Data Transform to the Event Stream - https://alteriandocs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PD/pages/1781628935

  4. Create and publish an agreed Location Map to the Event Stream - https://alteriandocs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PD/pages/1801289729

Capture the Correct Data Required for Analysis

IMPORTANT NOTE: In terms of data collection, this is reliant on the implementation of the system within the Brand, from tagging or other data connectors, through to the creation of Rules within Alterian CX and is therefore may not be under the control of the Analyst. Failure to review this section, and collect the full range of data, will significantly reduce the insights that could be gleamed from Journey Discovery for the Analyst so shortfalls in data should be flagged.

The bullets below outline each data point required and its use within the Journey Discovery process and is therefore of paramount importance.

  • CXID

    • Internally created id used within Alterian CX for Analysis

  • Location

  • Category

    • Although not mandatory for Journey Discovery, Category can be very useful in future analytics on the discovered patterns

  • Event Type

    • Event Type is collected and associated to the Rule type

      • Tracking

      • Conversion

      • Influencer

      • Satisfaction

  • Event DateTime

    • Internally created Event DateTime used within Alterian CX for Analysis

  • Channel

    • This must include all Channels that are used in the Journeys

  • Conversion Value

    • Conversions should be captured when a monetary value can be ascribed to a Conversion

    • Conversion value captured on Conversion Event Type only

    • Required for the Stats Analysis of Micro Journeys and Journeys

  • Service Cost

    • Service Costs should be captured when a monetary cost can be ascribed to an interaction

    • Service Cost can be captured on any Event Type

    • Required for the Stats Analysis of Micro Journeys and Journeys

For more information on the data capture see CX Data Analytics Event History Schema

A Period of Data Collection to the Production Event Stream

Journey Discovery is only going to be of value if it performed if it contains the correct data for the correct period of time. In terms of the required time period for data collection, if the Analyst is looking for a range of all Journeys, the Brand must first consider how long these Journeys are in the real world. For example, a Finance Company wanting to view their Journeys around Mortgages or Loans, must consider the time taken for their Customers to complete these Journeys or as an absolute minimum, how long each stage takes and ensure there is enough Customer data that every stage will be well represented in the data.

Creation and publication on an agreed Data Transform

Data Transform is a very important function in the use of all CX Analytics

https://alteriandocs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PD/pages/1781628935

Creation of a Location Map

Data Transform is a very important function in the use of all CX Analytics

https://alteriandocs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PD/pages/1801289729

Saving Journey Discovery Result Sets

Once initially created, Journey Discovery executions auto-save in the last known state. States of execution can be seen on the Journey Discovery homepage as follows

  • Initialised - New Journey Discovery created but with no configuration

  • Prepared - A date range has been selected and a data set prepared

  • Calculated - The Micro Journey discovery process is compete but results have not been scored or uploaded to the result screen

  • Uploaded - Journey Discovery process is complete and results can be viewed

Results Persistence

A Journey Discovery result, is based on its defined components, related to execution of the process against a specified Event Stream/Target.

  • Each execution of a Journey Discovery process will persist, save and re-use its component parts

    • Date Range - Selects the data set that s built in the “preparing” section (see usage)

    • Execution Parameters - Available parameters to guide the machine learning function

    • Data Transform - the version of the Data Transform set and fixed at start of process

    • Location Map - the version of the Location Map set and fixed at start of process

    • Journey Ranking - Ranked list of Journeys created via Location Map, in terms of required focus for scoring.

For next steps see Journey Discovery - User Guide & Journey Discovery - Approach to Analytics

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