One Customer and One Service Provider? Not Anymore.
For decades, service models assumed a simple relationship: one company provides, and one customer receives. But today’s service landscape has radically changed. Whether ordering groceries, navigating healthcare, or filing taxes, customers now interact with multiple organizations, platforms, and even other customers—all as part of a single journey.
The concept of the customer journey originated in service marketing, where the end-user was viewed primarily as a customer engaged in a commercial relationship. As service design practices evolved and expanded into non-commercial domains, the scope of the end-user broadened to include roles such as users, patients, and citizens across both public and private sectors.
CJML is particularly well-suited to support this broader perspective, as it captures the full chain of detailed interactions between the end-user and service providers. Its dual-purpose design supports both practitioners (in public and private service delivery) and researchers or consultants analyzing complex service ecosystems. This makes CJML a powerful tool for bridging design, strategy, and analysis in multi-stakeholder environments
For years, service quality and customer satisfaction were assessed through single, momentary interactions—a support call, a purchase step, or a feedback form. But this approach often misses the broader issues customers experience across their full journey. A growing body of research argues that to truly assess service quality, we need a shift in perspective: from isolated touchpoints to end-to-end journeys.
Recent technological advancements have transformed society’s services into what researchers call a “system of systems”—an interconnected web of users, providers, platforms, and partners. The simple one-to-one service relationship is being replaced by complex service delivery networks, where multiple public and private actors collaborate to create value.
In their push for greater efficiency and flexibility, service providers increasingly digitize and outsource elements of their offerings. But this often leads to fragmented, inconsistent experiences, especially when different actors work in silos or across disconnected systems. Users are left frustrated when digital services fail to deliver smoothly across these boundaries.
Service landscapes today are made up of platforms, partners, APIs, logistics providers, and self-service tools. The result? Customer journeys are increasingly fragmented, invisible, and hard to control—even for the main provider. To improve them, we first have to understand them. And that starts with seeing the whole picture.