Digital customer journey: who owns it, and what a broken one costs the brand

This article starts from the experience of a friend of mine, a divorce lawyer, who “divorced” a brand after a failed purchase in an online shop. It is an exemplary case of a digital customer journey that destroys brand reputation, and it raises a question every marketing director should answer: who owns the result when a customer cannot buy?

The case study is told in an episode of my podcast, in Italian. Here I take the lessons that apply to any company.

The starting assumptions are three.

• Your digital presence is a strategic platform for your target.
• Errors such as poor compatibility with a browser (Safari, Apple’s browser, for example) are strategic failures as well as technical problems: they interrupt the customer journey, hand customers to competitors and open a crisis of reputation.
• The final responsibility lies with Marketing, which must lead the optimisation of the user experience and of convenience (ease and absence of friction). Success requires a real customer-centric culture, collaboration between Marketing, IT, Sales and Customer Service, and targeted investment to serve every potential customer and raise their customer lifetime value (the total value a customer generates over the whole relationship).

The brand becomes more and more a digital platform

The perception a target has of a brand is built more and more through its digital interactions. I described this idea in my book Strategie digitali nella Cosmesi (Digital strategies in cosmetics), and it applies to every industry, well beyond cosmetics. I call it the brand as a platform: the brand coincides with the place where customers meet it.

This platform must be able to:

1. Listen actively. Understand and interpret the needs (often latent) and the requests (explicit) of its audience, using digital channels as privileged sensors along the customer journey.
2. Develop relevant solutions. Translate that understanding into information, products or services that answer those needs, and so influence the customer’s decision-making process.
3. Interact and communicate. Offer a fluid and coherent onlife experience (the continuity between online and offline life) that integrates website, online shop, customer service and newsletter with physical stores, proximity marketing and hybrid loyalty programmes. This is what defines an omnichannel customer journey.

Digital, therefore, is the connective tissue of the modern customer experience, and of its customer journey.

What is the digital customer journey, and what does an inefficiency cost?

The digital customer journey is the sequence of online interactions a person has with a brand, from the first search to purchase, after-sales service and loyalty. Each interaction is a touchpoint (a point of contact between the customer and the brand), and each touchpoint can open or close the path.

In this context an inefficiency or an incompatibility of the platform, like the one in the case study, is more than a technical inconvenience. It is a strategic failure that compromises the capacity of the brand to listen, to elaborate and to interact along the whole customer journey.

Every potential customer who meets insurmountable friction is, in practice, handed to competitors whose platforms work. The objective must be the optimisation of the customer journey.

This article examines the implications of this vision through three questions that every organisation operating in the digital era must answer:

1. Who is responsible for the design, the supervision and the evolution of digital channels, considering their impact on the customer journey?
2. Why does the new consumer need effective answers to needs expressed more and more through digital channels?
3. Which organisational requirements must a company have to answer those needs through its digital platform?

Who owns the customer journey strategy: Marketing

The first question concerns the governance (who decides and who answers for the result) of digital channels. The instinctive answer points to the IT or development department. As I explain in the podcast, the primary responsibility lies with digital Marketing, or with the strategic function it represents. A sound digital marketing strategy is the precondition.

In modern organisations the role of digital Marketing goes beyond tactical execution. It has become a strategic responsibility for the definition, supervision and optimisation of the entire customer experience across digital channels. Roles such as the digital strategist translate business objectives into concrete digital action plans.

This responsibility includes:

• Market analysis and understanding of the target.
• The vision of the desired user experience, so that channels are effective, efficient and satisfying along the customer journey.
• The project mandate and the allocation of resources, a key decision.

If crucial aspects such as compatibility with widespread platforms (Apple and Safari) are left out of the requirements or of the budget, the strategic responsibility falls on Marketing.

Define the mandate: from strategy to user experience (UX/UI)

Digital Marketing provides the context for the design of the user experience (UX, how a person lives the interaction) and of the user interface (UI, the screens and controls they use). It defines brand identity, the buyer persona (the profile of the typical customer), the objectives and the message, and guides the choices on information architecture, layout, navigation, content and aesthetics.

• The UX designer translates these directions into accessible, intuitive and satisfying interfaces, and reduces the doubts of the user along the customer journey.
• The UI concentrates on graphic and interactive aspects, coherent with the brand.

The digital experience must be aligned with the overall promise of the brand. A disconnection, like the one in the case study (problems with Safari for an Apple user), damages directly the perception of the brand and trust.

Marketing and IT: clear roles for a common objective

Effectiveness requires a clear division of tasks:

• Marketing and digital strategy define what and why: target, customer journey, functional and UX requirements, KPIs (key performance indicators), compatibility requirements, budget.
• UX/UI design defines how the user interacts: architecture, wireframes (schematic drafts of each screen), prototypes, visual design.
• IT and development execute technically what is requested: construction, implementation, maintenance, security, performance, compliance with standards.

Who does what in the design of digital channels

Function	What it defines	Scope
Marketing and digital strategy	What and why	Target, customer journey, functional and UX requirements, KPIs, compatibility, budget
UX/UI design	How the user interacts	Architecture, wireframes, prototypes, visual design
IT and development	The technical execution requested	Construction, implementation, maintenance, security, performance, standards

The case study shows a short circuit in this flow. The cause (missing specifications, insufficient budget, poor communication) is secondary to the strategic responsibility for the final result, which remains with Marketing. The lack of budget indicates an error upstream, in the strategic decision on the importance of a complete experience for all relevant segments.

Answer the needs of the new digital consumer

The second question concerns the “why”: why is it essential to answer needs expressed through digital channels? The answer lies in the nature of the modern consumer, who uses digital channels to buy, and also to inform, compare, express opinions and look for solutions. In doing so, the consumer defines their own customer journey.

The digital platform of the brand therefore becomes a crucial point of listening. Among the essential competences of those who decide in digital marketing is the capacity to anticipate and study the needs of the target, because competitors are already doing it. Digital Marketing has the responsibility to update the channels according to the evolution of the target, of the market and of the critical issues reported, for example, by customer service.

The value of specific segments: Apple and Safari users

Understanding the target also means recognising the strategic value of specific segments. Treating Apple and Safari users as a negligible minority is a serious error. According to StatCounter, August 2026, Safari holds 15.8% of the global browser market on all devices, 25.9% on smartphones and 13.5% in Italy.

These users often have demographic and psychographic profiles of high value:

• Higher income and professional occupations.
• Early adopters (people who try a technology before the mass market).
• Affluent consumers interested in quality, design and innovation.
• High loyalty to the ecosystem and greater propensity to spend online.

Ignoring their specific needs, or offering them a poor digital experience, alienates a precious and potentially very profitable segment and pushes it towards more attentive competitors. The analogy with luxury cars that I use in the podcast shows how neglect of this segment damages reputation and reveals a lack of strategic understanding. Their customer lifetime value is potentially very high.

Digital convenience: answer with effectiveness and comfort

Answering digital needs also means offering an experience of “convenience”: ease, speed, intuitiveness and absence of friction. This concept, central to e-commerce, translates into practical elements:

• Simple navigation and search.
• An optimised checkout: few steps, guest option, reliable autofill.
• Multiple payment options.
• Relevant personalisation and fluid omnichannel integration.
• Clear communication.

Lack of convenience leads to cart abandonment (the customer leaves before paying), generates frustration and damages the perception of the brand. The experience of the lawyer in the podcast, frustrated by an autofill that did not work and by the impossibility of viewing her order, demonstrates that convenience is a fundamental expectation.

Asking a user to give up the comforts of their own ecosystem (Apple autofill, in this case) is a serious strategic error: it ignores their primary expectations and their decision-making process.

Organisational requirements for an effective answer

Beyond silos: synchronised collaboration between departments

The third question concerns the organisational requirements to build and maintain an effective digital platform. A coherent customer experience requires departments that work together; organisational silos (departments that operate in isolation) produce the opposite. Synergic collaboration between Marketing, Sales, IT and Customer Service is indispensable.

Effective models include:

• Cross-functional teams, with people from different departments on the same project.
• Shared objectives and metrics focused on the customer, such as CSAT (customer satisfaction score), NPS (Net Promoter Score, the propensity to recommend) and customer lifetime value.
• Integrated systems with centralised data, for example a CRM (the system that manages customer relationships).
• Targeted meetings with a SMART approach (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound objectives).
• Structured feedback flows between departments.

Each department contributes its competences and works for the common objective. The company must speak with a single voice, with clear and shared policies (management of issues, refunds) to avoid contradictory messages. In the podcast I call for action that is “synchronised and interdepartmental”, what I name Organizational Synchrony; its absence is evident in the case study, where customer service answered inadequately.

From theory to practice: build a customer-centric culture

Effective collaboration rests on a company culture that is genuinely customer-centric. Beyond the slogan, customer centricity means placing the customer systematically at the centre of every decision and every operational process, to build lasting relationships and maximise customer lifetime value.

It requires:

• Visible commitment from leadership, possibly with a dedicated chief experience officer (the executive who answers for the whole customer experience).
• An organisational structure that facilitates collaboration.
• Processes redesigned from the customer’s point of view, through customer journey mapping (drawing the path step by step): a well-built customer journey map is essential.
• Customer-focused metrics (CSAT, NPS, churn rate) and aligned incentive systems.
• Investment in technology (CRM, analytics, personalisation), in training, and decisions oriented to the customer even when they are difficult in the short term, such as the budget for compatibility.

Manage critical issues: negative experiences and reputation

An effective organisation knows how to manage the inevitable critical issues. Negative digital experiences (technical errors, poor usability, process errors such as shipping the wrong product, inadequate customer service) erode trust, damage reputation and cause the loss of customers (churn).

• 89% of consumers move to a competitor after a bad experience (RightNow and Harris Interactive, Customer Experience Impact Report, 2011, data on US consumers).
• 88% are less likely to return (same source).
• 95% read online reviews before deciding on a purchase (Spiegel Research Center, Northwestern University, 2017).

The failed handling of the case in the podcast shows the risks of a defensive approach, closed to solutions. A customer-driven approach would have obtained different results.

Technical compatibility: an organisational requirement

Cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility (a site that works the same on every browser and device) is a challenge for IT, and at a deeper reading it is an organisational requirement that derives from the strategic will to serve all of your target. Ignoring widespread browsers such as Safari means failing a relevant segment of customers.

The best practices for compatibility require a conscious investment of time and resources:

• Compliance with W3C standards (the rules of the web) and code validation.
• Progressive enhancement and graceful degradation: the basic function works everywhere, and richer features are added where the browser supports them.
• Feature detection in place of browser sniffing: the code checks what the browser can do, instead of guessing from its name.
• Complete and continuous tests on real browsers and devices, or on cloud platforms.
• Responsive design (layouts that adapt to the screen) and polyfills (small scripts that add a missing function to an older browser).

This investment must be planned and allocated at strategic level, by Marketing and management, with the awareness that the cost of incompatibility (lost sales, damage to reputation, customers who leave) is far higher than the cost of prevention. The decision to “skip” compatibility is a short-sighted organisational choice that contradicts the principles of real customer centricity.

Where to look first in your own customer journey

Start from the same test the lawyer ran without wanting to. Buy something from your own shop on an iPhone and on a Mac with Safari, using autofill and a guest checkout, and note every point where the path stops. Then read the last tickets of customer service: they list the touchpoints that break, in the words of the customers. The sales funnel (the path from first contact to purchase) leaks exactly there.

Each point you find needs an owner with a name, a budget and a date. If you recognise these gaps in your company, performance optimisation consulting starts from the analysis of your customer journey and its touchpoints, and identifies where the path breaks.