Come to think of it, marketing specialists are modern adventurers on a treasure hunt. There's only one minor difference: instead of an old dusty scroll with a scraggly X scribbled on it, they draw their maps themselves, hoping to acquire not a treasure chest abrim with doubloons and jewelry but a happy, satisfied customer deftly led from a picture to the purchase.
What Is a Customer Journey Map?
Customer journey maps, also known as simply CJM, represent a pattern of the entire customer experience a client has with a company, from their first interaction to the final step and often beyond. Such maps outline the key stages, touchpoints, emotions, and actions a customer goes through while interacting with a product, service, or brand.
It may seem overkill to some, but marketing specialists are indeed capable of analyzing these experiences and drawing conclusions that eventually refine the funnel, satisfy the client, and induce the customer to come back. In other words, by mapping out your customer journey, you ensure that every interaction is intentional and every action leaves a mark. Remember, real treasure hunters don’t hope for the best. They have a plan, a contingency, and the tools that help attain goals.
Key Components of a Customer Journey Map
CJMs document the entire story: they show a customer's steps from seeing your brand somewhere on social media to going to the store to buy the product you promote. Don't underestimate customer journey maps: not only do they expose what stages should be simplified, but they also solve a wide range of problems, including:
- Impediments. Sometimes your client's way implies a bumpy ride. You have it all laid out, smooth as silk, but then they contact your sales department, and everything goes up in flames because an employee responsible for the task sends the offer and the price in a week when the customer has lost interest and found a better option.
- Weak spots. Eliminate them with a flick of the fingers: it's not as hard if you know where they're hiding. Imagine, a client, let's call him Nate, visits your store, looking for a perfect hair dryer that wouldn't be as pricey as the world-famous Dyson but would do the job just as nicely. Here's a hitch: poor Nate knows jack about hair dryers, so he has to address a sales assistant. This is where things may go awry: if this sales assistant fails to explain which model delivers the ultimate Dyson experience without burning a hole in the pocket, Nate will be forced to explore other stores somewhere else, or read a dozen Reddit threads related to hair dryers, eventually buying the dream hair dryer online. Once you identify the problem, you can solve it, for example, by arranging a training session for your employees or refining scripts.
- The quality of service. Assess the quality to quicken the process by examining the Service Blueprint, a detailed visual map that outlines the end-to-end service process, highlighting the interactions between customers and service providers, as well as the behind-the-scenes activities that support those interactions.
- Touchpoints. No CJM exists without the touchpoints between the customer and the company. Clients often interact with different advertising messages while choosing a product or service: they see an ad or a banner, ask colleagues, study information on websites, and cross-check the options against one another. During the purchase, customers interact with managers, and after the purchase, they may maintain the connection by using the app, asking questions, subscribing to the newsletter, or reading the blog.
- Communication strategy. Based on CJM, you can build a communication plan for each stage of the journey and describe in detail the interaction channels and advertising tools to successfully promote your product or service. Imagine a person in a wallpaper store: they may have arranged a Pinterest board, cherry-picked the most aesthetic trends, mentally applied them to their room, and now they're just chaotically loitering around the shop, seeking the right thing. Your goal here is to communicate with the person in a way that asserts your knowledge; you are there to help them simplify the process and offer the best option available.
Now, when we clarified the significance of customer journey maps, let us smoothly segue to the topic in the subtitle: the components of the customer journey map.
1. Stages. Every customer passes through five main stages: Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Retention, and Advocacy. We'll describe them in detail to avoid confusion.
Woopra’s vision of CJM stages (source: woopra)
Awareness. This is the prologue to the entire story. This is where customers realize they have a problem, and the solution seems a vague and distant notion. But they are actively researching, and this is where you come in: you help them understand their pain points, providing potential solutions. Technically, you invite them to take a look at your selection and gauge it with their own eyes. After all, it's for free.
Consideration. At this stage, people are done looking for information: they've already asked friends, scrolled feeds, and read reviews... you name it. Now customers compare available options, and you are saddled with a task to make your product look more attractive, ideal, if possible.
Decision. Comparison accomplished: the client breezed through the options, chose the best design, cross-checked their prices, and made sure the quality of the product matched their expectations. Finally, they are ready to buy, and your only goal here is to deliver a smooth, simple buying experience.
Retention. Did they buy it? Good. Are they using it? Perfect. Now, customers are dealing with the properties and deciding whether they want to buy this product again. More often than not, business owners tend to overlook this stage, considering that the purchase stage is the pinnacle of the CJM, which might be true to some extent, but we offer you to shift your focus and treat the retention stage as the acme of the process. Satisfied customers commend your product and show it to their friends, promising to buy something else from you. However, clients who did not enjoy the process or were disappointed with the product may leave a bad review on social media, thus increasing the probability of failure on your part.
Advocacy. Ta-da! Embrace the reviews, because this is where people start recommending you to other customers. Essentially, it summarizes your efforts and reveals a bottleneck that discouraged the client and thwarted your plans, or, on the contrary, amplifies your success. If you deftly navigated the customer across all touchpoints and satisfied their needs, kudos to you: they will come back, probably hauling a bunch of friends in their wake.
Dyson’s version of CJM (source: jenheazlewood)
2. Touchpoints. They were briefly mentioned in the previous paragraphs, but here we are finally giving them a definition. Touchpoints are the specific interactions between the customer and the brand, business, or product. These interactions can occur across various channels and are critical opportunities to shape the customer's perception and experience. Touchpoints can be:
Interaction-Based. Each touchpoint represents an exchange between the customer and the business, such as browsing a website, calling customer service, or visiting a physical store.
Multi-Channel. They can occur across multiple channels, including online, offline, social media, email, and in-person.
Emotional Impact. Each touchpoint affects how the customer feels about the brand, from satisfaction to frustration.
Actionable. Businesses can analyze and optimize touchpoints to improve customer experience.
3. Customer Goals represent the objectives or outcomes customers aim to achieve at each stage of their journey. These goals are essential for understanding customer behavior, motivations, and decision-making processes, enabling businesses to design experiences that meet customer needs.
Customer goals can be divided into four groups:
Customer-Centric. Reflect what the customer wants to accomplish, not the business’s goals.
Stage-Specific. Each phase of the customer journey has distinct goals (e.g., research, purchase, support).
Emotion-Driven. Goals are often tied to emotional drivers like convenience, trust, or satisfaction.
Action-Oriented. Customers pursue specific actions to achieve their goals, such as finding information or resolving an issue.
4. Pain points. Specific challenges, obstacles, or frustrations that customers encounter while interacting with a business, product, or service.
Nike’s variation (source: QuestionPro)
5. Emotions. In CJM, marketing specialists can gauge the range of emotions in customers passing through different stages, from frustration to satisfaction.
Emotions represented in Spotify’s CJM (source: salespanel)
6. Channels. Asses where interactions occur: on social media platforms, via email, in store, or in mobile apps.
How to Build a CJM?
Your first attempts at creating a perfect customer journey may fall flat, but with these tips, you will enhance your chances of success greatly.
1. Define Objectives
The first step in building a customer journey map is to determine why you're creating it. Are you aiming to enhance customer satisfaction, improve specific touchpoints, or identify where customers drop off during their journey? A clear objective ensures that the CJM remains focused and actionable.
Example Objective. If customer retention is an issue, your map might focus heavily on the post-purchase stage to identify where improvements are needed.
Tip: Engage stakeholders to ensure alignment on goals, such as marketing, product teams, and customer service.
2. Understand Your Customers
To build an effective CJM, you should deeply understand your customers’ behavior, preferences, and motivations. Create a customer persona, a fictional profile based on real customer data.
Gather Data. Collect insights from surveys, interviews, focus groups, website analytics, customer reviews, and social media interactions.
Include Key Information. Age, occupation, location, goals, pain points, and emotional drivers.
Identify Patterns. Look for recurring themes in customer feedback, such as frustration with support or excitement about new features.
Understanding who your customers are ensures that your CJM resonates with their actual experiences, not assumptions.
3. Map Touchpoints
We should've included the step about outlining the journey stages, but we've covered them in the previous paragraph. So let us segue to the touchpoints, moments when customers interact with your brand or product.
List All Touchpoints. Include interactions such as visiting your website, seeing ads, reading reviews, contacting customer service, and using your product or service.
Filter by Channel. Identify where these touchpoints occur (e.g., social media, email, in-store).
Evaluate Impact. Determine how each touchpoint contributes to the overall experience. For example, is it a positive moment that drives engagement or a negative one that leads to frustration?
Touchpoints are where you can identify gaps or inconsistencies in the customer experience, so be thorough in documenting them.
4. Identify Pain Points and Emotions
Pain points are the challenges or frustrations customers encounter, while emotions reveal how customers feel at each stage of their journey. These insights are crucial for understanding which techniques are working and which fail to deliver desired results.
Discover Pain Points. Look for bottlenecks like slow website load times, complicated checkout processes, or unresponsive support teams.
Track Emotions. Map emotional highs and lows. For example, excitement during discovery may dip into frustration during onboarding if instructions are unclear.
Use Data and Feedback. Analyze reviews, customer support logs, and usability tests to identify areas of dissatisfaction or confusion.
This step allows you to pinpoint areas for improvement and opportunities to create delight at critical moments.
5. Visualize the CJM
The next step is to create a visual representation of the customer journey. A clear, intuitive map makes it easier to identify patterns and pain points.
Choose a Format. Use tools like diagrams, flowcharts, or timelines to display the journey.
Include Key Elements. Incorporate customer actions, emotions, touchpoints, pain points, and opportunities for improvement.
Graph Emotions. Use a graph or line chart to show emotional highs and lows across the journey.
A well-designed CJM becomes a powerful tool for communicating insights to stakeholders and driving action.
6. Analyze and Optimize
Once the CJM is complete, it’s time to analyze it for areas of improvement. Focus on identifying gaps, inefficiencies, or misaligned touchpoints that detract from the customer experience.
7. Test and Update Regularly
The customer journey is not static — it evolves as customer expectations, technology, and market conditions change. Keep your CJM relevant by regularly updating it.
Monitor Performance. Track the success of implemented changes through customer feedback, retention rates, or sales data.
Gather New Insights. Revisit customer feedback and behaviors from time to time to identify new trends or pain points.
Iterate. Update the CJM to reflect changes in customer behavior, business strategy, or service offerings.
How Do Make a CJM?
The possibilities are limitless, but to keep things short, we have to be confined to several most popular options.
Google Sheets or Excel. One basic and foolproof option that can structurize the data you've gleaned.
Lucidchart. A user-friendly platform for creating flowcharts and diagrams that can represent CJMs.
Miro. A collaborative whiteboard tool that allows teams to build CJMs together with templates and sticky notes. Now if you miss something, your colleagues will leave you a note.
Smaply. A dedicated tool for customer journey mapping that includes persona creation, journey visualization, and collaboration features.
UXPressia. This tool offers customizable templates for mapping journeys, creating personas, and analyzing touchpoints.
Figma. Those who have a little more skill can resort to this versatile design platform that lets teams create customized CJM visuals and collaborate.
Canva. A truly multifaceted tool providing easy-to-use templates for creating visually appealing CJMs without design expertise.
Wrapping Up
Customer Journey Maps aren't just a visual tool that simply shows customers' emotions and pain points; they are strategic frameworks that help organizations step into their customers' shoes and understand their experiences. By mapping out each stage of interaction, identifying touchpoints, and addressing said pain points, CJMs enable businesses to build meaningful connections, foster loyalty, and drive long-term success.
Ultimately, a well-crafted CJM empowers organizations to not only meet but exceed customer expectations, transforming challenges into opportunities and touchpoints into memorable moments.
