The customer journey – sometimes called the buyer or user journey – tells the customer experience with a business, brand, product, or service. A customer journey is an alternative approach to other linear models like the sales funnel, which hypothesizes that most customers follow the same path.
| Aspect | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Customer Journey | The customer journey represents the path a customer follows from initial awareness of a product or service to the final decision to make a purchase and beyond. It focuses on delivering exceptional experiences at each stage. |
| Customer-Centric Approach | The customer journey revolves around the idea of putting the customer at the center of business strategies, meeting their needs, expectations, and preferences throughout interactions with the company. |
| Touchpoints | Touchpoints are various interactions or points of contact that customers have with a brand, including website visits, social media interactions, emails, customer support calls, and more. |
| User Persona | User personas are fictional characters representing different segments of the target audience, aiding in understanding customer behavior and tailoring the customer journey accordingly. |
| Customer Experience (CX) | CX encompasses all interactions a customer has with a brand and how they perceive those interactions, playing a crucial role in shaping the customer journey. |
| Omni-Channel | An omni-channel approach ensures a seamless experience for customers across all touchpoints, whether they interact with the company online, offline, or through various devices. |
| Mapping | Customer journey mapping visually represents the entire journey, including stages, touchpoints, emotions, and pain points, helping identify areas for improvement. |
| Personalization | Personalization tailors the customer experience based on individual preferences, behaviors, and demographics, enhancing engagement and satisfaction. |
| Feedback Loop | Gathering and analyzing customer feedback at various stages of the journey is essential for continuous improvement, helping make data-driven decisions. |
| Awareness (Stage) | The initial stage where potential customers become aware of a product or service, often through marketing efforts. They begin seeking information to address a problem or need. |
| Consideration (Stage) | Customers actively research and evaluate options, comparing products, services, and brands to make an informed choice. Content like reviews and comparisons plays a significant role. |
| Decision (Stage) | Customers are ready to make a purchase decision, looking for the final push to choose a product or service. Factors influencing their choice include pricing, promotions, and ease of purchase. |
| Purchase (Stage) | The point at which the customer commits to buying the product or service. A smooth and secure purchasing process is crucial, along with order confirmations and updates. |
| Post-Purchase (Stage) | After a purchase, the focus is on ensuring customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy. Providing excellent customer support and follow-up communication is essential. |
| Loyalty and Advocacy (Stage) | The ultimate goal of the customer journey is to cultivate loyal customers who not only make repeat purchases but also become advocates for the brand, promoting it to others. |
Understanding the customer journey
Describing a customer journey may seem simple if we only consider the transaction between the buyer and the seller.
In truth, the customer journey is much more complex and multifaceted.
It begins when a consumer first becomes aware of a brand and extends well beyond the final purchase into loyalty programs and brand advocacy.
Whatever the industry, customer journeys must reflect a deep understanding of the end-user.
How does the user behave and feel as they travel through the sales process? Are there impediments to user or business success?
The customer journey is measured by touch-points, or consumer interactions with a brand.
How a business manages marketing, point-of-sale, and customer support touch-points will dictate whether it can attract and then retain buyers.
It’s important to note that touchpoints should be tailored to a specific buyer persona.
They must also be treated as single, independent entities while still making logical sense as part of a journey from start to finish.
Mapping a customer journey
Creating a compelling customer journey means adopting the perspective of the customer.
How is this accomplished?
Conduct analytical research
Use website and other analytics data to identify where the ideal customer hangs out and how much time they spend interacting with a brand.
Conduct anecdotal research
It is not possible to get inside someone else’s head, but social media can yield vital clues regarding how an individual feels or thinks when interacting with a brand.
Pay particular attention to reviews, as many only feel compelled to leave feedback when they have strong negative or positive feelings.
If this information is unavailable, consider asking the target audience directly by conducting surveys.
Identify customer touch-points
How does the customer interact with the brand via newsletters, advertising, websites, or after-sales support?
Identify the obstacles and then associate each touch-point with a goal that overcomes them to facilitate a seamless customer experience.
Create a graphic
Include both analytical and anecdotal research data to display the customer journey in a spreadsheet or similar.
Highlight areas where customer frustration or dissatisfaction causes them to end their journey and purchase elsewhere, but also make a note of areas where the customer is happy.
To help visualize the customer’s state of mind, some find it helpful to use emojis.
Benefits of customer journey mapping
Some businesses may have a superficial understanding of the obstacles their customers face and how to overcome them.
However, the biggest rewards are had by going deeper to break down the customer journey into smaller parts and then restructure each touch-point.
Here are some of the benefits of doing so:
Refocus the company with an inbound perspective
Instead of the business trying to attract buyers through outbound channels, it attracts customers by creating valuable and tailored content and experiences.
Inbound marketing is more efficient and cost-effective than the alternative which is more of a scattergun approach.
Proactive customer service
Knowing where the customer is both delighted and frustrated allows a customer service strategy to be planned in advance.
As a result, the business becomes more nimble and can selectively market to maximize brand value and equity.
Improved customer retention
It stands to reason that a satisfied buyer with fewer pain points is more likely to become a loyal and devoted fan.
Customer satisfaction is crucial, as a single bad experience from customers might lead them to switch.
Customer journey mapping also allows the business to identify the common behavioral patterns associated with customer churn, and plan accordingly.
Customer journey examples
To solidify the concept of customer journeys, we have included a few real-world examples in the following paragraphs.
Rail Europe
Rail Europe is a B2C travel company that enables customers to easily book rail tickets online.
While Rail Europe had a robust on-site user interface, management noted that the company needed to better understand the customer journey across various touchpoints.
Teams within the company created an extensive customer journey map to illustrate a traveler’s experience before, during, and after booking a ticket.
In the process, they learned that customers do not move linearly between stages or channels.
Some customers whilst in the research phase, for instance, tended to move back and forth between website planning features, timetables, and comparison sites.
Rail Europe also used customer journey maps to increase customer empathy by determining the concerns and frustrations travelers experience on their trips.
This included concerns and frustrations that were unrelated to train travel such as someone feeling vulnerable after arriving at an unknown location in the middle of the night.
These points were included on the map because Rail Europe understood that customers connected its brand to their whole travel experience and not just the parts related to taking the train.
Spotify
Spotify hired a marketing firm to create a customer journey map for a new feature it wanted to add to the platform.
The feature, which enabled users to share music inside the Spotify app and also using third-party applications, would increase social functionality and user engagement.
The map itself was then constructed to identify where the feature would best slot into the overall customer experience.
In short, the map started from the moment a user opens the Spotify app on their phone until the point at which they like a song that a friend has shared.
Based on this journey, Spotify identified various pain points to make the music-sharing process more seamless. Some of these pain points were listed as customer thoughts and include:
- Why do I HAVE to open it on Spotify? That’s really annoying.
- Why do I need to only use shuffle play? It’s weird that I just can’t hit play.
- I would have liked to have a way to see what songs were popular at the moment.
Emirates
The airline Emirates created a customer journey map to better reflect the multi-channel nature of its customer journey.
The map illustrated three phases: reservations, check-in, and onboarding.
Space was also made for call center interactions and the context they provide for human service agents and interactive voice response (IRV) technology.
Furthermore, the four customer desires of comfort, confidence, safety, and freedom and control were placed in the corners of the map.
As a global brand, customers expect the same experience with Emirates regardless of the channel, touchpoint, or country.
To better understand customer expectations and coordinate touchpoints to deliver a consistent experience, the airline used the map to clarify several new measures.
One of these measures was a unified, virtual contact center platform to streamline interactions across all channels.
Other measures involved attaching experience goals to activities based on the impression of the end user.
These were relevant to the quality of the airport lounge, the perceived time spent waiting in a queue, and the clarity of airport signage.
The nature of the map itself also delivered a beneficial outcome.
Before a standardized and relatable map was created, Emirates’ multilingual workforce did not fully comprehend the customer journey and by extension, the company’s brand promise.
Today, the company notes that employees now commonly refer to passengers as “customers” instead.
E-commerce Industry
Amazon
- Awareness: Amazon engages customers through its vast online presence, advertising campaigns, Prime membership, and word of mouth.
- Consideration: Customers browse through thousands of products, read reviews, and often compare prices.
- Purchase: Streamlined checkout process, multiple payment options, and the trust built by Amazon make the purchase decision easier.
- Post-Purchase: Amazon encourages reviews, provides easy return policies, and continuously recommends products based on past purchases.
Automobile Industry
Tesla
- Awareness: Elon Musk’s media presence, Tesla’s revolutionary electric cars, and unique marketing tactics generate buzz.
- Consideration: Potential buyers visit showrooms, take test drives, and learn about electric vehicle benefits.
- Purchase: Customers customize their vehicle and place an order directly through Tesla, bypassing traditional dealerships.
- Post-Purchase: Tesla provides regular software updates, has a responsive customer service team, and offers a supercharging network, enhancing the ownership experience.
Hospitality Industry
Airbnb
- Awareness: Word of mouth, online advertising, and media stories about unique Airbnb experiences raise awareness.
- Consideration: Travelers browse listings, read reviews, and communicate with hosts.
- Purchase: Users book their preferred accommodation and make payments through Airbnb’s secure platform.
- Post-Purchase: Airbnb requests reviews from both guests and hosts, fostering a community built on trust.
Fast Food Industry
McDonald’s
- Awareness: Widespread advertising, iconic branding, and global presence make McDonald’s universally recognizable.
- Consideration: New menu items, promotions, and health-conscious options attract a wide range of customers.
- Purchase: Customers visit restaurants, use drive-thrus, or order via delivery apps.
- Post-Purchase: Loyalty programs, feedback surveys, and seasonal promotions keep customers returning.
Banking and Finance
Chase Bank
- Awareness: National advertising campaigns, online presence, and local branches promote Chase’s services.
- Consideration: Potential customers explore different banking options, interest rates, and account benefits.
- Purchase: Customers open accounts, apply for credit cards, or secure loans.
- Post-Purchase: Online banking, customer service, and financial advisories support the customer’s ongoing financial journey.
Health and Fitness
Fitbit
- Awareness: Advertising campaigns, online reviews, and word of mouth introduce consumers to Fitbit’s range of health trackers.
- Consideration: Potential buyers compare different models, features, and pricing.
- Purchase: Consumers buy the product either online or from retail partners.
- Post-Purchase: Fitbit engages users with its app, challenges, and community features, ensuring they continue to wear and use their devices.
Entertainment
Disney+
- Awareness: Disney leverages its iconic movies, shows, and characters to promote its streaming service.
- Consideration: Potential subscribers explore the content library, pricing tiers, and bundle options.
- Purchase: Users subscribe and start streaming their favorite Disney content.
- Post-Purchase: Personalized content recommendations, new releases, and exclusive shows keep subscribers engaged.
Customer journey as an alternative to sales funnels
A customer journey is a great addition to other more linear tools like the sales funnel, as it enables you to have a deeper understanding of how customers get to know your brand.
Therefore, removing assumptions about how customers interact with your brand. This is critical as it helps to act with fewer assumptions and drive more effective branding campaigns.
Key takeaways
- The customer journey tells the story of a consumer’s experience from the first interaction with a brand to a point well beyond their last purchase.
- For the business, crafting a compelling customer journey means taking the perspective of the customer. It must conduct analytical and anecdotal research to identify pain points, thoughts, and feelings that influence behavior. Then, it must visually represent the journey to identify obstacles and areas for improvement.
- The customer journey helps an organization adopt an inbound marketing strategy with a focus on proactive customer service. This mindset creates satisfied customers who are more likely to be retained.
Key Highlights
- Customer Journey Definition: The customer journey, also known as the buyer or user journey, describes the entire experience a customer has with a business, brand, product, or service. It starts from the initial awareness of the brand and extends beyond the final purchase into loyalty and advocacy.
- Importance of Customer Journey: The customer journey is more complex and multifaceted than just a transaction. It involves understanding customer behavior, feelings, and interactions with the brand at various touchpoints. Mapping the customer journey allows businesses to create a seamless and tailored customer experience.
- Steps to Map the Customer Journey:
- Conduct analytical research: Use website and analytics data to understand customer interactions with the brand.
- Conduct anecdotal research: Use social media and reviews to gain insights into customer feelings and thoughts.
- Identify customer touch-points: Determine how customers interact with the brand at different stages.
- Create a graphic: Visualize the customer journey, highlighting pain points and areas of satisfaction.
- Benefits of Customer Journey Mapping:
- Refocus the company with an inbound perspective: Attract customers through valuable content and tailored experiences.
- Proactive customer service: Plan customer service strategies based on identified pain points and concerns.
- Improved customer retention: Address customer frustrations to enhance satisfaction and loyalty.
- Customer Journey Examples:
- Rail Europe: Mapped customer journey to understand traveler experiences and identify pain points related to train travel and overall travel experience.
- Spotify: Created a customer journey map for a new music-sharing feature, identifying pain points and optimizing the sharing process.
- Emirates: Developed a multi-channel customer journey map to ensure consistent experiences and improved employee understanding of the customer journey.
- Customer Journey as an Alternative to Sales Funnels: The customer journey complements the sales funnel model by providing a deeper understanding of customer interactions with the brand, leading to more effective branding campaigns and fewer assumptions.
| Related Frameworks, Models, or Concepts | Description | When to Apply |
|---|---|---|
| User Experience (UX) Design | User Experience (UX) Design focuses on creating meaningful and seamless interactions between users and products or services throughout their journey. It involves understanding user needs, behaviors, and pain points to design intuitive interfaces and engaging experiences. By applying UX design principles, organizations can enhance customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention by delivering exceptional user experiences across touchpoints. | Consider UX Design when designing or improving digital products or services. Use it to understand user needs, conduct usability testing, and iterate on designs to create intuitive and engaging experiences. Implement UX Design as a framework for optimizing customer interactions, enhancing satisfaction, and driving conversion and retention within your digital channels. |
| Customer Relationship Management (CRM) | Customer Relationship Management (CRM) involves managing interactions and relationships with customers throughout their lifecycle to maximize customer value and loyalty. CRM systems help organizations track customer interactions, analyze data, and personalize communications to enhance customer experiences. By adopting CRM strategies, organizations can build stronger relationships, increase customer retention, and drive revenue growth. | Consider CRM when managing customer interactions and relationships across multiple touchpoints. Use it to track customer data, analyze behavior, and personalize communications to meet individual needs and preferences. Implement CRM as a framework for building customer loyalty, improving customer satisfaction, and maximizing lifetime value within your organization. |
| Service Design | Service Design focuses on designing and improving the end-to-end service experience from the customer’s perspective. It involves understanding customer needs, mapping service journeys, and optimizing touchpoints to deliver seamless and integrated experiences. By applying service design principles, organizations can align service delivery with customer expectations, enhance satisfaction, and drive business outcomes. | Consider Service Design when designing or transforming service experiences. Use it to map customer journeys, identify pain points, and design service interactions that meet user needs and exceed expectations. Implement Service Design as a framework for creating holistic and customer-centric service experiences that drive loyalty, advocacy, and business success. |
| Customer Experience (CX) Management | Customer Experience (CX) Management involves understanding and optimizing every interaction that customers have with a company throughout their journey. It encompasses all touchpoints, from initial awareness to post-purchase support, and aims to create positive and memorable experiences. By focusing on CX management, organizations can differentiate themselves, build customer loyalty, and drive long-term success. | Consider CX Management when managing customer interactions and touchpoints across the entire journey. Use it to identify pain points, opportunities for improvement, and moments of delight that shape the overall customer experience. Implement CX Management as a framework for aligning business processes, systems, and teams to deliver consistent and exceptional experiences that drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. |
| Customer Empathy Mapping | Customer Empathy Mapping is a technique used to understand customer needs, emotions, and motivations throughout their journey. It involves creating visual representations of customer personas and mapping their thoughts, feelings, and actions at each stage of the journey. By practicing empathy mapping, organizations can gain deeper insights into customer perspectives and design experiences that resonate with their needs and desires. | Consider Customer Empathy Mapping when seeking to understand customer motivations and pain points. Use it to develop empathy for customer personas, identify moments of truth, and prioritize areas for improvement in the customer journey. Implement Customer Empathy Mapping as a framework for fostering customer-centricity, empathy, and alignment across teams within your organization. |
| Touchpoint Analysis | Touchpoint Analysis involves mapping and evaluating the various points of contact between customers and a company throughout their journey. It helps organizations identify critical touchpoints, assess their effectiveness, and optimize interactions to enhance the overall customer experience. By conducting touchpoint analysis, organizations can pinpoint areas for improvement and implement targeted strategies to drive engagement and satisfaction. | Consider Touchpoint Analysis when assessing customer interactions across channels and touchpoints. Use it to identify key touchpoints, evaluate their impact on the customer journey, and prioritize areas for optimization and enhancement. Implement Touchpoint Analysis as a framework for aligning customer touchpoints with business goals, improving customer satisfaction, and driving business outcomes within your organization. |
| Customer Persona Development | Customer Persona Development involves creating fictional representations of ideal customers based on demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data. Personas help organizations understand their target audience, their needs, preferences, and pain points throughout the customer journey. By developing customer personas, organizations can tailor their marketing messages, products, and services to better meet the needs of their target audience. | Consider Customer Persona Development when defining target customer segments and designing customer experiences. Use it to create detailed profiles of ideal customers, including their goals, challenges, and preferences, to inform marketing, product development, and customer engagement strategies. Implement Customer Persona Development as a framework for aligning business initiatives with customer needs, driving personalization, and enhancing relevance within your organization. |
| Customer Feedback Management | Customer Feedback Management involves collecting, analyzing, and acting on feedback from customers throughout their journey. It includes soliciting feedback through surveys, interviews, and reviews, as well as analyzing data to identify trends and insights. By actively managing customer feedback, organizations can identify areas for improvement, address customer concerns, and enhance the overall customer experience. | Consider Customer Feedback Management when seeking to gather insights into customer perceptions and preferences. Use it to collect feedback at various touchpoints, analyze sentiment and trends, and take action to address customer concerns and improve satisfaction. Implement Customer Feedback Management as a framework for fostering a culture of continuous improvement, customer-centricity, and responsiveness within your organization. |
| Customer Journey Mapping | Customer Journey Mapping involves visualizing and understanding the end-to-end experience that customers have with a company, from initial awareness to post-purchase support. It helps organizations identify key touchpoints, pain points, and opportunities for improvement in the customer journey. By creating customer journey maps, organizations can align cross-functional teams, prioritize initiatives, and design experiences that meet customer needs and expectations. | Consider Customer Journey Mapping when seeking to understand and improve the overall customer experience. Use it to visualize customer interactions, identify pain points, and uncover opportunities for innovation and optimization across the journey. Implement Customer Journey Mapping as a framework for fostering collaboration, empathy, and customer-centricity within your organization and driving continuous improvements in the customer experience. |
| Omni-channel Customer Experience | Omni-channel Customer Experience involves delivering consistent and seamless experiences across multiple channels and touchpoints, such as online, mobile, social media, and physical stores. It enables customers to interact with a company through their preferred channels and devices, with a unified and integrated experience. By adopting an omni-channel approach, organizations can enhance convenience, engagement, and satisfaction for customers throughout their journey. | Consider Omni-channel Customer Experience when designing and managing customer interactions across diverse channels and touchpoints. Use it to create cohesive and integrated experiences that meet customer expectations and preferences, regardless of the channel or device. Implement Omni-channel Customer Experience as a framework for aligning digital and physical channels, streamlining processes, and delivering personalized and consistent experiences that drive customer loyalty and advocacy within your organization. |
Visual Marketing Glossary
