the customer service journey begins

The customer journey — definition, stages, and benefits

Businesses need to understand their customers to increase engagement, sales, and retention. But building an understanding with your customers isn’t easy.

The customer journey is the road a person takes to convert, but this journey isn’t always obvious to business owners. Understanding every step of that journey is key to business success. After reading this article, you’ll understand the customer journey better and how to use it to improve the customer experience while achieving your business goals.

This post will discuss:

• What a customer journey is

Customer journey stages

Benefits of knowing the customer journey.

• What a customer journey map is

How to create a customer journey map

Use the customer journey map to optimize the customer experience, what is a customer journey.

The customer journey is a series of steps — starting with brand awareness before a person is even a customer — that leads to a purchase and eventual customer loyalty. Businesses use the customer journey to better understand their customers’ experience, with the goal of optimizing that experience at every touchpoint.

Giving customers a positive customer experience is important for getting customers to trust a business, so optimizing the customer journey has never mattered more. By mastering the customer journey, you can design customer experiences that will lead to better customer relationships, loyalty, and long-term retention .

Customer journey vs. the buyer journey

The stages of the customer’s journey are different from the stages of the buyer’s journey. The buyer’s journey follows the customer experience from initial awareness of a brand to buying a product. The customer journey extends beyond the purchase and follows how customers interact with your product and how they share it with others.

Every lead goes through several stages to become a loyal customer. The better this experience is for customers at each stage, the more likely your leads are to stick around.

Ensure that your marketing, sales, and customer service teams optimize for these five stages of the customer journey:

1. Awareness

In the awareness phase, your target audience is just becoming aware of your brand and products. They need information or a solution to a problem, so they search for that information via social media and search engines.

For example, if someone searches on Google for pens for left-handed people, their customer journey begins when they’re first aware of your brand’s left-handed pen.

At this stage, potential customers learn about your business via web content, social media, influencers, and even their friends and family. However, this isn’t the time for hard sells. Customers are simply gathering information at this stage, so you should focus first on answering their questions and building trust.

2. Consideration

In the consideration phase, customers begin to consider your brand as a solution to their problem. They’re comparing your products to other businesses and alternative solutions, so you need to give these shoppers a reason to stick around.

Consideration-stage customers want to see product features that lean heavily toward solving problems and content that doesn’t necessarily push a sale. At this stage, businesses need to position their solution as a better alternative. For example, a nutrition coaching app might create content explaining the differences between using the app and working with an in-person nutritionist — while subtly promoting the benefits of choosing the app.

3. Purchase

The purchase stage is also called the decision stage because at this stage customers are ready to make a buying decision. Keep in mind that their decision might be to go with a competing solution, so purchase-stage buyers won’t always convert to your brand.

As a business, it’s your job to persuade shoppers at this stage to buy from you. Provide information on pricing, share comparison guides to showcase why you’re the superior option, and set up abandoned cart email sequences.

4. Retention

The customer journey doesn’t end once a shopper makes their first purchase. Once you’ve converted a customer, you need to focus on keeping them around and driving repeat business. Sourcing new customers is often more expensive than retaining existing clients, so this strategy can help you cut down on marketing costs and increase profits.

The key to the retention stage is to maintain positive, engaging relationships between your brand and its customers. Try strategies like regular email outreach, coupons and sales, or exclusive communities to encourage customer loyalty.

5. Advocacy

In the advocacy stage, customers are so delighted with your products and services that they spread the word to their friends and family. This goes a step beyond retention because the customer is actively encouraging other people to make purchases.

Customer journeys don’t have a distinct end because brands should always aim to please even their most loyal customers. In the advocacy stage of the customer journey, you can offer referral bonuses, loyalty programs, and special deals for your most active customers to encourage further advocacy.

Being aware of the customer journey helps shed more light on your target audience’s expectations and needs. In fact, 80% of companies compete primarily on customer experience. This means optimizing the customer journey will not only encourage your current customers to remain loyal but will also make you more competitive in acquiring new business.

More specifically, acknowledging the customer journey can help you:

• Understand customer behavior. Classifying every action your customers take will help you figure out why they do what they do. When you understand a shopper’s “why,” you’re better positioned to support their needs.
• Identify touchpoints to reach the customer. Many businesses invest in multichannel marketing, but not all of these touchpoints are valuable. By focusing on the customer journey, you’ll learn which of these channels are the most effective for generating sales. This helps businesses save time and money by focusing on only the most effective channels.
• Analyze the stumbling blocks in products or services. If leads frequently bail before buying, that could be a sign that something is wrong with your product or buying experience. Being conscious of the customer journey can help you fix issues with your products or services before they become a more expensive problem.
• Support your marketing efforts. Marketing requires a deep familiarity with your target audience. Documenting the customer journey makes it easier for your marketing team to meet shoppers’ expectations and solve their pain points.
• Increase customer engagement. Seeing the customer journey helps your business target the most relevant audience for your product or service. Plus, it improves the customer experience and increases engagement. In fact, 29.6% of customers will refuse to embrace branded digital channels if they have a poor experience, so increasing positive customer touchpoints has never been more important.
• Achieve more conversions. Mapping your customers’ journey can help you increase conversions by tailoring and personalizing your approach and messages to give your audience exactly what they want.
• Generate more ROI. You need to see a tangible return on your marketing efforts. Fortunately, investing in the customer journey improves ROI across the board. For example, brands with a good customer experience can increase revenue by 2–7% .
• Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. Today, 94% of customers say a positive experience motivates them to make future purchases. Optimizing the customer journey helps you meet shopper expectations, which increases satisfaction and loyalty.

What is a customer journey map?

A customer journey map is a visual representation of every step your customer takes from being a lead to eventually becoming an advocate for your brand. The goal of customer journey mapping is to simplify the complex process of how customers interact with your brand at every stage of their journey.

Businesses shouldn’t use a rigid, one-size-fits-all customer journey map. Instead, they should plan flexible, individual types of customer journeys — whether they’re based on a certain demographic or on individual customer personas. To design the most effective customer journey map, your brand needs to understand a customer’s:

• Actions. Learn which actions your customer takes at every stage. Look for common patterns. For example, you might see that consideration-stage shoppers commonly look for reviews.
• Motivations. Customer intent matters. A person’s motivations change at every stage of the customer journey, and your map needs to account for that. Include visual representation of the shopper’s motivations at each stage. At the awareness stage, their motivation might be to gather information to solve their problem. At the purchase stage, it might be to get the lowest price possible.
• Questions. Brands can take customers’ common questions at every stage of the customer journey and reverse-engineer them into useful content. For example, shoppers at the consideration stage might ask, “What’s the difference between a DIY car wash and hiring a professional detailer?” You can offer content that answers their question while subtly promoting your car detailing business.
• Pain points. Everybody has a problem that they’re trying to solve, whether by just gathering intel or by purchasing products. Recognizing your leads’ pain points will help you craft proactive, helpful marketing campaigns that solve their biggest problems.

Customer journey touchpoints

Every stage of the customer journey should also include touchpoints. Customer touchpoints are the series of interactions with your brand — such as an ad on Facebook, an email, or a website chatbot — that occur at the various stages of the customer journey across multiple channels. A customer’s actions, motivations, questions, and pain points will differ at each stage and at each touchpoint.

For example, a customer searching for a fishing rod and reading posts about how they’re made will have very different motivations and questions from when later comparing specs and trying to stay within budget. Likewise, that same customer will have different pain points when calling customer service after buying a particular rod.

It might sound like more work, but mapping the entire customer journey helps businesses create a better customer experience throughout the entire lifecycle of a customer’s interaction with your brand.

Before jumping into the steps of how to create the customer journey map, first be clear that your customer journey map needs to illustrate the following:

• Customer journey stages. Ensure that your customer journey map includes every stage of the customer journey. Don’t just focus on the stages approaching the purchase — focus on the retention and advocacy stages as well.
• Touchpoints. Log the most common touchpoints customers have at every stage. For example, awareness-stage touchpoints might include your blog, social media, or search engines. Consideration-stage touchpoints could include reviews or demo videos on YouTube. You don’t need to list all potential touchpoints. Only list the most common or relevant touchpoints at each stage.
• The full customer experience. Customers’ actions, motivations, questions, and pain points will change at every stage — and every touchpoint — during the customer journey. Ensure your customer journey map touches on the full experience for each touchpoint.
• Your brand’s solutions. Finally, the customer journey map needs to include a branded solution for each stage and touchpoint. This doesn’t necessarily mean paid products. For example, awareness-stage buyers aren’t ready to make a purchase, so your brand’s solution at this stage might be a piece of gated content. With these necessary elements in mind, creating an effective customer journey map is a simple three-step process.

1. Create buyer personas

A buyer persona is a fictitious representation of your target audience. It’s a helpful internal tool that businesses use to better understand their audience’s background, assumptions, pain points, and needs. Each persona differs in terms of actions, motivations, questions, and pain points, which is why businesses need to create buyer personas before they map the customer journey.

To create a buyer persona, you will need to:

• Gather and analyze customer data. Collect information on your customers through analytics, surveys, and market research.
• Segment customers into specific buying groups. Categorize customers into buying groups based on shared characteristics — such as demographics or location. This will give you multiple customer segments to choose from.
• Build the personas. Select the segment you want to target and build a persona for that segment. At a minimum, the buyer persona needs to define the customers’ basic traits, such as their personal background, as well as their motivations and pain points.

For example, ClearVoice created a buyer persona called “John The Marketing Manager.” The in-depth persona details the target customer’s pain points, pet peeves, and potential reactions to help ClearVoice marketers create more customer-focused experiences.

2. List the touchpoints at each customer journey stage

Now that you’ve created your buyer personas, you need to sketch out each of the five stages of the customer journey and then list all of the potential touchpoints each buyer persona has with your brand at every one of these five stages. This includes listing the most common marketing channels where customers can interact with you. Remember, touchpoints differ by stage, so it’s critical to list which touchpoints happen at every stage so you can optimize your approach for every buyer persona.

Every customer’s experience is different, but these touchpoints most commonly line up with each stage of the customer journey:

• Awareness. Advertising, social media, company blog, referrals from friends and family, how-to videos, streaming ads, and brand activation events.
• Consideration. Email, sales calls, SMS, landing pages, and reviews.
• Purchase. Live chat, chatbots, cart abandonment emails, retargeting ads, and product print inserts.
• Retention. Thank you emails, product walkthroughs, sales follow-ups, and online communities.
• Advocacy. Surveys, loyalty programs, and in-person events.

Leave no stone unturned. Logging the most relevant touchpoints at each stage eliminates blind spots and ensures your brand is there for its customers, wherever they choose to connect with you.

3. Map the customer experience at each touchpoint

Now that you’ve defined each touchpoint at every stage of the customer journey, it’s time to detail the exact experience you need to create for each touchpoint. Every touchpoint needs to consider the customer’s:

• Actions. Describe how the customer got to this touchpoint and what they’re going to do now that they’re here.
• Motivations. Specify how the customer feels at this moment. Are they frustrated, confused, curious, or excited? Explain why they feel this way.
• Questions. Every customer has questions. Anticipate the questions someone at this stage and touchpoint would have — and how your brand can answer those questions.
• Pain points. Define the problem the customer has — and how you can solve that problem at this stage. For example, imagine you sell women’s dress shoes. You’re focusing on the buyer persona of a 36-year-old Canadian woman who works in human resources. Her touchpoints might include clicking on your Facebook ad, exploring your online shop, but then abandoning her cart. After receiving a coupon from you, she finally buys. Later, she decides to exchange the shoes for a different color. After the exchange, she leaves a review. Note how she acts at each of these touchpoints and detail her likely pain points, motivations, and questions, for each scenario. Note on the map where you intend to respond to the customer’s motivations and pain points with your brand’s solutions. If you can create custom-tailored solutions for every stage of the funnel, that’s even better.

A positive customer experience is the direct result of offering customers personalized, relevant, or meaningful content and other brand interactions. By mapping your customers’ motivations and pain points with your brand’s solutions, you’ll find opportunities to improve the customer experience. When you truly address their deepest needs, you’ll increase engagement and generate more positive reviews.

Follow these strategies to improve the customer experience with your customer journey map:

• Prioritize objectives. Identify the stages of the customer journey where your brand has the strongest presence and take advantage of those points. For example, if leads at the consideration stage frequently subscribe to your YouTube channel, that gives you more opportunities to connect with loyal followers.
• Use an omnichannel approach to engage customers. Omnichannel marketing allows businesses to gather information and create a more holistic view of the customer journey. This allows you to personalize the customer experience on another level entirely. Use an omnichannel analytics solution that allows you to capture and analyze the true cross-channel experience.
• Personalize interactions at every stage. The goal of mapping the customer journey is to create more personalized, helpful experiences for your audience at every stage and touchpoint. For example, with the right data you can personalize the retail shopping experience and customer’s website experience.
• Cultivate a mutually trusting relationship. When consumer trust is low, brands have to work even harder to earn their customers’ trust. Back up your marketing promises with good customer service, personalized incentives, and loyalty programs.

Getting started with customer journeys

Customer journeys are complicated in an omnichannel environment, but mapping these journeys can help businesses better understand their customers. Customer journey maps help you deliver the exact experience your customers expect from your business while increasing engagement and sales.

When you’re ready to get started, trace the interactions your customers have at each stage of their journey with your brand. Adobe Customer Journey Analytics — a service built on Adobe Experience Platform — can break down, filter, and query years’ worth of data and combine it from every channel into a single interface. Real-time, omnichannel analysis and visualization let companies make better decisions with a holistic view of their business and the context behind every customer action.

Learn more about Customer Journey Analytics by watching the overview video .

https://business.adobe.com/blog/perspectives/introducing-adobes-customer-journey-maturity-model

https://business.adobe.com/blog/how-to/create-customer-journey-maps

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/what-is-customer-journey-map

Customer Journey Maps: How to Create Really Good Ones [Examples + Template]

Updated: April 17, 2024

Published: May 04, 2023

Did you know 70% of online shoppers abandoned their carts in 2022? Why would someone spend time adding products to their cart just to fall off the customer journey map at the last second?

The thing is — understanding your customer base can be very challenging. Even when you think you’ve got a good read on them, the journey from awareness to purchase for each customer will always be unpredictable, at least to some level.

While it isn’t possible to predict every experience with 100% accuracy, customer journey mapping is a convenient tool for keeping track of critical milestones that every customer hits. In this post, I’ll explain everything you need to know about customer journey mapping — what it is, how to create one, and best practices.

Table of Contents

What is the customer journey?

What is a customer journey map, benefits of customer journey mapping, customer journey stages.

• What’s included in a customer journey map?

The Customer Journey Mapping Process

Steps for creating a customer journey map.

• Types of Customer Journey Maps

Customer Journey Mapping Best Practices

• Customer Journey Design
• Customer Journey Map Examples

Free Customer Journey Map Templates

Free Customer Journey Template

Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free templates.

• Buyer's Journey Template
• Future State Template
• Day-in-the-Life Template

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

The customer journey is the series of interactions a customer has with a brand, product, or business as they become aware of a pain point and make a purchase decision. While the buyer’s journey refers to the general process of arriving at a purchase, the customer journey refers to a buyer's purchasing experience with a specific company or service.

Customer Journey vs. Buyer Journey

Many businesses that I’ve worked with were confused about the differences between the customer’s journey and the buyer’s journey. The buyer’s journey is the entire buying experience from pre-purchase to post-purchase. It covers the path from customer awareness to becoming a product or service user.

In other words, buyers don’t wake up and decide to buy on a whim. They go through a process of considering, evaluating, and purchasing a new product or service.

The customer journey refers to your brand’s place within the buyer’s journey. These are the customer touchpoints where you will meet your customers as they go through the stages of the buyer’s journey. When you create a customer journey map, you’re taking control of every touchpoint at every stage of the journey instead of leaving it up to chance.

For example, at HubSpot, our customer’s journey is divided into three stages — pre-purchase/sales, onboarding/migration, and normal use/renewal.

1. Use customer journey map templates.

Why make a customer journey map from scratch when you can use a template? Save yourself some time by downloading HubSpot’s free customer journey map templates .

This has templates that map out a buyer’s journey, a day in your customer’s life, lead nurturing, and more.

These templates can help sales, marketing, and customer support teams learn more about your company’s buyer persona. This will improve your product and customer experience.

2. Set clear objectives for the map.

Before you dive into your customer journey map, you need to ask yourself why you’re creating one in the first place.

What goals are you directing this map towards? Who is it for? What experience is it based upon?

If you don’t have one, I recommend creating a buyer persona . This persona is a fictitious customer with all the demographics and psychographics of your average customer. This persona reminds you to direct every aspect of your customer journey map toward the right audience.

3. Profile your personas and define their goals.

Next, you should conduct research. This is where it helps to have customer journey analytics ready.

Don’t have them? No worries. You can check out HubSpot’s Customer Journey Analytics tool to get started.

Questionnaires and user testing are great ways to obtain valuable customer feedback. The important thing is to only contact actual customers or prospects.

You want feedback from people interested in purchasing your products and services who have either interacted with your company or plan to do so.

Some examples of good questions to ask are:

• How did you hear about our company?
• What first attracted you to our website?
• What are the goals you want to achieve with our company? In other words, what problems are you trying to solve?
• How long have you/do you typically spend on our website?
• Have you ever made a purchase with us? If so, what was your deciding factor?
• Have you ever interacted with our website to make a purchase but decided not to? If so, what led you to this decision?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how easily can you navigate our website?
• Did you ever require customer support? If so, how helpful was it, on a scale of 1 to 10?
• Can we further support you to make your process easier?

You can use this buyer persona tool to fill in the details you procure from customer feedback.

4. Highlight your target customer personas.

Once you’ve learned about the customer personas that interact with your business, I recommend narrowing your focus to one or two.

Remember, a customer journey map tracks the experience of a customer taking a particular path with your company. If you group too many personas into one journey, your map won’t accurately reflect that experience.

When creating your first map, it’s best to pick your most common customer persona and consider the route they would typically take when engaging with your business for the first time.

You can use a marketing dashboard to compare each and determine the best fit for your journey map. Don’t worry about the ones you leave out, as you can always go back and create a new map specific to those customer types.

5. List out all touchpoints.

Begin by listing the touchpoints on your website.

What is a touchpoint in a customer journey map?

A touchpoint in a customer journey map is an instance where your customer can form an opinion of your business. You can find touchpoints in places where your business comes in direct contact with a potential or existing customer.

For example, if I were to view a display ad, interact with an employee, reach a 404 error, or leave a Google review, all of those interactions would be considered a customer touchpoint.

Your brand exists beyond your website and marketing materials, so you must consider the different types of touchpoints in your customer journey map. These touchpoints can help uncover opportunities for improvement in the buying journey.

Based on your research, you should have a list of all the touchpoints your customers are currently using and the ones you believe they should be using if there’s no overlap.

This is essential in creating a customer journey map because it provides insight into your customers’ actions.

For instance, if they use fewer touchpoints than expected, does this mean they’re quickly getting turned away and leaving your site early? If they are using more than expected, does this mean your website is complicated and requires several steps to reach an end goal?

Whatever the case, understanding touchpoints help you understand the ease or difficulties of the customer journey.

Aside from your website, you must also look at how your customers might find you online. These channels might include:

• Social channels.
• Email marketing.
• Third-party review sites or mentions.

Run a quick Google search of your brand to see all the pages that mention you. Verify these by checking your Google Analytics to see where your traffic is coming from. Whittle your list down to those touchpoints that are the most common and will be most likely to see an action associated with it.

At HubSpot, we hosted workshops where employees from all over the company highlighted instances where our product, service, or brand impacted a customer. Those moments were recorded and logged as touchpoints. This showed us multiple areas of our customer journey where our communication was inconsistent.

The proof is in the pudding — you can see us literally mapping these touch points out with sticky notes in the image below.

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Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free customer journey map templates.

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What is customer journey mapping?

Customer journey map template, the customer journey mapping process, data inputs for your customer journey map, why should you use customer journey maps, the uses of customer journey mapping, how to improve a customer journey, tools to help you with your journey mapping, see how xm for customer frontlines works, customer journey mapping 101: definition, template & tips.

22 min read Find out about how to start customer journey mapping, and how to improve it for the benefit of your customers and the business.

If you want to improve your customer experience you need to be able to understand and adapt the customer journey you offer when someone interacts with your organization. Whether their journey is entirely online , offline, or a blend of both, there are multiple journeys a customer might undergo.

Understanding the customer journey in depth helps you identify and take action on customer pain points and repeat what’s working. By doing this, you will improve the overall experience that your customers have, which will have better outcomes for your business.

Outlining the potential customer journeys your audience might go through requires a process called customer journey mapping.

Free Course: Customer journey management & improvement

Creating a customer journey map is the process of forming a visual representation of customers’ processes, needs , and perceptions throughout their interactions and relationship with an organization. It helps you understand the steps customers take – the ones you see, and don’t – when they interact with your business.

It enables you to assess:

• Insights – from your existing customer journey, how to understand it better
• Impact – how to optimize budgets and effort for changes we want to make to the customer experiences
• Issues/opportunities – Diagnose the existing customer journey
• Innovation – where you might want to completely change the existing customer experience

A customer journey map gives you deeper insight into the customer, so you can go beyond what you already know. Many brands see the customer journey as something that is visible – where the customer interacts with the brand. But in reality, this is not true, and only accounts for a percentage of the entire customer journey. Creating a customer journey map gets you thinking about the aspects of the journey you don’t see, but have equal weight and importance to the entire experience.

When mapping out the customer journey, you are looking for the moments that matter – where there is the greatest emotional load.

If you’re buying a car, then the greatest moment of emotional load is when you go to pick the car up because it’s yours , after picking the color, choosing the model, and waiting for it to be ready.

Ensuring these moments match your customers’ expectations of your product, brand and service teams are key to helping you reach your business goals. But you can only do that by understanding the journey your customers go on in order to get there, what they’re thinking and needing from you at that time. Developing a customer journey map puts you in their shoes so you can understand them better than ever before.

Getting started when creating a customer journey map template doesn’t have to be difficult. However, your customer journey map template will need to cover several elements in order to be effective.

There are several ingredients that make up the anatomy of a customer journey, all of which should be looked at carefully so that you can find out where the customer journey runs smoothly and meets customer needs at that moment in time – and where the experience does not, and needs some improvement.

Understanding their behaviors and attitudes also means you can fix bad experiences more effectively too because you know why you haven’t met your customers’ expectations and what you need to do to make amends. There may be times when things go wrong, but it’s how you adapt and what you do to fix these experiences that separates the best. Knowing how the customer will be feeling makes taking that decisive action much easier.

When exploring and visualizing the customer journey we are assessing:

• Customer behavior What is your customer trying to do?
• Customer attitudes What is your customer feeling/saying?
• The on-stage experience Who/what is your customer directly interacting with? (This includes various channels, such as TV ads or social media)
• The off-stage experience Who/what needs to be in place but which your customer is NOT directly aware of?

So what could the customer journey map examples look like when starting the process of buying a car?

Customer journey vs process flow

Understanding customer perspective, behavior, attitudes, and the on-stage and off-stage is essential to successfully create a customer journey map – otherwise, all you have is a process flow. If you just write down the touchpoints where the customer is interacting with your brand, you’re typically missing up to 40% of the entire customer journey.

There is no single customer journey. In fact, there are multiple. The best experiences combine multiple journeys in a seamless way to create a continuous customer lifecycle as outlined below.

Getting started with customer journey map templates

To begin, start by choosing a journey that you would like to create a customer journey map for and outline the first step that customers will take.

You can use this customer journey map template below to work out the customer behaviors, attitudes, the on-stage and off-stage processes – and the KPIs attached to measuring the success of this experience.

Download our free journey mapping template here

The step-by-step process of mapping the customer journey begins with the buyer persona .

Step 1 – Create a customer persona to test

In order to effectively understand the customer journey, you need to understand the customer – and this is where creating a persona really helps. You may base this around the most common or regular customers, big spend, or new customers you haven’t worked with before. This persona is beyond a marketing segment , but that can be a great place to begin if you’re just starting out on the mapping process for your organization.

What do you include? Start with these characteristics.

• Family status
• Professional goals
• Personal goals

These personas help you gain a deeper understanding of your customers and can be derived from insights and demographic data , or even customer interviews . This works for both B2B and B2C business models, but in B2B especially you’ll have multiple customers for each opportunity so it’s recommended you build out multiple personas.

To begin, start with no more than three personas to keep things simple.

Create a diverse team

When creating a customer journey map, you also need to build out a diverse mapping team to represent the whole business. Include frontline staff , day-to-day management, corporate teams, HR, and business support functions. They will give you vital feedback, advice, and perspectives you hadn’t thought of.

Step 2 – Choose a customer journey for mapping

Select a customer journey map to construct, then build a behavior line. This might be a new customer journey, renewal, or fixing a product issue. You might also choose this based on the most frequent customer journeys taken, or the most profitable.

Step 3 – Work through the mapping process

Ask yourself the following:

• Who are the people involved in this journey? E.g. if you’re in a car dealership, that might be the customer, the sales rep, and front-of-house staff.
• What are the processes or the things that happen during this journey?
• What are the customer attitudes ? What are they feeling at this time? Go beyond excitement or frustration. Bring these feelings to life. This car is my dream come true!
• What is the moment that matters? Identify the greatest moment of emotional load. The make or break where everything could be good up until that point, but if you get that moment of maximum impact wrong, then all that’s good is forgotten. The best experience brands get this moment right and identifying it is an important first step to achieving that. In that moment, ask yourself what are the things/people/processes involved? Think about this for the whole business – across your product , brand , and service teams.
• But beyond identifying this moment, you need to establish what your customers’ needs are. What are they getting out of this moment? How do their needs change if this experience goes badly? Knowing the answer to these questions can help you deliver experiences that will resonate , and respond quickly to unforeseen circumstances or issues.
• And finally, how do you measure how effectively you are meeting customer needs throughout the journey? Set KPIs to put benchmarks in place for your customer journey map and customer experience and track your progress.

Step 4 – Innovate

When you are mapping out your customer journey, brainstorm ideas for how to improve that moment that really matters . These ideas don’t need to be practical, but by putting together a diverse mapping team from around the business you can begin to filter through these ideas.

Then, test it.

Ask yourself: Is it feasible? Is it viable? Is it desirable? Don’t ask can we do it, ask should we do it? Then you can start to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Step 5 – Measure

Use the customer journey map to decide on your measurement framework.

Who are you measuring? What are you measuring? When on the journey are you measuring it? And why? And finally, what metrics and KPI’s are in place to measure this?

Your customer journey map process will require you to use several different data inputs to get an accurate picture of how your customers behave and where you can improve their experience.

A customer journey map is often developed using data gleaned from customer feedback you’ve requested . While this type of market research is useful, your research process needs to be deeper to gain a richer, more accurate understanding of your customer’s behavior.

To create a customer journey map that accurately reflects the truth of customer actions and intentions, you need to take into account both solicited and unsolicited data.

Use solicited data to understand the voice of the customer

Solicited data includes the customer feedback you gain when you conduct research through surveys such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) or ask customers for feedback on social media. This approach can be very useful for understanding your customer’s point of view , rather than just making assumptions about how they think and behave.

However, your target audiences won’t tell you everything about what they plan to do when undergoing their customer journey. Though they might tell you that they’ve had a great experience in a particular part of their customer journey, this type of feedback presents a few issues:

• You have to know when to ask for feedback : You might already have a customer journey in mind when asking for feedback – but do you know all the routes a customer might take in your customer journey map?
• It’s a snapshot: When you survey customers, you’ll likely only get insights into their experience at that particular moment about a specific touchpoint
• It’s what customers say they think/will do, not what they actually think/will do: You’re relying on your customers to accurately reflect their sentiment and intentions in their responses, which isn’t always the case. For your customer journey map to be effective, you need to find the truth
• Your sample size might be too small : If you’re trying to understand how a relatively niche customer journey is doing, you might find that the number of customers who have not only taken the customer journey but are willing to respond with feedback is very limited. You can’t risk survey fatigue by polling the same audience several times, so your insights are limited
• You’re only getting part of the picture : You will likely have several types of useful customer data on file, but these are often not considered as part of the process when creating a customer journey design because solicited data takes precedence

You’ll need to infer how customers feel to be able to accurately predict the actions a customer takes. To do so, you’ll need to look at unsolicited data.

Unsolicited data

Unsolicited data covers everything your customers aren’t telling you directly when you ask them and contextual data that you likely already collect on them, such as purchase history. It can be taken from various sources, such as your website and social channels, third-party sites, customer calls, chat transcripts, frontline employee feedback , operational sources, and more.

This type of data is nuanced, but it allows you to establish the truth of your customers’ experience. The ability to gather unsolicited customer feedback from every channel enables you to see more than just what a customer tells you directly. Using real-time feedback gathering and natural language understanding (NLU) models that can detect emotion, intent, and effort, you’ll be able to understand your customers’ actions in a more profound way. Unsolicited data offers you a 100% response rate that better indicates what your customers actually think of each step in their customer journey.

Rather than be limited to a small sample size of customers who respond to surveys, you’ll be able to build an accurate picture of the average customer on each step of the customer journey map by using this richer insight data with your own operational data.

Why using solicited and unsolicited data is important data

With solicited data, you don’t always see why a customer behaves or thinks as they do. For example, a customer might tell you that they would recommend you to a friend or family – but they don’t renew their subscription with you. A customer might be an ideal candidate for a particular journey, but they abandon their basket when prompted to give their personal details. Understanding the why behind customer actions is key for designing a great customer journey, and that’s why both solicited and unsolicited data collection and evaluation are necessary for creating great customer journey maps.

Of course, knowing how customers will actually respond to your customer touchpoints is only part of the process. You may need to develop more than one customer journey map and create sub-audiences for your customer personas to accurately see where you can rectify pain points and improve outcomes. You will need to collect and analyze contextual data across all customer journey touchpoints and develop a highly detailed journey map that can unveil routes your customers might be taking without your knowledge.

Qualtrics’ Experience ID platform can overlay solicited and unsolicited data to provide an all-encompassing picture of your customer journey map, no matter how complex. Creating an effective customer journey map is easier with all your data collated and analyzed together, with actionable insights created automatically.

A customer journey map creates a common understanding for the organization of how a customer interacts during different stages of the customer lifecycle, and the roles and responsibilities of the different teams in charge of fulfilling that experience.

It will also bring an organization together, and foster empathy and collaboration between teams because people will know what is required from everyone in the business to deliver the experiences that customers expect. This will help you to develop a shared sense of ownership of the customer relationship, which ultimately drives a customer-centric culture . With everyone working towards a common goal, communication of what you learn about the customer and the journey they go through is vital in order to drive best practices throughout the organization.

Creating an accurate customer journey map will help your customer service team to focus on more specific issues, rather than handling problems generated by a less-tailored customer journey. Your customer experience will be improved with a customer journey that’s personalized to the specific personas you have generated. You’ll have put yourself in your customer’s shoes and adapted your strategy to reflect your customer’s perspective – which in turn will create more memorable experiences.

Creating a customer journey map will influence your journey analytics across the business. So for example, it will determine what you ask, who you ask, when you ask, why you ask it and how you ask questions in your Voice of the Customer Program .

So when should you use customer journey mapping?

There are four main uses:

• Assess the current state of your customer journey Understand and diagnose the specific issues in current experiences
• Understand what the future state of your customer journey should look like Design, redesign and create new experiences
• Blueprints For implementing change
• Communication Bringing teams together to train and scale up best practices.

Take stock and take action

To improve the customer journey you need a clear vision of what you want to achieve and you need to make a distinction between the present and the future.

• What is your customer journey right now?
• What does the future state of your customer journey look like?

This is why organizations blueprint their customer journey because they can see what works and act accordingly. By understanding your customers’ attitudes and needs at critical times in the journey, you can make amends to better meet them – and develop contingencies to cope when these needs aren’t or can’t be met. For example, during a sudden, unexpected surge in demand.

Orchestrate your customer journey

To offer your customers truly optimized experiences, you’ll need to go further than just creating a customer journey map. You’ll also need to orchestrate journeys using real-time customer behavior to adapt your strategy as your customers make choices. Orchestrating a journey means taking dynamic action towards optimizing your customer’s experience, using real-time customer behavior as informative data.

Improve your employee experience

Use your diverse mapping team to come up with ideas that incorporate experience from all aspects of the business to improve the customer journey – and remember that this has a significant payoff for your employees too. Improving the employee journey – by giving teams the tools to make a difference – can have a positive knock-on effect for the customer and improve their experience in those key moments. This is because employees have the autonomy and motivation in their roles to help their customers, and realize their own potential.

Your customer journey map isn’t just designed to improve the customer experience. Creating an accurate customer journey map can help you to improve your business outcomes.

Being able to link operational data to key touchpoints in a customer journey is transformative for organizations. This is because improving segments of the customer journey will see a direct impact on your business. The Qualtrics Journey Optimizer helps you do just that. By analyzing areas for improvement as outlined by your customer journey map, organizations can take actions that will have maximum benefit for their customers, and the business too.

With Qualtrics CustomerXM , you’ll:

• Create a common understanding throughout your workforce of how a customer interacts with your organization, and you’ll know the roles and responsibilities of your different teams
• Develop empathy and collaboration between teams, working together to achieve the same outcome
• Develop a shared sense of ownership of the customer relationship which ultimately drives a customer-centric culture

Free course: Customer journey management & improvement

Related resources

Customer Journey

B2B Customer Journey 13 min read

Customer interactions 11 min read, consumer decision journey 14 min read, customer journey orchestration 12 min read, customer journey management 14 min read, customer journey stages 12 min read, buyer's journey 16 min read, request demo.

Ready to learn more about Qualtrics?

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Customer journey mapping in 2 and 1/2 days

How to create a customer journey map that improves customer success.

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There’s a common saying that you can’t understand someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes—and that’s exactly what customer journey maps do: they help you put yourself in different customers’ shoes and understand your business from their point of view.

Why should you do it? How should you do it? Find the answers in this guide, which we wrote after interviewing 10+ customer journey experts who shared methodologies, dos and don’ts, and pro tips with us. 

On this page:

What is a customer journey map?

How to create a customer journey map in 2 and ½ working days

4 benefits of customer journey mapping for your business

In later chapters, we dive deeper into customer journey analytics, workshops, and real-life examples.

Start mapping your customer journey

Hotjar lets you experience the customer journey through their eyes, so you can visualize what’s working and what needs improvement.

A customer journey map (CJM) is a visual representation of how customers interact with and experience your website, products, or business across multiple touchpoints.

By visualizing the actions, thoughts, and emotions your customers experience, a customer journey map helps you better understand them and identify the pain points they encounter. This is essential if you want to implement informed, customer-focused optimizations on your site.

Mapping the customer journey: narrow vs. wide focus

A customer journey map can have a very narrow focus and only look at a few, specific steps of the customer experience or buyer’s journey (for example, a product-to-purchase flow on a website), or it can take into account all the touchpoints, online and offline, someone goes through before and after doing business with you. 

Each type of customer journey map has its advantages:

A CJM with a narrow focus allows you to zero in on an issue and effectively problem-solve 

A CJM with a wide focus gives you a broader, holistic understanding of how customers experience your business

Regardless of their focus, the best customer journey maps have one thing in common: they are created with real customer data that you collect and analyze . The insights are usually organized into a map (hence the name), diagram, or flowchart during a group workshop, which is later shared across the entire business so everyone gets a clear and comprehensive overview of a customer’s journey.

How to create your first customer journey map in 2 and ½ working days

The process of creating a customer journey map can be as long or short as you need. Depending on how many people and stakeholders you involve, how much data you collect and analyze, and how many touchpoints there are across the business, you could be looking at days or even weeks and months of work.

If you’re new to customer journey mapping, start from a narrower scope before moving on to mapping every single customer touchpoint . 

Here’s our beginner customer journey mapping framework to help you create your first complete map in 2 and ½ working days:

Day 1: preliminary customer journey mapping work

Day 2: prep and run your customer journey mapping workshop.

Final ½ day: wrap up and share your results

Download your free customer journey map checklist  (as seen below), to mark off your tasks as you complete them.

On your first day, you have three essential tasks:

Define the goal and scope of your CJM

Collect customer data and insights

Invite your team to a customer journey mapping workshop

Step 1: define the goal and scope of your CJM

Clarifying what part(s) of the journey you're looking at, and why, helps you stay focused throughout the mapping process.

If this is your first map,  start from a known issue or problematic area of your website. Keep the scope small, and focus on anything you can break down into four or five steps. For example:

If you have a high drop-off on a pricing page with five calls-to-action, each of which takes users to a different page, that’s enough for a mappable journey

If your purchase flow is made of five self-contained pages, each of which loses you potential customers, that’s a good candidate for mapping

✅ The output: a one- or two-sentence description of what your map will cover, and why, you can use whenever you need to explain what the process is about. For example: this map looks at the purchase flow on our website, and helps us understand how customers go through each step and the issues or obstacles they encounter. The map starts after users click ‘proceed to checkout’ and ends when they reach the 'Thank You' page .

Step 2: collect customer data and insights

Once you identify your goal and scope, the bulk of your first day should be spent collecting data and insights you’ll analyze as part of your mapping process. Because your map is narrow in focus, don’t get distracted by wide-scale demographics or data points that are interesting and nice to know, but ultimately irrelevant. 

Get your hands on as much of the following information as you can:

Metrics from traditional analytics tools (such as Google Analytics) that give you insight into what’s happening, across the pages and stages your customer journey map covers

Data from analyzing your conversion ‘funnels’ , which record how many visitors end up at each stage of the user journey, so you can optimize those steps for potential customers and increase conversions

Behavior analytics data (from platforms like Hotjar) that show you how people interact with your site. For example, heatmaps give you an aggregate view of how users click, move and scroll on specific pages, and session recordings capture a user’s entire journey as they navigate your site

Quantitative and qualitative answers to on-site surveys relevant to the pages you’re going to investigate, as customer feedback will ultimately guide your roadmap of changes to make to improve the journey

Any demographic information about existing user and customer personas that helps you map the journey from the perspective of a real type of customer, rather than that of any hypothetical visitor, ensuring the journey makes sense for your target audience

Any relevant data from customer service chat logs, emails, or even anecdotal information from support, success, and sales teams about the issues customers usually experience

✅ The output: quantitative and qualitative data about your customers' interactions and their experiences across various touchpoints. For example, you’ll know how many people drop off at each individual stage, which page elements they interact with or ignore, and what stops them from converting.

💡Pro tip: as you read this guide, you may not yet have most of this data, particularly when it comes to heatmaps, recordings, and survey results. That’s ok. 

Unless you’re running your CJM workshop in the next 12 hours, you have enough time to set up Hotjar on your website and start collecting insights right now. The platform helps you:

Learn where and why users drop off with Funnels

Visualize interactions on key pages with Heatmaps

Capture visitor sessions across your website with Recordings

Run on-site polls with Surveys

When the time comes for you to start your customer journey mapping process, this data will be invaluable.

Step 3: invite your team to a customer journey mapping workshop

In our experience, the most effective way to get buy-in is not to try and convince people after things are done—include them in the process from the start. So while you can easily create a customer journey map on your own, it won’t be nearly as powerful as one you create with team members from different areas of expertise .

For example, if you’re looking at the purchase flow, you need to work with:

Someone from the UX team, who knows about the usability of the flow and can advocate for design changes

Someone from dev or engineering, who knows how things work in the back end, and will be able to push forward any changes that result from the map

Someone from success or support, who has first-hand experience talking to customers and resolving any issues they experience

✅ The output: you’ve set a date, booked a meeting space, and invited a group of four to six participants to your customer journey mapping workshop.

💡Pro tip: for your first map, stay small. Keep it limited to four to six people, and no main stakeholders . This may be unpopular advice, especially since many guides out there mention the importance of having stakeholders present from the start.

However, when you’re not yet very familiar with the process, including too many people early on can discourage them from re-investing their time into future CJM tasks. At this stage, it’s more helpful to brainstorm with a small team, get feedback on how to improve, and iterate a few times. Once you have a firm handle on the process, then start looping in your stakeholders.

On workshop day, you’ll spend half your time prepping and the other half running the actual session.

Step 1: prepare all your materials 

To run a smooth workshop, ensure you do the following:

Bring stationery: for an interactive workshop, you’ll need basic materials such as pens, different colored Post-its, masking tape, and large sheets of paper to hang on the wall

Collect and print out the data: use the data you collected on Day 1. It’s good to have digital copies on a laptop or tablet for everybody to access, but print-outs could be the better alternative as people can take notes and scribble on them.

Print out an empathy map canvas for each participant: start the workshop with an empathy mapping exercise (more on this in Step 2). For this, hand each participant an empty empathy map canvas you can recreate from the template below.

Set up a customer journey map template on the wall: use a large sheet of paper to create a grid you'll stick to the wall and fill in as part of the workshop. On the horizontal axis, write the customer journey steps you identified during your Day 1 prep work; on the vertical axis, list the themes you want to analyze for each step. For example:

Actions your customers take

Questions they might have

Happy moments they experience

Pain points they experience

Tech limits they might encounter

Opportunities that arise

Step 2: run the workshop

This is the most interactive (and fun) part of the process. Follow the framework below to go from zero to a completed draft of a map in just under 2 hours .

Introduction [🕒 5–10 min]

Introduce yourself and your participants to one another

Using the one-two sentence description you defined on Day 1, explain the goal and scope of the workshop and the activities it will involve

Offer a quick summary of the customer persona you’ll be referring to throughout the session

Empathy mapping exercise [🕒 30 min]

Using the personas and data available, have each team member map their observations onto sticky notes and paste them on the relevant section of the empathy mapping canvas

Have all participants take turns presenting their empathy map

Facilitate group discussions where interesting points of agreement or disagreement appear

Customer journey mapping [🕒 60 min]

Using Post-its, ask each participant to fill in parts of the map grid with available information. Start by filling in the first row together, so everybody understands the process, then do each row individually (15–20 min). At the end of the process, you should have something like this:

Looking at the completed map, encourage your team to discuss and align on core observations (and take notes: they’ll come in handy on your final half day). At this point, customer pain points and opportunities should become evident for everybody involved. Having a cross-functional team means people will naturally start discussing what can, or cannot, immediately be done to address them (35–40 min).

Wrap up [🕒 5 min]

Congratulations! Your first customer journey map is complete. Finish the session by thanking your participants and letting them know the next steps.

Final half-day: wrap up and share

Once you’ve gone through the entire customer journey mapping workshop, the number one thing you want to avoid is for all this effort to go to waste. Instead of leaving the map hanging on the wall (or worse: taking it down, folding it, and forgetting about it), the final step is to wrap the process up and communicate the results to the larger team.

Digitize the map so you can easily update and share it with team members: it may be tempting to use dedicated software or invest time into a beautiful design, but for the first few iterations, it’s enough to add the map to your team’s existing workflows (for example, our team digitized our map and added it straight into Jira, where it’s easily accessible)

Offer a quick write-up or a 5-minute video introduction of the activity: re-use the description you came up with on Day 1, including who was involved and the top three outcomes

Clearly state the follow-up actions: if you’ve found obvious issues that need fixing, that’s a likely next step. If you’ve identified opportunities for change and improvement, you may want to validate these findings via customer interviews and usability testing.

4 benefits of customer journey mapping

In 2023, it’s almost a given that great customer experience (CX) provides any business or ecommerce site with a competitive advantage. But just how you’re supposed to deliver on the concept and create wow-worthy experiences is often left unsaid, implied, or glossed over.

Customer journey maps help you find answers to this ‘How?’ question, enabling you to:

Visualize customer pain points, motivations, and drivers

Create cross-team alignment around the business

Remove internal silos and clarify areas of ownership

Make improvements and convert more visitors into customers

We’ve done a lot of customer journey work here at Hotjar, so we know that the above is true—but don’t just take our word for it: all the people we interviewed for this guide confirmed the benefits of journey mapping. Let’s take a look at what they shared.

1. Visualize customer pain points, motivations, and drivers

It’s one thing to present your entire team with charts, graphs, and trends about your customers, and quite another to put the same team in front of ONE map that highlights what customers think, want, and do at each step of their journey.

I did my first customer journey map at MADE.COM within the first three months of joining the company. I was trying to map the journey to understand where the pain points were.

For example, people who want to buy a sofa from us will be coming back to the site 8+ times over several weeks before making a purchase. In that time, they may also visit a showroom. So now I look at that journey, at a customer’s motivation for going to the website versus a physical store, and I need to make sure that the experience in the showroom complements what they're doing on-site, and vice-versa, and that it all kind of comes together.

The map helps in seeing that journey progress right up to the time someone becomes a customer. And it also continues after: we see the next touchpoints and how we're looking to retain them as a customer, so that they come back and purchase again.

A customer journey map is particularly powerful when you incorporate empathy into it, bringing to light specific emotions that customers experience throughout the journey.

2. Create cross-team alignment around the business

The best, most effective customer journey maps are not the solo project of the user experience (UX) or marketing team (though they may originate there).

Customer journey maps are a quick, easy, and powerful way to help everybody in your business get a clearer understanding of how things work from a customers’ perspective and what the customers’ needs are—which is the first step in your quest towards creating a better experience for them.

Our first goal for preparing a customer journey map was to improve understanding customers across the company, so that every employee could understand the entire process our clients go through.

For example, people from the shipping department didn't know how the process works online; people from marketing didn't know how customers behave after filing a complaint. Everything seems obvious, but when we shared these details, we saw that a lot of people didn't know how the company itself works—this map made us realize that there were still gaps we needed to fill.

If we discover that customers have a pain point in a specific section of the map, different teams can look at the same section from several angles; customer support can communicate why something is not possible, and engineering can explain why it’s going to take X amount of effort to get it done. Especially in cross-functional teams where we all come from really different disciplines, I find these maps to be an incredible way for us all to speak the same language.

3. Remove internal silos and clarify areas of ownership

As a company grows in size and complexity, the lines of ownership occasionally become blurry. Without clarity, a customer might get bounced like a ping pong ball across Sales, Success, and Support departments—not great for the seamless and frictionless customer experience we all want to offer.

A central source of ‘truth’ in the form of a customer journey map that everybody can refer to helps clarify areas of ownership and handover points.

We were growing as a team, and we realized we needed to operationalize a lot of the processes that, before then, had just been manually communicated. We did it through a customer journey map. Our goal was to better understand where these hand-off points were and how to create a more seamless experience for our customers, because they were kind of being punted from team to team, from person to person—and often, it was really hard to keep tabs on exactly where the customer was in that entire journey.

4. Make improvements and convert more visitors into customers

A customer journey map will take your team from 'It appears that 30% of people leave the website at this stage' to 'Wow, people are leaving because the info is incomplete and the links are broken.' Once everyone is aligned on the roadblocks that need to be addressed, changes that have a positive impact on the customer experience and customer satisfaction will happen faster.

The customer journey map brings it all together: it doesn't matter who you've got in the room. If you’re doing a proper journey map, they always get enlightened in terms of ‘Oh, my word. I did not know the customer's actually experiencing this.’ And when I walk out of the session, we have often solved issues in the business. Accountability and responsibilities have been assigned, and I find that it just works well.

Shaheema (right) working on a customer journey map

Collect the right data to create an effective customer journey map

The secret of getting value from customer journey mapping is not just building the map itself: it's taking action on your findings. Having a list of changes to prioritize means you can also measure their effect once implemented, and keep improving your customers' experience. 

This all starts with collecting customer-centric data—the sooner you begin, the more information you’ll have when the time comes to make a decision.

Start mapping your customer journey today

Hotjar lets you experience your customer’s journey through their eyes, so you can visualize what’s working and what needs improvement.

FAQs about customer journey mapping

How do i create a customer journey map.

To create a useful customer journey map, you first need to define your objectives, buyer personas, and the goals of your customers (direct customer feedback and  market research will help you here). Then, identify all the distinct touchpoints the customer has with your product or service in chronological order, and visualize the completion of these steps in a map format.

What are the benefits of customer journey mapping?

Customer journey mapping provides different teams in your company with a simple, easily understandable visualization that captures your customers’ perspective and needs, and the steps they’ll  take to successfully use your  product or service. 

Consider customer journey mapping if you want to accomplish a specific objective (like testing a new product’s purchase flow) or work towards a much broader goal (like increasing overall customer retention or customer loyalty).

What is the difference between a customer journey map and an experience map?

The main difference between an experience map and a customer journey map is that customer journey maps are geared specifically toward business goals and the successful use of a product or service, while experience maps visualize an individual’s journey and experience through the completion of any task or goal that may not be related to business.

Blog • Customer Experience

Customer Journey Stages: Guide, How-To & Best Practices

What Is the Customer Journey?

Why is it important to understand the different customer journey stages, how to create an effective customer journey, best practices for an efficient customer journey stages.

It’s easy to fall into an if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it mindset when thinking about customer journeys—why mess with a system that’s served you well so far? The rather unsurprising answer is that your customer journey isn’t nearly as efficient, enjoyable, and profitable as it could be.

According to McKinsey , when the average business makes systematic, targeted improvements to their customer journey, they increase revenue by 15-20% while also cutting service costs by 15-20%.

Interested in this win-win scenario? You’re going to need a solid understanding of the journey stages and what they mean to your business. And in this Customerly guide, we’ll be giving you a crash course to get you started.

Let’s dive in.

A customer journey is the life cycle of a customer’s relationship with your business—from the point of initial contact to post-purchase follow-up.

The customer journey is a fluid spectrum—but that’s not an especially helpful way of thinking about it. To simplify things, people usually break the customer journey down into stages (five, to be exact) that are defined by customer needs, behaviors, and touchpoints.

When you understand each stage, you’re much better equipped to give each customer the experience they’re looking for at any given moment. 

Check out how Feed Donkey uses Customerly to engage with their clients at every stage of the journey.

What are those stages? Let’s go over them now.

The Stages of a Customer Journey

• Awareness : The customer becomes aware of your product or service. Maybe they saw an ad, or maybe they clicked on a blog post—the important point is that they know your company exists.
• Consideration : The customer isn’t simply aware of your existence; they’re actively considering your company as a solution to their problem(s). This usually involves fairly surface-level research and comparison.
• Purchase : This is the point when a customer has decided to purchase something from your company. They’ve put aside any hesitations or doubts and moved forward with their purchase.
• Retention : The customer made a purchase (congrats)—now your goal is to retain their business. In practice, that means offering incredible post-purchase support, demonstrating that you value the relationship (e.g., offers and rewards), and delivering an excellent overall experience. 
• Advocacy : This is one of the most powerful stages in terms of impact on your bottom line. In this stage, the customer is not only satisfied—they actively champion your product or service to their friends and family. This can create a snowball effect that fast-tracks growth.

We already covered two very good reasons to care about customer journey stages—increased revenue and decreased costs. But those benefits are really side effects of far more important reasons:

Allocate Resources Effectively

Your customer journey is a complex mess of touchpoints, channels, mediums, features, benefits, use cases, landing pages… you get the idea.

When you understand the stages (and what they mean for customers), it helps you identify where to invest, what features and tools to prioritize, and how best to engage with customers along their entire purchase journey. The result is a system that’s working as close to maximum efficiency as possible when it comes to generating revenue.

Personalized Customer Experience

On a related note, these stages also give you a quick and easy way to segment leads and customers into intuitive groups. These groups are easy to target for personalized messages, tailored content, and relevant product recommendations.

With Customerly, you can build custom lists of customers in our CRM using a range of characteristics, including:

• contact properties
• company properties

This helps you create much more rewarding experiences for each customer group—the kinds of experiences that earn purchases, retention, and advocacy.

Build Longer-Term Relationships

Customers want their experiences with businesses to be simple, straightforward, and rewarding—no moments of confusion, no moments of frustration. If you consciously work to make that dream a reality, you’re setting yourself apart from the competition and earning long-term advocates.

1. Create a Customer Profile

If you want to create an effective journey for your customer, you need to know who that is—in clear, concrete terms.

A customer profile (or ideal customer persona ) is like a character sheet for a TV show, movie, or D&D campaign. It’s a generalization of a customer group that’s important to your business, either because they make up a sizable portion of your total customer base or revenue.

For each customer profile you create, you’ll want to cover:

• Demographics : Who the customer is (e.g., “Chief Customer Officer at a growing B2B SaaS”).
• Psychographics : What their needs and interests are (e.g., “looking for a partner to guide the process”).
• Goals : What they hope to achieve in their journey (e.g., “boost customer support efficiency”).
• Pain Points : What keeps them awake at night (e.g., “confusing onboarding processes”).
• Current Solutions : How (if at all) they’re meeting their needs without your solution.

To get your hands on the data needed to make these generalizations, you’re going to need to run surveys to supplement CRM data. With Customerly, you can create and run custom surveys or use our pre-built customer persona template to speed the process up.

All the data you collect is automatically added to your CRM for use in analysis and automated marketing campaigns.

2. Make a List of Customer Touchpoints

Once you have a customer profile, it’s time to make a list of the customer touchpoints—or, the points of contact between them and your business.

There are an absolute ton of touchpoints that you can use to your advantage, but there’s a caveat here—not every touchpoint is well-suited to every customer at every stage of their journey.

There’s some overlap, but here’s a simplified list of common touchpoints and the stages they apply to:

• Awareness : SEO, PPC, word-of-mouth, blog content, PR, etc.
• Consideration : Organic social, case studies, demos, website visits, etc.
• Purchase : Reviews, testimonials, sales staff, branded content, etc.
• Retention : Surveys, email campaigns, etc.
• Advocacy : Loyalty programs, offers, organic social, etc.

3. Identify the Pain Points

Pain points are reliable predictors of behavior.

If you really understand a problem someone is having and know for a fact that you can solve it,  it’s much easier to make a sale.  So, the next step in this process is listing the pain points that bring customers to you—either on a segment-by-segment basis or in general.

Not sure where to start?

A product positioning survey is a great way to find out why customers choose your company over the competition. Start by using Customerly to target a valuable segment (paid customers, perhaps?) and launch our product positioning template to start generating data.

4. Create a Customer Journey Map

Now that you have a customer profile, touchpoints, and pain points identified—you can create a customer journey map. This is an interactive diagram that shows (in broad strokes) how a customer segment progresses from awareness to advocacy. 

The map should include key touchpoints, pain points, needs, customer emotions, and the owner(s) for each stage. You should also be creating a map for each persona you identified in the first step.

Here’s an example of what this might look like:

5. Determine the Course of Action

This final step is where you start using your customer journey map to fine-tune your processes.

Start by finding out which touchpoints are influencing customer satisfaction the most. Identify what’s working well and what needs improvement.

Then, brainstorm ways to improve each stage of the journey and measure success at each stage. This includes optimizing processes, running experiments, and implementing changes that will make customers feel heard and valued—ultimately leading to better engagement.

1. Establish a Good First Impression

The first impression is the most important one. That’s why it’s so important to establish a good one from the very start—especially in the awareness and consideration stages.

2. Understand What the Customer Is Getting and Why

In every stage of the customer journey, it’s important to understand what your customer is getting and why. Your messaging should be focused on communicating the value they get from your product or service—not just on pitching them something.

3. Demonstrate Value

Withholding value is an important sales tactic—but it’s important to find a balance. Demonstrate your product or service’s value without revealing too much. Simple, transparent free trials let customers experience the offering fully and allow you to showcase its value. The trial serves as a reference for informed decision-making once it ends.

4. Stay in Contact with Customers After-Sale

It’s not enough to just make a sale—you also need to stay in contact with customers after they’ve made their purchase. This will help you build a strong relationship with them and encourage repeat business. Make sure your post-sale messaging is focused on customer success—not just upselling or cross-selling.

5. Measure Your Success

To create an effective customer journey, measuring success is crucial. Track customer satisfaction , purchase frequency, and lifetime value to understand how your strategy is performing. Use tools like analytics software, surveys, and user tests.

Every well-designed customer journey begins with a deep understanding of the stages that make it up.

At Customerly , we arm businesses with all the tools they need to understand and enhance every stage of their customer journey. From marketing automation tools to intelligent live chat support, we’re here to help you create a seamless customer experience that will increase satisfaction and loyalty.

Want to see for yourself? Start your 14-day free trial and take Customerly for a test drive.

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• Customer Advocacy
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Luca Micheli

Luca Micheli is a serial tech entrepreneur with one exited company and a passion for bootstrap digital projects. He's passionate about helping companies to succeed with marketing and business development tips.

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Customer journey mapping 101 (+ free templates)

When I was a kid, I remember watching my parents switch between different credit cards to get the best rewards for a particular purchase. They almost always pulled out the American Express first because (as they explained to me) the base reward rate was higher than even the sector-specific perks offered by other cards. Twenty years later, when I decided to get a high-end credit card, Amex was the first one that came to mind.

Customer journey mapping is the process of planning out people's awareness of and relationship to your brand, starting with their very first impression—even if, as in my case, that impression is made a full decade before they can actually use your product.

Table of contents: 

Customer journey map template

Parts of a journey map, stages of the customer journey, advanced customer journey mapping tips, types of journey maps, customer journey mapping example, what is a customer journey map.

A customer journey is the path a person takes to move from general awareness to prospective customer to (in the ideal scenario) brand loyalist . A customer journey map is a visual document that traces this path through all of the interactions, or touchpoints, a person will have with a brand.

Think back to any recent purchase of your own, and try to trace your own customer journey:

When and where was your first contact with the product or service?

How many channels of communication with the company did you have available?

How was the contact you had, if any? Was it personal or formulaic?

Were your problems, if any, solved? If so, were they solved in a timely manner?

What do you now know about the brand besides the product or service itself?

Of course, every customer is different. But you can't create a customer journey map for every individual—and you don't need to. Instead, you can segment your audience into customer personas and create a map for each. 

The customer journey vs. the user journey vs. the buyer journey

What's the difference between the customer, user, and buyer journeys?

The customer journey is split up into two parts: the buyer journey and the user journey. The buyer journey covers everything up to the point of purchase. After that point, the customer becomes a user, and all of their experiences are part of the user journey. 

Benefits of customer journey mapping

In a world where there are multiple high-quality options for just about every product on the market, brands need to foster long-term relationships with their customers to prevent them from being poached by competitors who offer a better customer experience .

Here are the main benefits of the customer journey mapping process:

Touchpoint optimization: With a clear understanding of what your touchpoints are and where they occur, you can track and adjust them based on how they perform.

Enhanced customer experience insights: Through customer profiling and a better overview of all the touchpoints that make a journey, you can acquire more precise and actionable customer experience insights.

Improved product development: Thoughtful and intentional journey planning creates more opportunities for meaningful customer feedback, which gives businesses better information to improve their product.

The customer journey map includes additional details within each phase (which I'll discuss in more detail later) to help you strategically plan your customers' touchpoints and move them closer to a purchase.

This customer journey map template is separated into five stages along the leftmost column, with guiding questions to help plan the customer's experience in each stage.

Below, we'll walk through each part of the customer journey map and how to use it. 

If you're already familiar with journey mapping, you can start filling in the template right away. Otherwise, here's a quick walkthrough of what goes in each section.

What is the customer doing?

In this section, you'll jot down the main things that the prospect, lead, or customer is doing during this stage. For example, if you're a personal trainer, an awareness stage key step might include something like "Prospect wants to get in shape." Or if you offer an email newsletter app, an expansion and advocacy stage key step might be "Customer upgrades their plan." 

Each stage will likely have more than one key step or milestone—that's good. You should be specific enough to be able to create touchpoints, content, and marketing campaigns geared toward each milestone.

What is the customer thinking?

Next, put yourself in the customer's shoes and think about what questions they might have at each stage. In the awareness stage, it might be things like "How can I do X better?" or "What is [your product name]?" In the consideration phase, questions like "Is this worth my time/money?" or "Will this help me solve my problem?" will come to the forefront. 

Where and how could the customer encounter our brand?

After you've outlined what your customer is thinking at each stage, align each question with the relevant touchpoint that could address each concern.

Not all existing touchpoints will be a part of the planned customer journey . For example, I seriously doubt that American Express's customer journey map includes a milestone labeled "Customer gets a free ride because her friend has an Amex card and gets $15 in Uber cash each month." However, each question must have at least one touchpoint that directly and specifically addresses the customer's needs and questions at that point.

What touchpoint opportunities are missing?

When you have a question or milestone that doesn't have a corresponding touchpoint, you've found a gap in your customer journey. That means customers at this stage are going to be left with unmet needs and unanswered questions, and may look more seriously at competitor products as a result. It's essential to develop touchpoints to fill this gap and prevent losing potential customers at a key milestone.

The customer journey map can be split into five phases: awareness, consideration, conversion, retention, and brand loyalty.

Customers can't decide whether or not they want your product if they don't know that it exists. In the earliest phase of the customer journey, a business's goal is to reach the individual and, ultimately, attract them to the brand.

For a small- to medium-sized business, the work of this stage involves reaching out directly to consumers via channels like advertising , SEO , and social media . For a household name like American Express, this stage is dedicated to ensuring the impression their brand makes is a positive one. 

Consideration

Once potential customers are aware of your brand, the next phase they enter is called "consideration" or "research." This is when the customer's perspective shifts from simple awareness of your brand's existence to an understanding of the value that you have to offer them. 

During this phase, the brand's goal is to design touchpoints that demonstrate to the user why their product can solve a problem or improve an experience that's specific to that person. This can be done using guides and how-tos, partnerships with other brands , and ads that portray a customer problem being solved.

Some businesses also include a mini-stage called "Intent" or "Onboarding," when the customer has decided they're interested in the product and is testing it out. The company's goal in this stage is simply to provide an exceptional user experience—they want to make sure the product works as intended and the customer's questions and requests are handled well.

A business can identify customers that are primed for conversion based on behavior in the consideration stage. Someone who signs up for a newsletter isn't a hot sales prospect quite yet, but when they start opening more emails and spending more time on the site, that's when brands know they're ready for a conversion push.

Types of conversions vary depending on the type of business and industry. Examples of conversion pushes include:

An abandoned cart email pushing a browsing shopper to complete a purchase

A physical mail offer pushing a potential customer to open an account

A seasonal campaign highlighting why a product is perfect for a particular holiday, celebration, or event

When a conversion is successful, a potential buyer becomes an actual customer. The goal in the retention stage is to demonstrate to the customer why they were right to make their purchase, and set them up to make more purchases or renew services in the future.

The retention stage is also where the user experience or user journey begins. The company's job in this phase, then, is to provide the best possible user experience. Easy installation, frictionless customer service, and—this part should be obvious—a product or service that works well and provides the user what they need are all key components to improved customer retention.

Brand loyalty

In the final customer journey phase, users go from run-of-the-mill satisfied customers to active advocates for your business. 

You can encourage brand loyalty by offering exceptional customer service, referral programs, and loyalty discounts and exclusives.

Keep in mind: a customer doesn't need to be a zealot for your company to be an unintentional brand advocate. One of the biggest reasons I made the decision to apply for Amex's high-end card is because my best friend has it. She didn't specifically recommend it to me, but I became interested after experiencing a lot of the card benefits vicariously through her. 

Everything we've covered up to this point will only get you as far as a basic customer journey map. That doesn't mean, however, that your customer journey map will be good . Once you have the basic journey mapping structure down, you'll want to take steps to continually improve your map's effectiveness.

Survey your customers and customer teams

When designing touchpoints and determining where and how customers interact with your business, don't guess—your existing customer base is a valuable resource you can tap for a firsthand customer perspective. You can i ncentivize customers to participate in surveys and fill out feedback forms by offering discounts and perks in exchange.

Talk to your customer-facing employees, too. The people who work directly with customers day-to-day will have more accurate information about how to interact with them.

Automate customer data collection

High-quality, premium experiences are defined by their high level of personalization, and that personalization is only possible if you have information about your customer. It's not possible to sit there and take notes on every person who interacts with your brand, but it is possible to automatically collect lead data from customer interactions and have them collated in your CRM tool . 

Set up your contact management platform to automatically tag contacts with information like gender, age, products they've bought, events they've attended, what types of emails they open consistently and what emails they regularly ignore, whether their purchases indicate that they have pets or children, and so on. The more information you have, the better your customer experiences will be.

Tweak for B2B, B2C, and SaaS industries

The nature of the customer journey is different for SaaS, B2B, and B2C companies. A B2B company's interactions with prospects might include in-person conferences, while a SaaS company's touchpoints will be mostly digital. Companies that sell to consumers will need to think through individual people's experiences in a way that B2B companies don't. A company whose products are designed for emergencies will need to think through crisis scenarios instead of day-to-day customer experiences.

Tweak your customer journey categories to fit your company, product, and industry. Using a generalized or poorly-fitting customer journey map will result in vague and unhelpful interactions with your brand.

Create multiple maps for different journeys

When people refer to the customer journey, they're typically talking about the overarching journey from awareness to brand loyalty that we outlined above. However, you can map any part of the customer journey and experience. 

Do you target college students? Replace the five stages with four academic quarters and map their experience over the course of a year. 

Is your product designed to be used in the car? Map the customer journey through each hour of a long road trip. 

Zooming in to create detailed maps of different aspects of the customer journey will help you create even more specifically tailored customer experiences.

The template above follows the standard stages of the customer journey, but it's not the only way to do your customer journey mapping.

Two other commonly-used journey maps are the "Day in a life" journey map and the customer support journey map. We've provided the key elements of both below, as well as customer journey map templates for each.

Day/week/month in the life map

The best way to map mini-journeys within the larger customer experience lifecycle is with a "Day in a Life" journey map . This map plots the same things as the general customer journey map—key milestones, questions, touchpoints, and gaps—but over a particular period of time instead of over the course of the entire relationship. 

This map includes space for you to record the buyer persona's name, occupation, and motto, but these are really just shorthand for key persona characteristics. If you're selling baby diapers, for instance, your persona's occupation would be "parent," even if the person in question is also an accountant. 

The "motto" should be a condensed version of your persona's primary mindset with regard to their wants, needs, and pain points. The motto for an expecting first-time parent might be, "I'm excited but nervous—I have to make sure I'm prepared for anything."

Use the column headers to set your time frame. If you're marketing to expecting parents, the time frame might be the nine months of a pregnancy, or you might map an expectant mother's experiences through a single day in her third trimester. At each stage, ask yourself the same questions:

Where and how could the customer encounter our brand? Alternatively: how could our brand provide value at each stage?

A day in the life customer journey map will not only help you zoom in to develop more tailored experiences, but it will also give you insights into what might be useful to add or improve in your product or service.

Support experience map

One of the most common, and most significant, customer/brand interactions is the customer support journey . A frustrating customer service experience can turn someone off of your brand and product entirely, while a particularly impressive experience can immediately convert a regular user into a brand advocate.

This journey map is a bit different in that it doesn't just map touchpoints; it maps functional interactions between the customer and customer service representatives as well as the behind-the-scenes activities necessary to support the customer-facing team.

This map starts when the support ticket is opened and ends when the customer's issue is resolved. The top row of the map is simple: what is the customer doing at each stage in the support process?

​​Next, you'll record the corresponding actions of your customer-facing, or "frontstage" team. This includes both employees' actions and the systems engaged in the support process. For example, if the first step of your customer support process is handled by a chatbot or automatic phone system, these will go in the technology row. If the customer moves forward to request to speak with a representative, then the second stage is where your "employee actions" row will come into play.

Finally, the bottom row is for behind-the-scenes activity performed by employees who don't interact with the customer at all. For example, if the customer representative needs to get information from another department to answer the customer's questions, the other department's involvement will be recorded in the "backstage actions" section of the map.

To put it all together, here's an example customer journey map for a gym. 

Researches local gyms online

Reads reviews

Compares membership options

"I can't go up a flight of stairs without getting winded; I need to get my health and fitness on track."

"I wish I knew someone who could recommend this gym." 

Encounters: 

Online reviews

Social media pages

Missing touchpoint:

Success stories on social media in a front-and-center location, like a saved Instagram Stories collection or a pinned post 

Views gym's social media

Visits gym's website

Views membership pricing page

"This gym looks clean and modern from the photos."

"I hate calling the gym, but I'd like to learn more about personal training or class options."

Contact form

Free trial request pop-up

A live chat box on the gym's website for prospective customers to ask questions about the facility or membership options before visiting 

Visits the gym to take a tour

Meets with a membership consultant

Potentially signs up for free trial

"The staff was friendly and it was easy to sign up."

"I wish I could see what classes they offer and weekly schedules without having to visit the gym."

In-person visit

Facility tour

Consultation

Free trial sign-up

Orientation session

Gym access card

A mobile app where members can track their progress, access class schedules, book personal trainer sessions, and receive personalized workout recommendations

Visits the gym regularly

Participates in classes

Engages with personal trainers

Potentially pays for membership after free trial ends

"Maybe I should compare options again." 

"I wish I knew someone who could work out with me."

Personal trainer consults

Email reminders about upcoming end to free trial

Personalized offer encouraging renewal

Follow-up call

Community-building events like workshops or challenges to foster a sense of community and support among members and staff

Refers friends and coworkers

Promotes the gym on social media

Regularly visits and attends classes 

"My coworker would love this gym since it's so close to work." 

"I love that teacher. I'm going to try some of her other classes."

Referral programs

Social media engagement

Reviews gym

Potentially provides a testimonial for gym

Missing touchpoints:

A loyalty rewards program for members' continued commitment and engagement that offers exclusive discounts, merchandise, or access to premium services 

Your customers' spending habits, interests, challenges, and problems are always changing, and your customer journey maps should adapt along with them. But with so much data to track, it's a good idea to connect your insights to CRM software. Then you can automate your CRM to create specific, valuable experiences for your customers without breaking a sweat.

Related reading:

Beyond the sales pipeline: Using a CRM for customer success

A quick guide to contact management

B2B email marketing: Proven strategies + examples

4 tips for creating an inbound marketing strategy

This article was originally published in May 2021 by Nick Djurovic. The most recent update was in August 2023.

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Amanda Pell

Amanda is a writer and content strategist who built her career writing on campaigns for brands like Nature Valley, Disney, and the NFL. When she's not knee-deep in research, you'll likely find her hiking with her dog or with her nose in a good book.

• CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
• Sales & business development
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What is the Customer Journey? (Explained With Examples)

Oct 11, 2023

The customer journey is a concept that refers to the process that a customer goes through when interacting with a company or brand. It encompasses all the touchpoints and interactions that a customer has, from the moment they become aware of a product or service, to the point of making a purchase and beyond

1°) What is the Customer Journey?

1.1 - definition of the customer journey.

The customer journey can be defined as the series of steps or stages that a customer goes through during their engagement with a company. It typically starts with the initial awareness of a product or service, followed by consideration, evaluation, purchase, and post-purchase experiences.

The customer journey is not always linear and can vary depending on the individual and the specific product or service. It can involve multiple touchpoints, such as online research, social media interactions, in-store visits, customer service interactions, and more.

Let's dive deeper into each stage of the customer journey to understand the significance and impact of each step.

1.2 - Advantages of the Customer Journey

Understanding the customer journey can provide several benefits for a company. By mapping out the customer journey, businesses can gain insights into the different stages and touchpoints that customers go through. This knowledge can help identify areas for improvement, optimize marketing efforts, and enhance the overall customer experience.

For example, during the initial awareness stage, companies can focus on creating impactful marketing campaigns to generate interest and capture the attention of potential customers. By understanding the specific touchpoints that lead to consideration and evaluation, businesses can tailor their messaging and content to address customer pain points and showcase the unique value proposition of their products or services.

By understanding how customers move through each stage of the journey, companies can tailor their strategies and communications to provide relevant and personalized experiences. This can lead to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately, higher conversions and revenue.

Let's explore some real-life examples of how companies have leveraged the customer journey to their advantage.

1.3 - Disadvantages of the Customer Journey

While the customer journey concept can be valuable, it also has some limitations. One limitation is that it is difficult to accurately capture every touchpoint and step that a customer goes through. Customer journeys can be complex and unique to each individual, making it challenging to create a one-size-fits-all model.

However, companies can overcome this limitation by conducting thorough customer research and utilizing data analytics to gain insights into customer behavior and preferences. By continuously monitoring and analyzing customer interactions, companies can refine their understanding of the customer journey and adapt their strategies accordingly.

Additionally, customer journeys can change over time, influenced by factors such as changing consumer preferences, advancements in technology, or shifts in industry trends. This means that companies need to regularly review and update their understanding of the customer journey to stay relevant and effectively meet customers' evolving needs.

By staying agile and responsive to changing customer behaviors, companies can ensure that their customer journey remains effective and aligned with customer expectations.

Now that we have explored the advantages and disadvantages of the customer journey, let's move on to the next section to understand how companies can effectively map and analyze the customer journey.

2°) Examples of the Customer Journey

2.1 - example in a startup context.

Let's consider a hypothetical startup that has developed a new mobile productivity app. In this example, the customer journey begins with the app appearing on the user's radar, perhaps through an advertisement or a recommendation from a friend. The customer then explores the app's website and reads reviews to gather more information.

As they delve deeper into their research, the customer discovers the unique features and benefits of the app. They learn about how it can help them streamline their daily tasks, increase their productivity, and stay organized. The customer also comes across testimonials from other users who have experienced positive results after using the app.

After considering their options, the customer decides to download and install the app. Excitement builds as they anticipate the potential impact it can have on their work and personal life. They eagerly open the app for the first time and begin exploring its functionalities.

As the customer starts using the app, they quickly realize its value. They find themselves effortlessly managing their tasks, setting reminders, and accessing important information on the go. The app becomes an indispensable tool in their daily routine, helping them stay on top of their responsibilities and achieve their goals.

However, no product is perfect, and the customer may encounter some issues or have questions along the way. In such situations, they reach out to the app's support team for assistance. The support team promptly responds, providing helpful guidance and resolving any concerns the customer may have.

Over time, the customer becomes a loyal user of the app. They appreciate the continuous updates and improvements made by the startup, which further enhance their experience. The customer becomes an advocate for the brand, recommending the app to friends, family, and colleagues who may benefit from its features.

2.2 - Example in a Consulting Context

In the consulting industry, the customer journey can be more complex. A potential client might first become aware of a consulting firm through a referral or by reading thought leadership content online. Intrigued by the firm's expertise and reputation, they decide to explore further.

Upon visiting the firm's website, the potential client is greeted with a wealth of information about the services offered. They discover case studies showcasing successful client engagements, demonstrating the firm's ability to deliver results. The client also comes across testimonials from satisfied clients, reinforcing the firm's credibility.

Impressed by what they have seen, the client decides to take the next step and contact the firm to schedule an initial consultation. The firm's consultant, well-versed in understanding client needs, conducts a thorough discussion to gather information about the client's pain points and challenges.

Based on the information gathered during the consultation, the consultant develops a customized proposal tailored to address the client's specific needs. The proposal outlines the recommended approach, the expected outcomes, and the timeline for the engagement.

Excitement builds as the client reviews the proposal. They see the potential for positive change and growth that the consulting firm can bring to their organization. After careful consideration, the client decides to move forward with the engagement, signaling the start of a collaborative partnership.

The consulting engagement involves regular meetings between the client and the consultant. Progress updates are shared, and any adjustments to the strategy are discussed and implemented as needed. The consultant provides guidance, expertise, and support throughout the journey, ensuring the client's objectives are met.

Finally, the consulting engagement reaches its conclusion with the successful delivery of the agreed-upon solutions. The client experiences the desired outcomes, witnessing the positive impact on their organization. They express their satisfaction with the consulting firm's services and may choose to engage them again in the future for additional projects or recommend them to other businesses in need of similar expertise.

2.3 - Example in a Digital Marketing Agency Context

A digital marketing agency's customer journey often starts with the client expressing interest in improving their online presence. The agency may offer a range of services, such as search engine optimization, social media management, and content marketing.

Upon expressing interest, the agency's team conducts a thorough analysis of the client's current digital presence. They examine the client's website, social media accounts, and online reputation. Through this analysis, they identify areas for improvement and opportunities for growth.

Based on the findings of the analysis, the agency develops a tailored strategy to address the client's specific goals and objectives. The strategy may include recommendations for optimizing the client's website, creating engaging content, and implementing targeted advertising campaigns.

The agency presents the strategy to the client, explaining the rationale behind each recommendation and the expected outcomes. The client reviews the strategy and provides feedback, ensuring that it aligns with their vision and objectives.

Once the strategy is agreed upon, the agency begins implementing various tactics to execute the plan. They optimize the client's website for search engines, create compelling content to engage the target audience, and launch targeted advertising campaigns to increase brand visibility.

Throughout the implementation phase, the agency monitors the performance of the various tactics. They analyze data, measure key performance indicators, and make adjustments as needed to ensure optimal results. Regular reports and updates are provided to the client, keeping them informed of the progress being made.

The final stage of the customer journey involves evaluating the results achieved through the agency's efforts. The agency and the client review the impact of the implemented strategies and tactics, examining key metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates, and social media engagement.

Based on the evaluation, the agency and the client collaborate to make any necessary adjustments to the strategy. This iterative process ensures that the client's online presence continues to evolve and adapt to the ever-changing digital landscape, maximizing their return on investment.

2.4 - Example with Analogies

To help illustrate the concept further, let's consider some analogies for the customer journey. Imagine you are planning a vacation. The journey begins with the initial inspiration and research for destinations and accommodations.

You spend hours browsing travel websites, reading reviews, and comparing prices. You envision yourself relaxing on a pristine beach or exploring a vibrant city. The anticipation builds as you imagine the experiences that await you.

Once you've chosen a destination, you move into the consideration stage. You carefully weigh the pros and cons of different accommodations, comparing amenities, locations, and prices. You read more reviews, seeking reassurance that you are making the right choice.

Finally, you make your purchase, book your flights and accommodations, and embark on your trip. The excitement is palpable as you board the plane and begin your journey to your chosen destination.

During your vacation, you have experiences that can impact your overall satisfaction and potentially influence your future travel decisions. The quality of service at your hotel, the local attractions you visit, and the interactions with locals all contribute to your experience.

Upon returning home, you reflect on your trip, share your experiences with friends and family, and may decide to visit the same destination again or choose a different one for your next vacation. This process mirrors the stages and interactions of the customer journey.

The customer journey is a vital concept for businesses to understand and optimize. By mapping out the different stages and touchpoints, companies can gain insights into their customers' experiences and tailor their strategies and communications accordingly.

While the customer journey may have some limitations and variations, it provides a valuable framework for companies to enhance customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately drive business growth.

About the author

Arnaud Belinga

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Mapping The Customer Service Journey to Improve Customer Experience

Mapping the Customer Service Journey to Improve Customer Experience

In the days before Google Maps, finding directions to a new location, especially if it was in an unfamiliar city, took careful planning and attention. Routes had to be determined long before leaving, and an extra time cushion was absolutely necessary to accommodate for any wrong turns. In worst-case scenarios, gas station attendants could always be counted on to help guide a lost traveller. With the advent of smartphones, determining directions to a completely unknown locale is now a fairly painless process. Audio turn-by-turn directions make for safer navigation and quicker arrivals, although there may be fewer opportunities for human interactions. Now, a similar revolution is happening on another important route: the customer service journey.

Defining the Customer Service Journey

A customer service journey is the accumulated experiences a customer undergoes when they decide to interact with a brand, or purchase a service or product. Every single touchpoint they have with a brand makes up their journey, and the emotions they experience at each touchpoint have a huge effect on their decision to make a purchase or recommend the brand to a friend. On a recent episode of the Verizon Insights podcas t, Cary Cusumano, Customer Experience Designer, noted that in 17 out of 18 industries, the emotions that a customer experiences predict the level of their loyalty to a brand. (Even above their satisfaction with a product or service.) It is essential for companies to optimize the customer journey whenever possible to build loyal brand advocates and to show empathy to their customers.

Steps on the Customer Service Journey

The best way to show customers empathy is to understand the interactions they have with a brand over the course of their relationship. During the discovery phase, potential customers may interact with a brand through reviews, internet research, advertisements, or talking to acquaintances or friends.  Once someone becomes a customer, companies must invest in meeting their customers where they are. That means making sure that customers can reach out and engage with the brand through a variety of touchpoints, depending on their preferences. The four primary ways customers interact with brands after purchasing a product or service is through phone calls, e-mails, social media interactions, and live chat options. Customers choose each of these options based on their age, location, and lifestyle. A college student at a university may prefer a chat-based option that’s available later in the evening, while a parent may choose to call during a child’s naptime. No matter how customers decide to reach out, responsive companies have several options to best meet different communication styles and time constraints.  

The Need to Make the Customer Service Journey More Pleasant

In order to give customers what they want, brands must be willing to make an investment in each stop  along the customer journey to ensure it is a pleasant one. While money is funnelled into product development or marketing, customer experience is often pushed to the side as an unnecessary expense. However, it’s one of the most important factors to master in order to maintain a competitive advantage.With the advent of social media, interactivity between brands and customers has spiked, and companies don’t always known how to utilize these interactions to build positive impressions. Leadership at companies can feel overwhelmed by the bandwidth and expertise needed to ensure a smooth customer journey. Or, they’re unsure how to put customer service at the forefront of their company culture, even though they recognize that brands that do gain new leads and retain a strong customer base. As technology advances, many industry leaders predicted a de- emphasis on human interaction and empathy. Instead, the opposite is becoming more important. Understanding the routes customers take in relationship to brands, and investing in critical touch points is the only way to make the customer service journey a positive one.

If you’re looking for help implementing a culture of service to let your customers know they come first, our experts can help. For over twenty years, the team at Customer Direct have been leaders in creating positive customer experiences and managing voice, email, chat and social media interactions on behalf of prominent brands.  Delighting customers at every touchpoint on their journey is our passion and our business. Make your business more persona l by providing genuine customer service experiences each step of the way. Contact us today.

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50 Tips To Make Your Business More Personal

About 15 mins

Learning Objectives

Why care about customer service, what is service cloud, benefits of the service console, track customer issues in salesforce.

• Challenge +100 points

Begin Your Customer Service Journey

• Describe what Service Cloud is.
• Describe key benefits of the Lightning Service Console.
• Create and update a customer case.

Like most companies, Ursa Major Solar is only as good as its customer service. This Southwest-based supplier of solar energy components is growing from a local player to a regional one, and they recently opened a second distribution center in a neighboring state. But solar energy customers have options. And if they don’t get the service they want, they can go elsewhere. Not only that, they can also influence their circle of friends, family, coworkers, and even social media followers to go elsewhere.

The CEO of Ursa Major Solar, Sita Nagappan-Alvarez, has heard that her company is putting customers through a frustrating service circus:

• Alicia emailed support three times, but never received a response.
• Greg phoned the company with a quick question, but he was put on hold for 50 minutes.
• Colleen contacted Ursa Major Solar on social media, but her post was ignored and it made her feel alone, unliked, and unimportant.

Sita is worried that if her company gets a reputation as a service circus, company growth will vanish. She doesn’t want any customers to walk away, thinking Ursa Major Solar is a bunch of clowns.

To make matters worse, Sita recently read that 91% of customers say they’re more likely to make another purchase when service is good.

Sita sees how service can have the largest impact on Ursa Major Solar’s brand. Today’s hyper-connected world has put new expectations on service. Customers want positive, personal experiences wherever they’re engaged: in-store, online, from email, mobile devices, and more. Sita envisions a new service model for her company. One where customers can contact her team from any device or communications channel and receive helpful interactions that build loyal relationships and drive future sales.

To help you with your service journey, we follow Ursa Major Solar through their service adventure. We watch this fast-growing renewable energy company of 200 employees figure out what they can do with Service Cloud to make their customers loyal and support agents happy.

Sita and her COO, co-founder, and husband, Roberto, have spent the last 20 years of their lives creating Ursa Major Solar. They know they need to improve the company’s customer service, but they don’t have time to research or experiment with new technology. Roberto knows a little about Salesforce since his sales teams use it. He asks, “What is Service Cloud?”

Service Cloud is an easy-to-use customer service application that can help you provide and track excellent service. It keeps your customers happy and your support team sane, whether your customers contact you by email, phone, social media, or other channels from desktops, mobile devices, or apps.

You can get started with Service Cloud quickly—with clicks, not code.

Here’s how it works.

Note : If you don’t see the Service Console app in Lightning Experience in your Trailhead Playground (TP), create a new TP .

Sita likes how Service Cloud matches her vision of supporting customers from any device or channel to build loyal relationships. Roberto likes how a single app on the Salesforce platform they already use keeps customer information in one place. Service Cloud looks like it can put an end to their service circus.

Roberto likes the idea of a help desk. No more random customer emails lost in an inbox. No more sticky notes about customer calls misplaced on monitors. Roberto asks, “So what does this console actually do for me?” Let’s look at the console and how it makes Service Cloud simple.

Everything you need to quickly respond to customers is preconfigured for you in the console. And with Service Cloud, you can expand your service tools and customizations as your team or company grows.

Tip : To increase user productivity in your console, consider installing In-App Guidance: Boost Service User Productivity in Lightning Experience . To learn more about this AppExchange package from Salesforce Labs, visit the User Engagement module on Trailhead.

Sita and Roberto like what they’ve seen of Service Cloud. As decision makers, they want more than a demo. They want to track a customer issue, which is called a case in Salesforce, and test the console. Let’s join them in seeing how easy it is to create a case.

Jon Amos called to say: “Hey, I never got my solar panels.” Now let’s walk through the process of creating a case in the console for Jon’s issue. If you have a Trailhead Playground, follow along and enable Lightning Experience.

• Search for Jon Amos as an existing contact. If you don’t see him, select  New Contact to add Jon Amos, and save your changes.
• In Status, leave the value as New because it’s a brand-new case.
• In Subject, type  Missing solar panels .

• Save your changes. That’s it! Now you or anyone on your team can work together to resolve the case quickly.

To update the case, or see who has commented on it, click the Cases tab and select the case.

You can also add your own comment to the case’s feed. Select Post , type what you want to say, then click Share .

Based on what Sita and Roberto have seen, they think Service Cloud is a good customer support option for Ursa Major Solar. But they want another opinion. They’re interested in hearing what their rock star systems admin, Maria Jimenez, thinks.

• Salesforce Help:  Service Cloud
• Salesforce Help: Lightning Service Console
• Trailhead module:  The Four Industrial Revolutions
• Trailhead module: Accessibility Basics
• Salesforce Help:  Accessibility Standards
• Salesforce ebook:  State of Service *
• Get personalized recommendations for your career goals
• Practice your skills with hands-on challenges and quizzes
• Track and share your progress with employers
• Connect to mentorship and career opportunities

Customer Journey Mapping

Journey mapping helps you visualize how customers experience your product or service, and how they feel along the way. Scroll to step 6 for a real-life example from one of our product teams!

USE THIS PLAY TO...

Understand the customer journey from a specific persona's perspective so that you can design a better experience.

Running the play

Depending on how many touchpoints along the customer journey you're mapping, you might break the journey into stages and tackle each stage in pairs.

Sticky notes

Whiteboards.io Template

Define the map's scope (15 min)

Ideally, customer journey mapping focuses on the experience of a single persona  in a single scenario with a single goal. Else, the journey map will be too generic, and you'll miss out on opportunities for new insights and questions. You may need to pause creating a customer journey map until you have defined your customer personas . Your personas should be informed by  customer interviews , as well as data wherever possible.

Saying that, don't let perfect be the enemy of good! Sometimes a team just needs to get started, and you can agree to revisit with more rigor in  a few months' time. Once scope is agreed on, check your invite list to make sure you've got people who know the details of what customers experience when using your product or service.

Set the stage (5 min)

It's really important that your group understands the user  persona  and the goal driving their journey. Decide on or recap with your group the target persona and the scope of the journey being explored in your session. Make sure to pre-share required reading with the team at least a week ahead of your session to make sure everyone understands the persona, scope of the journey, and has a chance to delve deeper into research and data where needed. Even better- invite the team to run or attend the customer interviews to hear from customers first hand!

E.g. "We're going to focus on the Alana persona. Alana's role is project manager, and her goal is to find a scalable way for her team to share their knowledge so they spend less time explaining things over email. We're going to map out what it's like for Alana to evaluate Confluence for this purpose, from the point where she clicks that TRY button, to the point where she decides to buy it – or not."

Build a customer back-story (10 min)

Have the group use sticky notes to post up reasons why your target persona would be on this journey in the first place. Odds are, you'll get a range of responses: everything from high-level goals, to pain points, to requested features or services. Group similar ideas and groom the stickies so you can design a story from them.

These narratives should be inspired by actual customer interviews. But each team member will also bring a different perspective to the table that helps to broaden the lens.

Take a look at the example provided in the call out of this section. This back story starts with the pain points – the reasons why Alana would be wanting something like Confluence in the first place.

• E.g., "Her team's knowledge is in silos"

Then it basically has a list of requirements – what Alana is looking for in a product to solve the bottom pain points. This is essentially a mental shopping list for the group to refer to when mapping out the customer journey.

• E.g., "Provide structure"

Then it has the outcomes – goals that Alana wants to achieve by using the product

• E.g., "To keep my team focused on their work instead of distracted by unnecessary emails and shoulder-taps"

And finally the highest-level goal for her and her team.

• E.g., "Improve team efficiency"

Round off the back story by getting someone to say out loud what they think the overall story so far is, highlighting the main goals the customer has. This ensures a shared understanding that will inform the journey mapping, and improve the chances that your team will map it from the persona's point of view (not their own).

• E.g., "Alana and her team are frustrated by having to spend so much time explaining their work to each other, and to stakeholders. They want a way to share their knowledge, and organize it so it's easy for people outside their team to find, so they can focus more energy on the tasks at hand."

For example...

Here's a backstory the Confluence team created. 

Map what the customer thinks and feels (30-60 min)

With the target persona, back story, and destination in place, it's time to walk a mile in their shoes. Show participants how to get going by writing the first thing that the persona does on a sticky note. The whole group can then grab stickies and markers and continue plotting the journey one action at a time.

This can also include questions and decisions! If the journey branches based on the answers or choices, have one participant map out each path. Keep in mind that the purpose of this Play is to build empathy for, and a shared understanding of the customer for the team. In order to do this, we focus on mapping the  current state of one discrete end to end journey, and looking for opportunities for improvement.

To do a more comprehensive discovery and inform strategy, you will need to go deeper on researching and designing these journey maps, which will need to split up over multiple sessions. Take a look at the variation below for tipes on how to design a completely new customer journey.

Use different color sticky notes for actions, questions, decisions, etc. so it's easier to see each element when you look at the whole map.

For each action on the customer journey, capture which channels are used for the interactions. Depending on your context, channels might include a website, phone, email, postal mail, face-to-face, and/or social media.

It might also help to visually split the mapping area in zones, such as "frontstage" (what the customer experiences) versus "backstage" (what systems and processes are active in the background).

Journey mapping can open up rich discussion, but try to avoid delving into the wrong sort of detail. The idea is to explore the journey and mine it for opportunities to improve the experience instead of coming up with solutions on the spot. It's important not only to keep the conversation on track, but also to create an artefact that can be easily referenced in the future. Use expands or footnotes in the Confluence template to capture any additional context while keeping the overview stable.

Try to be the commentator, not the critic. And remember: you're there to call out what’s going on for the persona, not explain what’s going on with internal systems and processes.

To get more granular on the 'backstage' processes required to provide the 'frontstage' customer value, consider using Confluence Whiteboard's Service Blueprint template as a next step to follow up on this Play.

ANTI-PATTERN

Your map has heaps of branches and loops.

Your scope is probably too high-level. Map a specific journey that focuses on a specific task, rather than mapping how a customer might explore for the first time.

Map the pain points (10-30 min)

"Ok, show me where it hurts." Go back over the map and jot down pain points on sticky notes. Place them underneath the corresponding touchpoints on the journey. Where is there frustration? Errors? Bottlenecks? Things not working as expected?

For added value, talk about the impact of each pain point. Is it trivial, or is it likely to necessitate some kind of hack or work-around. Even worse: does it cause the persona to abandon their journey entirely?

Chart a sentiment line (15 min)

(Optional, but totally worth it.) Plot the persona's sentiment in an area under your journey map, so that you can see how their emotional experience changes with each touchpoint. Look for things like:

• Areas of sawtooth sentiment – going up and down a lot is pretty common, but that doesn't mean it's not exhausting for the persona.
• Rapid drops – this indicates large gaps in expectations, and frustration.
• Troughs – these indicate opportunities for lifting overall sentiments.
• Positive peaks – can you design an experience that lifts them even higher? Can you delight the persona and inspire them to recommend you?

Remember that pain points don't always cause immediate drops in customer sentiment. Sometimes some friction may even buold trust (consider requiring verification for example). A pain point early in the journey might also result in negative feelings later on, as experiences accumulate. 

Having customers in the session to help validate and challenge the journey map means you'll be more confident what comes out of this session. 

Analyse the big picture (15 min)

As a group, stand back from the journey map and discuss trends and patterns in the experience.

• Where are the areas of greatest confusion/frustration?
• Where is the journey falling short of expectations?
• Are there any new un-met needs that have come up for the user type?
• Are there areas in the process being needlessly complicated or duplicated? Are there lots of emails being sent that aren’t actually useful? 

Then, discuss areas of opportunity to improve the experience. E.g., are there areas in the process where seven steps could be reduced to three? Is that verification email actually needed?

You can use quantitative data to validate the impact of the various opportunity areas identified. A particular step may well be a customer experience that falls short, but how many of your customers are actually effected by that step? Might you be better off as a team focused on another higher impact opportunity?

Here's a user onboarding jouney map our Engaging First Impressions team created.

Be sure to run a full Health Monitor session or checkpoint with your team to see if you're improving.

MAP A FUTURE STATE

Instead of mapping the current experience, map out an experience you haven't delivered yet. You can map one that simply improves on existing pain points, or design an absolutely visionary amazeballs awesome experience!

Just make sure to always base your ideas on real customer interviews and data. When designing a totally new customer journey, it can also be interesting to map competitor or peer customer journeys to find inspiration. Working on a personalised service? How do they do it in grocery? What about fashion? Finance?

After the mapping session, create a stakeholder summary. What pain points have the highest impact to customers' evaluation, adoption and usage of our products? What opportunities are there, and which teams should know about them? What is your action plan to resolve these pain points? Keep it at a summary level for a fast share out of key takeaways.

For a broader audience, or to allow stakeholders to go deeper, you could also create a write-up of your analysis and recommendations you came up with, notes captured, photos of the group and the artefacts created on a Confluence page. A great way of sharing this information is in a video walk through of the journey map. Loom is a great tool for this as viewers can comment on specific stages of the journey. This can be a great way to inspire change in your organization and provide a model for customer-centric design practices.

KEEP IT REAL

Now that you have interviewed your customers and created your customer journey map, circle back to your customers and validate! And yes: you might learn that your entire map is invalid and have to start again from scratch. (Better to find that out now, versus after you've delivered the journey!) Major initiatives typically make multiple journey maps to capture the needs of multiple personas, and often iterate on each map. Remember not to set and forget. Journeys are rapidly disrupted, and keeping your finger on the pulse of your customer's reality will enable your team to pivot (and get results!) faster when needed.

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Understanding the customer journey from start to finish

The customer journey is easily one of the most important, yet most misunderstood, parts of doing business. One of the reasons for this is that the needs of customers can change. Additionally, not all customers are alike. Therefore, it can be difficult for many businesses to ensure customers have the best buying experience from the start of their journey through to making their purchase and using the product or service.

Businesses that want to have a better overall feel and understanding of the journey their customers take will need to learn more about what the journey is and the path most customers will follow when they are making a buying decision. Knowing and understanding the customer journey map is more than just a good idea. It is essential for optimizing the customer journey .

What is the Customer Journey Map?

Although you may know about the customer journey, you might not know what a customer journey map is. Essentially, this is just the visual representation of the engagement your customer has with your brand from the time they know they need a product to the point of making a purchase. The visual timeline doesn’t need to have fancy graphics, of course. It could simply be a list that touches on the various points of the customer journey.

The map needs to lay out all the stages the customer will work through when buying, along with helping to identify the pain points during the journey. A customer journey mapping study from 2018 found that 67% of customer experience professionals that participated in the survey had been using this type of mapping in their business, and 90% of those using it found that it had a positive impact.

Below, we’ll be briefly discussing the benefits of the customer journey map. You’ll also see some simple examples to give you an idea of how you can make your own map. It’s easier than you might think, but it is well worth taking the time and putting in the effort to create journeys for the various products or services that you offer. After all, a single customer journey map will not work for all products or services.

Why Create a Customer Journey Map?

Ultimately, the customer journey map will help to improve the experience customers have with your company. You can better visualize and understand what the customer is experiencing at each step along the way. This could help you find some common pain points that will need to be addressed or that could be used to help with the marketing of the service.

Mapping the customer journey can help you to get answers to a range of questions. For example, you can learn more about where customers might be dropping out of your sales funnel. Are they leaving your website? This could mean that the site is not user-friendly, and it might not meet the customer expectations. How often does the customer reach out to customer service with questions? Is the customer service department able to answer those questions efficiently and in a timely manner? What interactions is the customer having with your brand before they make a purchase, or before they leave and don’t come back?

When you have the answers to these questions, and when you are creating quality customer journey maps for the services and products you offer, it can help immensely. You can use the map and the information it provides to help you train the other team members on the customer experience best practices. You can make sure that the team is focused on the customer, you can improve your marketing using information from the maps.

Consider the benefits that the customer journey map can offer:

• Find Gaps in Service or Communication: You can often find problems and gaps that occur in your customer service, your website, communication among employees, etc.
• Increase Sales: One of the other major benefits is the potential for increased sales. Naturally, when you can understand the customer’s journey and find ways to make it easier on them, there is a greater chance that they will end up buying from your company. It could also help with upselling and cross-selling, as you are learning more about the customers and the best ways to market to them.
• Better Customer Satisfaction: When customers are provided with the types of experiences they want, and when you can make buying easier, they will be more satisfied with your company. They will not only be more willing to buy from you in the future, but they are likely going to let friends and family know about your business.
• Better Employee Satisfaction: Additionally, knowing the customer journey and creating a customer map will help your employees to know the customers better. This means they can perform their roles better and ensure they are providing the best possible service to customers at various points along the journey.

As you can see, there are many benefits to creating a customer journey map. However, you might not know where to begin. Fortunately, it is not as difficult as some might think. Let’s look at what you need to do to create these maps.

Creating a Customer Journey Map in Seven Steps

Below are seven simple steps that you can take to start creating your customer journey map. Keep in mind that this is just one way to create the customer journey. It can be a good starting point for you. Graphically, it can be anything that makes sense to you and that will work for your business. Once you have created the customer journey map, you can put it to use and start gleaning information that can help your company provide a better overall customer experience.

Step 1: Know Your Goals and Set Your Targets

The first thing you need to know is what your goals are for creating the customer journey map. What are your targets? When you know the goals and targets, you will have a destination that you want to reach. Knowing your goals will make it much easier to narrow down the best ways to hit your targets. The goals will help you to keep on track.

Here are some of the most important questions you have to ask when you are creating your goals and targets before you get too deep into creating the customer journey map.

• Why are you making the map?
• What do you want to find out from the map?
• What do you want/need to achieve?
• Whose perspective will the map be from?
• What experiences will be factored into the map?

Remember, you will likely need to have more than just one customer journey map for your business. This is because you may need to cover different types of services or products, or because you have different types of customers. The next step will help you with this.

Step 2: Create Buyer Personas

Now that you know your goals, you will next need to create buyer personas. Most companies that have done any sort of marketing will have an understanding of buyer personas and their importance. They are fictional versions that represent a specific type of customer segment for your brand. When you are putting together a buyer persona, you need to make sure to consider and include important characteristics such as:

• Demographics
• Personality
• Shopping preferences
• Information sources

The market research that you have done for the company will be beneficial here. The more data you have available, the better it will be when it comes to seeing things from the customers’ perspective.

When you are creating the buyer personas, it is a good idea to use only one to three in total. You want to avoid using any more than this, or it will dilute your focus. You won’t end up getting the information that you need when it comes to narrowing down pain points, needs, etc.

Step 3: Identify Customer Motivations

Once you have narrowed down the customer personas you will be using for your map, you then need to think about the motivations of the buyer persona. Keep in mind that the motivations will vary based on the persona and the product or service involved. You need to put yourself in the shoes of the customer. Think about what it is that they will be thinking about when they are looking to buy.

Just as you need to know your own goals when creating the customer journey map, you also need to know the customer goals when it comes to their journey. Why do they need to buy? What is it that has caused them to come to the decision that they need whatever it is your company—and your competitors—are offering? Think about it from their perspective.

Step 4: Identify Pain Points

As you are going through and identifying the motivations the customers have, you will also want to stop to think about the potential pain points. What is it that could be causing them to hesitate and not reach their goals? Are they worried about things like the price? Shipping? Installation of a product? Are they worried because there are so many options available, and they don’t know which one to choose? This can lead to analysis paralysis, where they continue researching products but don’t make a decision.

When you can see the pain points, you have an advantage over your competitors. You can then see what you can do differently to improve the customer journey. You can focus on removing those pain points. If the customer is nervous about spending the money, you can mention that you have a return policy, or you could talk about all the benefits that the product or service offers that will make their lives easier. Think about the ways that your brand can help.

Step 5: Understand the Journey the Buyer Takes

Most of the time, there will be three main stages in the buyer’s journey. Of course, there could be more substages depending on how their experience goes. The three main stages include awareness, consideration, and decision.

At the awareness stage, they know that they have an issue or that they want to make a purchase for one reason or another. The consideration stage is when the customer is trying to determine exactly what they need and how it will help them. The decision stage is when the customer knows what they need and is searching for the best solution or product to meet their needs.

You want to get an idea of what the buyer is thinking at all of these stages. When you know what they are thinking, it becomes much easier for you to find areas where your company can meet those needs or answer those questions as early as possible.

Step 6: Have Plenty of Touchpoints

In the digital world, there are many potential contact points where a customer might encounter your brand. You want to have as many touchpoints and channels available as possible, so you can increase the chance of the customer finding your business at the various stages of their journey. Some companies will have traditional touchpoints, not just digital, of course. The goal is to make sure that all of them, whether it’s a storefront in a brick-and-mortar store or a website, can provide the customers with what they need. Remember, think about things from their perspective. Make it as easy as possible for them.

Step 7: Revise and Improve

Mapping the customer journey is not something that you are only going to do once. This is something that you need to watch and update regularly. If the customer’s journey changes, then your map and your efforts will need to change as well. It’s expected that you will continue revising, working on, and improving to meet the changing needs of your customers.

Two Examples of Customer Journey Maps from the Customer’s Perspective

Below are two customer journeys for different types of products and services. By understanding these types of journeys from the perspective of the customer, it will help to make it easier for you to apply them to your own business.

• It’s hot already, and summer is fast approaching. You don’t have central AC, but you need to stay cool.
• You search on the web for ways to reduce the heat in your apartment and find several Window AC units, portable AC units, and fans. You know that fans don’t work well enough, and you want to avoid going through the hassle and expense of a large window unit. So, you choose a portable AC unit instead.
• However, when you start to research the options, you find that there are so many choices available, it’s hard to make a selection. You spend time looking at reviews, features, costs, etc.
• Once you finally narrow your selection, you then head to an online retailer. However, the one that you choose has a terrible website layout and the shipping is outrageous. They don’t have an option to have someone install it,
• You then search for a different retailer that offers free delivery and installation. Even though the unit costs slightly more, you go for this option because it has what you need.

This is just one example. These are the same types of things that your potential buyers are thinking about when they visit your website. Although the products might be different, the types of pain points that they come across could be the same.

• You go out to start your car only to find out it doesn’t want to cooperate. Nothing happens when you turn the key.
• You check the battery and find that it’s fully charged. It’s a different problem. Maybe the starter or the ignition switch, but you aren’t certain.
• You head online to look for mobile mechanics that can get out to the house and see what’s wrong with the vehicle and complete the repair.
• You have to narrow your selection based on where you live and which mechanics will service your area. After finding a suitable mechanic with good reviews, you contact them and see if they can provide an estimate once they examine the vehicle.
• The first mechanic calls you back and tells you that it’s a problem that needs to be fixed by a locksmith rather than a mechanic without even looking at the vehicle.
• You contact a locksmith, but they examine the vehicle and tell you it’s a problem for a mechanic.
• You go to a second mechanic who comes out and diagnoses your vehicle, finds the problem, and fixes it for you.

Now, taking the two simple examples above, you can start to think about how a company might be able to better illustrate the customer journey using the stages that the customer goes through— awareness, consideration, and buying .

Putting the Customer Journey Map Into Action

Once you know how to put yourself into the shoes of the customer, and how to build and apply their journey to your map, you can start to find ways that you can improve your service. You will start to see the things that the customers want or don’t want, you can better identify their goals and their pain points, and you can work toward improving the way your company handles those things.

Even if you feel that your customers aren’t having any problems, that’s probably not true. It just means that you aren’t yet aware of them. Creating a customer journey map and being proactive about these matters is the only way to find out and make the improvements that are needed.

You can make the changes you need easily when you are using the right platforms. With NICE CXone, the most complete cloud contact center platform, you will find that it’s easier than ever to create extraordinary customer experiences. The platform can handle all the interactions with customers across over 30 digital and self-service channels, as well as provide AI-driven customer insights, performance metrics, and reporting. This makes it easier than ever for you to manage the customer journey from beginning to end.

With CXone, you can align your company to improve the customer journey. You can better understand your customers, so you can find ways to improve their satisfaction. Learn more about NICE CXone and see how you can offer the digital-first experience that customers demand today.

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How to Map Contact Center Customer Journey [With Examples]

April 17, 2024   •   8 min read

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Imagine this: A customer reaches out to your contact center with a question or concern. At that moment, their loyalty to your brand is put to the test—not just by the resolution of their issue but by the entirety of their experience. Seamless communication, empathetic engagement and efficient solutions all play pivotal roles in shaping this experience. 

While the ultimate measure of customer loyalty may seem elusive, the pathway to cultivating it lies squarely within the realm of the contact center customer journey. As a contact center head or customer service leader, you wield significant influence over this journey.  

Throughout this blog, we'll delve into the intricacies of the contact center customer journey, examining its defining characteristics, key touchpoints, effective mapping strategies and actionable tips for enhancing the overall experience. 

What is a contact center customer journey? 

Key touchpoints in contact center customer journeys , how do you map a contact center customer journey , 5 tips to improve contact center customer journeys , optimize contact center customer journey with sprinklr service .

Unlike the traditional customer journey , which encompasses the entire lifecycle from awareness to post-purchase support, the contact center customer journey zooms in specifically on the interactions that occur when customers seek assistance, support, or information from the contact center .  

The contact center customer journey includes every contact center channel through which customers can reach out for support, including phone calls, emails, live chat , social media and more.  

By mapping out the contact center customer journey and identifying pain points, bottlenecks and opportunities for improvement, you can optimize your contact center operations , enhance agent training, implement better technology solutions and ultimately elevate the overall customer experience.

Since customer service experiences considerably influence purchasing decisions, it becomes paramount to meticulously map out the end-to-end customer journeys within the contact center.  

Here are the other compelling reasons to invest in mapping contact center customer journeys:  

Identifying specific pain points : Contact center customer journey mapping reveals precise areas where customers encounter confusion, difficulty or dissatisfaction. Whether it's navigating IVR , engaging with customer self-service channels or enduring extended hold times, mapping your contact center customer journey magnifies areas that need improvement.  

Recognizing channel inconsistencies : Shifting between customer service channels —be it emails, phone calls, or live chats—can occasionally disrupt the customer journey. Through contact center customer journey mapping, you pinpoint areas where expectations diverge across channels, emphasizing the necessity for smoother handoffs to ensure a seamless experience. 

Optimizing resource allocation : Understanding the volume and nature of customer inquiries at each touchpoint allows for more efficient resource allocation within the contact center. This might involve workforce management , agent training optimization or implementing self-service options to handle common queries more effectively.  

Driving continuous improvement : A mapped contact center customer journey is a baseline for managing contact center performance and tracking improvements over time. Regularly monitoring key metrics such as first-call resolution rates and customer satisfaction scores enables trend identification and goal setting and drives continuous improvement initiatives within your contact center. 

Here are some of the key touchpoints commonly encountered within the contact center customer journey: 

Initial contact  

The journey often begins with the customer's initial outreach to the contact center. Whether it's a phone call, email, live chat, or social media message, this first contact sets the tone for the entire interaction. Prompt and professional handling at this stage can instill confidence in the customer and ensure a positive experience. 

IVR and self-service options  

For many customers, the next touchpoint is the interactive voice response (IVR) system or the self-service options available. An intuitive and user-friendly IVR menu or self-service channels can empower customers to resolve simple queries independently, reducing wait times and enhancing overall efficiency. 

Agent interaction  

Customers who require assistance beyond self-service options interact with contact center agents . These interactions are pivotal in shaping the customer experience, as agents play a crucial role in addressing queries, providing solutions and delivering personalized assistance. Empathetic communication, active listening and practical problem-solving skills are paramount during these interactions. 

Resolution and follow-up  

The resolution of the customer's inquiry or issue marks another critical touchpoint in the journey. A swift and satisfactory resolution demonstrates the company's commitment to customer satisfaction . Additionally, prompt follow-up after resolution, such as confirmation emails or satisfaction surveys, reinforces the customer's perception of proactive customer service. 

Escalation process  

In cases where issues cannot be resolved immediately, the escalation process becomes a key touchpoint. Smooth and transparent escalations , timely updates and clear communication are essential to maintaining customer confidence and trust. 

Post-interaction support  

Even after the immediate issue has been addressed, the contact center customer journey continues with post-interaction support. This may include ongoing assistance, additional guidance or proactive outreach to ensure continued satisfaction and address lingering concerns. 

For easy understanding, let’s take the example of professional photographers and their potential journey in a contact center environment. Here is how a camera and photography equipment manufacturing company can begin with the contact center customer journey mapping. 

Step 1: Identify primary customer personas 

The camera manufacturing company can create a customer persona based on the following criteria. 

Persona Name: Pro Photographer  

Demographics : Male or female, aged 30-50, professional photographer or videographer. 

Preferences : Values high-quality equipment and technical specifications. Seeks expert advice and support for complex camera-related inquiries. 

Pain Points : Time-sensitive projects, technical challenges and the need for specialized features or accessories.

💡Sprinklr Pro Tip  

Enterprises may deliver subpar experiences if they perceive their customers as homogeneous. Hence, customer segmentation into groups with everyday needs and priorities enables the mapping of tailored interactions. Failing to recognize the key distinctions between demographic or psychographic profiles results in misaligned customer service and eventual customer disappointment. 

Step 2: Identify customer touchpoints 

The next step is to identify all the touchpoints or interaction channels that customers use to engage with the contact center. For example, customers fitting into the 'Pro Photographer' persona may interact with the contact center through various channels, such as phone support, online chat, email inquiries or in-person visits to company stores or service centers. 

Step 3: Map customer journeys 

Initial contact: The Pro Photographer contacts the contact center via phone or online chat to inquire about the compatibility of a specific lens with their camera model.  

IVR and self-service options: They may navigate through IVR options to reach the appropriate department or use self-service resources available on the company website to find answers to basic inquiries.  

Agent interaction: Upon reaching an agent, the Pro Photographer discusses their photography project requirements and seeks expert advice on selecting the right lens.  

Resolution and follow-up: The agent provides personalized recommendations based on the photographer's needs and ensures a satisfactory resolution. Follow-up may include sending additional resources or offering post-purchase support.  

Escalation process: If the query requires specialized technical support beyond the agent's expertise, the issue may be escalated to a higher-level support team or a technical specialist.  

Post-interaction support: After resolving the issue, the Pro Photographer receives proactive follow-up communication to ensure their satisfaction and address additional concerns. 

Step 4: Gather customer feedback 

The company may gather feedback from Pro Photographers through customer surveys , interviews or feedback forms following their interactions with the contact center. This feedback helps identify areas for improvement and ensures that the customer journey continues to meet the needs of this persona. 

Do you know: With Sprinklr's omnichannel survey software , you can easily track customer feedback across more than 30 digital and social channels, including voice. Moreover, Sprinklr AI+ can help customer service leaders monitor conversations for various signals and predict real-time CSAT scores. 

Step 5: Analyze and identify pain points  

Analysis of customer feedback and interaction data may reveal pain points such as long wait times for specialized support, a lack of technical resources, or inconsistencies in information provided across channels.

Step 6: Implement improvements

Based on the identified pain points, the company may implement initiatives such as dedicated support channels for professional photographers, specialized training for agents on technical topics, or the development of a knowledge base tailored to the needs of this persona.

Step 7: Monitor and iterate

Continuous monitoring of key contact center metrics and refinement of the customer journey ensures that the company remains responsive to the evolving needs of Pro Photographers and maintains high customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Bonus Read: How to Map Omnichannel Customer Journey [Steps + Best Practices]  

Leading brands seeking continuous improvements devote themselves to optimizing critical contact center customer journey touchpoints. Consider the following tips:  

Develop in-depth customer personas   

Customer-centric enterprises should create detailed archetypes documenting preferred channels, common objections, motivations, and support expectations for each key customer segment. They should also recognize essential differences between groups to align journeys accordingly. For instance, a professional photographer may have different expectations than a casual hobbyist.   

Connect data across channels   

Ensure interaction history and customer preferences are seamlessly integrated across all communication channels to provide reliable and consistent interactions tailored to their needs.

Good to know: Today, you can effortlessly handle multiple customer interactions by accessing their comprehensive details, conversation history, and past purchases from a single screen. This unification is possible through the unified agent console , which also reduces average handling time by up to 30%, enabling you to streamline your interactions with customers like never before.

  Hire for soft skills and emotional intelligence   

Recruit contact center agents demonstrating warmth, customer empathy , communication abilities, problem-solving aptitude and a natural motivation to help. Empathetic agents can build rapport with customers and provide personalized support tailored to their needs.  

Make support ubiquitously accessible   

Exceed benchmarks through accessible channels to prioritize customer satisfaction and responsiveness. Utilize callback functionalities and chatbots to improve customer response times and enhance customer satisfaction. For instance, implementing self-service options like FAQ chatbots or knowledge bases can empower customers to find solutions independently. 

💡Do you know: Today, with advanced AI-powered omnichannel routing software , you can effortlessly create a dynamic omnichannel routing logic for inbound queries. As a result, your agents can handle cases seamlessly across channels without the hassle of channel-specific configurations. But that's not all. By harnessing the power of AI, you can fine-tune your workforce efficiency in real time, adjusting agent capacity and utilization rates on the fly. Learn more about omnichannel routing .

Compare real-life scenarios against optimal journeys   

Capture how different personas engage with contact centers using data and qualitative insights to reveal pain points at each stage. Contrast against best-in-class examples to identify gaps representing enhancement opportunities tied directly to alleviating customer friction. For instance, analyze how delays in issue resolution impact customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Amidst the ebb and flow of contact center operations, one pain point remains persistent: the need for a comprehensive solution that tracks every step of the customer journey, streamlines processes, unifies data and empowers agents to deliver personalized support seamlessly.  

Enter Sprinklr Service , a game-changer in contact center optimization. By centralizing communication channels, integrating data across touchpoints and empowering agents with real-time insights, Sprinklr Service enables you to exceed customer expectations and drive unparalleled loyalty.  

But don't just take our word for it. Experience the transformative power of Sprinklr Service firsthand with a free trial.  

Frequently Asked Questions

Metrics such as first call resolution rates, average handling time, customer satisfaction scores and net promoter score (NPS) serve as indicators of contact center journey effectiveness. These metrics gauge operational efficiency, customer experience quality and overall business performance. 

Technology significantly influences the contact center customer journey by enabling seamless communication across channels, automation of routine tasks, and personalization of interactions. From AI-powered chatbots to omnichannel platforms, technology enhances efficiency, responsiveness, and the ability to meet customer expectations throughout the journey

AI can enhance, but not entirely replace, human interaction in the contact center customer journey. While AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants excel at handling routine inquiries and tasks, they may lack the empathy and nuanced understanding that human agents provide. Human interaction remains essential for complex issues, emotional support, and building rapport with customers. 

Analytics in contact centers provide invaluable insights into the customer journey by analyzing data from various touchpoints. Analytics help identify trends, pain points, and opportunities for improvement, enabling businesses to tailor their strategies and enhance the overall customer experience effectively.

Technology significantly influences the contact center customer journey by enabling seamless communication across channels, automation of routine tasks, and personalization of interactions. Technology enhances efficiency, responsiveness, and the ability to meet customer expectations throughout the journey from AI-powered chatbots to omnichannel platforms.

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Article Authors

Jayadeep Subhashis

Binny Agarwal

Freelance Writer , Sprinklr

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Where Does the Customer Experience Begin and End?

You already know that your primary marketing objective is to create that exceptional and memorable customer experience (CX) to attract and keep your target audience. Part of succeeding at this goal involves understanding the customer experience journey — where it begins and where it ends. Let’s look at how the journey plays out.

The Start iIs Sooner Than You May Think

Some question if there is a concrete sign that indicates that beginning of a customer experience. Due to many channels, there are so many ways that a potential customer comes into contact with a brand.

The customer experience can start with an ad or social media post . It might also be the first time a prospect visits a company’s website or store even if they don’t buy anything. 

But, the exact moment a prospect sees their interaction as a customer experience does vary. That’s because some prospects and eventual customers had some type of customer experience long before that first interaction.

It could have been vicariously through someone they trust who shared their own experiences. Even reading reviews about a company from other people on a review site is the start to a customer experience. But, it might be the end if the reviews are bad. Those secondary source customer experiences stay with someone as they move toward a direct company interaction.

The lesson here is that the customer experience starts as soon as a prospect or customer has a need and they start looking for ways to meet that need.

Ongoing Customer Experiences

From that point begins what most companies think of when they picture CX. This is where most companies focus their attention and resources. It involves website and in-store interactions, purchases, deliveries, technical support and assistance, and returns and exchanges. This part of the customer experience may also involve feedback or follow-up experiences.

Although these other midpoint moments between the potential start and end to the customer experience are important, any opinion formed previously may counter what you offer here. On a positive note, if you do the customer experience correctly, it may change or enhance the initial opinion in direct and indirect touchpoints from the starting point.

The End of the Customer Experience Is Just Another Beginning

The reality is that there is no real end to the customer experience for a company unless a customer decides to never return, and the company makes no effort to win them over again. In reality, the customer experience is not a tangible journey that starts at Point A and ends at Point Z.

Instead, view the customer experience as a process. It’s ongoing, builds on previous interactions and perceptions, changes from a positive to a negative and back again, and evolves over time as different expectations appear. You’ll need to continually assess and measure your data to see what’s working and what isn’t for as long as you have customers. 

The customer experience is a process that involves everyone in your organization and is often influenced by those outside of your organization. Help the entire team understand the importance of customer care and emphasize the role they play in creating the ideal customer experience. You’ll need to dig deep into available data and leverage AI-enabled tools and mobile marketing to identify patterns in real time to respond and/or pivot as quickly as possible. 

Bringing All the Processes Together

Therefore, there is a different way to look at the customer experience going forward. First, there is the customer thought process made in those indirect and direct moments mentioned at the start of this article.

It’s in these initial moments where you should devote additional resources and attention. In doing so, you may help move these prospects to the purchase process sooner and in larger numbers. For example, if there are issues that exist in reviews, address those by responding to each negative review, offering a solution and explaining how you plan to make specific changes.

From there, you will also need to create a transition strategy:

Share relevant content on social media that appeals to what you understand about each audience segment’s needs and interests.

Provide website visitors with an enjoyable experience that includes clear navigation, online appointment options, secure transactions for trust-building , and easy sale options.

Do the same with the in-store experience, creating a warm, welcoming, and helpful environment.

Then, the purchase process is next and where most companies start their efforts. By implementing many of the strategies listed above, you are helping create the mental perspective for these customers. You are shaping their decision that your brand is the right choice. Here, you can funnel resources toward differentiating yourself. The strategy could include extra value, special touches, and an individual service offering.

From there, add in the retention process for those who have completed the purchase process. Focus on addressing those that did not have a good customer experience. Follow this up by developing ways to enhance what was already viewed as a memorable customer experience .

Testing and optimization play integral roles in your customer experience. Find out how to “Go Further with Customer Experience Optimization.”

Read the guide.  

John Rampton

John Rampton is an entrepreneur, investor, online marketing guru, and startup enthusiast. He is founder of the online invoicing company Due . John is best known as an entrepreneur and connector. He was recently named #3 on the Top 50 Online Influencers in the World by Entrepreneur Magazine and a blogging expert by Forbes.

You already know that your primary marketing objective is to create that exceptional and memorable customer experience (CX) to attract and keep your target audience. Part of succeeding at this goal involves understanding the customer experience journey — where it begins and where it ends. Let’s look at how the journey plays out.

The customer experience can start with an ad or social media post . It might also be the first time a prospect visits a company’s website or store even if they don’t buy anything. 

But, the exact moment a prospect sees their interaction as a customer experience does vary. That’s because some prospects and eventual customers had some type of customer experience long before that first interaction.

Instead, view the customer experience as a process. It’s ongoing, builds on previous interactions and perceptions, changes from a positive to a negative and back again, and evolves over time as different expectations appear. You’ll need to continually assess and measure your data to see what’s working and what isn’t for as long as you have customers. 

The customer experience is a process that involves everyone in your organization and is often influenced by those outside of your organization. Help the entire team understand the importance of customer care and emphasize the role they play in creating the ideal customer experience. You’ll need to dig deep into available data and leverage AI-enabled tools and mobile marketing to identify patterns in real time to respond and/or pivot as quickly as possible. 

It’s in these initial moments where you should devote additional resources and attention. In doing so, you may help move these prospects to the purchase process sooner and in larger numbers. For example, if there are issues that exist in reviews, address those by responding to each negative review, offering a solution and explaining how you plan to make specific changes.

Share relevant content on social media that appeals to what you understand about each audience segment’s needs and interests.

                                                           

Testing and optimization play integral roles in your customer experience. Find out how to “Go Further with Customer Experience Optimization.”

Read the guide.  

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Service as the heart of customer experience with SAP Service Cloud

Service as the heart of customer experience.

Service departments hold one of the keys to a great Customer Experience (CX). It’s often after a customer makes a purchase that the experience journey begins.

The challenge businesses face is how to improve customer satisfaction, reduce customer wait times, retain customers, and increase customer lifetime value in an era of constant and rapid change along with heightened customer expectations. So how can technology help businesses improve customer relationships and keep businesses competitive?

SAP’s intelligent and integrated technologies for each stage of the customer journey

The disruptive nature of digital technology provides an opportunity to transform the customer experience journey. Offering a number of intelligent and integrated digital technologies, SAP can improve your customer service and help you stay competitive with technologies including:

Three key areas for customer experience

The success of the customer service team is most affected by three key performance areas: customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and business value.

SAP’s technology offerings address performance indicators in each of these three areas to help you achieve an integrated and intelligent customer experience.

The customer experience journey is disrupted by digital technology and can be used to engage the customer at each stage of his or her journey.

Customer experience should be thought of as the combination of integrated customer experience and intelligent customer experience. Focusing on the Technology Ecosystem in PwC’s Intelligent and Integrated CX framework, you can see examples of emerging digital technologies, such as robotics and virtual reality, that are creating the customer experience disruption. These technologies connect directly with your company’s IT architecture and interface which enables you to pursue your CX objectives while also providing the agility to adjust to unpredictable market opportunities and digital evolutions.

By conducting a detailed customer journey assessment, we can help identify the key digital technologies that can be integrated into your customer journey to unlock value to your customers.

Want to learn more? Read the full paper. Service as the heart of customer experience with SAP Service Cloud

Munish Gupta

Principal, SAP CX Competency, PwC US

Reddy Kesari

Director, SAP CX Competency, PwC US

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