Customer journey mapping visualises the complete experience customers have with a brand, from awareness through purchase and beyond.
Journey maps identify all touchpoints, emotions, and pain points. Maps guide product and service improvements.
Journey Map Components
Personas: User profiles representing customer types.
Touchpoints: Interactions with the brand (website, email, support).
Phases: Journey stages (awareness, consideration, purchase, retention).
Emotions: How customers feel at each stage.
Pain Points: Problems and frustrations.
Opportunities: Improvements addressing pain points.
Journey Phases
Typical journey phases:
Awareness: Customer becomes aware of brand/problem.
Consideration: Customer evaluates options.
Purchase: Customer buys.
Onboarding: Customer begins using product.
Usage: Customer uses product regularly.
Advocacy: Customer recommends brand.
Churn: Customer stops using product.
Creating Journey Maps
Creating maps involves:
- Research: Understanding customer experience
- Synthesis: Identifying patterns and insights
- Mapping: Creating visual representation
- Analysis: Identifying opportunities
- Planning: Planning improvements
Research for Mapping
Research reveals actual experiences:
Interviews: Direct conversations with customers.
Surveys: Quantitative data about experiences.
Analytics: Data about customer behaviour.
Support Data: Issues customers encounter.
Personas in Maps
Journey maps are created for specific personas. Different customers have different journeys.
Emotional Mapping
Emotions reveal customer satisfaction. Understanding when customers are frustrated guides improvements.
Cross-Channel Journeys
Customers interact across channels - website, email, in-store, phone, support. Maps should show all channels.
Identifying Pain Points
Pain points are problems or frustrations. Understanding pain points guides improvements.
Identifying Opportunities
Opportunities are improvements addressing pain points or adding value.
Service Blueprints
Service blueprints extend journey maps showing backend systems enabling customer experiences.
Stakeholder Alignment
Sharing journey maps aligns teams around customer needs. Maps prevent organisations assuming they understand customers.
Using Maps for Decisions
Maps should guide decisions. Understanding journeys helps prioritising improvements.
Digital Journey Maps
Digital journey maps (interactive prototypes) enable exploring different scenarios.
Retention Journeys
Retention journeys focus on keeping customers. Understanding what makes customers leave guides retention strategies.
Support Journeys
Support journeys map how customers get help. Good support journeys make getting help easy.
Iterative Mapping
Journey maps are updated as customer experience changes. Maps evolve with business.
PixelForce's Journey Mapping
PixelForce creates journey maps guiding product decisions. Maps help understanding customer needs comprehensively.
Tools
Miro, FigJam, and other tools enable collaborative journey mapping.
The Future
AI may automatically generate journey maps from customer data. However, human insight about what matters most remains valuable.
Customer journey mapping is essential for customer-centric organisations. Maps guide improvements creating better experiences.