Customer Journey Maps are a visual story about how people interact with your brand. They help brands gain a deep understanding of their customers and act as a bridge between business and buyers.
In a single illustration, the journey map aims to capture the entire customer experience. No small task.
Done well, they empower people to work cross-functionally and iron out all of your customer experience issues. They serve as long-term assets that can guide your brand for the next 2โ3 years. Done poorly, journey maps can confuse, misalign, and are cast aside.
โThe process of mapping uncovers the key customer moments, that, once improved, will unlock a more compelling and more valuable overall experience.โ
Adaptive Path, โGuide to Experience Mappingโ
Whatโs a Customer Journey Map Supposed to Look Like?
If you type โCustomer Journey Mapโ into an image search, youโre likely to be more confused than enlightened. Journey Mapping has its roots in design, but since its adoption into the business mainstream, interest has exploded. The result is hundreds of boutique CX agencies putting their proprietary spin on the basic template. Instead of trying to cover every type of Customer Journey Map here, Iโve distilled them into essential elements in the template below.
The Must-Have Parts of a Customer Journey Map
As with many frameworks, there isnโt a one-size-fits-all template. The specific sections and wording will be different from brand to brand. But no matter their ultimate end-design, all share the same goal and a few essential elements. If your journey Map includes the following youโre on the right track:
1. Customer Persona
A marketing persona is a semi-fictional representation of a group of your customers. Based on research and data from your existing customers, a persona is a heuristic (mental shortcut) that represents an essential segment of your buyers. Personas bring your customers to life through both demographic and psychographic details.
Limit journey maps to the experience of one persona and their path toward one primary goal. If you try to capture every single customer and every journey they take in one map, youโll miss the signal in the noise.
2. Phases of the Purchase Journey
This section details the process customers follow from awareness, to purchase, and beyond. In real life, this isnโt a straight line, and different parts might overlap. But for the sake of illustration, we divide the journey into discrete steps.
In consumer brands, there are usually 4โ6 phases in a purchase journey. When you design your map, you may include more, less, or different steps. It all depends on your particular industry, product, and customer type.
A B2B software procurement journey will look very different from someone thinking about where to eat lunch. So while the framework is a secure starting place, your purchase journey will likely look different than this basic template.
These are the general phases of a B2C consumer journey, but these will vary depending on your specific brand, sales channels, and industry.
3. Touchpoints
A point of contact, interaction, or information gathering. Touchpoints can be owned by the brand (such as a TV ad or website), or reflect the brand experience in some way (such as Social Media or Amazon reviews).
Be sure to denote touchpoints used during Moments of Truth (see point #8 below) in your journey map.
4. Customer Thoughts and Actions (Verbatim)
Capturing the combination of what customers do, think, and feel is why journey maps are so useful. Customer verbatim (quotes) help us understand customersโ perceptions. It also gives us a steer on where we should start improving the experience.
Verbatim paint a more vivid and compelling picture of your customers and their experiences.
5. Pain Points (Whatโs Stopping Customers)
Here we capture the most significant issues that customers have when pursuing their mission. Each pain point will be bucketed into a part of the Purchase Journey. Weโll then associate it with a touchpoint or lack thereof. While performing qualitative research, youโll find that customers are honest about their complaints. The challenge will be using data and further analysis to decide which of these to include.
6. The Customerโs Emotional Journey
This is the secret sauce that makes Customer Journey Maps, especially helpful. By understanding the peaks and valleys in your customerโs emotional journey, youโll identify those areas for improvement.
7. Opportunities for Improvement
This section is where you can build on the pain points, emotional journey, and customer feedback to start painting a picture of the future. Often these areas act as thought starters for more robust research projects or CX initiatives.
8. Moments of Truth
These are the moments your brand has the biggest opportunity to influence customer decision, opinion, and action. MOT (Moments of Truth) typically occur when the customer first encounters your product, when they purchase your product, use it, and then react to how it works.
5 Guiding Principles for Creating Your Journey Map
Customer Journey Maps may vary in specific sections and design, but they all share several guiding principals:
- Theyโre written from the customerโs point of view, not the companyโs. The purpose of the journey map is to close the Empathy Gap between marketer and consumer. This can be tricky to do from inside an organization. Thatโs why I recommend brands hire an agency to build their journey maps, to get the benefit of an outsiderโs view.
- They combine the mechanics of experience with the customerโs emotional response. Hereโs where the magic happens. The magic of journey maps doesnโt come from documenting a customerโs experience. Instead, itโs from combining the mechanics of experience with the emotions and perceptions of a customer. One without the other is a story without substance (or vice versa).
- They document the customerโs omnichannel journey. Journey maps capture how people use multiple touchpoints. From a customerโs view, every interaction is part of one significant experience. Thereโs no online or offline, above-the-line or below it. Itโs only one company, one product, and one experience to them.
- They are visualization tools. The challenge of managing the customer journey is vast, but the upside is significant too. To get buy-in for CX initiatives, youโll need everyone on the same page regarding pain points, challenges, and opportunities. The visual nature of the CJM has two benefits. One, everyone gets closer to understanding the complexities of your customer experience. Two, you can use it as a socialization tool to gain alignment and buy-in from internal partners.
- They define and capture the phases of the customer purchase journey. Ultimately, customer experience initiatives need to drive ROI. By aligning the journey map to a customer path with a measurable goal, you can keep everyone focused. Without this aim, itโs easy to get lost in tactical initiatives that drive short-term action, but no long-term gains.
The Bottom Line
Creating a Customer Journey Map is not a small project. It requires lots of time, effort, and coordination across teams. So why not try creating a Customer Journey Map? Because the upside greatly outweighs the work it takes to create. Your company will become more customer-centric, and that will make a positive impact on your bottom line.
Get More Free Journey Mapping Resources:
- Swipe files & Analysis of 20 Customer Journey Maps: Use this free download to gather ideas and inspiration for the format and design of your customer journey map (a very important part of the process).
- Explosive Growth: 10 Ways Journey Maps Can Boost Your Business
- Get a free Customer Journey Map template here.
Keep Learning:
- 3 Ways to Apply Behavioral Science to Customer Journey Maps
- 6 Essential Parts of a Customer Journey Map
- Customer Experience Measurement: How to use metrics in your customer journey map
Learn Journey Mapping the easy way:
- Register interest for one of my most popular courses, "How to Create Magnificent Journey Maps."