Customer Journey Mapping: How to Do it in 5 Steps

Imagine one of your customers, a tech enthusiast eager for the latest smartphone, stepping into your e-commerce website. The journey you mapped for the customer shows evident excitement, fueled by weeks of anticipation and research. 

Yet, as they venture deeper, their enthusiasm begins to ebb. They're met with a maze of catalogs, each turn taking them further from clarity and closer to frustration. The website chatbot is eager to gather their contact details but is clueless about product or pricing information. The customer service number is perpetually busy and unable to guide them through the decision either. Utterly frustrated, the potential customer stomps away, vowing never to do business with you again 🙁. 

This isn't just a story of a lost sale but a vivid reminder of the criticality of every touchpoint in a customer's journey and its impact on the overall experience the customer has with your brand. Using customer journey maps helps you understand - and optimize - the complex, often non-linear routes your customers take from discovering your brand to purchasing from it.   

In this blog, we will outline a stepwise approach to building customer journey maps from scratch for your business, sharing real-life examples, tools and tips to help you along the way. But first, let’s discuss the basics. 

What is a customer journey map?

A customer journey map is a visual representation that captures all interactions a specific customer has with a specific product/service throughout their lifetime and on different channels, from initial awareness to post-purchase support. It outlines each step a customer takes, highlighting their feelings, motivations and pain points at a given moment in the customer journey. Additionally, a journey map pinpoints precise friction points and optimization opportunities that your brand can leverage to retain the customer better. It is key to understanding customer behavior during specific scenarios (like onboarding, subscription renewal, etc.) and removing the friction therein so the customer moves towards the next step in the journey efficiently.  A typical customer journey map has these key components: 

• Personas: Customer profiles 
• Scenarios and expectations: Context and event sequence 
• Timeline/phases: A timeline showing sub-tasks and events 
• Emotions: Customer insights and mindsets during specific events 
• Actions: Customer actions during specific events 
• Opportunities: Areas of experience enhancement 

To put things in perspective, let’s use a relatable analogy. Think of customer journey mapping as planning your dream vacation. Just as you'd pick a destination, figure out how you're getting there, plan your route and iron out the trip's details — customer journey maps work in a similar way. Here’s how the journey map components look like: 

• Destination (Persona): Define your ideal customer profiles (like choosing a vacation spot) 
• Route (Scenario & Expectations): Map out the customer’s journey stages (from awareness to retention) 
• Checkpoints (Timeline/Phases): Identify key touchpoints and events (akin to stops on your trip) 
• Emotional landscape (Emotions/Mindsets): Understand how customers feel at each stage 
• Actions (Customer Interactions): Track what customers do (like booking flights or making purchases) 
• Strategies (Opportunities): Plan how to enhance the journey (similar to travel strategies) 

Likewise, as a brand or CX expert, you lay out the stages of the customer's journey, judge if customers are on the right path, the actions you hope they'll take and the strategies you'll use to make those actions happen. That’s customer journey mapping in a nutshell! 

Customer journey map vs. Customer experience map

The key difference between a customer journey map and a customer experience map is that while a customer journey map outlines the steps your customers take while interacting with a specific product/service, a customer experience map explores their feelings and reactions throughout that journey, across all departments, products and services. Here are more differences between the two. 

Key stages of a consumer journey map 

The customer journey map typically involves five stages through which a typical customer parses. These include awareness, consideration, decision, service and loyalty. Let’s look at each journey stage closely, which will help build uniquely memorable experiences. 

1. Awareness 
Here's where the lightbulb goes off. Customers realize they've got a problem and start looking for answers. So,  it’s important for you to step in with educational content that helps customers understand their issues better and introduces potential solutions. You’re not trying to sell yet; you just need to be a helpful resource. By tracking which articles and pages your audience gravitates towards, you can tailor your content to meet their early-stage needs more effectively. 

2. Interest 
Now they're in the thick of it, comparing what's out there in terms of features, pricing and reviews. This is your cue to highlight why your product is the best pick through detailed product comparisons, customer stories and focused guides. Help them cut through the noise and narrow down their choices with content that speaks directly to why your solution fits their unique needs. Make your website and blogs prime spots for them to find this info easily. 

3. Purchase 
Decision time! They're leaning towards buying, so make it easy. Streamline the purchasing process with clear, purchase-oriented content like demos and pricing pages. Ditch the broad educational stuff — now it’s about clear calls to action and promotions that sweeten the deal. You now need to focus on clearing the path to purchase, making it a no-brainer for them to proceed with your product. 

4. Retention 
They’ve purchased from you. Now show them it was the right choice with awesome after-sales service. Kick-off with a plain-sailing onboarding process and keep the support lines open and accessible. Customer satisfaction here means quick solutions to their problems and regular check-ins to anticipate needs before they become issues. 

5. Loyalty or Advocacy
Now’s your chance to really show that you appreciate your customers. Keep your loyal customers feeling special with exclusive offers or insider perks that say, "Thanks for sticking with us." Think about organizing events where they can see new products first or offering special discounts as a token of gratitude. Make it a point to ask for their feedback through engaging customer surveys and let them know their thoughts make a real difference. The aim is to foster customer loyalty and win goodwill, referrals and repeat sales. 

Benefits of customer journey mapping in customer service  

Memorable customer experiences don’t happen by chance. They are a product of always-on customer journey mapping. Let’s understand the benefits of using customer journey maps.  

1. Shifts perspective: Customer journey mapping offers a fresh lens, turning your attention away from just the internal workings to the actual experiences of your customers.  
   
   This change in viewpoint is crucial. It helps you understand your business not just as a provider of products or services but as a part of your customer's daily lives, revealing insights into their challenges and delights that you might have overlooked.   
2. Encourages teamwork: By laying out the customer journey for all to see, the journey map acts as a bridge between departments, fostering a sense of unity and collaboration toward a shared goal of customer-centricity.  
   
   It's no longer about marketing, sales or customer service working in silos but coming together to smooth out bumps in the customer's path. This collaborative effort translates into a more cohesive and satisfying experience for the customer, reflecting positively on the brand.  
3. Defines responsibility: It's easy for tasks to fall through the cracks when it's unclear who's responsible for what.  
   
   Customer journey mapping assigns clear ownership of each customer touchpoint, ensuring that every interaction is thoughtfully managed. This not only improves the quality of customer interactions but also boosts accountability and efficiency within the team, leading to operational excellence.  
4. Great customer experiences: Mapping the customer journey does more than just highlight diverse customer needs — it invites you into their world. It helps you acknowledge their different preferences to craft experiences that speak directly to those differences.  
   
   For instance, if retirees and tech-savvy Gen Z are both your customers, their conversion paths and pain points diverge significantly. Personalizing means adjusting your communication, offers and support to resonate deeply with each group, flipping a generic service into an experience that feels uniquely designed for them.  
5. Turns data into action: Think of client journey mapping as turning into Sherlock Holmes, where every piece of data is a clue into what your customers really want.  
   
   For example, if you notice any drop-off at the shipping page, it's a sign that either your shipping costs are too high or your payment options are limited or your payment gateways are glitchy. Acting on this, you could test offering free shipping over a certain amount or assess your payment integrations.  

How to create a customer journey map [+Best Practices]

Creating a customer journey map is like storytelling for your business, where the story you're telling is your customer's experience from start to finish. Whether the story is a fairy tale or a nightmare depends on the efficacy of your customer journey mapping process, which looks like this:  

Step 1: Start with understanding your customer 

Your customers are already expressing their emotions online, and all you have to do is tune in. Start by immersing yourself in the world of your customers to create a journey that sets your brand apart. Use social media listening and customer feedback to gather rich, nuanced understandings of how customers feel about your brand. 

Advanced social listening platforms go beyond simply tracking mentions of your company. It gathers all posts, comments and messages that refer to your brand, products/services/industry, hashtags, competitors and keywords.  

Moreover, it enables you to categorize sentiments as positive, negative or neutral, revealing areas for improving CX and providing valuable insights for training your customer service reps. 

Sprinklr’s social listening platform goes one step ahead. It listens to relevant conversations, analyzes their sentiments and if an action is needed, assigns it to relevant teams right away, delivering instant gratification. 

Step 2: Define the journey’s purpose 

This step is about setting the stage: Are we looking at the path customers currently tread, or are we paving a new one? Understanding the journey's goal helps tailor your map to real or anticipated experiences — ensuring it serves a clear, strategic purpose. 

Step 3: Detail every step 

Break down the journey into stages, identifying what customers do, think and feel at each point. 

What delights them? What frustrates them? Each stage is a chapter in their story with your brand, filled with opportunities to connect and improve. Journey maps are particularly effective for outlining processes that progress through multiple stages, such as signing up for a service or using an app for the first time.  

Step 4: Analyze and assign actions 

With the map laid out, identify where the journey falters and where it flourishes. 

What needs to change to smooth out the rough spots? Who in your team is best equipped to make these changes? Assign responsibility clearly, turning insights into a roadmap for enhancing the customer experience. 

💡Best practice: Using a comprehensive Supervisor Console can help you get a broader and granular vantage point into your team’s capacity and expertise. With a detailed overview of your agents’ performance, strengths and skillsets, you can easily double down on the best-equipped people to take responsibility for specific customer touchpoints. 

Step 5: Keep refining the map 

A customer journey map is a living document, evolving as your customers and your business do. Revisit and revise it regularly, always with an ear to the ground, listening for shifts in customer needs. Leverage customer journey analytics and metrics to benchmark your performance against peers and keep striving for excellence. 

Imagine a café owner who, after noticing a dip in afternoon visits, decides to map out her customers' journey. 

Through conversations and social listening, she discovers her patrons crave a quiet place for midday work. Responding, she creates a "quiet hour" with Wi-Fi boosts and special offers on coffee. As months pass, customer feedback leads to further tweaks, like adding power outlets and meeting spaces. This may help you understand how a customer journey map isn't a static blueprint but a dynamic guide that adapts to the real-time voice of customer.

Source  

5 types of client journey mapping

Customer journey maps are of five broad types, each serving its specific purpose- ranging from diagnosing current issues to gaining a broader perspective. 

🕜Current experience map: This map captures the customer's journey as it unfolds today, highlighting every interaction with your product or service. It's a reality check that surfaces what works, what doesn't and where you can improve, offering a baseline for strategic growth. 
Best for: Decoding existing processes and uncovering optimization opportunities 

💬Aspirational journey map: Imagine how your customer would ideally interact with your brand without the limitations of your current setup. This visionary map encourages bold thinking and innovation, serving as a guide for what you aim to achieve in improving customer experience. 
Best for: Crafting visionary CX that pushes beyond current limitations, ideal for future product developments.  

🔲Big picture map: This type of map zooms out to show the overarching goals and dreams of your customers, providing a strategic overview that leads to long-term planning. You’re basically setting up the stage for the future, where every customer interaction contributes to a larger narrative. 
Best for: Setting strategic directions that anticipate future customer needs and market trends. 

 🔛Focused interaction map: Dive deep into specific customer interactions, such as signing up for a newsletter or using a feature for the first time. This detailed map helps you refine these moments, making sure they're as smooth and satisfying as possible. 
Best for: Enhancing detailed aspects of customer interactions, such as optimizing the user interface on key website pages   

🚺Persona-driven map: Tailored to individual customer personas, this map explores the journey from the perspective of different user types. It sheds light on unique challenges and preferences, allowing you to customize experiences that resonate with each segment of your customers. 
Best for: Fine-tuning marketing and services to meet the specific needs of distinct customer segments.  

Future trends in customer journey mapping

As a customer-centric brand, constantly refining the journey to make it more frictionless for customers is surely your priority. Many upcoming trends in the market only seem to help you achieve this for your brand. Here are a couple of them.  

1. Voice-first transition is inevitable 

Voice technology empowers direct, immediate interactions. Here’s exactly how: First, it simplifies product searches — users can ask for what they need using natural language. When it comes to making purchases, customers can place orders through simple voice commands, bypassing the need for manual input and navigating complex menus. For customer support, voice enables real-time, hands-free communication, allowing users to resolve issues or get answers without delays. Voice simplifies and makes each step from discovery to post-purchase user-friendly and sweat-free. 

Implication on client journey mapping: Voice-first access allows you to adapt to more nonlinear paths to accommodate customers who might jump stages more quickly.  

2. Behavioral AI modeling is your friend 

AI is improving rapidly every day to help you know your customers by looking at their past behaviors. This AI digs into previous interactions and spots trends — maybe it notices that your certain customer demographic always checks out new smartphone releases in the fall. Using these insights, AI can tweak your marketing on the fly, ensuring that when fall rolls around, your latest smartphone deals are front and center for that cohort. AI can help you make every interaction tailor-made, by anticipating what your customers might need next, based on what they’ve liked before. 

Implication on client journey mapping: AI allows maps to evolve into dynamic, adaptable models in real time, enhancing predictive personalization.   

Generative AI to Your Rescue! 

As the smartest AI in the market today, generative AI can automate the behavioral study of your customers. 

Sprinklr AI helps you figure out these little nuances in the behavior of your customer with ease. While it can help agents make tweaks in their service approach in real-time based on a user’s emotions and sentiments, this genAI-powered tool also helps you brainstorm and create marketing campaigns targeted to strike a specific chord with your customers.

Watch Sprinklr AI in action with a free demo today. 

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3. Leakproof experiences at every touchpoint 

Your customers want you to envelop them throughout their journey. To deliver a truly omnichannel customer experience, your CX tool should allow you to pull together data from a myriad of sources — whether it's past purchases, browsing habits or customer service interactions — and use it to craft a unified and fluid experience. This means that no matter where a customer interacts with your brand, whether starting on a mobile app or switching to a desktop, the transition is smooth and the experience is consistent. 

Being strategic about such integrated data can help you ensure that each interaction is not just a standalone event but a connected dot in a larger picture. This way, customers don’t have to repeat themselves or retrace their steps across different touchpoints. Implication on client journey mapping: Data synthesis across platforms helps you curate a seamless, consistent customer journey that spans across all channels and touchpoints. 

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

Popular tools and software for consumer journey mapping

Now, let’s discuss the top tools you can use to map your customer journey effectively. 

1. Sprinklr Journey Facilitator

Sprinklr's Journey Facilitator in Sprinklr’s Marketing product suite equips marketers to design cohesive, multi-channel customer journeys through an advanced visual flow builder. This tool visually outlines how your brand engages with customers across various platforms. Within Sprinklr, you can manage the entire customer journey from start to finish — from importing leads for targeted outreach to evaluating the effectiveness of the journey you've designed. 

2. UXPressia

UXPressia lets you create detailed journeys and user personas, all from one central hub. It’s packed with features that foster cross-team collaboration and allow for customizing your journey taxonomy. You’ll find templates for different journey types and tools to keep all your CX assets organized and accessible — making it the go-to resource for everyone involved.  

3. Smaply

Smaply 3.0 equips you with its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, allowing you to visualize vital data to craft your customer journeys. This robust tool supports the creation of diverse journey maps — user or employee experiences. Smaply enhances organization by linking journeys in structured hierarchies, integrating with tools like Jira and maintaining a rich repository of insights, including multimedia files.  

4. TheyDo

TheyDo provides tools to streamline, standardize and scale your customer journey mapping. It helps teams stay aligned by mapping, structuring and analyzing customer interactions within a cohesive framework. This platform features a diverse template library, including blueprints for funnels and lifecycles, along with integration with design, product and project management tools.  

5. Miro

Miro helps you chart your journeys through a collaborative, dynamic interface. It offers a suite of tools including templates for persona building, touchpoint maps and service blueprints, making it easier for your team to visualize and refine your customer experience strategies. You can bring in all your data and research to ensure every decision is well-informed. The platform is quite interactive, allowing team members to access journey maps anytime to leave feedback, ask questions or tweak things on the fly. 

Case studies of successful customer journey maps

Now, let’s look at a few inspiring examples of well-defined customer journey maps that have yielded tangible business benefits. 

Example 1:  A current experience map to uncover market threats and consumer behaviors Telus, a Canadian telecommunications company, partnered with Bridgeable, a service design firm, to chart the customer journey for the purpose of restructuring their mobile service contract renewal process.   

The company entered the journey mapping process with the assumption that their customers prefer to start and complete the renewal process via a single channel of communication, for instance, a call center. However, on deeper analysis, they uncovered their customers’ preference to channel-hop and use a variety of touchpoints for researching renewal plans and products before arriving at a final renewal decision.  

During this exploration, they identified two distinct customer behavior streams. The first group of "passive optimists" tended to accept the options provided by the telco. The second group of "proactive warriors" actively sought better deals through various channels, such as the Telco website, customer support calls, and in-store interactions.  

With the insights gained from mapping the customer journey, the company designed an omnichannel journey that offered consistent recommendations for each customer, no matter what channel they chose for research and renewal. The end result? Improved adoption of low-cost channels by customers, which lowered the overall support cost for Telus.  

Your takeaway: Before redesigning a product or service, understand your target customer’s perspective, even if it contrasts with your assumptions. Your customers’ pain points and the business problem you aim to solve are always entwined.  

Example 2: A big-picture journey map to tap into real-time customer goals and desires  

In 2021, India’s largest tech wearable brand, boAT, embarked on a digital transformation journey built atop their customers’ in-the-moment needs and desires. To capture these, an AI-powered customer experience platform that cuts through the noise to reach relevant customer conversations across channels was needed. Sprinklr was their partner of choice. 

Sprinklr’s AI engine followed boAt’s customers as they moved from awareness to consideration to purchase, voicing the challenges they faced during their journey with the brand. 

Prior to Sprinklr, boAt’s approach was more reactive and escalation-led, reliant on archaic documentation tools like spreadsheets. There was little scope to incorporate context and case history to help the handling agents deliver accurate, timely solutions. 

Sprinklr’s suite of tools – Sprinklr Insights and Sprinklr Service specifically – solved these issues via:  

• Social listening dashboards that capture customer sentiment and brand mentions  
• Unified agent desktop that renders complete context on every ongoing case   

With a finger on its customers’ pulse, boAt has been able to pivot from reactive to proactive engagements, serving seamless experiences that the modern customer craves. Sounds too good to be true? Take Sprinklr for a free trial and witness the results firsthand.