Mapping the entire customer journey to get insight into and perfect every step of the way.
To get you started, we’ve made this customer journey template. It includes the basic phases customers go through when adopting a new product or service. Adding touchpoint at any point on the dotted line will help you get insight into when you can perfect the experience your customers have.
The goal of a customer journey map is to (in the end), remove obstacles and create that seamless experience that makes everyone happy. Did you know that 80% of customers consider the whole experience as important as the product or service itself (Salesforce UK, 2020)? Every step they have to take to get to to the product or service, and even after that, is a step you can perfect.
In essence, with a customer journey map, the customer is the base from which you will work (Steuer, 2018). By putting the customer at the centre, you make decisions based on their needs. This helps see your brand from the customer’s position and bring to light issues that you might overlook (Salesforce UK, 2020). Things that might seem logical to you, since you know your brand very well, but that might not be clear immediately to your customer.
When creating a customer journey map you can go as crazy as you would like but even a simple one can have an impact. Start by choosing the person this map is about. You can easily use your personas for this. (Read more about personas here) Once you have the customer in mind, set up the phases of the journey. You can do this on a whiteboard, with post-its or just on a piece of paper. An example of the phases you might need are:
(Netigate, 2021)
Now add the touchpoints within each phase. Fill out the thoughts, feelings and actions of the customer during each of the touchpoints and your customer journey map is basically done! This is the simplest version and there are many ways to broaden the scope of the map. Some are more visual with icons and colours, others might be focused on a small part of the experience. Any information that is relevant for the customer’s experience is valuable to add.
Make sure to really include every step of the way. Leaving out even the smallest touchpoint can cause you to miss vital information or make you miss an opportunity. Think of packaging, advertisements, social media, newsletters and aftercare such as a survey after purchase or following up with recommendations based on their earlier purchases (Brenner, 2020).
