Customer Experience Journey Map

Did you know that 74% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on their experience alone? 

The journey you provide your customers can make or break a sale. But how do you know what your customer wants? The key is planning ahead. A customer experience journey map can help you to get into the head of your customer, and provide them with the best possible journey. 

Read on to learn all about customer experience journey maps, the key components, benefits, and how to create one yourself. 

What is a Customer Journey Map?

A customer journey map is a visual display of the stages and key touchpoints of a customer journey with a company. It is essentially a timeline of the customer’s experience with a company’s service, product, or overall brand. 

It can help you to understand your customer journey - their needs and thought processes throughout their experience. It can help you to get into the head of your customer, and understand their: 

• Motivations 
• Pain points
• Needs
• Processes
• Intentions
• Perceptions

In turn, this can help you to make appropriate changes and improve the overall customer experience. 

What Does a Customer Experience Journey Map Look Like?

The customer journey begins when they first engage with your brand. For example, they may have seen your brand on social media, stumbled across your website on the search engines, or noticed an advertisement.

It could also begin when the customer interacts with your brand, whether it be a product, service, website or customer service representative. It includes all of the actions that a customer takes with your company. 

Here’s an example of a customer experience journey map in a call centre: 

The Key Components of a Customer Experience Journey Map

Let’s start by saying that one size does not fit all when it comes to mapping your customer journey. There is no right or wrong way to do this - it all depends on your business, what you hope to achieve by mapping customer experience, and of course, your typical customer. That being said, here are some key components to consider: 

Customer Profile 

This represents your average customer. It’s all about getting into your customer’s shoes and imagining who they are - their age, job, goals etcetera. Refer to: 

• Demographics - their age, income, gender etc
• Paint points - specific challenges they may face 
• Psychographics - their interests, motivations, goals and behaviours

Touchpoints

Another component is the main timeline and touchpoints - the specific interactions that your customer persona/ buyer persona has with your company at each stage. These touchpoints could include: 

• Visiting your website 
• Engaging with your company on social media
• Speaking with customer service representatives
• Visiting in-store
• Communicating via email 

When mapping these events, consider both online and offline interactions. Likewise, consider indirect interactions such as exploring online reviews.

Stages

You can divide your customer journey into several stages, such as:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Engagement
• Sale
• Service
• Usage 
• Advocacy 

Map these stages out clearly to see your customer journey and see what areas you can improve to boost overall customer satisfaction. 

Thoughts and Emotions

This refers to your customer’s mindset - what are they feeling? What is their emotional state throughout their journey? Consider what they may be thinking at each stage, as well as their emotional responses. Are they excited? Are they frustrated? Mapping these out can help you better understand your customer.  

You can gain a better understanding of their emotions by conducting surveys or asking for feedback directly from your customers. 

Opportunities

Identify any areas of improvement along the customer journey, based on potential gap in the current journey or existing pain points. Any pain points are an opportunity for you to make improvements and boost customer satisfaction. Look out for patterns and trends and act accordingly. 

Customer Satisfaction Metrics

This is a measurement of how well your company is currently meeting your customer needs at each stage. KPIs such as customer satisfaction (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), and conversion rates can be extremely useful. 

The Benefits of Mapping The Customer Experience Journey 

Now you understand the key components of a customer experience journey map, let’s learn how you can reap the benefits of mapping your customer journey. 

Learn More About Your Customer

First of all, mapping the customer experience journey can help you to empathise with your customers - you can see their journey from their point of view. You’ll likely find that customers don’t always act as you expect them to! 

Customer service expectations are higher than ever before, with 58% of customers stating that their expectations have risen within a year. Mapping can help you to address these growing expectations. 

You can gain insights into the needs of your customer, as well as their favourite moments and frustrating moments along their journey with your company. This means you can make improvements and amend their journey to ensure you are meeting their needs, every time. 

Identify Pain Points

Mapping can also help you to identify the area in which customers struggle or get annoyed. For example, they may:

1. Love the initial engagement (advertisement or social media post) 
2. Love the service they receive 
3. Drop off when they see the price point 

This means you know what to prioritise - in this instance, you could look at the price point and amend it accordingly. Likewise, if they dislike the customer service your company offers, you can make appropriate amendments in this area to boost customer satisfaction. 

Boost ROI 

Ultimately, knowing your customer experience journey can boost your company's profits across the board. Reducing pain points can lead to improved customer retention - and happy customers are more likely to become repeat customers and advocates. 

This can boost your reputation and profitability. After all, satisfied customers can generate up to 14x more revenue than dissatisfied customers! 

Customer mapping can also help you allocate your time and resources efficiently. You can learn exactly where you need to improve and make targeted improvements to have the most impact on customer satisfaction. You can also learn what is working well, so you know where you don’t need to make changes. After all, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it! 

How To Create a Customer Experience Journey Map

1. Determine your goals - What specific customer joureny do you want to map? What do you hope to accomplish from this?
2. Create the customer profile - Develop a profile of your target customer, considering factors such as motivations, pain points and needs 
3. Determine touchpoints - Outline how the customer engages with your brand across various stages of their journey 
4. Visualise and map - Consider actions, emotions and pain points at each stage of the journey 
5. Gather and evaluate data - You can do so by conducting surveys, analysing existing data or asking for feedback 
6. Include the customer’s thoughts - Make a note of what the customer is thinking and feeling at each stage 
7. Highlight pain points - Determine where the customer gets frustrated,and include areas to improve on as well as the potential improvements 
8. Analyse - Review the map and decide which areas are a priority 
9. Action - Now it’s time to create a plan - determine the next steps to optimise the customer journey.

Improve Customer Experience with MaxContact

Do you want more satisfied customers? You’re in the right place - our software can boost your customer satisfaction rates. 

Our call centre software enables you to create personalised customer experiences and tailor your interactions based on your customer preferences. Make the most of voice-response systems and automated telephony to save you time and money whilst putting the customer first. 

Our platform can provide you with real-time (and historical!) data on metrics such as customer satisfaction (CSAT), average handling times (AHT) and other KPIs. This means you can continuously monitor and improve the customer service experience.

Try a free demo today to get started!