Article | 6 minute read
How to Create a Customer Journey Map
Article | 6 minute read
How to Create a Customer Journey Map
Published: 28 February 2023
In this article:
In our previous article "Why You Should Create a Customer Journey Map", we went through what the strategy entails and what the benefits are.
Now we'll go through how to create a customer journey map - in practice.
The purpose of creating a customer journey map is to visualize the customer experience of your business. It creates insights into what customers need, what motivates them, but also what makes them doubt.
The insights will help you improve the customer experience - they can generate a greater number of sales and loyal customers.
What is included in a Customer Journey Map?
The buying journey is rarely one-way. Buyers move forward, backward, fall onto sidetracks and continue forward to the next step. This is the biggest challenge when it comes to visualizing the customer’s journey.
There is not one strategy that is right for all brands. Visualize and concretize through a method that makes it clear to you. This could be through post it-labels on a wall, a digital presentation or an excel document.
Before you start the customer journey map, it's important to have gathered relevant information about your customers. Without a concrete basis, designing a relevant process becomes a challenge.
You can collect data through tools like Google Analytics. There you can get information about how your users navigate your website, who the target audience is and where the traffic is coming from.
How to create a map of the customer journey
Goal
Before you create your map, you need to be specific about what the purpose of the map is and what objectives it will meet. Who will it be used by? And what experience will it be based on?
To get a clearer picture of how your target audience navigates, we recommend starting with a persona that represents the majority of your target audience. One persona. Read more about it here.
Profile and define
The next step involves research. Through a questionnaire, for example. Focus on your current and potential customers. The aim is to get feedback from those who are actually interested in your products and services.
Here are some examples of questions that may be relevant in the survey:
- How did you get in touch with our brand?
- What needs do our products meet?
- What motivated you to make a purchase?
- On a scale of 1-10, how easy is it to navigate our website?
- Is there anything you miss/want us to improve with our products?
Focus on your primary target audience
The questionnaire will likely give you insights into multiple personas that interact with your brand. Break down your stakeholders into a primary audience that you want to focus on. This will help you get a clearer picture of both the customer journey and the customer experience.
When creating your initial map, it's important to consider the process they typically take when they first come into contact with your business. You can use a dashboard to compare which option is the most common. Then highlight the steps in your customer journey map.
Highlight the key points
List the key touch points where your customers can get in touch with your website. Based on your research, write down the most important channels that customers use today. Add the channels you think customers are using that could be improved going forward.
Examples of channels:
- Social media
- Newsletters
- Paid ads
- Webinars
- Podcasts
Review your resources
Your map of the customer journey will include all parts of your business. Including the resources required to create the optimal customer experience.
That's why it's important to take stock of the resources you have today, as well as those you'll need for future projects.
Have customers made comments about your customer support? What resources do you need to provide more efficient and accessible customer service? Live chats? More staff?
Evaluate where your resources make the most difference and what value more resources could generate in the long run.
Execute your resources
Once you've finished the structure of your map, it doesn't mean the job is done. This is where the most important work begins: analyzing the results.
- How many users are clicking through to your website?
- How many go all the way through the buying journey?
- How can you improve the experience so a greater proportion of them make a purchase?
Through your structure, you can more easily understand where things are going wrong and what you can clarify.
When you analyze the results, you can gain valuable insights on how to meet your customers' needs more effectively. You'll also gain more insight into where they are most likely to be.
But, to get a clearer perspective on what the process looks like, we recommend testing the customer journey yourself. If you have chosen to work with multiple personas, you should test all customer journeys.
Dare to change
Your data analysis should give you a hint of what you want your website to be like. Make the changes necessary to achieve your stated goals. This could be more articles to optimize SEO, clearer CTAs or better product images.
No matter how small or large the changes are, they will improve the customer journey and the bottom line. The data will help you focus on what needs to be improved, rather than making small adjustments based on emotion.
Update as you go
We recommend that you update your customer journey map as you go along. Monitor it on a monthly or quarterly basis. This will help you identify opportunities for improvement. Base your changes on data and feedback from your customers.
Share your map with everyone in your marketing team. This will provide guidance for future initiatives and activities.
Summary
The customer journey map will help you gain a deeper understanding of the customer experience, their needs and motivations step by step. The insights will help you build stronger relationships with customers, and to create marketing activities tailored to each step of the process.
Published: 28 February 2023
In this article:
In our previous article "Why You Should Create a Customer Journey Map", we went through what the strategy entails and what the benefits are.
Now we'll go through how to create a customer journey map - in practice.
The purpose of creating a customer journey map is to visualize the customer experience of your business. It creates insights into what customers need, what motivates them, but also what makes them doubt.
The insights will help you improve the customer experience - they can generate a greater number of sales and loyal customers.
What is included in a Customer Journey Map?
The buying journey is rarely one-way. Buyers move forward, backward, fall onto sidetracks and continue forward to the next step. This is the biggest challenge when it comes to visualizing the customer’s journey.
There is not one strategy that is right for all brands. Visualize and concretize through a method that makes it clear to you. This could be through post it-labels on a wall, a digital presentation or an excel document.
Before you start the customer journey map, it's important to have gathered relevant information about your customers. Without a concrete basis, designing a relevant process becomes a challenge.
You can collect data through tools like Google Analytics. There you can get information about how your users navigate your website, who the target audience is and where the traffic is coming from.
How to create a map of the customer journey
Goal
Before you create your map, you need to be specific about what the purpose of the map is and what objectives it will meet. Who will it be used by? And what experience will it be based on?
To get a clearer picture of how your target audience navigates, we recommend starting with a persona that represents the majority of your target audience. One persona. Read more about it here.
Profile and define
The next step involves research. Through a questionnaire, for example. Focus on your current and potential customers. The aim is to get feedback from those who are actually interested in your products and services.
Here are some examples of questions that may be relevant in the survey:
- How did you get in touch with our brand?
- What needs do our products meet?
- What motivated you to make a purchase?
- On a scale of 1-10, how easy is it to navigate our website?
- Is there anything you miss/want us to improve with our products?
Focus on your primary target audience
The questionnaire will likely give you insights into multiple personas that interact with your brand. Break down your stakeholders into a primary audience that you want to focus on. This will help you get a clearer picture of both the customer journey and the customer experience.
When creating your initial map, it's important to consider the process they typically take when they first come into contact with your business. You can use a dashboard to compare which option is the most common. Then highlight the steps in your customer journey map.
Highlight the key points
List the key touch points where your customers can get in touch with your website. Based on your research, write down the most important channels that customers use today. Add the channels you think customers are using that could be improved going forward.
Examples of channels:
- Social media
- Newsletters
- Paid ads
- Webinars
- Podcasts
Review your resources
Your map of the customer journey will include all parts of your business. Including the resources required to create the optimal customer experience.
That's why it's important to take stock of the resources you have today, as well as those you'll need for future projects.
Have customers made comments about your customer support? What resources do you need to provide more efficient and accessible customer service? Live chats? More staff?
Evaluate where your resources make the most difference and what value more resources could generate in the long run.
Execute your resources
Once you've finished the structure of your map, it doesn't mean the job is done. This is where the most important work begins: analyzing the results.
- How many users are clicking through to your website?
- How many go all the way through the buying journey?
- How can you improve the experience so a greater proportion of them make a purchase?
Through your structure, you can more easily understand where things are going wrong and what you can clarify.
When you analyze the results, you can gain valuable insights on how to meet your customers' needs more effectively. You'll also gain more insight into where they are most likely to be.
But, to get a clearer perspective on what the process looks like, we recommend testing the customer journey yourself. If you have chosen to work with multiple personas, you should test all customer journeys.
Dare to change
Your data analysis should give you a hint of what you want your website to be like. Make the changes necessary to achieve your stated goals. This could be more articles to optimize SEO, clearer CTAs or better product images.
No matter how small or large the changes are, they will improve the customer journey and the bottom line. The data will help you focus on what needs to be improved, rather than making small adjustments based on emotion.
Update as you go
We recommend that you update your customer journey map as you go along. Monitor it on a monthly or quarterly basis. This will help you identify opportunities for improvement. Base your changes on data and feedback from your customers.
Share your map with everyone in your marketing team. This will provide guidance for future initiatives and activities.
Summary
The customer journey map will help you gain a deeper understanding of the customer experience, their needs and motivations step by step. The insights will help you build stronger relationships with customers, and to create marketing activities tailored to each step of the process.