In the previous post, Introduction to Customer Journey Mapping Framework, I outlined the key framework necessary to begin mapping the customer journey template. It involves learning about your customer’s actions, motivations, questions, and pain points at every stage of the customer buying cycle. Most importantly, the customer journey template reveals how well your brand delivery matches up to your brand’s promise.
Customers expect every exchange with a brand to be seamless from the initial touchpoint to the post-purchase. Understanding the interactions at each touchpoint will help you not only satisfy and exceed your customer’s needs, but also helps to improve the efficiency of your business.
“Customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than those not focused on the customer” – Deloitte and Touche
There are extraordinary business benefits when you map your customer journey template:
Helps your business operate more customer-centric, giving you a data-driven perspective;
Enables you to discover customer needs at each buying stage;
Reveals the gaps between the desired customer experience and the actual outcome;
Identify silo’s within your business; and
Prioritizes new business features or developments, maximizing its effectiveness.
The goal of customer journey mapping
A customer journey map takes many forms, but there is a common goal: to identify key interactions that a customer has with an organization. It showcases the user’s feelings, goals, questions, and pain points at each touchpoint. This helps bridge the gap to get more intimate with your customer. Each customer journey map should identify a customer persona and the activities within each stage.
At first glance, the map may look simple. Once you begin the customer journey mapping process, you will find that it is fairly complex and will vary for each customer segment. For example, if you have an e-commerce business, your customers will have a myriad of initial touchpoints. He or she may come through an email marketing campaign, search, social media, customer service support, or 
from a referral. Your customers will also have specific needs. For example, customer coming in through a promotional email marketing campaign will likely be looking for something different than a customer coming in from social media.
Mapping the customer journey
To begin, have the timeline and documentation of the customer experience ready. The documentation should include specific information such as channels, statistics (or other data points), customer goal at each stage, barriers, and even a responsible team at each touchpoint. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and think about before, during, and after the purchase.
Let’s say you own a Shopify store that sells customized pet products. A customer, Christine, is interested in buying a “customized dog squeak toy” to feature on her website. Christine’s first action is to do a search on Google. A number of products come up, including one of yours. At this point, Christine is probably comparing product offerings (or features) and seeking out further information from several businesses. As she explores your website and products, she will begin forming perceptions and questions in mind as she browses the catalog.
Christine eventually finds the product she is interested in, but she still has a few questions before she is ready to make the purchase. She explores your website decides to contact support and finds an email. Before sending an email, she checks Facebook and Twitter for any information that may help her solve her question. She decides to send a Tweet, asking for help and a response was returned promptly. Christine is satisfied with the swift support and proceeds to purchasing a few products.
The journey doesn’t end there, but it’s important to first understand the origination of your customer’s journey. Examine the emotions at each touchpoint and rate the experiences. Is it positive or negative? Begin to connect the dots and identify which gaps are falling short of your customer’s expectations. This exercise will help you formulate and decipher where you can have the greatest impact on improving the experience.
Mapping the Customer Journey Template
Leverage Your Customer Satisfaction Data
Include your customer satisfaction scores as you map out your customer journey template to get a holistic view of your customer’s experience. This additional set of data will help reinforce any assumptions or gaps. For example, if your customer rates a CSAT score of 3 at his/her point of purchase, and gives a score of 8 post-purchase, you will immediately spot that the point of purchase requires attention.
After this process, you’ll be able to put yourself in the shoes of your customer and identify crucial touchpoints. You will unravel the customer experience from start to end of the journey and identify the bottlenecks that prevent your customer from his or her desired outcomes.
Conclusion
A customer journey map is one of the most powerful tools to identify gaps within your organization. Whether you are a B2B or B2C business, the map is one of the most effective ways to becoming more customer-centric. It compels you to understand the technological impact on customer interactions with your brand through mobile, social media, the web and other applications. If used properly, the map will help improve your revenue metrics, while opening up opportunities with your current customer base.
Your customer is more empowered than ever to amplify their opinions across a wide range of channels. Providing poor ways to interact or having one negative touchpoint encounter can ruin a lifetime value with a customer. The good news is that you have the control over your customer touchpoints with today’s customer experience management software. Christine’s experience is just one variation of a customer journey. Do you have all the interactions needed to address all your customer’s needs?
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