A customer journey is the route somebody takes from not knowing you exist to buying from you. Most maps of it are wall charts nobody uses. A useful one is short and points at the step where people are actually leaving.
Why customer journey maps usually fail
They are drawn from the inside, describing the process the business runs rather than the experience somebody has.
So they include stages customers never notice and omit the parts where they struggle. A map produced in a workshop, never checked against a real person, tends to confirm what everybody already believed.
The stages worth mapping
Five, for most businesses, and more than that becomes decoration.
- Somebody has a problem and does not yet know who solves it.
- Looking begins, and a few options get compared.
- One gets chosen, and contact is made.
- A response is awaited, and a decision made about proceeding.
- The purchase happens, and then so does the choice to return.
Each stage has a question in it. Answering those questions in the right place is most of what marketing does.
Building the customer journey from evidence
Three sources beat any workshop, and all three are available today.
Ask five recent customers how they found you and what nearly stopped them. Read your last twenty enquiries and note what they asked. Then look at where people leave your website, which your analytics already records.
Those produce a map based on what happened rather than on what was intended, and the two are rarely the same. Where the real customer journey and the intended one disagree, the real one is the useful document.
Finding where the customer journey breaks
Every business has one step doing most of the damage, and it is usually later than expected.
Common culprits: a page that never answers price, a form asking too much, an enquiry answered the next day, a quote that arrives without explanation, and silence after the quote. Each is cheap to fix and none is an advertising problem.
Find yours by walking your own customer journey as a stranger would, on a phone, at the time of day your customers actually look. The step that irritates you is usually the step losing other people too.
Consequently the fastest improvement in most customer journey work costs nothing and involves no media at all.
Matching channels to customer journey stages
Channels are not interchangeable across the journey, which is why one measured against another produces nonsense.
Interruptive channels suit the first stage, since nobody is searching yet. Search suits the second and third, where somebody is comparing and choosing. Email and follow up suit the fourth. Reputation and reviews work at almost every stage and are usually undermanaged.
Paid channels straddle several stages at once. Knowing which moment each of them answers stops you comparing two that never did the same job.
Timing, and the length of a customer journey
Some journeys take four minutes and some take four months, and the difference changes everything about how you measure.
Where the customer journey is long, judging a campaign on this month's sales measures the wrong window. Look at whether the earlier steps are filling: enquiries, conversations, quotes issued. Those move first, and they predict what arrives later.
Write down roughly how long yours takes. Very few businesses know, and it settles most arguments about whether something is working yet. Ask three recent customers how long they thought about it before getting in touch, and you will have a usable answer by the end of the week.
What to do with the map
Pick one step and improve it, rather than redesigning everything.
The step where most people leave is the obvious candidate, unless a later one is cheaper to fix. Then measure that step specifically for a couple of months. A customer journey map producing no change to a page, a form or a follow up has not done anything.
Give the change to one person with a date attached. Improvements agreed by a room and owned by nobody are the usual reason a map ends up in a folder, and the same steps get discussed again a year later.
Where the journey continues after the sale
Most maps stop at the purchase, which is where the profitable half begins.
What happens in the first week decides whether somebody returns or recommends. A short check that the thing worked, an explanation of what to expect, and an easy route back all belong on the map. Meanwhile the cost of keeping a customer is far below the cost of acquiring one, which makes this the cheapest section to improve.
It is also where reviews come from, and reviews feed the earliest stage of the next person's journey. That loop is the reason the section pays for itself twice.
Keeping it short enough to use
One page. Five stages. The question at each, the channel serving it, and the number telling you whether it is working.
Anything longer becomes a document rather than a tool. The point of a customer journey is to decide what to fix next, and that decision fits on a single sheet.
Revisit it twice a year. Add what you learned, remove what turned out not to matter, and keep it to the page. A map growing every quarter is on its way to becoming another wall chart nobody reads.
Frequently asked questions
What is a customer journey?
The route somebody takes from not knowing you exist to buying from you, and afterwards deciding whether to return. A useful map of it is short and points at the step where people are actually leaving.
Why do most maps fail?
Because they are drawn from the inside, describing the process the business runs rather than the experience somebody has. Built in a workshop and never checked against a real person, they confirm what everybody already believed.
How do I build one from evidence?
Ask five recent customers how they found you and what nearly stopped them, read your last twenty enquiries, and look at where people leave your website. Those three sources beat any workshop and are available today.
Where do people usually drop out?
Later than expected. A page that never answers price, a form asking too much, an enquiry answered the next day, a quote with no explanation, and silence afterwards. None of those is an advertising problem.
Should different channels serve different stages?
Yes, which is why comparing them on one number produces nonsense. Interruptive channels suit the earliest stage, search suits comparing and choosing, email and follow up suit the wait, and reputation works throughout.
How does journey length change measurement?
Completely. Where the journey takes months, judging a campaign on this month sales measures the wrong window. Watch the earlier steps filling instead: enquiries, conversations and quotes issued all move first.
What should I do with the finished map?
Pick one step and improve it, usually the one losing most people, then measure that step for a couple of months. A map producing no change to a page, a form or a follow up has achieved nothing.
Does the journey end at the sale?
No, and that is where the profitable part starts. The first week decides whether somebody returns or recommends. Keeping a customer costs far less than acquiring one, so this is the cheapest section to improve.