Customer Journey Mapping or CJM is a customer journey. It's a tool that shows how customers interact with a brand at each step of the journey. To do this, marketers analyze the emotions, actions, and decisions a customer makes from the first contact to the completion of a purchase and even beyond.
In this article, we'll look at how to create a customer journey map, what stages to include, how to identify bottlenecks, and why it's important for increasing conversions, loyalty, and profits.


Read more about CJM

Customer Journey Mapping - visualizing the process a customer goes through when interacting with a company. These are all touchpoints: from finding information to placing an order to communicating with support after receiving it.
CJM is needed to better understand customers and see at which stages customers are satisfied and where they are frustrated. This is important when it comes to increasing conversion and customer retention. The purpose of the map is to make the interaction with the brand convenient and enjoyable for the customer.
A customer journey map is not done once and for all, but is updated regularly as customer needs and market conditions change.
Customer Journey Map visualizes the customer journey and simplifies business operations:

  • Helps increase conversion rates. When you know where customers are losing interest, it's easy to remove barriers and increase the number of completed transactions.
  • Improves Loyalty. If a customer is satisfied at every stage, they are more likely to return or recommend the brand to friends.
  • Optimizes costs. Understanding vulnerabilities and weaknesses is the first step to increasing LTV. When customers interact with a company regularly and are satisfied, they bring friends and acquaintances for free, and those their acquaintances, and so on ad infinitum. The need for huge marketing budgets is eliminated.
  • Shows the real needs of customers. Knowing the needs and pains allows you to offer relevant products and services, which increases satisfaction.

 

What to do with a customer journey map

Creating a customer journey map is the first step. To make it work, use it to make improvements. What to do:

  • Simplify processes. If customers are dropping items in the cart, perhaps checkout is complicated. Shorten the steps or add quick payment.
  • Check communication channels. Make sure the website is fast, the chatbot works, managers respond on time, and newsletters go out to everyone. This will reduce complaints.
  • Make personalized offers based on customer information. For example, if a person frequently buys one product, offer a discount or bonus for a repeat purchase.
  • Train employees to solve problems. Teach them to respond faster and offer solutions if something is wrong. Customers appreciate help.
  • Add loyalty programs. Offer bonuses to loyal customers. This will increase repeat purchases.

These are basic scenarios for putting CJM into practice. In most cases, there are more: from website changes to offline point-of-sale redesigns. 


What stages to divide the customer journey into

You don't need to invent a path from 0 - there is a template with key stages. The first is awareness. The customer learns about the product through advertising, social media or recommendations. The first contact forms a general impression of the brand.
The next stage is interest. The client studies the product, reads reviews, compares it with competitors. If customers drop out at this stage, give more useful information to help with the decision.
Then consideration. The customer asks questions, contacts support, or seeks additional information to see if the product is needed. This step is more likely to weed out a large portion of uninterested customers. If there is enough information to convince, the customer makes a decision and buys.
After that comes the post-sale experience stage. Delivery, product usage, feedback. This is where a long-term relationship with the brand is formed. The last one is loyalty. If the customer is satisfied, they will come back for a repeat purchase or recommend you to friends.
A customer can leave at every stage, so each CJM is different and tailored to the specific company, market and customers. Don't stop at a template, it doesn't give a complete picture of the customer journey.


How to identify bottlenecks?

“Bottlenecks” are moments where customers experience negative emotions or refuse to buy. It is important to identify maximum pain points in different ways:

  • Analyzing customerfeedback shows clues as to what users are dissatisfied with. Delivery complaints - optimize speed.
  • Watch site heat maps to see where users are more likely to leave the page. This indicates design or content issues.
  • Customer interviews, social media surveys, and direct communication convey the experiences of real users. Communicate even with those who didn't make it to purchase - find out why this is so, how to fix it.
  • Study metrics - conversions, time on site, bounce rate, etc. It helps to identify problem areas and make a list of hypotheses.
  • Ask real users to walk through the customer journey and record actions. This will show where difficulties arise.

 

How to create a CJM

To create a customer journey map, start by identifying your audience. Make descriptions of those who interact with the brand, emphasizing needs and possible difficulties.
Next, break down the interaction into steps. This will allow you to focus on each element separately.
Gather facts through surveys, interviews and other methods written about above. This way, you'll get an idea of the actual actions of your customers.
Record emotions and behaviors at each step. Point out the difficulties that customers face. This will give a deeper understanding of the experience.
Present the result visually. Use charts or graphs to visualize the process. This way, the information will be more accessible for perception.
This approach will help improve customer interaction and brand performance. 


Common mistakes when creating a customer journey map

When creating a CJM, it's important to avoid common mistakes that distort information and ruin strategies. Let's take a look at the most common mistakes marketers and entrepreneurs make.
Ignoring customer emotions. It's important not only to capture actions, but also to understand how the customer feels at each stage. Also remember that one script for all is bad. Every customer goes through a different journey, so consider several different audience segments.
Gather feedback regularly and update your map so you can more easily adapt to changes in the market and customer demand. Don't overcomplicate the map - it needs to be understood by you and those who will need to use it. Don't make up your own markups, don't create dozens of schemes that only you understand. Keep it simple.


Conclusion

Customer Journey Mapping is not just a trend, but an essential tool for businesses that want to grow and evolve. Understanding the customer journey allows you to identify weaknesses, improve service and increase sales.
If you haven't created a customer journey map yet, it's time to start. It will help you better understand your customers and make their interaction with your brand as comfortable as possible. Based on the CJM, create strategies to improve the brand and show changes to customers.