Knowing your users deeply is a bit challenging. You think you understand their needs and problems so well, but then new technology, priorities, and buying trends emerge.
Nearly 70% of online buyers left their carts in 2021.

Why do users spend hours filling products in their cart to close the tab? Why is it taking users several steps to get from point A to point B when it should only take one?

You likely do not have a clear idea of the customer journey mapping stages to buying your product or service.

What is a Customer Journey Map?

The customer journey mapping stages are the process used to visualize the steps a customer takes when interacting with a company, from initial awareness all the way through to purchase and beyond. By mapping out each journey step, businesses can gain valuable insights into where customers are getting stuck or dropping off, and make necessary changes to improve the overall experience.

Customer journey maps can be created for any customer interaction, whether online or in-person, and they can be tailored to specific products or services. Creating customer journey mapping stages typically involves interviews and surveys with real customers and analysis of data such as website analytics. Once complete, the map can be used as a reference point for making decisions about everything from marketing campaigns to product development.

Why are the Customer Journey Mapping Steps Important?

The customer journey mapping stages is important because it allows businesses to see the bigger picture regarding their customers. It helps them understand what their customers are thinking and feeling and what they need and want. This understanding can then be used to improve the customer experience.

The customer journey mapping stages seem as simple as buying and selling products and services but it is a bit more complex. Once the user is introduced to a product, they go through an actual buying process. As per Salesforce, 80% of users believe that the best customer experience with a company is more important than its products.

customer journey steps are helpful to know your users

How to Create a Customer Journey Map?

Creating a customer journey map can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be! By following these simple steps, you’ll be on your way to mapping out a compelling customer journey in no time.

1. Define your Goal.

Before you even start creating your customer journey map, you must know your goal. What are you hoping to learn or accomplish by mapping out the customer journey? Once you have a clear goal, you can move on to the next step.

To get some idea, you can begin with fictitious customer data with all their demographics and psychographics illustrating your average user. Having a clear picture helps to take a direct approach toward the customer journey mapping stages.

2. Identify your Customers

Who are your customers? What do they look like? What are their needs and wants? These are all critical questions to answer when creating the customer journey mapping stages. Once you understand who your customers are, you can begin thinking about their journey.

You can begin by researching to grab valuable customer feedback through questionnaires and user testing. The crucial thing is to only reach out to the right or potential customers. Potential customers always give quality feedback that can help you see things deeply and take proper action. Here are some benchmarks of good questions to ask are:

  • How did you come to know about our company?

  • What first thing grabbed your attention on our website?

  • What are your expectations from our products and services? In other words, what answers are you looking for from your problems?

  • How much longer do you like to stay at our website?

  • Have you ever purchased from us? If so, what influenced you to make a buying decision?

  • On a scale of 1 to 10, how easy can you navigate our website?

  • Did you ever need customer support? If so, how useful was it, on a scale of 1 to 10?

  • Can we further support you to make your process easier?

3. Highlight the Needs of your Customers

It’s a critical part of customer journey mapping stages that helps businesses understand the needs of their customers. By creating a map of all the touchpoints a customer has with a company, businesses can better understand their customers’ needs and how to improve their experience.

It also means understanding how customers interact with your brand and their needs at each stage of the journey, you can develop strategies to keep them engaged and reduce customer churn.

  • Figure out where your customers are coming from

  • Identify what your customers need

  • Engage with your customers

  • Understand what motivates your customers

  • Build a relationship with your customers

  • Provide an excellent customer experience

  • Ask for feedback and use it to improve

4. Bookmark all Touchpoints

Bookmarking all the touchpoints on your website where your audience spend the most time. They are the critical places where they interact with you. It is a crucial step in building a customer journey map as it gives you an understanding of your users’ actions. If they use lesser touchpoints than anticipated, does this imply that they turned away and left your website early? If they are using more touchpoints, does this indicate your website is complex and needs several navigations to reach an end goal?

Touchpoints don’t mean website only. It would be best to look at how your users might come across you online. These might include:

  • Social channels

  • Paid ads

  • Email marketing

  • Third-party review websites or mentions

Give a quick Google search of your business to see all the pages that tag you. Confirm these by checking your Google Analytics to see where your traffic is coming from.

Start by brainstorming all of the potential touchpoints that a customer might have with your business, from first awareness all the way through to purchase and beyond. Once you have all of the steps mapped out, take a closer look at each one and identify any pain points or areas for improvement.

5. Check your Users’ Actions

Knowing what the needs of your users are and how they act to fulfill them is essential. AI-based tools drill down all the critical information about your users’ needs. You can get the same information from feedback, surveys, and research.

6. knowing Customers’ Pain Points

As the customer journey steps show the path a customer takes while interacting with a company, it is essential to know the customer’s pain points along that path. By understanding these pain points, companies can take steps to address them and improve the overall customer experience.

There are a few different ways to identify customers’ pain points. One is to ask them directly through surveys or interviews. Another is observing their behavior through online analytics or in-person interactions. Finally, companies can also look at data from customer service interactions to see where there are common issues that customers are facing.

Once pain points have been identified, companies can then work on addressing them. This might involve making product or service changes, improving customer communication, or providing better support options. Whatever the solution, it’s important to ensure that it addresses the problem and doesn’t create new ones in the process.

7. Determine the Resources you Have and the Ones You’ll Need.

As you create your customer journey steps, it’s important to remember the available resources and the ones you’ll need. Depending on the size and scope of your project, you may need to invest in additional staff or outsource certain tasks. But with a clear understanding of what’s required, you can ensure that your customer journey map is successful.

8. Take the Customer Journey Steps Yourself.

When mapping out the customer journey, it’s essential to take the time to experience it yourself. This will help you understand how customers interact with your business and their needs. To do this, start by creating a list of all a customer’s touchpoints with your company. This can include everything from visiting your website to talking to customer service.

Then, go through each touchpoint and take note of what the experience is like. Are there any pain points? Is the process easy to follow? What could be improved? By taking the journey yourself, you’ll get valuable insights that you can use to enhance the customer experience.

How Often Should you Update your Customer Journey Steps?

Customer journey steps should be updated on a regular basis, at least once a year. However, if significant changes exist in your business or customer base, you may need to update your map more frequently.

customer journey steps help to make the best business decisions

Benefits Of Customer Journey Mapping

As a business owner, you always look for ways to improve the customer experience. After all, happy customers are the key to a successful business. One way to ensure that your customers are happy is to map out their journey with your company. This process is called customer journey mapping.

Customer journey mapping is a tool businesses use to understand the experience their customers have with their company. By understanding the customer’s journey, businesses can identify areas to improve the customer experience.

There are many benefits of customer journey mapping, including:

1. Improved Customer Experience

One of the main benefits of customer journey mapping is that it can help you improve the customer experience. By understanding the customer’s journey, you can identify areas where the customer experience can be improved. For example, you may find that your customers are getting frustrated with your website’s checkout process. You can improve the customer’s experience and increase sales by fixing this issue.

2. Increased Sales

Another benefit of customer journey mapping is that it can lead to increased sales. When you improve the customer experience, customers will likely buy from you again. In addition, they may also tell their friends and family about their positive experiences, which can lead to even more sales.

3. Improved Customer Retention

One of the crucial benefits of customer journey mapping is that it can help improve customer retention. When you understand the customer’s journey well, you can identify areas where they may be at risk of leaving your company. Addressing these issues can keep more customers and decrease the churn rate.

4. Increased Customer Loyalty

Improved customer retention can lead to increased customer loyalty. When customers have a positive experience with your company and feel like their needs are being met, they are more likely to be loyal to your brand. This loyalty can lead to increased sales and improved word-of-mouth marketing.

customer journey steps are beneficial for your business growth customer journey steps are beneficial for your business growth

5. Improved Employee Engagement

You can improve employee engagement and satisfaction by providing employees with the necessary resources. When you map out the customer’s journey, you can also identify areas where your employees need more training or support. This, in turn, can lead to improved customer service and increased sales.

Bottom-line:

Once you fully know the customer journey mapping, you can make your customers happy at every stage in their buying journey. Many factors can impact this journey, involving customer pain points, emotions, and your organization’s touchpoints and processes.

A customer journey map is the most helpful way to envision this data, whether you’re optimizing your journey for the user or exploring a new business opportunity to help a user’s unrecognized needs.

Churnfree is a powerful tool that can help businesses improve the customer experience, increase sales, and improve customer engagement. If you still need to use this tool in your business, now is the time to start.