Customer Journey Mapping: How To Map Out Touchpoints To Improve User Experience

Do your customers drop off at key stages of the buying process? If so, use customer journey mapping to visualize their engagement and pinpoint friction points so you can streamline interactions, boost the user experience, and drive more sales.

By the end of this article, you’ll understand how to create a customer journey map for a better UX. You can then optimize customer touchpoints, and align your strategies for more personalized customer interactions.

Let’s get started.

What Is Customer Journey Mapping?

Customer journey mapping visualizes the steps and interactions a customer has with a brand from start to finish. This includes every touchpoint along the journey, from initial awareness to post-purchase interactions. Mapping customer journeys lets you make decisions based on data to improve your customer’s experience.

An excellent example is Funnelytics that lets you map and present your strategy on a drag-and-drop digital canvas. You can visualize how a visitor lands on a lead capture page, becomes a lead, moves on to the sales page, and proceeds to the checkout.

To understand the concept, these are the key components of customer journey mapping.

4 Key Elements Of Customer Journey Mapping

• Stages: The journey is divided into 5 stages: Awareness, Consideration, Decision, Post-Purchase, and Advocacy.
• Touchpoints: Interactions customers have with the brand at each stage. It includes online ads, product pages, checkout processes, and follow-up emails.
• Metrics: This tracks each touchpoint’s performance. It includes conversion rates, bounce rates, and customer satisfaction scores.
• Visualization: Creating a customer journey map like a flowchart or diagram. This way, you will see the entire journey at a glance to identify gaps and improvement opportunities. 

Funnelytics lets you overlay all performance data to identify drop-off points. For example, if you notice a high drop-off rate at the sales page, Funnelytics will show that visitors are leaving because of slow loading time or unclear pricing details. Then, you can optimize the page, improve load speed, and clarify pricing to boost conversions.

Let’s map a customer’s journey in the awareness stage when buying a car. To do so, you will monitor these 5 factors to get a comprehensive view of their experience: 

• Customer Behavior: What actions is your customer taking?
• Customer Attitudes: What is your customer feeling? 
• On-Stage Experience: Who or what is your customer directly interacting with? 
• Off-Stage Experience: What elements support the customer journey but are not visible to them?

Customer Journey Mapping: A 5-Step Guide

As you go over the strategies, ask yourself: How can I optimize each customer touchpoint to create a seamless and engaging journey?

1. Specify Your Targets 

Before you start your customer journey mapping, establish clear objectives. Ask these questions: 

• Do I want to increase conversions and drive sales growth?
• How can I boost customer satisfaction at each touchpoint?
• Do I want to understand customer behaviors better?
• Do I want to improve customer retention and loyalty?
• How can I reduce friction throughout the customer buying journey?

Make sure your objectives align with your business strategy. For example, if you are launching a new product line, your journey mapping should focus on driving product awareness.

2. Represent Customer Groups

Customer personas are profiles that represent key segments of your target audience. They help to tailor touchpoints to specific customer needs and behaviors. These are the 5 steps you can follow to create your customer persona: 

2.1 Collect Customer Feedback

• Surveys: Gather customer feedback using targeted questions about satisfaction, ease of use, and customer experience.
• Reviews: Encourage customers to leave reviews on Google, Yelp, or product pages so you can understand their sentiments on your offers and interactions.
• Customer Support Interactions: Analyze tickets, emails, and calls to identify common pain points.
• Social Media Monitoring: Monitor channels for mentions, comments, and feedback.
• Focus Groups: Organize discussions with your target customers to learn about their customer expectations.

A real-life example is Breaking Eighty, a website that reviews golf products. They use quizzes to engage visitors and collect their emails for personalized marketing pain-free (30-second quiz). As the prospects finish a quiz, they are prompted to sign up for the newsletter through email so they can learn about their interests and keep them informed with targeted content. 

2.2 Research Your Audience

Get into your customer’s shoes to find out your target customer’s preferences. Are they more likely to interact with digital touchpoints or offline ones? Tailor your journey map to reflect these preferences. Find out: 

• Demographic Data: Age, gender, income, location, and occupation.
• Psychographic Data: Values, interests, lifestyle choices, and attitudes.
• Behavioral Data: Buying history, browsing habits, and engagement with marketing content.
• Market Trends: Industry developments and consumer behaviors relevant to your brand.
• Competitor Analysis: How your potential customer interacts with competitors and industry benchmarks.

Use the 3 methods to find out about the customer information: 

• Review purchase history data from your CRM system
• Conduct surveys through platforms like SurveyMonkey
• Use Google Analytics and see the demographic, interest, and geo reports
• Analyze interactions and trends on social media platforms like Facebook Insights

2.3 Segment Your Audience

Divide your audience into distinct segments based on shared characteristics. You might segment by demographic factors (e.g., young professionals, retirees). Or you can segment on behavioral patterns (e.g., frequent buyers, occasional shoppers).

For example, if you’re a telemedicine provider, create segments for patients that need preventative care. Then, offer specialized treatments, therapy sessions, and medical alerts to your target segments. Present these options early in the journey to ensure maximum patient interaction.

2.4 Develop Persona Profiles

For each segment, create a detailed persona profile that includes: 

• A fictional name and brief background story to humanize the persona
• Demographics
• Psychographics
• Behavioral patterns
• Needs & pain points

2.5 Tailor Touchpoints

Use these personas to inform how you design touchpoints at each stage of the customer’s journey. For example, if a persona frequently engages with social media, focus on creating compelling social content.

Or if a persona frequently engages with social media like TikTok, create TikTok-specific content. Use dance trends or viral memes to make your content relatable. Showcase your products in action and use the TikTok Shop feature so your customers can directly purchase from your posts.

3. Define Your Mapping Stages & Touchpoints For A Smoother Journey

Ask yourself: Where is the person in the customer lifecycle? To map out the entire customer journey, start by defining the key stages. The stages reflect the different phases from initial awareness to post-purchase engagement. Then, identify and categorize the key touchpoints for each. This will tell you where customers interact with your brand at each stage: 

We’ll go through each stage together and share real-life examples that should give you many aha moments. If you have the financial resources, remember, you can always hire an experienced marketing assistant to take some weight off your shoulders, true to the motto: “Who, not how.”

3.1 Awareness

This stage marks the first interaction customers have with your brand. They get to know about your products or services through omnichannel marketing tactics. For example, online ads, social media posts, or word of mouth. The goal here is to capture attention and spark interest.

At this stage, consider SEO for your marketing needs if your target audience frequently uses search engines. Otherwise, you should use channels like social media and email marketing to engage and attract leads. 

Let’s consider the touchpoints for the awareness stage: 

• Online Ads: Display ads, social media ads, and search engine marketing campaigns.
• Social Media: Posts, stories, and influencer marketing.
• Content Marketing: Blog articles, videos, and other educational content.

3.2 Consideration

The consideration stage is where they explore and compare your offers to competitors. The goal is to provide enough product information to influence their decision-making process. 

Let’s find out the touchpoints for the consideration stage: 

• Product Pages: Detailed descriptions, images, and product specifications.
• Reviews: Customer reviews and testimonials that provide social proof.
• Comparison Charts: Side-by-side comparisons of your products or services against competitors. They highlight unique product features.

An excellent example is Australian Business For Sale which provides comprehensive product information to help users convert: 

• They display FAQs section on the homepage to give immediate answers to common queries.
• Their listings give detailed and transparent business information for a comprehensive comparison.
• Their buying guides help customers in the business purchasing process.

3.3 Decision

In this stage, customers decide whether to buy or take another desired action. Make sure the touchpoints are user-friendly so that your customers can easily complete the purchase: 

• Checkout Process: The steps customers take to finalize their purchase like adding items to the shopping cart, selecting payment options, and confirming the order.
• Pricing Information: Clear pricing details, discounts, and special offers to incentivize customers to complete their purchases.
• Customer Support: Chatbots, helplines, or email support to answer last-minute questions.

At this stage, give your customers incentives so they will choose you over your competitors. For example, this custom dog stickers’ website gives a 10% discount on the first order when a customer signs up. They also make it very convenient for the users by just asking 2 questions.

3.4 Post-Purchase

This stage includes interactions like follow-up emails, customer support, and satisfaction surveys. The goal is to engage customers so that they buy again from you using: 

• Follow-Up Emails: Confirmation emails, tracking information, and post-purchase surveys that maintain engagement.
• Customer Support: Help with returns, exchanges, and issues to ensure satisfaction.
• Loyalty Programs: Rewards, discounts, and points systems that encourage repeat purchases.

3.5 Retention & Advocacy

This stage focuses on retaining customers and turning them into brand advocates. At this stage, you can form long-term relationships and encourage word-of-mouth referrals.

The touchpoints for the advocacy stage include: 

1. Customer Communities: Online forums, social media groups, and events that foster engagement.
2. Exclusive Offers: Discounts and deals for loyal customers, incentivizing repeat purchases.
3. Referral Programs: Incentives that encourage customers to refer friends and family.

One excellent example is Pinch, a med spa company that built a loyal customer base. Pinch uses social media to feature customer stories and reviews to make them feel acknowledged and celebrated. This makes their customer base more loyal and promotes the brand to new potential customers.

Another great example is Aura, an Amazon repricer tool that established a community forum. Here, customers discuss online business strategies, share experiences, and provide feedback on the tool.

Using this strategy, Aura improves customer loyalty and encourages word-of-mouth recommendations as happy users often tell others about the tool.

To streamline the process, you can map touchpoints for each stage using Funnelytics. Let’s say you’re mapping touchpoints for the post-purchase stage. You’ll add elements like order confirmation emails, onboarding guides, and support follow-ups on the Funnelytics’ whiteboard. Then you’ll overlay performance data to identify drop-offs.

For instance, if customers aren’t engaging with your onboarding guides, Funnelytics can reveal that the guides are too lengthy. You can then shorten and simplify the guides to improve customer satisfaction.

4. Chart Customer Path: Create A Visual Representation

Use Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Lucidchart to create a flowchart or diagram. Or use specialized journey mapping tools like UXPressia or Miro. Then, outline the main journey stages. Make sure to arrange them logically from left to right or top to bottom.

Then list the corresponding touchpoints for each stage. Connect these stages and touchpoints with arrows or lines, showing the flow from one to the next. This helps visualize the customer’s progression and shows the paths they might take. Use this customer persona as a blueprint to guide your customer journey mapping process.

Finally, revisit and update the visual representation as needed.

If you’re pressed for time and cannot manually create customer journey maps, use Funnelytics. Its analytics-powered whiteboard lets you create visual maps of customer interactions. Using this tool, you can see how your customer journey progresses so you can improve accordingly.

You can also use a pre-structured customer journey map template to save time and effort. These templates provide a clear layout where you simply need to fill in details like touchpoints, metrics, and key interactions.

5. Highlight Key Metrics To Track Progress

Highlight key metrics for each touchpoint to track progress effectively and pinpoint areas that need improving. The 5 steps will guide you on how to do it right: 

5.1 Assign Metrics To Touchpoints

For each stage, assign metrics that measure the corresponding touchpoints’ success. For example: 

• Awareness: Track impressions, click-through rates (CTR), and social media engagement to measure customer interest.
• Consideration: Monitor bounce rates, time spent on product pages, and content engagement to know how well your touchpoints guide customers.
• Decision: Check conversion rates, checkout abandonment rates, and customer service team interactions to evaluate how seamless the buying process is.
• Post-Purchase: Track satisfaction surveys, return rates, and support tickets to measure post-purchase experiences.
• Retention & Advocacy: Track repeat purchases, loyalty program participation, and referral rates to gauge customer loyalty and advocacy.

5.2 Visualize Metrics Clearly

Include these metrics near each touchpoint in the customer journey map. You can put them either as numbers, charts, or symbols so you get an at-a-glance view of each touchpoint’s performance.

For example, these are the key metrics you should track when a customer buys a digital product.

5.3 Analyze The Data

Review the metrics quarterly to understand how each touchpoint is performing:

• Set benchmarks based on past performance data or industry standards.
• Look at your current data in comparison to your benchmarks. 
• Then, identify touchpoints that are underperforming or exceeding expectations.
• Look for patterns or trends over time. Ask yourself: Are certain touchpoints consistently problematic? Is there a seasonal variation in performance?
• Prioritize areas that need urgent attention or have the most significant impact on customer experience.

5.4 Implement Changes & Track Progress

Based on the data, make necessary adjustments to touchpoints. For example, outline specific actions for each adjustment, like changing webpage layouts or improving call-to-action buttons.

At this stage, use tools like Google Analytics, Hotjar, or Mixpanel to monitor the impact of these changes on key metrics (conversion rates or bounce rates).

The next step is to schedule review sessions to assess this data. Ask yourself: Are the adjustments improving your performance metrics? If not, reassess and tweak your approach.

Conclusion

As you apply the strategies, remember that each touchpoint is an opportunity to enhance customer satisfaction and boost sales. Ask yourself: How can I make each touchpoint more engaging for my customers?

If you need help visualizing the customer journey, consider using Funnelytics. Our tool offers an analytics-powered whiteboard that simplifies mapping. It helps to create visual representations of customer interactions so you can create a seamless UX, boosting satisfaction, loyalty, and conversions. 

Start your free trial today and create a journey that benefits both your customers and your brand.

FAQs

I. What are the types of customer journey maps?

The 5 common types of customer journey maps are: 

• Current State Maps: Visualize actual customer experiences to pinpoint existing pain points. Use these for immediate improvement in customer interactions.
• Future State Maps: Outline desired future experiences and set improvement goals. You can use them for strategic planning and vision setting.
• Day-in-the-Life Maps: Show a customer’s daily activities and brand interactions. Use them to determine the optimal times your product or service can add value to their day.
• Service Blueprint: Detail both front-end interactions and back-end processes. Use them to align organizational efforts or to ensure seamless customer support.
• Empathy Maps: Show customers’ thoughts and feelings at different stages. Use them to deepen your team’s empathy and to tailor emotional responses.

II. How often should I update my customer journey map?

You should update your customer journey map at least annually. Similarly, update whenever significant changes occur in your business, market, or customer behavior. Updates ensure your map stays accurate and relevant to address emerging customer needs.

III. Who should be involved in the mapping process?

Marketing, sales, customer service, and product development should be involved in the mapping process. This collaboration lets you understand the customer experience from multiple perspectives. Ultimately, it becomes easier for you to spot and bridge gaps in the customer journey.

Moreover, you will better align with your goals when different departments contribute to the mapping process.

IV. How many customer journey maps do I need?

The number of customer journey maps you need depends on your customer base diversity and product offerings. Generally, one map per key persona or customer segment is effective. This approach ensures that your strategies are tailored to meet distinct customer needs.

V. Who uses customer journey maps? 

Marketing teams, product managers, UX designers, and customer service departments use customer journey maps. They help understand and improve the customer experience by: 

• Identifying customer pain points
• Visualizing the paths customers take
• Optimizing interactions across different stages of the customer lifecycle

VI. What is the customer journey map in design thinking?

In design thinking, a customer journey map visually represents a user’s interactions with a product or service over time. It highlights their needs, emotions, pain points, and satisfaction moments. This tool lets you understand and empathize with users which is a core principle of design thinking. When used effectively, it bridges gaps between design thinking and marketing.