What is the Customer Journey?

The customer journey is a process or path a customer follows when interacting with your brand. It highlights every touchpoint that a customer has with your business — from their initial discovery to their long-term relationship with your product or service.

Customer Journey vs. Buyer Journey

The terms “customer journey” and “buyer journey” are sometimes used interchangeably, but they serve different purposes. 

• A customer journey encompasses all stages of a customer's interaction with your brand, from initial awareness to post-purchase support and loyalty. It takes a holistic view of the customer's experience and covers a longer time span.
• A buyer journey focuses specifically on the stages leading up to a purchase, concentrating on the sales and decision-making process. It's a subset of a customer journey and therefore covers a shorter timeframe.

Stages of the Customer Journey

You might be familiar with the acronym “AIDA” (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) which outlines the buyer journey. The customer journey follows a different set of stages — the acronym being “ACDRA.”

1. Awareness

First, the customer has realized they have a problem or pain point. They may or may not know they need a product or service to solve it, but they’ll hit the Google machine nonetheless.

This is a great stage to provide your customer with educational content that helps identify the problem and propose solutions without pushing a purchase. 

2. Consideration

At this point, the customer has done enough research to know that they need a product or service to solve their problem. They’ll start looking for options and comparing them. The information they gather will help them in the next stage when they make a decision on which product/service to purchase from which brand.

This is the stage to hit the product marketing heavy, helping the customer find your solution and prioritize it over others.

3. Decision

Here, your customer has decided on a solution and is ready to purchase. 

This is where educational and product marketing content ends. Your goal is no longer to draw customers in or position your product; it’s to make the purchase experience seamless.

4. Retention

Congrats! You did it. The customer has purchased your product or service. This is now where you should hone in on customer loyalty. Because we all know maintaining current customers is easier (and cheaper!) than converting new ones. 

During the retention stage, it’s time to put your heart and soul into providing a great onboarding experience and continuous customer service and satisfaction.

5. Advocacy

Some call this the advocacy stage, some call it the loyalty stage. Either way, it’s the time when your customer doesn’t only remain a customer but promotes your brand to others. They may share details through word of mouth or on their social media profiles. 

This stage is all about creating and maintaining a rave-worthy end-to-end customer experience. From continued customer support to awesome products, if your customer has effectively solved their problem with your product/service and had a good experience doing so, they’re likely to recommend to others.

What is a Customer Journey Map?

A customer journey map is a visual representation of the customer's experience when interacting with your brand. The goal of mapping and analyzing the journey is to gain a comprehensive understanding of how customers interact with your business, the emotions and motivations they experience at each stage, and any pain points or challenges they encounter throughout. All of this will help you reduce friction, increase force, and create seamless, enjoyable customer experiences that drive business growth.

Main Components of a Customer Journey Map

There isn’t really a right or wrong way to create a customer journey map. The components within them can vary from business to business. Here are some recommendations for information you’ll want in there while getting started on your own. 

Customer Journey Stages

We’ve been over this! 

Head back to the last section if you need a second reference. Usually, CJMs are laid out with customer journey stages at the X, or horizontal, axis, with all the other components at the Y, or vertical, axis.

User Actions

This describes what a customer does in each CJM stage. For example, in the awareness stage, they might take a free course. Or in the decision stage, they may view a product’s pricing page.

Emotions

Have some empathy here, friends. Even if their pain point is small, it’s still important to understand that your customer is solving a problem. And where there are problems, there are usually emotions. Throughout the CJM stages, your customer may experience worry, frustration, curiosity, relief, happiness, or more. 

Pain Points

These are challenges your customer may run across while interacting with your brand. Of course, the goal is to reduce these as much as possible. However, especially in your current state, something is bound to happen. Identifying it and being honest about it can only help you improve.

Touchpoints

Touchpoints are any instances where your customer interacts with and can form an opinion on your brand. This could be anything from a Google search ad to a blog article, social media post, or more. It’s also common for touchpoints to exist outside of your digital marketing efforts, so make sure to take a well-rounded approach.

Possible Solutions

This is a brainstorming opportunity where you and your team can think of some ways to possibly improve your customer journey or remove pain points throughout it. It can also be a place to think of possible content opportunities. 

Step-by-Step Process for Creating a Customer Journey Map

Ready to get started creating a customer journey map of your own? Follow these steps.

1. Set Goals

The first step is to answer one very important question: 

Why do you want to create a customer journey map in the first place? What insights are you hoping to uncover? How will it be used in your future marketing and growth strategies? Set some goals for the project.

2. Define Your Buyer Personas

If you haven’t already created buyer personas, you should take a step back and do that first. Here’s a link to a great guide on how to do so. 

If you do have buyer personas, this step is where you’ll decide which one(s) you’ll target in your customer journey map(s). Perhaps it’s just one for now. Maybe it’s all of them. Go back to your goals if you need help making the decision here.

3. Use a Template

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel here. Feel free to use a customer journey map template. HubSpot has some great ones that you can download here.

Of course, if you have a knack for design or would like your brand to really shine through on these, feel free to spend the time making your own.

4. Determine Your Touchpoints

Touchpoints are a big deal, which is why I’ve mentioned them quite a few times in this article. They’re basically the foundation for your customer journey map. 

Think about all the points where your customer might interact with your brand — both directly and indirectly. An example of a direct touchpoint could be as simple as visiting your website. An example of an indirect touchpoint could be watching a third-party video product review on TikTok.

5. Map Your Current Customer Journey & Take It Yourself!

With all the information you’ve gathered thus far, outline your current customer journey. It’s okay if this one’s a little messy — that’s why you’re doing the exercise after all!

A great way to gather insights and identify pain points or friction is to take a ride through your own customer journey once you’ve created it. It will help tremendously with the next step.

6. Map Your Ideal Customer Journey

Now map out your ideal customer journey. Say you release a new product. What would be the path with the least friction and most satisfactory customer experience? Ideally, there are no pain points or barriers here (if there are, they should be intentional). 

Put this side-by-side with your current customer journey map, and voila! You now have a roadmap for how to turn your customer experience into one that produces brand loyalists and advocates.

Let's Create a Great Customer Experience Together

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