WTF is a Customer Journey Map?
A cheat sheet to understanding your customers
…and do you really need one?
If you’ve ever asked a customer where they first heard about your brand, you’ve already filled in a piece of the puzzle.
If you’ve ever had a friend go undercover as a mystery shopper and report back to you, you’re definitely on the right track.
If you’ve ever tested your own product or service, congratulations! You’ve already started making a customer journey map.
CJMs are often confused with Customer Reviews. After all, they’re both tools that tell you what you can improve about your business, from the customer’s point of view. But that’s where the similarities end.
A Customer Journey Map (CJM) shows the changes in motivations, expectations, and actions of your customers as they experience your product or service.
While a Customer Review could come from anyone, a Customer Journey Map uses a typical target customer, or a Customer Persona
A Customer Review reflects an isolated experience. A Customer Journey Map shows how each experience links to the previous and the next.
Where a Customer Review is opinion-based, a customer journey map is observation-based. This ultimate difference makes a Customer Journey Map the better tool for decision-making, because it isn’t made up of subjective suggestions.
How To Make And Use a Customer Journey Map
Remember that every journey starts with a task. What is your customer trying to accomplish?
Along the way, where are they getting frustrated? Where are they getting confused?
Your job is not to explain, but to observe.
3. Mark out Touchpoints along the Journey
Touchpoints are any instance in which your customer comes into contact with your business. Each touchpoint is an opportunity to strengthen your brand.
These include:
- word-of-mouth and online ads
- physical interactions with your staff
- unwrapping the packaging of your product
- emailers and social media posts
Some key touchpoints are more impactful than others, but they all contribute to the experience of your brand.
For example: Snapple turned a mundane, overlooked experience (unscrewing the cap on a bottled beverage) into a key touchpoint, when they started printing trivia on the underside of each bottle cap. Customers began to look forward to this moment of discovery and delight, and the experience became inextricably associated with Snapple’s brand.
4. Dissect each Touchpoint from the customer’s POV
Use your touchpoints to identify opportunities for improvement. Do this by answering the following questions.
At this particular Touchpoint, what is my customer:
- Motivated by?- Expecting from me?- Physically doing?- Feeling?
