In today's experience-driven economy, customer centricity is no longer a buzzword, it's the lifeblood of business success. But truly putting your customers at the heart of everything you do requires a deep understanding of their journey – from their initial awareness of your brand to their post-purchase experience. This is where customer journey mapping steps in as a powerful tool to navigate the path to effective customer centricity.
What is Customer Journey Mapping and Why Does it Matter?
Customer journey mapping is the process of visualizing all the touchpoints a customer has with your brand. It's essentially a roadmap that depicts their thoughts, feelings, and actions at each stage of their interaction. By mapping this journey, you gain invaluable insights that allow you to:
● Identify Pain Points: Are there frustrating steps in the buying process? Is customer service lacking? The map reveals areas where the customer experience can be improved.
● Craft Targeted Strategies: Understanding customer needs at each stage empowers you to tailor your marketing messages, product features, and support services for maximum impact.
● Boost Customer Retention: A positive customer experience fosters loyalty and encourages repeat business. By mapping the journey, you can identify opportunities to delight your customers and keep them coming back for more.
Why do you need a Journey Map and when should you have one?
A journey map is a powerful visual tool for businesses to visualize and understand their customers' experiences from the customers' perspectives. It serves multiple strategic and operational purposes, helping organizations enhance customer satisfaction, streamline processes, and ultimately, drive growth.
Why You Need a Journey Map
Empathy and Understanding: A journey map puts you in your customers' shoes, allowing you to gain a deep understanding of their needs, pain points, and motivations. This empathetic perspective helps you design better products and services.
Identifying Pain Points: By mapping out each step of the customer's interaction with your business, you can identify specific areas where customers face difficulties or frustrations, allowing you to make targeted improvements.
Enhancing Customer Experience: With the insights gained from the journey map, you can optimize touchpoints, streamline processes, and ensure that your interactions meet or exceed customer expectations, enhancing overall satisfaction.
Cross-Functional Alignment: A journey map provides a shared reference point for different departments within your organization, aligning efforts across teams to focus on delivering a cohesive and positive customer experience.
Strategic Insights: The mapping process can uncover opportunities for innovation, new market entry, or product enhancements. It provides a strategic lens through which to view customer interactions, guiding more informed decision-making.
Measuring Impact: By establishing the key metrics at each stage of the journey, you can measure the impact of changes and improvements, ensuring that your strategies are data-driven.
When You Should Have a Journey Map
New Business or Product Launch: When introducing a new business, service, or product, creating a journey map helps you anticipate how customers will interact with your offering, enabling you to design a better user experience from the start.
Entering New Markets: If you are expanding into new geographic or demographic markets, a journey map can help you understand the unique needs and expectations of these new customer segments.
Experiencing Growth or Change: As your business grows or undergoes significant changes (e.g., digital transformation), customer journeys can evolve. Mapping these journeys ensures that your customer experience keeps pace with your business evolution.
Customer Feedback Indicates Issues: If customer feedback or metrics indicate dissatisfaction, a journey map can help you diagnose issues, understand their root causes, and devise targeted solutions.
Regular Review and Optimization: Even in the absence of new launches or identified issues, regularly updating your customer journey maps is good practice. It ensures that your business remains attuned to evolving customer needs and market conditions.
Key Elements of a Customer Journey Map
Here are the key elements of customer journey mapping:
Customer Personas:
The foundation of your map starts with defining your customer personas. These are detailed profiles representing your ideal customer segments.
Each persona should include demographics, goals, challenges, and preferred communication channels.
By understanding your personas, you can tailor the customer journey map to their specific needs and perspectives.
Stages of the Customer Journey
Awareness: The initial stage where the customer becomes aware of your brand or product.
Consideration: The customer researches options and compares your offering with competitors.
Decision: The customer decides whether to purchase your product or service.
Purchase: The customer completes the transaction and becomes a paying customer.
Use: The customer experiences your product or service.
Advocacy: The satisfied customer becomes a brand advocate, recommending your product or service to others.
Touchpoints
Identify all the ways a customer interacts with your brand at each stage of the journey.
Touchpoints can include:
Marketing materials (ads, social media posts, website content)
Sales interactions
Customer service interactions
Product packaging and user interface
Billing and payment processes
Customer Care and Customer Support
Customer Action and Feelings: Consider the customer's actions and emotional state at each touchpoint.
What is the customer thinking and feeling as they interact with your brand?
Are they frustrated by a complex flow? Or, Excited about a new product feature?
Pain Point and Opportunities
Use the map to identify customer pain points and frustrations at each stage.
These are areas where you can improve the customer experience.
Alongside pain points, identify opportunities to enhance the journey and delight your customers.
Additional Elements: Depending on your specific needs, your customer journey map may also include:
Metrics to track progress and measure the effectiveness of your efforts.
Resources and channels for customer support at each stage.
Airtel - Customer Journey Mapping
Stage | Customer Actions | Touch points | Customer Feelings | Needs | Opportunities for Airtel |
Awareness | - Sees Airtel broadband advertisements online or offline. - Hears from friends or colleagues talk about their experience. | - TV commercial s, online ads, billboards, word-of-mo uth recommend ations. | - Curious, wondering if Airtel offers good internet plans in their area. - Wants a reliable and fast internet connection for personal or professional use. | -Awareness of Airtel's broadband services and their availability in the area. - Easy access to plan details and pricing information. | - Target ads based on user location and browsing habits. - Highlight positive customer testimonials and brand reputation. |
Considerati on | - Visits Airtel website or app. - Compares Airtel plans with other providers in the area.- Reads online reviews and checks social media discussions. | - Airtel website (plans, coverage checker), mobile app, online reviews, social media mentions. | - Engaged, evaluating different options based on speed, data allowance, and price.- Wants to understand the customer service reputation and installation process. | - Clear comparison of plans with competitor offerings. - Transparent information about data limits, hidden fees, and installation timelines. | - Offer interactive tools to compare plans and check coverage. - Showcase positive customer reviews and address common concerns raised online. |
Decision | - Contact Airtel customer service for clarification or plan advice. - Visit the Airtel store (if available) to discuss options with a representative. | - Airtel customer service hotline, chat support, Airtel retail store interaction. | - Decisive, seeks additional information and wants to confirm the best plan for their needs. - Appreciates personalized assistance and a hassle-free experience. | - Responsive and knowledgeable customer service representatives. - Efficient in-store experience with clear plan explanations and upselling of value-added services. | - Offer different contact channels for customer convenience (phone, chat, email). - Train store representatives to provide personalized recommendations and address customer concerns effectively. |
Purchase | - Chooses a plan and initiates the online application process. - Provides necessary documents and verifies identification (online or offline). | - Airtel website or app (application form), payment gateway, SMS verification. | - Hopeful, wants a smooth and efficient application process. - Feels secure about their personal information during online transactions. | - Secure and user-friendly online application form with clear instructions. - Multiple payment options for customer convenience. | - Streamline the application process to minimize steps. - Offer real-time updates on the application status via SMS or email. |
Installation | - Receives updates on installation date and time. - Prepares the designated area for installation as per instructions. | - SMS notifications , email updates, Airtel representati ve phone call (confirmatio n). | - Anticipatory, looking forward to getting connected. - Wants a clear understanding of the installation process and timeframe. | - Timely communication regarding installation date and technician details. - Clear instructions on how to prepare the designated area for installation. | |
Use | - Experiences the Airtel broadband service. - Contacts customer service if facing any technical issues or service disruptions. | - Airtel broadband connection, Airtel app (troublesho oting section), customer service hotline or chat support. | - Satisfied (ideally), expects a reliable and fast internet connection. - Frustrated (if issues arise), wants prompt and efficient resolution for any technical problems. | - Consistent and reliable internet connection speed as promised in the plan. - Responsive and helpful customer support to address technical issues promptly. | - Proactively monitor service performance and address potential issues before customer contact. - Offer self-service troubleshooting tools within the Airtel app and website. |
Advocacy | - Share positive experiences with friends and family. - Leaves positive reviews online (if satisfied with the service). | - Word-of-mo uth recommend ations, online reviews on tech websites or social media. | - Loyal customers feel good about their choice and want to recommend it to others. | - Appreciation for a positive overall experience. | - Implement a loyalty program to reward long-term customers. - Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive online reviews through email or app notifications. |
The customer journey mapping for Airtel Broadband connection captures the key stages and touchpoints well. Moreover, there might be a few potential challenges to consider:
Digital Divide: Not everyone may be comfortable or have access to online channels for plan comparison, application, and troubleshooting. Airtel might need to consider alternative touchpoints like physical brochures or calling centers specifically catering to these customers.
Transparency and Hidden Fees: The table mentions the need for transparency regarding data limits, hidden fees, and installation timelines. This is a crucial challenge, as unexpected charges can lead to customer dissatisfaction. Airtel should ensure all costs are clearly communicated upfront throughout the journey.
Installation Delays and Challenges: Unforeseen delays or complications during installation can disrupt the customer experience. Airtel could address this by offering flexible scheduling options, clear communication about potential delays, and a contingency plan for unforeseen circumstances.
Post-Purchase Engagement: The journey map focuses heavily on the pre-purchase and installation stages. However, retaining customers requires ongoing engagement. Airtel could consider offering value-added services, loyalty programs, and proactive communication about upgrades or new plans to maintain customer satisfaction and prevent churn. By acknowledging these potential challenges and outlining strategies to address them, Airtel can further refine their customer journey mapping and ensure a more positive experience for their broadband customers.
Netflix - Customer Journey Mapping
Stage | Customer Actions | Touchpoints | Customer Feelings | Needs | Opportunities for Netflix |
Awarenes s | - Sees commercials or social media buzz about Netflix.- Hears friends or family talk about it. | - TV commercials, social media marketing, online articles. | - Curious, intrigued by the concept of streaming. - Wonders if it could be a good alternative to cable or traditional video rentals. | - Easy access to a wide variety of movies and TV shows. - Convenient and affordable way to watch content. | - Highlight the convenience and value proposition compared to traditional options. - Emphasize the extensive library of content. |
Considera tion | - Visit Netflix website.- Reads reviews and compares plans.- Consider a free trial offer. | - Netflix website with movie and TV show library, online reviews, free trial information. | - Engaged, evaluating Netflix vs. other streaming services or cable TV.- Wants to understand pricing and content selection. | - Clear and concise information about plans and pricing.- User-friendly website with easy navigation. | - Showcase popular and critically acclaimed content. - Offer a compelling free trial experience. |
Decision | - Sign up for a free trial.- Explores the user interface and content library. - Compares content with other streaming services. | - Free trial signup process, personalized recommendatio ns, mobile app download. | - Decisive, wants to see if the service meets their expectations before committing. - Seeks a seamless user experience and a variety of content options. | - Smooth onboarding process within the free trial.- Offer personalized recommendations based on viewing history. | - Address potential concerns about content availability or user interface complexity. |
Use | - Regularly watches movies and TV shows on Netflix. - Utilizes features like personalized recommendation s and watchlists. - May interact with customer | - Netflix mobile app, desktop website, smart TV app, customer service chat. | - Satisfied, enjoys the convenience and variety of content. - Appreciates personalized recommendations and ease of use. | - High-quality streaming experience with minimal buffering. - Ongoing discovery of new and engaging content. | - Continuously improve the content library with originals and acquisitions. - Optimize recommendati ons based on user USAGE |
service if needed. | and preferences. | ||||
Advocacy | - Share positive experiences with friends and family. - Recommends Netflix on social media. - May participate in online discussions about Netflix content. | - Social media platforms, word-of-mouth recommendatio ns, online forums. | - Loyal customers feel connected to the brand and its content. - Wants to share their positive experience with others. | - Foster a sense of community through social media engagement. - Offer exclusive content or rewards for loyal subscribers. | |
Emotion |
In the table above, based on your analysis, insights and data, you may work on identifying emotion.
Netflix - Customer Journey Mapping with Product Life Cycle stages
Product Lifecycle Stage | Customer Journey Stage | Touchpoints | Customer Actions | Customer Feelings | Key Considerations |
Introduction (Early Days of Netflix) | Awareness | Television commercials, word-of-mouth recommendation s, movie rental store partnerships | Sees commercials for Netflix, hears friends talking about it, notices partnership with their local rental store | Curious, intrigued by the new concept of mail-order DVD rentals | Educate potential customers about the convenience and value proposition of Netflix compared to traditional video rentals. |
Growth (Subscriptio n Model Takes Off) | Consideratio n | Website with movie library, online reviews, free trial offers | Visits Netflix website, browses movie library, reads reviews, signs up for a free trial | Engaged, compares Netflix with cable TV or video stores, wants to see if the selection and convenience meet their needs | Highlight the extensive movie and TV show library, emphasize the value of the subscription model compared to per-rental fees. |
Maturity (Dominant Streaming Platform) | Decision | Personalized recommendation s, social media buzz about new releases, mobile app for easy access | Uses personalized recommendations to find content, follows Netflix on social media for updates, downloads the mobile app for on-the-go viewing | Satisfied, enjoys the wide variety of content and ease of use, appreciates the personalized recommendatio ns | Continuously improve content library with originals and acquisitions, personalize recommendation s to keep users engaged, optimize mobile app experience. |
Decline (Facing Increased Competition) | Use and Advocacy | Original content releases, price hikes, competitor promotions | Watches Netflix originals, notices price increase, sees promotions from competitors offering similar content | Frustrated by price increases, open to exploring other streaming options offering similar content or unique features | Focus on the quality and exclusivity of original content, consider offering tiered subscription plans to cater to different user needs, monitor competitor offerings and adapt pricing or features accordingly |
B2B Customer Journey Mapping
Customer journey mapping in a B2B (business-to-business) context involves understanding and visualizing the complex interactions and decision-making processes that business customers go through when engaging with a vendor or service provider. B2B journeys typically have longer sales cycles, involve multiple stakeholders, and require a deeper understanding of the business customers' needs, challenges, and organizational dynamics.
Here's an overview of the key stages in a B2B customer journey map, along with insights on each phase:
Awareness
Touchpoints: Industry reports, trade shows, webinars, professional networks, targeted B2B advertising, and content marketing.
Key Activities: Potential customers become aware of your brand or solution through research or when seeking solutions to specific business challenges.
Decision-makers: Various stakeholders, including executives, IT professionals, and end-users, may become aware of your solutions in different contexts.
Consideration
Touchpoints: Detailed product literature, case studies, white papers, and direct sales outreach.
Key Activities: Interested businesses evaluate your offering, considering its ability to meet their needs, integration with existing systems, ROI, and scalability.
Decision-makers: This phase often involves a buying committee that includes technical experts, financial officers, and potential end-users, each with their own concerns and criteria.
Decision
Touchpoints: Product demonstrations, proposal requests, and negotiations.
Key Activities: Decision-makers assess proposals, demos, and cost-benefit analyses to select a vendor that aligns with their strategic and operational goals.
Decision-makers: Senior executives and key department heads finalize the purchase decision, often requiring approval from multiple levels within the organization.
Purchase
Touchpoints: Purchase agreements, onboarding, and training sessions.
Key Activities: The transaction is formalized with contracts and purchase orders. Effective onboarding and training are critical to ensure successful implementation and adoption.
Decision-makers: Procurement and finance departments often get involved in finalizing purchase details and terms.
Implementation
Touchpoints: Installation, integration with existing systems, user training, and support services.
Key Activities: The solution is implemented, and users are trained. Initial performance and satisfaction are closely monitored.
Decision-makers: IT and operational teams play key roles, ensuring the solution integrates smoothly with business processes and systems.
Adoption and Usage
Touchpoints: Ongoing support, account management, and user communities.
Key Activities: Businesses fully integrate the product into their operations, and users become proficient. Vendors need to support and encourage this process to ensure long-term satisfaction.
Decision-makers: End-users and department leads are crucial in driving adoption and providing feedback.
Loyalty and Expansion
Touchpoints: Customer success management, performance reviews, and renewal discussions.
Key Activities: Satisfied customers may consider renewals, upgrades, or additional purchases. They may also become advocates for the brand.
Decision-makers: Decision-makers assess the value received from the solution and decide on future engagement levels.
B2B SaaS- Customer Journey Mapping of JIRA
Stage | Customer Actions | Touchpoints | Customer Feelings | Needs |
Awareness | - Encounters blog posts or articles discussing agile project management methodologies. - Attends industry conferences focusing on software development best practices.- Hears colleagues in similar roles talk about challenges managing complex software projects. | - Industry publications, online ads, social media marketing, event participation. | - Pain points with current project management tools, especially for agile development. - Needs a solution to improve team collaboration, visibility, and iteration cycles. | - Highlight pain points of traditional project management for agile teams. - Showcase success stories of software development teams using Jira for agile workflows. |
Consideration | - Visit the Atlassian website (Jira product page). - Downloads white papers or case studies focusing on agile methodologies. - Compares Jira with other project management tools, like Asana or Trello.- Investigates Jira integrations with other development tools they use (e.g., GitHub, Slack). | - Jira website (features, pricing, integrations), white papers on agile development, competitor analysis tools, free trial signup, demo request form. | - Engaged, actively researching and evaluating different agile project management solutions. - Wants to understand how Jira can specifically address their team's workflow and technical stack. | - Clearly explain Jira's core functionalities for agile teams (e.g., user stories, sprints, Kanban boards). - Showcase integrations with popular development tools to demonstrate a seamless ecosystem. - Offer a free trial tailored to explore features relevant to agile development. |
Decision | - Participates in a Jira product demo focusing on agile features. - Interacts with Atlassian sales representatives to clarify questions about scalability and security. - Investigates user reviews and | - Personalized product demo (agile workflows), sales call, online reviews, customer testimonials focused on agile development. | - Decisive, wants to see how Jira integrates with their specific workflow and ensures data security. - Seeks reassurance about user adoption and scalability for their growing team. | - Tailor the demo to showcase agile functionalities like sprint planning, backlog management, and burndown charts. - Address security concerns by highlighting compliance certifications and data encryption practices. |
success stories from similar development teams. | - Provide case studies of similar teams successfully using Jira at their scale. | |||
Adoption | - Onboards team members and configures Jira for their specific agile workflow (e.g., Scrum, Kanban). - Utilizes Atlassian's documentation and training resources to learn Jira functionalities. - May encounter challenges configuring custom workflows or integrating with other tools. | - Onboarding resources, training materials (videos, articles) focused on agile workflows, Jira documentation, customer support channels (chat, email, phone). | - Enthusiastic (ideally), wants to experience the benefits of agile project management with Jira. - Frustrated if initial setup or configuration is complex or time-consuming. | - Offer dedicated resources for setting up agile workflows within Jira.- Provide readily available training materials with a focus on agile practices within Jira.- Proactive customer support to address configuration or integration challenges promptly. |
Activation | - Uses Jira regularly to manage user stories, track progress in sprints, and collaborate with team members. - Discovers Jira features like automation rules and custom dashboards to streamline workflows. | - Jira software interface, collaboration tools within the platform (comments, mentions), ongoing communication with customer support. | - Satisfied, sees improvement in team collaboration, visibility, and iteration speed. - Values ongoing support and feature updates relevant to agile development. | - Collect user feedback focused on agile functionalities.- Offer personalized recommendations on features and best practices for agile teams. - Provide resources and webinars on optimizing Jira for specific agile methodologies used by the team. |
Retention | - Renews subscription after the initial contract period.- Becomes a Jira advocate within their organization, promoting its benefits to other development teams. - Participates in the Atlassian community forums, sharing their experience and learning from others. | - Renewal communication and incentives, loyalty programs, active user community forum. | - Loyal customer, appreciates Jira's positive impact on their agile development process. - Feels valued and part of a larger community of agile practitioners. | - Offer competitive renewal options and incentives for continued subscription. - Implement customer success programs focused on maximizing Jira's value for agile teams. - Foster an active user community forum for knowledge sharing and peer-to-peer support. |
Disclaimer
**All content are written from self-understanding and created by the author
**These use cases and scenarios are projected from the real-time learning and practiced working experience of the author.
About the Author
Anubhav Sinha stands at the forefront of product innovation and education, co-founding the esteemed Product Capability Uplift (PCU). In his pivotal role at PCU, Anubhav spearheads the development of cutting-edge programs, AI capabilities and courses, relentlessly driving the growth and capability-building initiatives of the Product Academy. His unique approach as a Product Thinker has significantly shaped the academy’s direction and impact.
A Post-Graduate learner in Marketing -IB and with over 15+ years of rich practicing experience in product management and development, Anubhav is a recognised community builder in the field. His expertise spans across both B2B and B2IB product landscapes, where he has made substantial contributions, particularly in the start-up ecosystem. Renowned for his role in nurturing start-ups during their formative stages, Anubhav has also made his mark in established industry product organizations as a user-experience flow optimizer.
Throughout his career, Anubhav has donned multiple hats - from a Product Owner to Principal Product Owner to Co-founder to a Product and Design Thinking Coach to a Principal Product Manager. His transformative coaching style and profound knowledge in product ownership have made him a sought-after figure in the tech product realm.
A product coach and an avid technology product enthusiast, Anubhav's contributions and insights are not just limited to his immediate professional engagements. His passion for the field resonates through the valuable content he creates and the mentorship he offers, continually inspiring and guiding the next generation of product management professionals.
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