How to Use Customer Journey Maps as a Tool to Enhance Customer Experience (CX)

SHARE THE ARTICLE ON

Customer Journey Map Example1
Table of Contents

What is a Customer Journey Map?

A customer journey map is a diagram that provides a visual representation of a customer’s entire customer journey and depicts the story of the different stages customers go through while engaging with the company. 

Some customer journey maps focus on the entire arc of engagement a customer has with the company, clearly outlining the first customer engagement all the way to the post-purchase experience/interactions. Other customer journey maps are used to focus on a narrower section of the customer journey and will instead focus on just certain customer-brand interactions.

Watch the video below to learn how Voxco can help you can enhance your overall customer experience.

Exploratory Research Guide

Conducting exploratory research seems tricky but an effective guide can help.

The Components of a Customer Journey Map

It is not enough to simply outline each touchpoint a customer goes through from the start to the end of their customer journey. Instead, an effective customer journey map will have a series of different components that provide invaluable information at each stage of the map. Let’s take a look at some of these components: 

  • Actions

At each stage of the journey map, it is important to elaborate on what the customer is doing at the stage, as well as the actions they are taking while shifting to the next stage. 

  • Motivations

While writing about motivations, you must outline what exactly is keeping the customer motivated on their journey to the next stage. You can take it further and outline the emotions they may be feeling as well. 

  • Questions

At certain stages in their customer journeys, customers may have certain concerns, confusions, uncertainties, or other issues that are hindering their shift to the next stage. You must try to define these different questions customers may have at every stage. 

  • Barriers

Barriers refer to the elements of the stage that are stopping the customer from moving on to the next stage. These barriers can be issues regarding cost, process, implementation, and more.

Advantages of Customer Journey Mapping

Now that we’ve understood what a customer journey map is and what its different components are, let’s look at the range of advantages organizations can enjoy using journey mapping: 

  • Reduces Siloed Operations

Siloed operations are often a key contributor to creating a bad customer experience. Customer journey maps help organizations develop an understanding of how their different departments interact and how they can come together to effectively cater to the needs of their customers and enhance CX.

  • Encourage Focusing on the Customers’ Perspective

Journey maps encourage focusing on customer sentiment and satisfaction at every point of the customer journey, leading to a more customer-centric approach when decisions are made. When a brand is able to develop a thorough understanding of the emotional states of their customers, they can more effectively cater to their needs. 

  • A Tool to Predict Customer Behavior 

Customer journey maps provide marketers with a thorough understanding of customer behavior and also act as a tool to help predict customer behavior. By outlining how customers interact with your brand from the start to the end of the customer journey, the journey map helps predict what influences customer behavior. This information can be used to identify the measures that must be taken to increase conversion rates, sales, and profits. 

  • Optimized Customer Experience

A customer journey map is a very effective tool to improve customer experience and optimize each touchpoint within the journey. It helps organizations identify the areas in which they are falling short, as well as the existing silos that exist between departments and teams. By identifying these areas, the organization can then take measures to fill these gaps, effectively optimise touchpoints, and create a more seamless customer experience.

See Voxco survey software in action with a Free demo.

FAQs on Customer Journey Maps as a Tool to Enhance CX

A customer journey map is a visual representation of a customer’s entire customer journey. It depicts the story of the different stages the customer(s) go through while engaging with the company.

A few advantages of using customer journey maps are: 

  • It helps companies reduce siloed operations, creating a more seamless customer experience
  • It can be used to predict customer behavior
  • It helps optimize the overall customer experience
  • It helps companies focus on the customer’s perspective

The different components of a customer journey map at each stage are: 

  • Actions 
  • Motivations 
  • Questions 
  • Barriers