9 Steps to Build an Effective Customer Journey Map

9 Steps to Build an Effective Customer Journey Map

By Scarlett Payne   |    February 22, 2021

USABILITY

The path to purchase is far from linear in the digital age. It makes journey maps a little more complex but all the more necessary. There are 9 steps to follow when journey mapping.

So,  how do  you do it?

So,  how do  you do it?

The Steps  at a Glance

The Steps  at a Glance

1. Set Your Goals 2. Create a Persona 3. List All Journey Phases 4. List All Touchpoints 5. Identify User Goals 6. Identify User Actions 7. List Opportunities 8. Use It! 9. Revisit and Revise

1. Set  Your Goals

1. Set  Your Goals

A map without purpose is unfocused and doesn’t provide actionable insight. Examples of goals are: • Assigning responsibility    for touchpoints • Preventing abandoned     carts • Making an app    user-friendly

2. Create a Persona

2. Create a Persona

A persona represents your users through demographics and psychographics to help you understand them better. You may have many personas based on your audience segments.

3. List All  Journey Phases

3. List All  Journey Phases

List all phases in the customer journey related to your goal. Example phases are awareness, consideration, purchase, retention and advocacy. Try to make them unique to your company.

4. List All Touchpoints

4. List All Touchpoints

Your touchpoints are where your audience interacts with your business, from ads to social. Assign touchpoints to the phases that they belong to. They may belong to more than one.

5. Identify  User Goals

5. Identify  User Goals

List users’ goals at each touchpoint. Knowing their motivations will help you to give them what they want. With an understanding of their expectations, you can exceed them.

6. Identify User Actions

6. Identify User Actions

Fill out the map with user actions and emotions at each touchpoint and phase. Where do they drop off? Do they go through loops? Are they sad? Happy?

7. List Opportunities

7. List Opportunities

Learn from all you’ve gathered. Note customer successes and pain points: drop offs, long and short task times, high conversion rates and so on.   List obstacles and everywhere you can improve.

8. Use It!

8. Use It!

Now you know where you can do better, so do it. Assign growth tasks to specific individuals or departments. Have everyone review the map, and use it in daily practice. 

9. Revisit  and Revise

9. Revisit  and Revise

Continue to re-evaluate  your map. Your business, customers and industry are always changing. Revisiting  it is necessary to meet  new expectations and  foster growth.