The experience of analyzing a customer’s interactions with a brand has to be examined from a user’s perspective. Marketing and sales funnels schematically bring a lot of value and give a static insight into user actions. But they assess the processes one-sidedly and do not form a complete picture. When creating a customer journey map, you can explore all the contact points between the buyer and business during the purchase process on the website or in the offline store. The map visually compares the customer’s actual journey with the expected one.
Different departments sometimes function differently in large companies without agreeing on goals and ways to implement them. A customer journey map lets customize how your entire team works together. Also, the card makes it possible to:
- Improve the content by adapting it to the needs of the client.
- Reduce the cost of attracting a consumer.
- Consider external factors when creating the desired brand impression.
- Analyze the emotions of the buyer.
- Find and work out weaknesses with the client.
- Identify and close communication gaps.
- Improve the level of service.
- Understand at what stage in the practice of behavior the user closes the site’s page
A well-designed customer journey map helps predict customer behavior. The company can personalize the approach to different groups of people.
Consider the ideal online store customer journey map:
- Getting to the main page.
- Move to the desired product category.
- Go to the product page.
- Adding a product to the cart.
- Go to the cart page, checkout.
- The appearance of a message of thanks for the created order.
If we consider a more general scenario, for example, buying headphones, then a typical list of stages is as follows:
- Model selection.
- Reading reviews on third-party websites.
- Go to the store.
- Search for the desired product.
- Studying reviews in the store itself.
- Purchase.
- Exploitation.
- Use of warranty services if necessary.
The user receives comfortable interaction and timely support at problematic stages. As a result, the customer journey map is improved, some stages are simplified or eliminated. As a result, the store receives a visible increase in sales.
Elements Of The Customer Journey Map
The tactics of creating a customer journey map depend on the goals and nuances of a particular case. In each case, you need to focus on specific aspects with the help of which the company will provide relevant offers.
Customer Persona
A customer journey map creates a clear picture of a real person – a representative of a specific consumer group. Research provides a wealth of information – you need to get a squeeze of the main factors from it to outline the personality of a potential buyer more clearly.
Touch Points
Marketers summarize the main points of interaction of the target audience with the brand in conjunction with the channels through which contact, collaboration, or information gathering occurs.
Different landing pages on a site may be treated as separate contact points. Part of the audience will go to the main page to get acquainted with general information about the product. Some users may be interested in a specific category or service. Other people will want to read a blog or just one article. Among the channels, the most popular are the following points of contact:
- Social networks.
- Email newsletters.
- Phone calls.
This segment also includes outdoor advertising and previous experience of cooperation:
- Contacting support.
- Use of delivery services.
- Communication with staff at the checkout and so on.
In some cases, collaboration and information gathering occur simultaneously. For example, when communicating with a consultant in an online chat, the client resolves issues and reports problems.
Customer Thoughts and Actions
The customer journey map displays the history of plans, ideas, and actual actions. Comparing thoughts and actions makes it easier to find the areas in which the client most often encounters difficulties. For example, when placing an order or creating an account on the site. The challenge is to align the purchase scenario and improve the original goals’ alignment with subsequent events.
Pain Points
Serious difficulties are worth highlighting as a separate item on the map. They can relate to websites, online and offline stores. Eliminating pain points is one of the main goals of using the tool.
The Customer’s Emotional Journey
Emotional perception of what is happening at each stage of cooperation is a secret and integral ingredient of customer journey maps. Observing surges and fading customer emotions allows to determine which part of the movement you need to fix quickly.
How to Create Customer Journey Map
The standard sales funnel becomes less accurate as of the variations in customer-business contact increase. The current buying scenario has lost its linearity. Setting up targeting is permissible for several types of audiences at once, but creating separate path maps for every kind of customer is more advisable. “Draw” an image of a fictional customer that combines all the specific target audience segment factors.
Set clear objectives for the map
At the initial stage, it is necessary to formulate goals. Understand why you need a customer journey map. To create it, it is necessary to collect the individual opinions of employees of all departments of the company, who are responsible for different stages of the movement towards a purchase. Through discussions, you can figure out where improvements are needed. It is also important to define the units of measurement of the results and describe the desired achievements in numbers.
Map out Buyer Touch Points
Touch points are situations in which the customer contacts the brand directly. Contact is achieved using online and offline tools. Such points have different priorities – for example, if there are difficulties at the time of registration at the hotel, it is difficult to eliminate the unpleasant impression even with perfect follow-up service. Track existing points of contact. Think about which ones should be enhanced and which ones should be added or removed.
Identify the elements you want your map to show
The research will help mentally go to the purchase and figure out which components are relevant for a particular card. How many should there be? The buyer’s actions, emotions, and motivation when collecting dispatch are considered. It is also worth thinking about potential points that are not yet available but may be useful. After identifying all the elements, it is crucial to arrange them to make the path map realistic correctly.
Determine the resources you have and the ones you’ll need
The customer’s journey map will affect all business processes. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze all the resources used to form customers’ opinions and experiences and consider the effectiveness of existing tools. If the contact with the customer through the website does not reach the planned sales level, take a closer look at the user’s actions. Studying the content on the site, navigating through pages and sections, various nuances of user behavior can be analyzed using Plerdy tools. Based on the information received, many useful conclusions can be drawn, and the website can be evaluated as a zone of interaction from the buyer’s point of view.
Additional tools and resources allow you to identify and eliminate negatively influencing factors. As a result, the company will receive an increase in the accuracy of brand development forecasts, an improvement in investment attractiveness, and, as a result, an increase in profits.
Identify Customer Pain Points
It is necessary to pay special attention to painful points and areas where the risk of problems increases. It is recommended to regularly interview customers and employees responsible for support and customer service. The level of detail in the questionnaires varies, but it is enough to know three aspects:
- How easy is it to achieve a goal every step of the way?
- What causes stress, frustration, and negativity?
- What are the main reasons for non-collaboration (first and second)?
Answers will indicate issues that require revision first. Minimizing discomfort will have a beneficial effect on sales.
Update and Improve
Trends in the emerging consumer market are inevitably changing how customers think. Target audience segments are shifted and adjusted under the influence of various factors. This obliges regularly changing the customer journey map- upgrading this tool at least every six months. Additionally, changes should be made when new products are introduced or the brand strategy changes – any concept implies making changes.
7 Examples of Customer Journey Maps
Customer journey map design can be inspired by successful examples of the use of this marketing tool in large companies operating in different market segments.
Lego
Lego designed the customer journey map in a circular pattern to showcase the New York City travel experience. In the center of the schematic wheel is a detailed description of a person. The next circle is divided into three segments: before, during, and after. All descriptions of actions or events are illustrated with emoticons displaying positive emotions, negativity, or indifference. This circular pattern is impressive in its simplicity and clarity.
Spotify
The streaming audio service Spotify has created a customer journey map to improve music sharing options. With the help of clear visualization, it was possible to understand at what stages the exchange of music files is most attractive and relevant and where users encountered difficulties.
Amazon
The global e-commerce giant Amazon has created a sophisticated customer journey map. Its full study will take days – fortunately, it is possible to split the image into easy-to-understand parts. For example, a conversion funnel, the influence of brand products on engagement and promotion along the funnel. Performance is tracked by many metrics – from impressions, CTR, and cart additions to repeat sales.
LANCOME
The renowned cosmetics and perfumery brand LANCOME used a customer journey map to gauge the customer experience with the company. Information about emotions during the interaction experience made it possible to build a marketing and communications strategy more competently.
Ikea
Ikea decided to use the customer journey map to find out about the feelings and moods of people when visiting outlets. The overall impression was rated on a six-level scale ranging from extremely negative to excellent. Based on the opinions of visitors, a graph of customer ratings was created.
Starbucks
The Starbucks brand has two card variations worth looking at. The first one examines several scenarios from the interaction of a guest with staff and analyzes the risks of coronavirus infection in each case. Another popular case is visiting a coffee shop to work remotely in a comfortable environment.
TurboTax
Before the launch of Personal Pro, a new tax software product, TurboTax designed a customer journey map to capture the user experience of the new product. Research, surveys, and interviews with tax experts have provided a picture of opinions on this indicator.
Conclusion
A customer journey map is a well-structured quintessence of collected information about the brand and target audience interactions. Specialists can track changes in customer behavior at different stages of the movement – from desire and idea to making a purchase.
Such feedback makes it possible to quickly adjust the strategy and prevent a decrease in the number of buyers.
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