From choosing what to map to building customer personas, prepare a solid foundation to help you map your customer journey quickly and easily.
1. Choose what to map
The first step on your voyage into the light is to identify what customer journey you want (or need) to map first.
Goal: Decide on the journey you're going to map.
Common examples:- Your company's primary customer journey, including key customer interactions
- A specific channel, i.e., website, email, app, contact center
- A specific process, e.g., purchase, support, in-store visits
- Customer lifecycle stages, i.e., acquisition, onboarding, renewal
💡 Tip:
Start by deciding on a key area you would like to track. This usually involves monitoring the primary ways your company interacts with customers.
2. Determine the main ways you interact with your customers
Take a moment to think about all the ways your customers come in contact with your business. These could be online channels like a web page, in-person channels like visits to your store, via ad campaign, loyalty program, etc. As you do so, jot down what metrics are important for each channel and where you can find the necessary data for each. See below for some common examples.
Goal:
To understand the touchpoints and customer interactions along the journey you're mapping, and to establish metrics and source data to help track their performance.
Online Channels
| Example metrics | Data source | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web page | Visitors, conversion rate, conversions | Google analytics | Reports - acquisition - traffic acquisition |
| Social media | Followers | Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, Youtube | |
| Company blog | Visitors | Google analytics | Reports - acquisition - traffic acquisition |
| Mobile app | Number of downloads, active users | App store |
In-person channels
| Example metrics | Data source | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brick-and-mortar shops | Number of visits, revenues | Store manager | |
| Trade fairs | Number of leads | Event manager | |
| Industry conferences | Number of leads | Event manager |
Sales
| Example metrics | Data source | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|
| E-shop | Visitors, orders | E-Shop admin tool, Google Analytics | Reports - acquisition - traffic acquisition |
| Marketplace | Orders | Marketplace admin tool | |
| Influencer partnerships | Sales volume | ||
| Promo coupons | Number issued, number used |
Marketing communication
| Example metrics | Data source | |
|---|---|---|
| PPC campaigns | Clicks, cost, conversions | Google Analytics, Sklik, Facebook |
| Display campaigns | Clicks, cost, conversions, impressions | Google Analytics |
| PR | Media mentions | PR manager/agency/monitoring |
| Emailing | Open rate, CTR, subscribers | Email tool |
Customer service and loyalty
| Example metrics | Data sources | |
|---|---|---|
| Loyalty program | Users | |
| Customer service center | Number of contacts | Customer service manager, CS tool |
| Customer reviews | Average rating, number of ratings | Google reviews, Facebook reviews, specialized review sites |
| Customer experience | NPS, satisfaction | CX tool, CX manager |
💡 Tip:
Create a list of 10-15 key touchpoints and interactions your company has with clients. For more ideas, refer to our Sample Activities and Touchpoints document, which includes additional examples and a template for analyzing and prioritizing your touchpoints.
For each item on the list, we will define metrics or KPIs to assess performance. You don't need to give us access to your reporting tools; just have the data ready for our meeting, so we can either take screenshots or note down the values from the past few months.
3. What are your company's main pain points?
Without being overly critical, think about the key places where your company isn't quite up to snuff or could stand to make some improvement.
Goal: Identify opportunities for improving sales and customer experience.
Common examples:
- Poor customer reviews
- Slow customer support
- Ineffective and high corporate costs
💡 Tip:
No need to go into too much detail the first time. Simply jot down 1 - 2 areas you know are harming your company right now.
4. Know thy customer
Now take a moment to reflect on the people that use your services or product. Where do they live? How old are they? Are they married or single? What do they do? What is their financial situation? How do they spend their time? What are they like?
Goal: Describe key your customer types, their needs, geographic and socio-demographic information, skills, pain points, etc., and build "customer personas."
Example:
- Jen is a 35-year-old product manager who works for a large international company. Residing in a bustling city, Jen manages all her tasks using her mobile phone. When it comes to purchasing, she prioritizes cost-effectiveness and availability of goods. You can often find Jen at trade fairs, where she engages with the latest industry trends.
- Charlie is a successful, 65-year-old entrepreneur who runs a family import/export business. He has limited knowledge of marketing and prefers to get his information from printed newspapers. Charlie is somewhat of a curmudgeon, often voicing his disapproval of modern youth culture.
💡 Tip:
Write a description of three or four of your typical customers. Draw from marketing studies for your business segment or demographic data from Google Analytics to flesh out your personas with the characteristics of your actual customers.
Rock and roll, you've just completed the hardest part of the whole process. Now you've just put it in your journey. To learn how, read on here.