Customer Journey Mapping Best Practices: 10 Tips and Tricks

I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of the biggest brands in the world as well as lone entrepreneurs on the startup journey. Through all these projects I’ve had many successes but also made mistakes along the way. In this article, I will share some tips and tricks so you can get straight to the value with less hurdles in your way.

1. Start with a clear objective

Before you start creating a customer journey map, it’s essential to have a clear objective in mind. What is it that you want to achieve with the map? Do you want to identify pain points in the customer journey that might lead to a specific business challenge? Or do you want to improve the overall customer experience for the good of the brand relationship? Having a clear objective will help you focus your efforts and ensure that your map is effective in achieving your goals.

2. Involve cross-functional teams

Creating an effective customer journey map requires input from various departments within an organization. It’s important to involve cross-functional teams, including marketing, sales, customer service, and product development, to ensure that you have a comprehensive view of the customer journey. Each team can provide valuable insights into different stages of the journey and help identify areas for improvement.

3. Use customer research

To create an accurate customer journey map, it’s important to use real customer representation. You can use a variety of research methods, including surveys, interviews, and focus groups, to gather data about the customer experience. This data can help you understand the needs and pain points of your customers and identify opportunities for improvement. In the absence of customer research seek validation on your interpretation of the experience from those colleagues closest to the customer, often that is the sales team or those in the customer support/services.

4. Focus on the customer perspective

When creating a customer journey map, it’s essential to focus on the customer’s perspective. The map should reflect the customer’s journey, not the internal processes of the organization. This means that you should focus on the touchpoints that the customer interacts with and the emotions and feelings they experience at each stage of the journey.

5. Keep it simple

A customer journey map should be easy to understand and digest. Avoid using complex language or technical jargon that may confuse the reader. Use clear and concise language, and focus on the key touchpoints in the customer journey. This also applies to the visual design, like any effective infographic it must tell a story without confusing or overloading the user with visual noise.

6. Use visual aids

Visual aids, such as diagrams, graphs, and images, can be highly effective in communicating the customer journey. They can help make the map more engaging and easier to understand. Consider using different colors and symbols to represent different stages of the journey and highlight pain points and opportunities for improvement.

7. Consider the entire customer journey

A customer journey map should consider the entire customer journey with your product or service, from initial awareness to post-purchase experience. This includes all touchpoints, such as website visits, product research, purchase, and customer service interactions. By considering the entire journey, you can identify areas for improvement and ensure that the customer has a seamless experience across your channels.

8. Design with the audience in mind

If you work with a designer to visualise the map be sure to pick one that has experience with creating infographics rather than beautiful ad campaigns. Because the map is often quite busy it’s critical that the designer place emphasis on the important parts of the map and use colour, iconography, and fonts wisely.

9. Test and iterate

Creating a customer journey map is an iterative process. It’s important to test the map with real customers and gather feedback to ensure that it accurately reflects their experience. Use this feedback to make improvements and iterate on the map until it accurately reflects the customer journey.

10. Use the map to drive action

A customer journey map is only effective if it drives action. Use the map to identify areas for improvement and implement changes that will enhance the customer experience. Regularly review the map and update according to changes in the product or service offering as well as any new learnings from feedback or customer research.