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Glossary Keep customers loyal 2 min read

What is a customer journey?

Lewis Dowling Managing Director and Consultant

Short answer

A customer journey is every step someone goes through with your business, from first hearing about you to buying, and (hopefully) coming back. Mapping it means writing those steps down from the customer's point of view. It shows you where people get stuck or fed up, so you can fix those moments.

Also known as: Customer experience (CX), Customer onboarding

Contents

Why it matters

Most businesses see themselves in departments. Marketing looks after the website and someone in accounts sends the invoices. Customers don't see any of that. They just see one company, and one experience that's either smooth or a bit of a slog.

When you map the journey, you start noticing the gaps between those departments. The welcome email that never arrived, or the three-week silence after someone signed up. These small moments add up, and they're often why customers quietly drift off.

It's also good for winning new customers. If you know what people are thinking at each stage, you can give them the right information at the right time, instead of a hard sell too early.

Common mistakes

  • Mapping the journey you think customers take.

    Talk to actual customers. What they do is often quite different from what your process says should happen.

  • Stopping at the sale.

    Plenty of maps end when someone pays. What happens next is where loyalty is won or lost.

  • Making it too complicated.

    A map with 60 steps and five colour codes ends up on a wall and never gets used. Start simple.

  • Not doing anything with it.

    The point of mapping is to fix things. Pick the worst moment and sort that first.

How to get started

  • Pick one type of customer. Different customers take different routes, so keep it focused to begin with.
  • List the big stages. A simple set works well: discovering you, deciding, buying, getting started, and staying.
  • Fill in what happens at each stage. Note what the customer's doing and where they meet you. Then have a guess at how they're feeling, because that's often where the problems show up.
  • Ask a few real customers. A 20-minute chat will tell you more than an afternoon of guessing in a meeting room.
  • Circle the low points. Look for moments of confusion or waiting. Those are your quick wins.
  • Fix one thing, then look again. Small improvements add up faster than a big overhaul that takes months to roll out.

FAQs

What's the difference between a customer journey and a sales funnel?

A sales funnel tracks how many people move from interested to buying, and it's mostly a numbers tool for the business. A customer journey looks at the same path (and what comes after) from the customer's side, including how they feel.

What's a touchpoint?

A touchpoint is any moment a customer comes into contact with your business. Your website's one. So is the invoice you send them, or a quick phone call. A customer journey is basically a string of touchpoints.

Do I need special software to map a customer journey?

No. A wall of sticky notes or a simple spreadsheet works fine. Software can help later, but it won't do the thinking for you.

How often should we revisit it?

Whenever something big changes, like a new service or a new website. Otherwise, once a year is a good habit.

Related terms