What customer journey mapping is
Customer journey mapping is the practice of drawing out, step by step, what a customer goes through when dealing with your business: how they discover you, decide, buy, use and come back or leave. The result, a customer journey map, shows each stage alongside the touchpoints involved, what the customer is trying to do, how they feel and where things go wrong.
What a journey map contains
- Persona or segment: whose journey this is.
- Stages: the main phases, left to right.
- Touchpoints: where the customer meets you at each stage.
- Customer actions and goals.
- Thoughts and feelings, often drawn as an emotion line.
- Pain points and moments of truth.
- Owners and opportunities.
Typical stages
Stages vary by business, but a common sequence for a physical business is: Discover, Research, Visit or Order, Purchase or Service, Use, Support, Return or Leave. For an app: Discover, Install, Sign up, First use, Regular use, Payment, Support, Update.
A customer journey map for a retail store.
A short example
- Discover: searches "shoe store near me", reads Google reviews.
- Visit: parking, entrance, finding the right section.
- Try: help from staff, sizes available, trial area.
- Pay: billing queue, offers applied correctly.
- After: returns, exchanges, warranty.
- Example review topics: "no parking", "size 9 never in stock", "staff helped me find the right fit", "exchange took 30 minutes".
Build it from evidence
The common failure is a map drawn in a workshop from what staff assume customers experience. Use evidence: reviews, complaints, support logs, interviews and observation. Reviews are particularly useful because customers describe the stage that mattered most to them in their own words.
Using reviews to build a customer journey map.
How to build one
- Choose one customer segment and one journey.
- Draft stages and touchpoints with the people who run them.
- Gather evidence for each stage.
- Mark pain points and how often they occur.
- Identify moments of truth.
- Assign owners to the top pain points.
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Current-state and future-state maps
A current-state map shows how things are today; a future-state map shows the journey you want. Start with current state. Future-state maps drawn without a clear view of today tend to describe aspirations rather than changes.
Moments of truth
Some stages matter far more than others to how customers feel overall: the first greeting, the moment a problem is handled, the bill. Marking these helps prioritise.
Moments of truth in the customer journey.
Using the map
- Prioritise fixes by stage and impact.
- Give each stage an owner.
- Align teams that touch the same stage.
- Track complaints and review themes by stage over time.
Journey maps and user flows
A journey map covers the whole experience across channels and emotions. A user flow covers the screens and decisions inside one digital task. They work together but answer different questions.
Customer journey map vs user flow.
Common mistakes
- Mapping from assumptions only.
- Too many personas at once.
- A beautiful poster with no owners.
- Ignoring stages after purchase.
- Never updating the map.
Common questions
How long does a first map take?
A draft can be done in a workshop; gathering evidence takes longer, depending on your data.
Who should be involved?
People who run each stage, plus someone who reads customer feedback regularly.
Do we need special software?
No; a whiteboard, slides or a spreadsheet work.
How often should it be updated?
When the journey changes, and at least once a year.
Checklist
- One segment and journey.
- Stages and touchpoints.
- Evidence per stage.
- Pain points and moments of truth.
- Owners assigned.
- Review date set.
In short
A journey map lays out stages, touchpoints, actions, feelings and pain points for one customer segment. Build it from evidence such as reviews and complaints, mark moments of truth and assign owners.
Doing this with Falcon
Falcon does not draw journey maps, but it supplies the evidence for the stages customers write about. It classifies every Google Maps review of your locations and Google Play review of your app into themes, sub-themes and specific issues from your own taxonomy, with sentiment per mention and the exact quote behind each label. You can line those themes up against the stages of your map and use negative share by topic, location and month to see which stage hurts most, and where.