You are on a journey: new path, new land, and new experiences. And this is precisely what your customer’s journey with your brand is! So how do you make sure the journey is smooth? Enter Customer Journey Map (CJM) — a mapping tool that visualizes and optimizes this experience.
CJM isn’t simply a tool, it’s your look into your client’s world. It’s a visual map of every interaction a customer has with your product or service, from their first interaction with you through to their last purchase — and beyond.
But can you draw a CJM once and be done with it? Not at all! It’s alive, growing, just like your business and the needs of your customers.
Imagine this: a buyer is eager to buy, but finds himself in a long registration phase. What happens? Most likely, they’ll leave. CJM acknowledges these “pain points” and resolves them before they become detrimental to the deal.
CJM involves much more than just customer experience improvement; it can also involve streamlining your internal processes. It lets you know where you’re losing customers and how to get them back.
Understand Your Customer: Who are they? What are their struggles? What kind of solutions do they want? You have a clear customer persona that outlines their motivations and goals.
Map Touchpoints: Where does the consumer touch your brand? Website, social, ads, or possibly a chat with a sales rep?
Break the Journey Up into Stages: Segment the journey with stage-level attributes and holdups from discovery until post-purchase.
Identify Customer Emotions: What is the emotion driving the customer at each stage? Excitement? Frustration? By understanding these emotions in general, it allows us to empathize better and improve the experience.
Spot Weaknesses: Where does the customer not go the distance or switch to a competitor?
Take Action: There is no value in a CJM hidden in a stack of papers. Tackle the challenges, improve your processes, and scale what’s working.
Customer Journey Maps are strategy, with a side of empathy. And you can create experiences that drive your customer to return by knowing the reasons for their selection.
Consider the case of an online store that offers delivery services, for example. Customers feel uncomfortable when they don’t hear about order updates. Just a simple SMS or email update fixes the problem immediately.
Smaply is a visualisation platform for client journeys, personas and storyboards.
Features:
Price: Free plan with limited features. Paid plans begin at USD 25 / month.
Website: https://www.smaply.com/
UXPressia - CJM with collaboration, analytics & templates.
Features:
Price: Free plan with limited functionality. Paid plans begin at USD 16 per month (per user).
Website: https://uxpressia.com/
Custellence - straightforward and handy CJM boards.
Features:
Price: Free plan with basic features. Paid plans begin at' 30 a month.
Website: https://www.custellence.com/
The simple answer is, YES, if you want happy customers who return. CJM isn’t a buzzword, it’s a tool to better understand and improve your business.
CJM helps you view your business through your customers’ eyes, recognize pitfalls and build a seamless consumer experience. Ready to take the first step? Today, starting to map will change not just your customer relationship, but your whole business.