As the world of experiential businesses (and the brand landscape that fuels those adventurous types becomes more saturated), we’re seeing a huge shift in value towards the experience that a customer has before actually attending the thing they’ve paid to attend (or receiving the thing they paid for in the post).

So that’s the phase where they’re shopping around, not yet sure if you’re the right fit for them (and, alongside that, weighing up you versus your competitors).

And once they have clicked your ‘Book/Buy now’ button, we’re also talking about the warm-up, preparation space that lies between them booking and then arriving for their experience.

With the price of digital ads skyrocketing, and the resurgence of the email list, customer loyalty is more important than ever.

Getting your audience to come back to you and buy a second/third/tenth time can tip the sales on your success in the long-run (as we all know by now that it’s cheaper to retain a past customer than it is to acquire a new one).

In ‘Leading the Edge of Chaos’ (Gartner Group: Emmett C. Murphy and Mark A Murphy, 2021), it’s said that having an intentional focus on customer experience can increase your profits anywhere from 25% to 125%.

We’re moving into a world where just crossing your fingers and hoping your prospects will see you online for the first time and be totally enamoured with what you do doesn’t cut it anymore. 

We’ve gone past the point of expecting future customers to land on your booking page and immediately want to sign up with no questions asked.

As there are so many of your competitors vying for their attention as well, you’ve got to be certain that there are no escape routes or loopholes that’ll allow your prospects to slip away (which means you’re leaking potential revenue).

So understanding your customers’ journey is paramount — from the first time post, ad or flyer they see of yours, through the warming-up stages, right through to the post-purchase experience and beyond.

Customer journey mapping is a powerful tool that allows you to visualise their barriers and  motivations, their hesitations and expectations, to improve their satisfaction.

And the more stoked they are in this journey, the more likely they are to want to do it with you again, and the more referrals you’re likely to get as well.

In this article, we'll explore the art and science of designing effective customer journey maps. 

*Here you’ll find ↓ my free templates: there’s a printable version, a spreadsheet version and a pretty, editable Canva version too.*

So what is customer journey mapping?

Customer journey mapping is a visual representation of the steps a customer goes through — and the interactions they have with you — as they turn from a prospective customer to a follower, to an actual customer, to becoming a past customer (or ideally, a returning customer).

These maps help you see what the customer (past, present or future) feels, needs and expects at each stage of their journey.

Think of it like a sequence of anticipated events that you’re encouraging your leads, prospects and customers to take. Like a pathway, with strategic milestones (or touchpoints) along the way. 

Being intentional and seeing the link between each piece of content you create, across all the different platforms you share them on, means you’re proactively encouraging them (well, only the people you want to attract) to get to know, learn to like and trust you. This will boost your bookings (hello sustainable business model).

And what can a mapped-out customer journey do for my business?

1// SHOWS YOUR CUSTOMERS YOU’RE IN TUNE WITH THEIR NEEDS

By looking at your business through the eyes of your customer, you can empathise with their struggles and desires. As you show prospective customers that you care about their problems, and are able to help them resolve them simply, you’re developing a more trusting relationship between you and them. 

2// CREATES A MORE COHESIVE WORKPLACE ECOSYSTEM

It aligns your team's focus on the customer, breaking down individual stages into smaller tasks that can be more easily delegated to the relevant specialists on your team, and improving collaboration and efficacy of the journey.

3// IDENTIFIES FRICTION POINTS THAT ARE HOLDING YOUR PROSPECTS BACK FROM ENGAGING WITH YOU

Customer journey mapping will highlight customers’ pain points that have yet to be addressed. Therefore you can find opportunities for improvement in the ways you interact with them online, creating a more slick, effective pathway. 

(And even if there are pain points that reveal themselves, do not fret: approx 60-75% of customers will return to a business to buy from them a second time, even if they had a complaint the first time around, PROVIDED that their issue was dealt with satisfactorily.)

4// IMPROVES CUSTOMER RETENTION BY CONNECTING DIFFERENT PLATFORMS + CAMPAIGNS

Instead of looking at each of your marketing channels or campaigns in isolation, looking at your customer journey as a continual experience between platforms can help you see the customer’s journey holistically. This can lead to higher customer retention rates and increased loyalty up to 68%, which again, is only good news for your bottom line.

Then how do i go about designing my own effective customer journey map?

Creating a successful customer journey map requires careful planning and a deep understanding of your customers.

Here are the steps to get you started:

1. Identify touchpoints

List all the touchpoints where customers interact with your brand.

These can include website visits, collaborations on Instagram, Facebook ads, marketing emails, flyers in your local supermarket, articles you’ve written that show up on Google searches, referrals from other past customers or businesses you’ve worked with, coupons in the post, that podcast you were interviewed on, and in-person encounters.

Make the list as thorough as you can. 

2. Know your customers

Collect data and insights to understand your customers' demographics, behaviours, and preferences.

These insights can be collected from a variety of sources, such as website user surveys, post-purchase surveys, Instagram polls, old enquiry email trails, messages to your customer service team, sales calls and demo calls.

Use this information to create a refined customer persona* (or sometimes we call it an ideal client avatar).

* WHO IS MY CUSTOMER PERSONA/IDEAL CLIENT AVATAR?

They represent your dream customer, your target audience, the people who will find the most value in your brand.

It’s backed up by research, like interviews with the type of individuals who absolutely love what you’re doing.

The reason you’ll want to do this is so you can position your products and/or services to suit the needs and desires of your target audience.

Then you’ll be able to attract more dream customers. And so you’ll sell more.

3. Define your objectives

Before diving into the mapping process, outline your goals.

What specific aspects of the customer journey do you want to improve, and what questions are you trying to answer for your customers?

What desires do they have?

What do you want them to do, think and feel on each platform they encounter you on?

How do alternative solutions and your competitors play into their decision-making process (and how might affect how and where they search for a solution)? 

4. Map the journey

Create a visual representation of the customer journey, either on paper or using specialised software. To be honest, I’m a big fan of just using a simple spreadsheet.

Think of it like a pathway, or a route your customers need to take. The stages of awareness that are listed along the top axis are where:

1. Your new leads are only just gaining ‘awareness’ of you and your brand,

2. They’re now giving ‘consideration’ as to what kind of solution they need in their life and whether your category of product/service is the thing they need right now 

3. Your future customer need to make a ‘decision’ on whether your brand is worth their time and money (and you’re also better than your competitors),

4. They anticipate the ‘delivery’ of your product or service, and you ensure they get what they’ve paid for … and finally,

5. They’ve now turned into real life, paying customers, and you’re aiming for the ‘retention’ of their love and adoration (and loyalty to using and reusing your products/services).

Now plot the platforms you’re engaging with your future customers on, the types of touchpoints, customer emotions and a timeline. 

Particularly look for links between the free content you produce (blogs, social media, free e-books…) and the paid services you offer (products, services, experiences, consultation…), and how your customers (past, present and future) transfer from one piece of content to the next should naturally come next.

This is what a traditional, bog standard customer journey map might look like.

But I want to add a few extra elements to it that’ll [1] make your journey more fluid (i.e. more people move through it with each) and [2] more people will come back to you as return customers.

Pop your details in below ↓ to find my zooped-up version + a real-life example from one of my recent clients, The Saltbox.

5. Customer emotions

Emotions play a significant role in the customer journey.

A traditional customer journey map will tell you to identify the emotional highs and lows your customers experience during their interactions with your brand, across each individual platform.

Emotions might include:

• Desire

• Anger

• Frustration

• Confusion

• Disappointment

• Relief

• Joy

• Supported

• Hesitancy

• Excitement

• Curiosity

• Empowerment

• Overwhelm

• Satisfaction

Mostly, these maps are completed by a load of suits in a boardroom, disosiated from real life customers. They work off assumptions. And assumption is the route of all evil.

You can only select these emotions when you’re responding directly to customer feedback and statistics: basically, hard evidence.

Yes, these insights can help you address pain points effectively (see the next section, down below).

But I think it’s far more effective to focus on desired emotions.

Instead of picking negative emotions, I’d recommend you create a target emotion, which will help you to determine future solutions that work towards making your customers feel as you want them to.

It’s up to you to pick which one of these resonates with you the most (and is going to make the most positive impact on your customer journey).

Just remember to be consistent of your choice across at all stages of awareness.

6. Pain points + opportunity

Identify pain points and opportunities for improvement. Common pain points might include:

• Slow response times when customers or leads send email enquiries

• No clear way of contacting you, or learning more about what you do, from your social platforms (stopping would-be customers from finding your bookings page)

• Confusing website navigation, so it’s hard to find what they need

• Lack of transparency around payments, deposits + refund policies

• Accessibility, if you’re a physical location

• Commitment hours, if you’re running an online course

• Not knowing how to weigh you up against the other experience business down the road (or an alternative online experience they’re considering investing in)

7. Create solutions

Mindmap some solutions to address the pain points, to remove the frustration and friction along the customer journey (as the more frustration and friction there is, the more likely a prospective customer will exit the buyer’s journey prematurely). 

Consider how technology, training, and process improvements can be applied to create more positive experiences along this pathway.

Not only will these new solutions save you time, they’ll also make sure that your customer experience is ALWAYS consistent, from your 1st customer to your 100th.

For myself and my clients, these solutions have included (but aren’t limited to):

• Setting online course delivery and follow-up reminders in my CRM (it’s Dubsado, if you’re in need of a good ‘un for yourself, that’s intuitive to use and awesome for personalisations)

• Tone of voice training for staff in the customer service team, so there’s continuity across all touchpoints [*ahem, if this is something you think you need for your team, or need a review of your brand voice between website versus socials versus email, pop me an email to organise a company workshop with AWC, so everyone is on the same page]

• Automations on my email service provider, so when someone downloads one of my freebies, they’re then segmented by the lead magnet they just got delivered and open rate for my welcome sequence (so I can re-engage at a later date if they’re not opening my welcome sequence) — I use Flodesk as it’s one price regardless of how many subscribers you have, so it’s ideal for fast-growing brands 

• Various checklists for repetitive tasks that I can duplicate when needed: from my 1-to-1 client onboarding process, to my LinkedIn posting process, and even my blog framework templates (inc. standard procedure for finding lucrative keywords to integrate, necessary research, prompts to advance on or disagree with previous experts, and calls-to-action).

And that brings me to number #8. 

(Yes, I know I said 7 in the title of this blog post, but I had you give you this bonus, additional step, to make sure the work is worth it.)

8. intentionally + effectively move people

(through each stage of awareness)

How?

The answer is using calls-to-action.

According to Business2Community, 70% of small business owners haven’t put a call-to-action on their home page. So then how are you going to get your cold website traffic from the ‘awareness’ to the ‘decision’ phase?!

Then when you consider that emails with just one call-to-action can increase clicks by over 371% (compared to emails with multiple buttons — survey by Wordstream), what happens to the efficiency of your customer journey flow when you’re adding in more than one button or link?  

If your goal is to move people along through the different stages of awareness (from ‘awareness’ to ‘delivery’ and finally ‘retention’), then traditional, bog standard customer journey maps are missing one crucial element: a next step for your customer.

What is the ideal action they’ll take once they’re satisfied in their present state of awareness and are ready to take one step closer to buying from you.

You can also highlight points on your mapped-out journey that might create friction where there isn’t a clean and clear connection to the next touchpoint in the pathway. Then you can work towards finding solutions that ensure the connection between these two touchpoints is made more intuitive for your customers (meaning more people are likely to take that the step: one move closer to becoming a paying customer and future brand advocate).

Here’s a zooped-up version of the customer journey map, the way I think it should look >>

The Saltbox:

streamlining for digital + in-person experiences

Based in the luscious forest of Surrey in the South of England, The Saltbox offer foraging, game butchery and over-fire cookery classes in their stunning outdoor kitchen. But they also have an online cookery course.

We worked together to remove the obstacles that were slowing down the flow of customers, particularly from the ‘consideration’ stage to the ‘delivery’ stage. 

Here is a pretty exhaustive list of the things we did to improve their flow of customers:

• Optimising website navigation for more flow to their key bookings pages

• Removing on-page friction points that stop people moving from the blog to their services pages

• Improving the service + managing customer expectations, by acting on pain points (that were fed back to them via customers + also looking at site analytics)

• Creating a clearer (and more direct) route from Google search results pages to blog/recipes + driving them towards joining their email list

• Giving more prominence to their online cooking-over-fire course, as it was previously hidden away on their website, but presented a lucrative opportunity to engage foodie + fire fanatics who couldn’t get to their Surrey base.

Wrapping Up

In today's competitive business landscape, designing effective customer journey maps is a critical step towards improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.

By understanding your customers, identifying pain points, and implementing effective solutions, you can create a smoother, more engaging journey for your customers.

And that means more journey-goers converting into paying customers.

Remember that your customer journey mapping is an ongoing process, and staying committed to it will lead to lasting success.

So, get started today and embark on a journey of your own — the journey towards ever-growing success online for your precious biz AND more return customers to boot. 

Get your hands on these free mapping templates (inc. the Saltbox version as an example to get your started) by popping your info in below >>

Just one last thing, before you go…

Your website’s home page might be the most problematic area within your customer journey

Particularly when it comes to your website, traffic is arriving from different sources and platforms (some from Google, some from Instagram, some from catching your latest podcast, etc). 

Your website can feature at the very first ‘awareness’ stage of your customer journey, if your future customers have found you via Google (from your SEO efforts).

It’s also likely that your website features at the decision stage of the journey, when your customers are just about to buy from you.

It’s also a key touchpoint when you’re encouraging past customers to re-engage, during the ‘retention’ phase. 

Your home page traffic, in particular, needs to act as a jumping off point for people at all stages of the customer journeys, with their varying intentions and needs.

The traffic visiting your home page will have different amounts of experience with you as a business owner, and different levels of understanding about the experiences you provide. 

So how do you point each disparate group in the right direction, at the right moment?

You want to capture the attention of the colder traffic (who don’t know much about you — maybe it’s their first time encountering your brand) and point them towards your blog to prove your expertise.

Or equally, it could be towards your email list to build more trust before they’re ready to book a paid experience with you.

Alternatively, think about the people who’ve arrived on your site via a newsletter (people who you’ve warmed up with insightful stories into your life, who are feeling a connection with your values and slowly getting to know you).

It’s your job to send them to your services page so they can actively engage with what you have to offer them.

Maybe you want to encourage referral traffic — from people you’ve worked with in the past, or are collaborating with at a future event — to head to your about page, so they can get to know you better and understand your story.

How to tighten up your website customer experience in 60 minutes

If you’re uncertain as to whether your home page is strategically structured to sign-post these different groups to their natural next step in your customer journey, your homepage might benefit from having a review session through the eyes of my Website Goggles. 

AWC’s signature website + copy audit package can reveal the leaks in your website’s homepage that are costing you potential customers — by hiring my Website Goggles.

Book a session (starting at £175GBP) that gives you a general overview of your site or add on additional detailed page specific reviews. 

I’ll even write killer copy for those sections that hold the most potential power, to help ensure your website is working hard at solving your customers needs and directing them effectively to take that next step with you (so you don’t have to!).