Customer Journey Maps: How to Create Really Good Ones [Examples + Template]

Customer Journey Maps: How to Create Really Good Ones [Examples + Template]

Did you know 70% of online shoppers abandoned their carts in 2024? We’ve all done it — I can’t tell you how often I add items to the cart, get distracted, and forget to check out.

But why does it happen? The answer lies in understanding customer behavior. That’s where customer journey mapping comes in.

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While I can’t promise you’ll predict every step perfectly, customer journey mapping is a great way to track the critical milestones every customer reaches. In this post, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about customer journey mapping — what it is, how to create one, and best practices to help you get it right.

What You’ll Learn in this Post

• What is the Customer Journey?
• What is a customer journey map?
• The Customer Journey Mapping Process
• Steps for Creating a Customer Journey Map
• What's Included in a Customer Journey Map?
• Customer Journey Mapping Best Practices
• What is a customer journey map?
• What data is necessary for customer journey mapping?
• Types of Customer Journey Maps and Examples
• Customer Journey Mapping Examples and Templates
• Free Customer Journey Map Templates
• Customer Journey Map Design
• Benefits of Customer Journey Mapping

Free Customer Journey Template

Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free templates.

• Buyer's Journey Template
• Future State Template
• Day-in-the-Life Template
• And more!

Download for free Learn more Download for free

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You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

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Customer Journey vs. Buyer Journey

I've noticed a lot of businesses get confused when it comes to understanding the difference between the customer journey and the buyer journey.

Here’s the deal:

• The buyer's journey covers the entire process from the moment someone becomes aware of your product to the point they purchase it (and even beyond). Buyers don’t just wake up and decide to buy — they go through stages of awareness, consideration, and, finally, decision-making.
• The customer's journey, on the other hand, is all about how your brand fits into that process. It’s the specific customer touchpoints where you interact with your customers during their buying journey. By mapping out your customer journey, you’re making sure every interaction is intentional and impactful, rather than just hoping for the best.

At HubSpot, for example, we break our customer journey into three main stages: pre-purchase, onboarding, and ongoing use/renewal.

At each stage, we have key touchpoints — like educational blog posts or onboarding tools — that guide our customers along the way.

Your brand’s customer journey stages might look different, and that’s okay. What matters is starting with a clear plan. Let’s discuss how you can create a customer journey map.

What is a customer journey map?

By mapping your customer journey, you can use the information to improve the customer experience, increase conversions, and boost customer retention.

Keep in mind: The customer journey map is not to be confused with a UX journey map — here’s the difference:

What is UX journey mapping?

A UX journey map represents how a customer experiences their journey toward a specific goal or completing a particular action.

For example, I can use the term “UX journey mapping” interchangeably with the term “customer journey mapping” if the goal being tracked is the user’s journey toward purchasing a product or service.

However, UX journey mapping can also be used to map the journey (i.e., actions taken) towards other goals, such as using a specific product feature.

Why is customer journey mapping important?

I’ve learned that the customer journey isn’t as simple as it looks. It’s easy to think: offer a product → customer buys. But honestly, it’s way more intricate.

Before a customer even knows about your product, they need to know they have a problem and know that it needs solving. Sometimes you need additional education to get them to that point.

Throughout their journey, they’ll hit different touchpoints. Maybe they’ll see a competitor’s ad, read a review, hop on a sales call, or try out a demo. Each of those interactions shapes how they feel about your brand.

Here’s something I find interesting: 80% of customers value their experience with a company just as much as the product itself.

By mapping out the customer journey, I’ve seen how it gives marketing, sales, and service teams a clear understanding of each stage. It reduces friction and leads to happier customers. And when we meet customer needs quickly? We see higher brand loyalty.

That’s huge — so don’t miss out on the power of customers.

What data is necessary for customer journey mapping?

When I’m mapping the customer journey, I focus on real data, not assumptions. It takes the form of both solicited data — when I ask customers for their input — and unsolicited data that gives insights into their actual behaviors.

As email strategist and customer journey strategist Lindsay Hope explains, “You don’t want just any data. You need to dig deep to get to the actionable insights that show you exactly how your audience thinks, feels, and behaves at each stage of their journey. Unfortunately, most businesses get stuck because they think they know what their customers want. But assumptions ≠ reality. You have to collect the right data, so you’re working with facts, not guesses.”

Customer Surveys and Interviews

I find that asking customers directly through surveys or interviews reveals valuable insights into their experiences, pain points, and how they use the product. This is solicited data because I ask for it specifically.

Tools like Net Promoter Scores (NPS) surveys, customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores, and social media polls give me important insights into how customers actually feel about their experiences with us.

Specific actions you can take might include:

• Using post-purchase surveys to understand what they loved or struggled with during their buying journey.
• Talking with customers 1:1 to understand deeper motivations behind their decisions.
• Talking with people who didn’t buy to understand why.

While I love this type of customer information, it does have limitations. It relies on customers sharing their real opinions — in interviews, it might skew to the positive even if there were things that could have gone better. And, it typically only reflects a specific touchpoint and may not reflect their entire experience.

Expert tip: Hope shares, ”When collecting solicited data, ask questions to highlight feelings and friction. (Not just what your customer did but why they made that choice.) For example: Instead of ‘What features did you like?’ ask ‘What made you confident this was the right solution?’”

Unsolicited Data

As I mentioned, unsolicited data is more quantitative, based on specific numbers.

By this, I’m referring to data from customers they don’t actively provide upon request. The data I find beneficial includes:

• Website behavior — the pages they view, the order of pages they click, bounce rates, and abandoned cart information
• Email behavior — open rates, click rates, calls from the email, and other types of engagement.
• Social media mentions and reviews — public comments can help us identify things that could be improved as well as areas that delighted them.
• Operational data — this is internal data like delivery delays or support ticket response times that help us improve the way we serve our customers.

If we find that customers are abandoning their carts at the payment stage, we may identify long load times or our payment options as the causes of friction.

Free Customer Journey Template

Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free templates.

• Buyer's Journey Template
• Future State Template
• Day-in-the-Life Template
• And more!

Download for free Learn more Download for free

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All fields are required.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

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The Importance of Both Data Types

While unsolicited data often lacks the context that solicited feedback provides, we typically get more of it because we’re not relying on customer motivation to respond.

When you use the two types of data together, you’ll gain a more comprehensive view of your customer journey as well as any gaps.

My favorite part of combining solicited interviews with unsolicited reviews is the absolute goldmine of voice of customer data — or the language they use that will resonate with them.

Ivan Venberg, Head of Content at Yango Ads, agrees, and offered this recommendation “Pay attention to the language people use. I recommend Sarah Winters’ book Content Design, where she discusses how she struggled to attract users to the UK government site due to her use of the term ‘fracturing.’ By simply talking to users, she discovered that “fracking” was the term they used, which dramatically improved conversions.”

For example, you might get positive feedback from potential customers, but they don’t go through with purchasing and you may learn this happens after they get shipping costs (and deem them too high).

Or, your support transcripts may indicate that people are waiting for a long time and are quite frustrated with the process even though they rate your support team highly for their ability to help.

The bottom line? Both types of data are invaluable in your customer journey map.

Expert tip: Hope shares some valuable advice here. “Treat this as an ongoing process. Your audience’s needs evolve — and so should your map,” she said.

This process provides insights that help you understand how customers experience their journeys and identify potential bottlenecks.

Note that most customer journeys aren’t linear. Instead, buyers often experience a back-and-forth, cyclical, multi-channel journey with multiple touchpoints.

What is a touchpoint in a customer journey map?

I want to make sure we’re on the same page about what a touchpoint really means in the context of a customer journey map. Touchpoints refer to every instance your business comes in direct contact with a potential or existing customer. It could be online, in-person, through your messaging, website, or app and any number of other circumstances. What you need to know is every time your customer interacts with you, they form an opinion of your business.

1. Use customer journey map templates.

Why make a customer journey map from scratch when you can use a template? I saved so much time by downloading HubSpot’s free customer journey map templates. They cover everything from a buyer’s journey to a day in your customer’s life and lead nurturing.

These templates helped my team in sales, marketing, and customer support understand our buyer personas better. And honestly, that led to a noticeable improvement in our product and customer experience.

2. Set clear objectives for the map.

Before you dive into your customer journey map, ask yourself why you’re creating one in the first place.

• What goals are you directing this map towards?
• Who is it for?
• What experience is it based upon?

If you don’t have a buyer persona yet, trust me, it’s worth creating one. It’s a fictional profile that reflects all the demographics and psychographics of your typical customer. For me, it really helped keep the journey map focused on the right audience.

3. Profile your personas and define their goals.

At this point, I’d focus on deep research. This is where having customer journey analytics ready is super helpful. If you’re like me and don’t have that set up yet, don’t worry — HubSpot’s Customer Journey Analytics tool is a great starting point.

Personally, I find questionnaires and user testing to be invaluable for gathering customer feedback. But I always make sure I’m reaching out to actual customers or prospects — people who have interacted with the business or plan to. Getting feedback from the right people is key.

Here are some questions I’d ask:

• How did you hear about our company?
• What first attracted you to our website?
• What are the goals you want to achieve with our company? In other words, what problems are you trying to solve?
• How long have you/do you typically spend on our website?
• Have you ever made a purchase with us? If so, what was your deciding factor?
• Have you ever interacted with our website to make a purchase but decided not to? If so, what led you to this decision?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how easily can you navigate our website?
• Did you ever require customer support? If so, how helpful was it, on a scale of 1 to 10?
• Can we further support you to make your process easier?

💡Top tip: Use this buyer persona tool to fill in the details you procure from customer feedback.

The B2B Angle

As CEO and Founder of Keystone Click, Lori Highby works primarily with B2B companies and has developed a framework to ask the same five questions at every stage of the buyer journey:

• What is the prospect thinking and feeling?
• What actions are the prospects taking?
• What are their touchpoints with the business?
• Where is there hesitation or friction?
• What are opportunities to add value?

Highby and her team focus on moving prospects through five stages of the buyer journey: awareness, consideration, action, experience, and advocacy.

She says that asking the same questions is important “because it opens up the opportunity to get a holistic view of the customer experience while identifying trends and opportunities to maximize the overall experience you are providing.”

Free Customer Journey Template

Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free templates.

• Buyer's Journey Template
• Future State Template
• Day-in-the-Life Template
• And more!

Download for free Learn more Download for free

Download Free

All fields are required.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

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4. Highlight your target customer personas.

After getting all that information, I’d narrow my focus to one or two key customer personas.

It’s important to remember that a customer journey map follows the path of a specific customer. If you lump too many personas together, the map won’t capture their unique experiences.

When creating your first map, it’s best to pick your most common customer persona. Also, consider the route they would typically take when engaging with your business for the first time.

I’d also use a marketing dashboard to compare different personas and pick the one that fits best. And no pressure — any personas you leave out can always be mapped later.

5. List out all touchpoints.

I always start by listing the touchpoints where customers interact with the brand.

These moments, no matter how small, are when customers form an opinion, whether it’s great or not-so-great. Think of it this way: If I saw a display ad for your business or ran into a 404 error page, those would be touchpoints that matter.

It’s easy to forget that your brand isn’t just the website. It extends beyond that — into social media, email campaigns, paid ads, and even customer service interactions. What I’ve found is that mapping out these touchpoints helps spot areas for improvement in the customer journey.

Once you've got your list, you’ll start to see patterns. Are customers using fewer touchpoints than expected? That might mean they’re leaving your site too early. Are they interacting more than expected? Maybe your website requires too many steps to get anything done.

Either way, it’s a signal that tells you how smooth or bumpy the journey is.

When I do this, I don’t just stop at the website. I take a broad view — Google searches, third-party reviews, and mentions on social media. A quick Google search of your brand can show you all the places customers might be finding you.

Then, I back it up with data from Google Analytics to see where the traffic is actually coming from. From there, I narrow down the most important touchpoints, the ones that are really driving action.

At HubSpot, we took this process seriously. We ran workshops where employees from different teams pointed out moments when our product or brand left an impression on customers.

The proof is in the pudding: You can see us literally mapping these touch points out with sticky notes in the image below. Seeing it all laid out helped us notice inconsistencies in how we communicated with customers.

When creating a customer journey map, here are some key touchpoints I always consider:

Customer Actions

I track every single action customers take with the brand, whether it’s typing in a search keyword, clicking an email, or scrolling through a product page. You’ll probably end up with a long list, and that’s fine.

I’ve learned that recognizing where customers have to take too many steps is crucial. Reducing the number of steps a customer takes in their journey might feel risky, but in my experience, it almost always leads to higher conversions.

Customer Emotions & Motivations

All marketing is a result of cause and effect. Likewise, every action your customers take is motivated by emotion. And your customers’ emotions will change depending on which part of their journey they’re at.

From what I’ve seen, a pain point or a problem is usually the emotional driver of your customers’ actions. Knowing this will help you provide the right content at the right time to smooth each customer’s emotional journey through your brand.

Customer Obstacles & Pain Points

I always dig into what’s blocking customers from moving forward.

Take shipping costs, for example. If I love your product but find out at the last minute that the shipping fee is too high, I’ll probably abandon my cart.

Sometimes, the obstacles are harder to spot. Dedicated sales software is a good idea here. It lets you examine your sales pipelines and pinpoint what might cause prospects to turn away. Identifying these roadblocks lets you address them head-on. One simple fix I’ve used is adding an FAQ page to tackle common concerns, like unexpected shipping fees.

6. Determine the resources you have and the ones you’ll need.

As I work through the customer journey map, I get a clear picture of what we have and what we’re missing. For example, I might notice that our team doesn’t have the tools to follow up effectively with customers. That’s when I’d suggest we invest in some solid customer service tools to handle the demand.

Or maybe I spot some customer touchpoints we’ve been underusing, like I mentioned earlier. In that case, I’d recommend looking into a unified marketing software solution that helps us track and make the most of those touchpoints.

Including these tools in the map helps me predict their potential impact, making it easier to convince leadership to support the idea.

7. Take the customer journey yourself.

For me, mapping the customer journey isn’t finished until I’ve walked in the customer’s shoes. By experiencing the journey firsthand, I’ve found that you can uncover subtle pain points or areas of friction that might not be evident in the data.

I like to follow the path for each person — scrolling through their social media, reading their emails, doing a search — to really understand where they might get stuck or drop off.

For example, I might:

• Search for my product or service using.
• Search for a competitor’s product or service.
• Sign up for my own email list.
• Navigate my website or app with fresh eyes.
• Reach out to support.

Each of these items can provide insights that offer additional context to your data. For example, while analytics might show a high bounce rate on a page, manually going through the customer journey might help you realize the page loads slowly or has unclear navigation.

8. Analyze your results.

It's important to understand the customer journey map is just the start. The real value comes from analyzing the results for actionable insights.

I’ll ask questions like:

• Are people visiting our site but not converting?
• Are we meeting their needs at each step?
• What are the top-performing touchpoints (and the lowest)?
• What friction are people experiencing?

This process helps me see where we can improve. Analyzing the results will help me pinpoint where customer needs aren’t fully met and make sure we’re delivering a valuable experience.

Keep in mind that you can use the process to test certain assumptions and validate gut feelings. However, it’s important to keep an open mind because it’s almost guaranteed you’ll find something unexpected.

9. Update your map over time.

As I dig into my data, I always get a clearer idea of where I want my website to go. From there, I make adjustments, whether it’s adding more specific calls to action or beefing up product descriptions to ensure they’re crystal clear.

Big or small, these changes matter because they directly address my customers’ pain points. With my customer journey map as a guide, I can always make sure I’m tackling those needs.

How often should you update your customer journey map?

My map — as should yours — is a constant work in progress.

I make a point to review it monthly or quarterly to spot gaps or new opportunities to make the journey smoother. By leveraging data analytics and customer feedback, I can catch any roadblocks early. I also use tools like Google Sheets to keep everyone on the same page, which is super helpful for collaborating with stakeholders.

I’ve found that holding regular meetings to discuss how new products or features are shifting the customer journey is key to staying on top of things.

Featured Resource: Customer Journey Map Template

HubSpot’s free customer journey map template was a game-changer for me. It saved me time and made it so much easier to organize and outline the experience, showing exactly how my website impacts users.

Plus, it’s a fantastic tool for identifying areas in your product, marketing, or support that need some fine-tuning.

Download a free, editable customer journey map template.

1. The Buying Process

When mapping out a customer’s buying process, I gather data from various sources — prospecting tools, CMS, behavior analytics, etc. — to really understand how they move from their first contact to the final purchase.

You don’t have to get bogged down in the details, though. You can categorize it into broad stages: awareness, consideration, and decision.

Some data points I always check include:

• Website visits.
• Social media engagement.
• Customer service interactions.
• Purchase history.
• Survey feedback.

These insights paint a clearer picture of how customers engage with your brand.

2. Emotions

No matter the goal, your customers are on a journey to solve a problem, and with that comes emotion. Maybe they feel excitement, relief, or even a bit of worry. Capturing those emotions in your journey map helps identify where things go wrong and how to fix them.

We use emojis on HubSpot’s journey map to represent potential emotions at different customer journey stages.

It might seem strange to ascertain customer emotions with data analysis, but it’s common. Customer sentiment can be measured using data from:

• NPS surveys.
• Online reviews.
• Social media monitoring.
• Customer interviews and focus groups.
• Customer support data.

3. User Actions

Understanding what customers do at each stage is key. Maybe they download an ebook or sign up for a webinar during the awareness phase.

I consider the following data points for customer journey mapping:

• Page views.
• CTA clicks.
• Email opens.
• Email list signups.
• Ebook downloads.

The idea is to explore how your customers move through and behave at each stage of their journey.

4. User Research

Like the last section, this element describes what or where the buyer researches before taking action.

In the awareness stage, they’re likely Googling potential solutions. Pay attention to this — it’s your chance to step in and answer their questions before anyone else does. So you’ll want to analyze things like:

• Search engine queries.
• Chatbot queries on your site.
• Competitor analysis.
• Social media interactions.
• Review sites.

The idea here is to make sure you’re reaching your target audience when they’re actively considering you.

5. Solutions

Finally, my team and I brainstorm solutions to make the journey smoother.

The goal here is simple: fewer pain points, more satisfied customers. What can you tweak in the buying process to make it easier for them to achieve their goal? That’s the real question.

Specific tools you might use include:

• Customer feedback software.
• Behavior analytics tools.
• AI-powered chatbots and support “teams.”

Types of Customer Journey Maps and Examples

There are four types of customer journey maps, each with unique benefits.

To move your business from point A (deciding to focus on customer journeys) to point B (having a journey map), a key step is choosing which customer mindset to focus on.

This choice will guide you in selecting the right template. Pick the one that makes the most sense for your company.

1. Current State Customer Journey Map

These customer journey maps are the most widely used type. They visualize the actions, thoughts, and emotions your customers currently experience while interacting with your company. They’re best used for continually improving the customer journey.

Source

2. Day in the Life Customer Journey Map

These customer journey maps visualize the actions, thoughts, and emotions your customers currently experience in their daily activities, whether or not that includes your company.

This type gives a broader lens into your customers’ lives and what their pain points are in real life.

Day-in-the-life maps are best used for addressing unmet customer needs before customers even know they exist. Your company may use this type of customer journey map when exploring new market development strategies.

Source

3. Future State Customer Journey Map

These customer journey maps visualize what actions, thoughts, and emotions your customers will experience in future interactions with your company. Based on their current interactions, you’ll have a clear picture of where your business fits in later down the road.

These maps are best for illustrating your vision and setting clear, strategic goals.

Source

4. Service Blueprint Customer Journey Map

These customer journey maps begin with a simplified version of one of the above map styles. Then, they layer on the factors responsible for delivering that experience, including people, policies, technologies, and processes.

Service blueprints are best used to identify the root causes of current customer journeys or the steps needed to attain desired future customer journeys.

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If you want a look at an actual customer journey map that HubSpot has recently used, check out this interview we conducted with Sarah Flint, Director of System Operations at HubSpot. We asked her how her team put together their map (below) and what advice she would give to businesses starting from scratch.

Click to enlarge image

Customer Journey Mapping Examples and Templates

Here are some examples I’ve drawn inspiration from when building a customer journey map:

1. HubSpot’s Customer Journey Map Templates

HubSpot’s free Customer Journey Map Templates provide an outline for companies to understand their customers’ experiences.

The offer includes the following:

• Buyer’s Journey Template
• Current State Template
• Lead Nurturing Mapping Template
• Future State Template
• A Day in the Customer’s Life Template
• Customer Churn Mapping Template
• Customer Support Blueprint Template

Each of these templates helps organizations gain new insights into their customer base and help make improvements to product, marketing, and customer support processes.

Download them today to start working on your customer journey map.

2. B2B Customer Journey Map Example

This customer journey map clearly outlines the five steps Dapper Apps believes customers go through when interacting with them.

As you can see, it goes beyond the actual purchasing phase by incorporating initial research and post-purchase needs.

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This map is effective because it helps employees get into the customers’ minds by understanding the typical questions they have and the emotions they’re feeling.

There are incremental action steps that Dapper Apps can take in response to these questions and feelings that will help it solve customers’ current problems.

3. Ecommerce Customer Journey Map Example

This fictitious customer journey map is a clear example of a day-in-the-life map.

Rather than just focusing on the actions and emotions involved in the customer’s interaction with the company, this map outlines all the actions and emotions the customer experiences on a typical day.

Source

This map is helpful because it measures a customer’s state of mind based on the level of freedom they get from certain stimuli.

This is helpful for a company that wants to understand what its target customers are stressed about and what problems may need solving.

4. Future B2C Customer Journey Map Example

This customer journey map, designed for Carnegie Mellon University, exemplifies the usefulness of a future state customer journey map. It outlines the thoughts, feelings, and actions the university wants its students to have.

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Based on these goals, CMU chose specific proposed changes for each phase and even wrote out example scenarios for each phase.

This clear diagram can visualize the company vision and help any department understand where they will fit into building a better user experience.

5. Retail Customer Journey Map Example

This customer journey map shows an in-depth customer journey map of a customer interacting with a fictitious restaurant.

This map style is clearly more comprehensive than the others. It includes the customer’s front-of-stage (direct) and back-of-stage (non-direct or invisible) interactions with the company, as well as the support processes.

Source

This map lays out every action involved in the customer experience, including those of the customer, employees directly serving diners, and employees working behind the scenes.

By analyzing how each of these factors influences the customer journey, a company can find the root cause of mishaps and problem-solve this for the future.

Free Customer Journey Map Templates

1. Free Current State Template

If you’re using this template for a B2B product, the phases may reflect the search, awareness, consideration of options, purchasing decision, and post-purchase support processes.

For instance, our Dapper Apps example's phases were research, comparison, workshop, quote, and sign-off.

2. Day in the Life Template

Since this template reflects all the thoughts, feelings, actions, needs, and pain points a customer has in their entire daily routine — whether or not that includes your company — you’ll want to map out this template in a chronological structure.

This way, you can highlight the times of day you can offer the best support.

Get an interactive day in the life template.

3. Future State Template

Like the current state template, these phases may reflect the predicted or desired search, awareness, consideration of options, purchasing decisions, and post-purchase support processes.

Since this will take place in the future, you can tailor these phases based on what you’d like the customer journey to look like rather than what it currently does.

Get an interactive future state template.

4. Service Blueprint Template

Since this template is more in-depth, it doesn’t follow certain phases in the customer journey.

Instead, it’s based on physical evidence — the tangible factors that can create impressions about the quality and prices of the service — that often come in sets of multiple people, places, or objects at a time.

For instance, with my fictitious restaurant example above, the physical evidence includes all the staff, tables, decorations, cutlery, menus, food, and anything else a customer comes into contact with.

You would then list the appropriate customer actions and employee interactions to correspond with each physical evidence.

For example, when the physical evidence is plates, cutlery, napkins, and pans, the customer gives their order, the front-of-stage employee (waiter) takes the order, the back-of-stage employee (receptionist) processes the order, and the support processes (chefs) prepare the food.

Get an interactive service blueprint template.

5. Buyer’s Journey Customer Journey Map Template

You can also use the classic buyer’s journey — awareness, consideration, and decision — to design your customer journey map.

Get an interactive buyer’s journey template.

1. Set a goal for the journey map.

Determine whether you aim to improve the buying experience or launch a new product. Knowing what the journey map needs to tell you can prevent scope creep on a large project like this.

2. Survey customers to understand their buying journey.

I’ve learned that what I think I know about my customers and what they’re actually going through can be totally different. So, speak to your customers directly to get an accurate snapshot of their journey.

3. Ask customer service reps about the questions they receive most frequently.

Sometimes, customers need to be made aware of their specific pain points, and that’s where your customer service reps come in.

They can help fill in the gaps and translate customer pain points into business terms you and your team can understand and act on.

4. Consider customer journey mapping for each buyer persona.

One thing I’ve come to understand is that no two customers are the same.

Demographics, psychographics, and even how long someone has been a customer can determine how a person interacts with your business and makes purchasing decisions.

That’s why I create journey maps tailored to each key persona.

5. Review and update each journey map after every major product release.

The customer’s buying process changes every time your product or service changes. Even slight tweaks, like adding an extra field to a form, can become a significant roadblock.

So, review the customer journey map before and after implementing changes.

6. Make the customer journey map accessible to cross-functional teams.

One thing I always do is make the journey map accessible to everyone, not just my team. Having it out there helps other teams give feedback and keeps everyone aligned with the customer’s experience.

If you want to get a head start on your map and analysis, try HubSpot’s tools and create a journey report.

Customer Journey Map Design

Now that you know what goes into making a customer journey map, let’s take a little time to dive into design. How you lay out your journey map — from spacing to the colors you use — makes all of the difference.

I highly recommend the following best practices:

Create a clear layout and hierarchy.

Your layout should flow logically, with a clear visual hierarchy that makes it easy to follow. Use bold headings to break up the sections and keep things readable.

Bullet points? Always a good idea. They make your map easier to digest and keep the info clear and to the point.

Make the most of icons and symbols.

Let's be real — everyone skims. If your map is a wall of text, most of it will be missed. Icons and symbols are a great way to break things up and highlight key actions, touchpoints, and outcomes. Plus, they can add emotion to your map without needing extra words.

Leverage color coding.

Color is a powerful design element that can help you group similar ideas. You can assign different hues to the stages of your customer journey or to certain touchpoints. This helps you organize information visually and draw attention to the most important parts of your map.

Avoid clutter to create balance.

Too much of anything is just ... too much. Like I said, everyone skims. If your page is packed with icons, text, and colors, it’ll get overwhelming. Use whitespace to keep things balanced and organized.

Maintain consistency.

Your customer journey map should be consistent throughout. Pick a font family, color palette, and font sizes. Then, make sure you follow these guidelines throughout your journey map. Bonus points if your elements align with your company branding.

Benefits of Customer Journey Mapping

Customer journey mapping is something that every growing business should be doing, whether you’re a team of one or have hundreds of employees.

As Alexis Trammel, Chief Growth Officer at Stratabeat, says, “Marketers who are trying to perfectly document their customers' journeys may be setting themselves up for failure. Especially in B2B when cycles are longer, the stakes are higher, and research is KEY.”

In addition to better targeting and serving your audience, you get the following benefits from using customer journey mapping:

1. You can refocus your company with an inbound perspective.

Instead of chasing customers with outbound tactics, let them come to you with inbound marketing. Outbound marketing feels like yelling into the void — costly, interruptive, and let’s face it, annoying. No one likes being interrupted.

Inbound marketing flips the script. You create content that customers are already searching for, grabbing their attention before you even think about selling. A customer journey map helps you see what’s catching their eye and what’s making them turn away. This is where all that data I mentioned earlier really shines.

Trammel shares, "For Stratabeat's clients, we perform a gap analysis with this content marketing funnel in mind. If we notice something is missing, we add it to our content calendar. And we prioritize content that leans lower down the funnel, knowing AI may be answering many of those TOFU questions for the Unaware or Problem-Aware audiences.”

To nail your customer journey map, use real evidence from customer surveys and marketing analytics software. This will give you a crystal-clear picture of how your audience behaves and what they're interested in.

2. You can create a new target customer base.

Understanding the customer journey means knowing your customers inside out. Broad targeting wastes time and money, so why bother?

Instead, I recommend deep diving into their needs and pain points. This way, you'll uncover exactly who’s trying to solve problems with your product or service. With this info, you can fine-tune your marketing to speak directly to that group, making your efforts way more effective.

3. You can implement proactive customer service.

A customer journey map is like a cheat sheet for understanding when customers are happy and when they’re frustrated. You can then jump in with proactive customer service right when they need it. I think of it as being one step ahead.

For example, my friend who works in customer support mentioned how they used to anticipate a holiday rush and send out messages about their adjusted hours and alternative support options.

Customers were prepared, and no one was stuck on hold in surprise. Offering them a chatbot, knowledge base, or live chat gives them more control over how they get help, which leads to happier customers overall.

And to handle all those inquiries? Customer service software with omnichannel messaging and AI support is your friend here. Trust me — it saves so much time.

4. You can improve your customer retention rate.

With a complete view of the customer journey, spotting areas for improvement becomes a whole lot easier. Fewer pain points mean fewer customers jumping ship to a competitor.

Here’s the kicker: Even when people love a company or product, 59% will walk away after several bad experiences, 17% after just one bad experience.

Customer journey maps help you catch people on the verge of leaving. By tracking common behaviors, you can address issues before they become deal-breakers. Even if you don’t save everyone, boosting retention by just 5% can increase profits by 25%-95%. Definitely worth it.

5. You can create a customer-focused mentality throughout the company.

As your business scales, keeping every department as customer-focused as your support teams can get tricky.

Different departments have different goals; some teams care more about leads, others about signups. A shared customer journey map breaks through these silos by laying out every step of the journey, from the first interaction to post-purchase support. It helps everyone, from marketing to sales to service, align with the customer at the heart of their efforts.

6. You can rely on data instead of speculation.

In marketing and business, I find that lots of decisions — far too many, really — are made based on intuition. While, in my experience, there’s a lot to those gut feelings, which are based on years of experience.

However, if you’re wrong, there’s a lot at stake. In today’s world with all the data we have at our fingertips, there’s simply no longer a reason not to involve data in the decision making process and either validate those gut feelings or prove them wrong.

Email engagement and CRO specialist Alice Brown expands on this further, “Being able to triangulate your interview insights with survey responses and other sources of data means you‘re no longer relying on speculation or ICPs dreamed up in a boardroom to base your decisions on. Instead, touchpoints can be confidently built on data. This is how you create touchpoints that don’t just connect emotionally with your customers, but they also drive clicks and conversions.”

Charter the Path to Customer Success

Once you fully understand your customers’ experience with your business, you can delight them at every stage of their buying journey. Remember, many factors can affect this journey, including customer pain points, emotions, and your company’s touchpoints and processes.

I find customer journey maps most effective for visualizing this information, whether optimizing the customer experience or exploring a new business opportunity to serve a customer’s unrecognized needs.

Use the free templates I've shared in this article to start mapping the future of customer success at your business.

Editor's note: This article was originally published in August 2018 and has since been updated for comprehensiveness.

Free Customer Journey Template

Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free templates.

• Buyer's Journey Template
• Future State Template
• Day-in-the-Life Template
• And more!

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