What is a Customer Journey Map and how can it help me get more sales? If you are asking yourself this question, this post will interest you a lot since you are going to learn its definition and create one step by step and from scratch.

The client / user is the “KING” , as I always say in many of my presentations. It is for this reason, for which we must put all our attention and efforts in promoting a series of actions oriented to it and in order to obtain more sales.

What is a customer journey map or customer experience map?


customer journey map is a diagram that describes the interactions between a customer and a company, from the attraction phase to the loyalty phase. It allows you to see a map of each of the stages, interactions and channels through which the relationship with a client goes through during the entire purchase process.

According to its definition, this map or diagram seeks to fully empathize with the client to discover what is the best way to satisfy their needs in each of the phases of contact with the company, as well as to indicate the actions to be taken in that case. specific.

How To Create A Customer Journey Map To Design Your Customer’s Experience?

In recent years, it has become increasingly important to design a Customer Journey Map. But… Wait a minute. You’re probably wondering: what’s the use of this?

Well, he is a tool that allows you to design a good customer experience or Customer Experience , something vital for the success of your company (and much more vital than you think).

The Importance Of The Customer Journey Map!

This map will not only allow you to develop a correct experience for your clients, but it will also help you discover which are the best attraction, conversion and loyalty actions to ensure increased sales.

Statistics are clear in this regard. In B2B markets (companies that sell to companies) a good experience with the brand assures you:

  • Multiply the sales and loyalty possibilities by five.
  • Increase up to 30% what a client is willing to pay for our products or services.

This impact is similar or even greater in B2C markets in relation to that of retail sales.

That yes: considering the great changes that are happening in the B2B markets in recent years, it becomes increasingly difficult to get a new customer.

And this is precisely why, when we talk about B2B companies, it is essential to have a well-defined customer experience.

Steps To Design A Customer Journey Map


1) Research

target audince

The first thing to do is to get to know our target audience or ideal customer in depth , defining exactly who they are and thus obtaining all the data to then build our buyer persona.

A good definition of customer is basic to be able to properly build the Customer Journey Map.

If the client is not well described, or we have made the wrong client, the user experience that we design will not do any good.

And to do it we have 2 options:

► Option 1 ⇒ for lazy

Yes: everyone says that you have to go outside to meet your clients in order to really know them, but who has time for that?

If that is your case, I have the perfect option for you: investigate your clients through social networks .

If your objective is the final consumer, your reference social networks will be Facebook and Instagram; If instead companies are, you should turn to Twitter and LinkedIn.

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And what do you have to do? Well, choose potential people who meet the requirements of your ideal client and discover:

  • What do you like?
  • What you do not like?
  • What do they share on their social networks?
  • Are they active on social networks? In which ones?
  • Who are your friends?

In short: You have to search for all the information you find relevant to build your buyer persona.

► Option 2 ⇒ for perfectionists

If you are one of those who strongly believe that a company must be built on a strong foundation and who know how important the definition of a customer is, you will have no choice but to use interviews to really know who they are and what they need.

There are many types of customer interviews and surveys. Personally, the ones I like the most are the Jobs to be done interviews created by Clayton Christensen.

The JTBD theory is based on the statement that the client does not really know what they want, and that the only way you have to know your client is to observe their behavior, since it is the only thing that does not lie.

So, which Doctor House willing to really discover what our client thinks, we will ask the studied questions of the JTBD interviews.

These questions are designed to find out:

  • How to discover a problem that your client may not know they have
  • How does he refer to that problem
  • What work do they need to do (both functional, emotional and even socially speaking)
  • What results do you hope to obtain
  • What restrictions you have or had that do not allow you to do the job properly
  • Where to start looking for information
  • Who to find first to find out
  • Who are your preselected brands to solve your problem
  • Why do they decide on that specific product?
  • How was / is the use of the service product, does it meet your expectations?
  • If you recommend the product, how do you do it, what does it say…

Once we have all the information we can go to point 2.

Different Social Groups of People Icon

2) I Defend Our Buyer Persona

We are going to summarize everything we have learned in the research phase and order it until we create a client image with which we can work.

For this we must create a buyer persona , one of the basic tools in the world of inbound marketing.

A buyer person is, plain and simple, a simplification of reality included in a profile that summarizes the most important features of our ideal client, while defining the ideal person to work with and empathize with.

As I work exclusively with companies that sell to other companies (B2B), my way of working buyer persona is a little different, but if your client is a final consumer you can use my tool without any problem, or any of the buyer persona indicated for B2C.

I present to you the tool with which we are going to work: B2B Buyer person canvas .

The Buyer canvas person

The Buyer persona canvas has 11 sections, including:

  1. Name and title:  Here I am literally referring to what our person is called, as well as the position he carries out. The best option, of course, is to take the name of a real person whom you have interviewed or researched.
  2. Company:  in which type of company does our person work and their most relevant segmentation information:
    1. Billing,
    2. Sector
    3. Number of employees
  3. JTBD : here we summarize the jobs and problems that the company has and which of them you can solve with your service or product.
  4. Background  of the person we are building, including data such as:
    1. Age
    2. Studies
    3. If you have children or not
    4. Hobbies and interests
  5. Photo of the person: here I recommend, again, that you choose the real photo of the person you have investigated so that it is easier to put them in their shoes. Also: keep in mind that a face provides extra information about each person.
  6. Other profiles  that you should consult if you have more than one client from the same company. Especially in B2B it is very common that you have to convince more than one customer, such as a:
    1. Buyer
    2. Influencer
    3. User
    4. Purchasing Manager
  7. Main motivating factors   of the person (not the company) to buy or use our product or service.
  8. Objections and problems  that the customer has regarding our product or service.
  9. Importance of the economic issue   for decision making
  10. Knowledge  that person has about the product or service you offer.
  11. Define if you are a digital person  , that is, if you are one who reads blogs and uses social networks … or just the opposite.

3) Deciding The Phases Of Our Customer Journey

All right! We already have our client defined.

Next we will have to determine the most suitable contact phases for our client (or what has been, in other words, our sales funnel).

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If you are still not very clear, here are some funnel examples:

► Inbound Marketing

In inbound marketing the sales funnel consists of 4 phases:

  • Attract
  • Turn into
  • Close
  • Delight.

► Steve Blanck Double Conversion Funnel

► Purchase Process Or Deduct The Funnel From The Customer’s Point Of View:

  • First thought: “I have the feeling that something is wrong, but I am not clear what problem I have”
  • Passive search: “I am considering different options but without putting energy into it and without considering them seriously”.
  • Active search: “I am clear about what my problem is and I want to solve it, so I look for the options there are.”
  • Consideration: “I have selected 2 or 3 options and I am clear about what I want, as well as my decision criteria”.
  • Compare: “I choose an option; payment”.
  • Consumption: “use the product or service”
  • Satisfaction: “I check if it has really helped me solve the problem I had.”

► Typical Funnel:

  • Attraction: phase in which the objective is to get the client to find your company and interact with it.
  • Nurturing or cultivation: phase in which you try to convince the client that you are the best option and that they have to ask you for a quote.
  • Sale: sale closing phase.
  • Loyalty: phase in which you try to buy from them again and speak well of yourself to family and friends.

Funnel

In my case, I prefer the typical funnel, since it adapts quite well to any type of company, and that is why I recommend it.

4) Brainstorming

At this point, we already have our client defined, as well as the phases through which we want to direct him.

It is time, then, to hit the coconut and think about what to do to get that customer to go through all those predefined stages of our sales funnel.

Here it is not a matter of deciding whether those actions are possible or not, if you have the money to invest or not, and not even if your customers are really going to like your products or not.

This phase is simply about letting your hair down, letting your creativity run wild and crafting cool ideas one after another.

And here there are no excuses.

There is a truth like a house: we all (without exception) have multiple creative resources. It’s just a matter of finding THAT brilliant and simple idea.

Brainstorming, How To Create A Customer Journey Map To Design The Best Customer Experience?

5) Creating our Customer Journey Map

The time has finally come to create our Map.

There are several types, although now I will refer to one of the simplest but at the same time most complete. And, above all, one for whom it was not necessary to have studied fine arts to do well.

Let’s start with the phases of the purchase process:

►  Attraction: it is that moment where the client has detected a possible problem and is looking for exactly what could be the best solution for him.

Our goal in this phase is that you find us and give us your information to stay in touch or request a quote.

►  Cultivation: here, instead, the customer is already evaluating different options. Our objective, then, is to make you decide for us, ask us for a budget or start the negotiation.

►  Sale: it is that delicate phase where the sale of the good or service takes place

►  Loyalty: finally (and no less importantly) we reach the point where the customer has already consumed our product or service and where we will discover if they are satisfied with the service provided.

But it is also the time to try to convince him to consume other of our products or services, or to recommend us to other potential customers.

So far, we already have a well-formed idea about the most important phases of the customer journey. What is next is to empathize with that client in each of those phases to build a unique experience.

For them we will answer each of the questions:

  • Script : What has happened in the life of the client or the company to find yourself in that situation?
  • Contact points: what possible contact points will we have with the client? What will the client do to solve the problem that we have raised previously in the script?
  • Emotion: How does the client feel in this phase, what is their predominant emotion?
  • Opportunity: What possible actions can we take to help the client, to anticipate his needs or even to help him overcome them?
  • Channels: Taking into account the client, which contact channels will be the best to carry out these actions?

The ideal is to start with the attraction phase and cover all the points one by one before continuing with the cultivation, sale and loyalty phase.

And here is a tip: in each of the phases, review the ideas obtained in the brainstorming, trying to apply them in one of the points. This will be the time to decide if those brainstorming ideas are feasible or not.

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Practical Examples Of Customer Experience Design With Customer Journey Map


concept of serching customer buying process, journey map, digital marketing campaign, promotion, advertising.

You may be thinking:

Yes, yes … all this sounds very nice with these words, but … what do I do with all this?

Well, let’s see an example, see if it is more helpful.

Let’s suppose that our product is a CRM with an average monthly cost, that is, we are not Salesforces but neither are Zoho, so we start:

1. Research

We diligently do the JTBD interviews and check that:

  • The company’s JTBD is to make its commercials sell more with better information management.
  • Our main interlocutor is the commercial director
  • The JTBD of the commercial director will make sure that the CRM not only does not give him more work, but at the same time it is easy to use for his commercials.

2. Phases of the customer journey

Let’s use the classic funnel with the Attraction, Cultivation, Sale and Loyalty phases.

3. Brainstorming

We do our Brainstorming with the team and come up with ideas like:

  • Give them a month trial
  • Make configuration and deployment free
  • Make a Freemium option
  • Give customized training to commercials
  • Send them a cake on every anniversary since they hired us

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What To Do With Your Customer Journey Map?


Ok, now you have your map ready.

And now that?

Well, if you have done well, you already have in your hands your marketing and sales strategy for this year, as well as the definition of your products or services, since the customer journey map informs you of:

  • What are the best attraction strategies for your client.
  • What kind of nurturing actions should you take.
  • What is the best way to close a sale with that client.
  • What you need to take care of above all things to get the customer to speak well of you and buy you again.
  • How you have to change your product or service to make it more attractive to your ideal customer.

Some Final Thoughts

So far we have come up with this fascinating design for an optimal customer experience.

Don’t forget that great actions can only be achieved by being very clear about who your customer is and detecting when the moments that your product or service can have the greatest impact on that customer’s experience, giving them what they really need.

So go ahead. Start as soon as possible with the implementation of all your shares to start selling more and at higher prices. You can’t say you have an excuse anymore, do you think?

Source: josefacchin.com