Before buying something, a person does a lot of things: studies different options, reads reviews, visits a website, calls a hotline with questions. Each contact with a company leaves an impression: positive or negative. Even small details can spoil the overall picture, for example, a non-working lead form or the absence of the required payment method.
The CJM or Customer Journey Map tool helps you look at processes through the eyes of the customer and go with them all the way from getting to know the product to buying it. In this article, we will look at how to correctly create such a customer journey and how to use it for the benefit of your business.
What is CJM
Customer Journey Map — a customer journey map or a visual diagram that shows how a person moves from one stage to another, what he thinks and feels, what difficulties he faces. The focus is on the emotions of a person, and the main task of the tool is to make the experience of interacting with the company pleasant at all stages of work.
Our b2b email list is essential for the industry or b2b email list region of business. It is very difficult to choose these b2b email list because preparing an email list requires consideration of legal issues, list quality, reputation damage, etc. Our b2b email, this is a completely hassle-free and reliable site.
A separate customer journey map is created for each key segment of the target audience . The business can choose the format and content of the CJM for itself. But most often it is presented as a table: the columns indicate the stages of the customer journey, and the rows indicate the points of contact, the person’s actions, their emotions, goals and expectations, barriers and difficulties.
What does CJM give?
A well-developed Customer Journey Map benefits a business in the following areas:
- Understanding your audience. You begin to better understand your potential customers, their emotions and problems. Different categories of people have different paths and their own needs.
- Finding growth points. The company’s growth points and problems become clear. The map clearly shows what needs to be done to improve the customer experience and eliminate barriers to purchase.
- Increased operational efficiency. The sales cycle is shortened and conversions are increased as people move more easily from stage to stage.
- Simplification of processes. The customer’s path is simplified, because CJM helps to eliminate unnecessary interactions with the company when purchasing a product.
- Finding a competitive advantage. You better differentiate yourself from your competitors, because at every point of contact you can pleasantly surprise the client and create a “wow effect”.
How CJM differs from other tools
There are several tools that overlap with the customer journey map, but have a different focus and direction:
- A sales funnel is a model that shows a person’s movement through stages: from the first interaction with a product to its purchase.
- The Ben-Hunt ladder is an extended sales funnel that covers the initial stages when a person is not yet aware of their problem and their need is not yet formed.
- The customer life cycle is a classification of customers based on the quality of their relationship with the company. For example, a visitor, a one-time buyer, a repeat buyer, a loyal customer, and a brand advocate.
These tools largely correspond to the stages of the recent mobile phone number affiliate marketing customer journey to purchase, but they show it from a business perspective. CJM, on the contrary, focuses on the emotions and impressions that are important to the buyer, highlighting his experiences and expectations from each stage of the work. Thus, all these models do not contradict, but complement each other.
Other types of cards
Other customer journey maps are also used in marketing:
- UJM (User Journey Map) is an analogue of the customer path that is used in the development of web products, such as websites or applications.
- LXM (Life Experience Map) is a customer journey map that helps you understand what your audience is passionate about, interested in, concerned about, and spends money on beyond their interaction with the product itself.
All of these maps complement and deepen the understanding of the user experience.
What does CJM consist of?
The columns of the Customer Journey Map usually correspond to the stages of the customer journey. The rows indicate the points of contact between a person and the product, their actions, desires, thoughts and feelings. Here you should also describe the barriers at each stage and the steps the company can take to overcome them. Let’s look at these points in more detail.
Stages of the customer journey
To build a customer journey map, you must first determine the stages of a person’s interaction with the company. These are all the steps that a customer takes before buying a product or performing another target action. The steps may be different, they are selected for the specifics of the business.
Criticality of the step
For each stage of the customer journey, you can specify the degree of their criticality. The steps influence a person’s decision to buy differently. Some stages have a very strong impact on the client – these points need to be improved first. If you specify the criticality of a step in the CJM, then the company’s employees will understand the priority of tasks.
Contact points and communication channels
Touchpoints include all types of interactions between a business and a client. This includes not only online and offline communication channels, but also the work of employees, the appearance of offices, and much more. There are many touchpoints, so it is worth adding the most important ones to the CJM.
Client goals and expectations
In this section, it is necessary to describe the client’s numbers lists goals at each stage of the journey, their desires and expectations from the product and interaction with the company. This way, the business will be able to act “proactively” and anticipate issues that are important to the audience.
For example, at the stage of choosing a product, a person wants to receive clear and structured information about how one product differs from another. If the client is faced with such a choice for the first time, then he will also need to figure out which parameters are important and which are not.
Thoughts and questions
To understand your audience even better, you need to write down specific thoughts and questions that arise in a person’s head at each stage. This section complements and clarifies the previous block on the client’s goals and expectations well.
For example, a person buys a sofa on a marketplace. At the time of purchase, he will want to know the following:
- How many days will it take to deliver the sofa?
- Will the delivery arrive at a specific time or will I have to sit at home all day?
- Do I have to pay for shipping separately? If so, how?
- Will the sofa arrive assembled or disassembled?
- Will I be able to assemble the sofa myself or will I need to contact a professional?
- Where can I find a craftsman to assemble a sofa and how much does it cost?
By providing the client with answers to these questions in advance, you will save their time and improve their impression of the company.
Customer emotions
This section indicates what feelings a person experiences at each stage of their journey: how satisfied they are. If the impressions of working with the company are bad, they will need to be improved. If the emotions are simply good, they can be “pulled up” to the level of delight and “wow effect”.
For example, the ordered sofa was delivered on time and in a whole package. You can enhance positive emotions in the following way:
- Give a discount on the purchase of the next sofa or home accessories.
- Provide the contact details of the sofa assembler or even a coupon for free assembly.
- Give a pillow that matches the color of the new sofa.
- Please include a letter of thanks for choosing this product from the director, and a photo of the employees who made the sofa.
Barriers and challenges
The last section is dedicated to the difficulties that customers face. Here you should write down all the problems and difficulties of buyers. This could be, for example:
- a non-responsive website that is difficult to use on a smartphone;
- managers who miss calls and don’t call back;
- problems with product quality, delivery speed and more.
To avoid getting bogged down in a multitude of details, it is worth prioritizing them. In the first versions of the Customer Journey Map, include the most pressing problems. As they are solved, the map can be updated and expanded.
Recommendations
In this block, you need to indicate the company’s actions that will help customers overcome barriers to purchase, as well as create a “wow effect” from each stage of work. In other words, here you write down all the tasks that can improve the customer experience, for example, “Adapt the site for mobile phones” or “Give customers a gift for a purchase.
