What is a customer journey? 8 steps to map it

Customer Journey (the customer journey) is a way of describing how a business and its customers interact. Let's ask: What is a customer journeya customer journey? Is the process of drawing customer journey maps complicated? In this article, MONA helps you understand the customer journey in depth. Once you grasp this term and apply it in practice, you can run your business better.

What is a customer journey?

Customer Journey in Vietnamese is called: “Hành trình khách hàng” (customer journey). It is a diagram showing how a customer interacts with a seller on the way to a particular goal or need.

Studying the customer journey shows you how customers find businesses, whether through referrals, search engine optimization, social media and so on.

The better you understand the the customer journey the more deeply you can understand your customers and give them the best experience. This process of interacting with and learning about customers is currently divided into 2 stages:

• The customer journey divided by buying stage. At this stage, the business looks into purchase needs and sales solutions. Payment methods and reviews also matter. Do this stage well and your customers will readily recommend your services to others.
• Customer Journey chia theo behavior. In this form we look at customer awareness, the sales solutions customers care about, buying psychology and after-sales support.

When the categories are clearly divided, it is easier to sketch Customer Journey Map that fit your strategy.

4 popular customer journey models

Because analyzing the customer journey matters so much, many models have been developed and applied in practice. Below are the 4 most widely used.

The 5A customer journey model

This model focuses on 5 main stages of the customer's journey, including Awareness (awareness), Appeal (appeal), Ask (ask), Act (act) and Advocate (advocate). The 5A model helps businesses identify touchpoints and give customers a better experience, from first awareness to becoming advocates of the product. Specifically, the 5A model covers:

• Awareness – Understanding customer needs. Every problem in life branches into different needs. Contact with brands, ads and influence from celebrities can also increase the desire to buy.
• Appeal – Getting attention. Find advertising channels that amplify your brand. When you make a strong impression and the brand sticks in people's minds, the effect on buying is greater.
• Ask – Always asking and learning. You can use landing pages, statistics, reviews and comments to ask and answer questions. Asking and finding the answers helps you understand customers and their needs better.
• Action – Action. This is the key moment, when customers decide to buy. Offer appealing after-sales campaigns and customer care at this stage.
• Advocate – Customer advocacy. This is the loyal customer strategy. They will promote your brand to more people for free.

The ACC customer journey model

ACC stands for Awareness (awareness), Consideration (consideration) and Conversion (conversion). This model covers the process from the moment a customer becomes aware of a product until they make a purchase.

The ACCSR customer journey model

ACCSR stands for Awareness (awareness), Consideration (consideration), Conversion (conversion), Service (service) and Retention (retention). This model includes the stage after the customer has bought, focusing on good service and a long-term relationship with the customer.

The ACCRA/ACPRA customer journey model

The ACCRA/ACPRA customer journey model is a customer journey analysis model extended from the ACCSR model. It adds two important stages to the customer's interaction, which are “Advocacy” (Advocate) and “Retention” (Repurchase, renewal). ACCRA/ACPRA covers the whole process from first awareness of the product to becoming an advocate who contributes to brand building.

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What is a customer journey map?

Customer Journey Map is, in plain terms, a map the customer journey. This map visualizes the customer's experiences with a business. Everything from the first interaction to the long-term relationship is captured in the customer journey.

• A customer journey map helps a business sketch out its customer profile and understand customer needs in depth. The business will know what strategy to use and how to advertise to reach the right potential market.
• Buying potential as well as hidden risks, through Customer Journey Map will be clearly displayed. A professional customer journey map gives a business a broader view. Where customers are, how they come to you, the buying journey and more all come from the customer journey map.
• Using the customer journey map well also strengthens the brand promise in branding. Above all, it safeguards your business market for the future. Your business will find it easier to compete with others in the same field.

-> See also: 7 steps to analyzing competitors made easy

Today, to take advantage of Customer Journey Map you will need many channels such as TV, social media, media marketing and more. “Hành trình khách hàng” (customer journey) is very important for businesses. This journey has a direct effect on business strategy.

Why does a business need a customer journey map?

Building an the customer journey map helps a business understand customer experience better, learn the touchpoints and capture key information. This improves service, raises conversion and builds customer loyalty.

In addition, Customer Journey Map helps a business see the steps needed to complete a successful transaction. That lets it streamline business processes, save time and resources, and so work more effectively.

The role of the customer journey in business strategy

• Customer Journey helps a business understand the local context and customers' buying potential. The business gets to know customers' daily lives and needs.
• A business can easily create a map that is interesting and useful to customers. You will increase interaction between customers and the company.
• It is easy to build a new target customer base. Understand customers' psychology, behavior, habits and service needs.
• Pain points, meaning the problems and difficulties customers face, are also sketched out. This will let you picture customers from several angles.
• A strategy that builds a shared mindset, plus community trends, creates a strong resonance. Your company can market products based on what customers want, with ease.
• A clear customer buying-journey strategy helps a business plan every step before the sale, during the sale and in after-sales support.
• A business that wants to grow and increase revenue should set up its customer journey map today.

See also: Is it hard to increase online revenue? What ways are there to increase it?

An 8-step process for building a customer journey map

A customer journey map is drawn up in an Excel sheet. It sketches the key events and motivations of customers as they interact with your business, products and services. Below is the 8-step process for understanding customers and improving their experience through a customer journey map:

1. Identify the target customer

First, work out who the “passenger” on this journey is. This is a prerequisite for building a customer journey map. From data and customer survey results, you will get a detailed and realistic view of your customers: behavior, psychology, problems, motivations, demographics and so on.

Identifying the target customer also helps you define what goes into the map: the motivations, emotions and behavior of customers throughout their experience with your service or product.

2. Build customer profiles and identify their needs

Customer profiles cover things like what catches customers' attention on your website, where they first heard of your brand, and how long they stay on your site to look at information, products and services. Build a diagram around these questions to understand customer needs better. That makes it easier to support customers when you care for and advise them.

3. Sketch the target customer portrait

A customer journey map helps you gather the target customer portrait. Customers' pain points, needs, behavior and psychology are all fully reflected. This gives you a complete portrait for choosing the most suitable business strategies.

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4. List all touchpoints

A touchpoint is any place on your website that customers have visited, are visiting or will visit and interact with. The information, Call to Action, and links overlap and are closely related.

List the touchpoints and make use of them on your website. You can also design sharing features for social networks. Paid ads or Email marketing, and customer reviews on the site are also touchpoints that help you reach your goal faster.

5. Choose the type of customer journey map you want to show

There are currently 4 types of customer journey map:

• Current state map.
• Day-in-the-life customer journey map.
• Future state map.
• Service design customer journey map (service blueprint).

Choosing the right type of the customer journey map makes it easier to see the whole picture and set a good business strategy.

6. List the resources needed for the customer journey

Every business strategy plan needs resources to carry it out. Use those resources to deploy and act. This is how you make your customer journey maps real.

7. Act on the customer journey map

In this step you carry out the real strategies set out in the customer journey map. You can analyze the actual situation and adjust the strategy accordingly.

8. Adjust the customer journey map based on what happens

Creating a customer journey map is not a one-time job. You need to monitor and update it regularly. When the customer's journey changes, your map and your efforts have to change with it.

See also: How to harness the power of the crowd effect in selling 

How to analyze data from a customer journey map

To analyze data from a customer journey map, you can take these steps:

• Collect data from different sources to have enough information about the stages and touchpoints in the customer journey.
• Identify the key metrics.
• Analyze the touchpoints, and identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
• Track customer conversion from one stage to the next, and look at why some customers may drop off or convert. Analyze the factors behind it.
• Assess satisfaction and emotions.
• Make improvements and adjustments.

4 principles for building a complete customer journey map

A complete customer journey map has to follow certain principles. Here are the 4 basic principles:

Built from the customer's point of view

Customer journey map should be built from the customer's perspective and experience. Understanding customers' needs, goals and expectations makes the journey accurate and relevant.

Visualize the customer journey

Use visual tools such as diagrams, charts or mind maps to show the customer journey clearly and simply. This helps people across the business understand and apply the information in the customer journey map.

Record the customer's multichannel journey

Customers interact with a brand or product through many channels: website, social media, email, phone and in person. Recording all these touchpoints in the customer journey map helps you understand the interaction process and create a smooth experience for customers

Show clearly how customer experience and emotions connect

Customer experience is not only about actions and interactions, but also about the customer's emotions and state of mind. A customer journey map should clearly reflect how experience and emotion combine, helping the business create good experiences that build engagement with customers.

Some customer journey map templates in use today

Here are some models of the customer journey that you can use as reference:

• Linear model: A simple model with linear stages, describing the customer's progress from awareness through purchase to after-sales.
• Looping model: This model focuses on customers buying repeatedly. It creates a purchase cycle and explores how customers come back and engage with the brand over a long period.
• Service Blueprint customer journey map model: This model combines the customer journey map with a service blueprint to show both the customer experience and the business's internal processes.
• Persona-based model: This model creates customer journeys for different customer groups (personas). It focuses on each specific customer group and offers a better experience for each.
• Digital model: This model focuses on digital channels and interactions. It describes how customers interact on online platforms and connected channels.

Frequently asked questions about the customer journey

When learning about and building a customer journey, students often have questions. Here are the 3 most common ones we have collected:

1. Is the customer journey important for a business?

The customer journey is an important tool that helps a business better understand customer experience and make significant improvements. It gives a full view of customers' touchpoints with the brand and creates chances to improve service, raise satisfaction and build customer loyalty.

2. What should you do after building a customer journey map?

After building a customer journey map, you can use it to:

• Define the key touchpoints and stages in the customer journey.
• Identify opportunities to improve customer experience and reduce obstacles.
• Look for improvements and changes in business processes to optimize the customer journey.
• Develop and run marketing strategies and activities that give customers a better experience.

3. When should you build a customer journey map?

You can build a customer journey map in many situations, including:

• When you want to understand customer experience better and look for chances to improve. When you start new projects, products or services.
• When you notice a gap between the actual customer experience and the expected one.
• When you want to focus on creating a better customer experience and building loyalty.
• When you need to analyze and improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and business processes.

In this article, Mona Media This article has explained Customer Journey what it is, and walked you through the detailed process of creating a customer journey map. We hope you apply it well and succeed in business.

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