Consider the first pioneers exploring the new frontier as they made their way across the country in the 17th century. They had no maps to guide them. For the earliest of the frontiersmen, there were no trails to show the way. They learned by trial and error. They ran into cliffs and mountains that meant detouring hundreds of miles to get around. They went into canyons only to find they led to insurmountable obstacles that forced them to backtrack and find another way. Many didn’t survive the harrowing journey in this brave new land.
Fortunately, we now have GPS and maps to guide us as we travel. For businesses, however, the journey customers take when trying to do business with us is still too often a mystery. Customers experience roadblocks, dead ends and frustration in their journey. The more friction we put in front of potential customers, the less likely they are to complete the journey.
What Is Customer Journey Mapping?
Customer journey mapping is a way to visualize the customer experience and how they interact with your business. Your goal in mapping that journey is to remove the obstacles and make the process efficient and intuitive. The more seamless an experience you can create, the better the customer experience will be. It is literally mapping out the best path for the typical customer journey.
Why Customer Journey Mapping Is A Critical Step
This process creates an overview of the customer experience and maps how customers move through the sales funnel. It is especially useful across both the iteration and refinement process as new elements are designed and older processes are refined or eliminated. It allows you to identify opportunities to improve and enhance the overall customer experience.
For content creators, it can help determine what content you need to create and the best way to approach it. For designers, it provides context for how users see the experience. For UX designers, it can identify missing connections in navigation, stress points in the flow and help eliminate customer frustrations.
At its heart, customer journey mapping puts the customer at the center of everything you do. Instead of looking first at your priorities and making assumptions about how to motivate customers to meet your goals, consider the customer first and how they will move through the funnel.