What is a customer journey?
A customer journey is every step a person takes with your business, from first hearing about you to buying, using what they bought, getting help and coming back. Mapping it shows where the experience works and where people get stuck or leave.
The customer journey, step by step
A customer journey follows one person through their whole relationship with a business. For an online store it might run from an ad to the product page, the cart, checkout, delivery and a second order. For a software company it runs from the website to sign-up, setup, daily use, renewal and, sometimes, canceling.
Each step holds touchpoints: moments where the customer meets your brand, your product or your people. Teams that look at one touchpoint at a time miss how they connect. A confusing sign-up shows up later as support tickets, and a late delivery as a lost second order.
A customer journey map draws these steps from the customer's side, with what they want, what they do and how they feel at each one. Feedback collected at each step tests the map against what customers really say.
- Also called
- Customer lifecycle, buyer journey
- Made of
- Stages and the touchpoints inside them
- Drawn as
- A customer journey map, one per type of customer
- Measured with
- A short survey at each key touchpoint
Stages of the customer journey
Most journeys pass through the same broad stages, though the names differ by industry. A hotel adds booking, arrival and the stay itself, and a course provider adds enrollment and the first class. Each stage raises its own question about the experience.
| Stage | What happens | What to learn |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness | They hear about you | Where they found you |
| Consideration | They compare options | What almost stopped them |
| Purchase | They buy or sign up | How easy it was |
| Onboarding and use | They start using it | Whether they get value |
| Support | They ask for help | Whether the problem was solved |
| Loyalty | They stay, return or leave | Whether they would recommend you |
How to create a customer journey map
Start from one type of customer, since a first-time shopper and a business buyer take different paths. List the steps they take in order, from their side, then add what they want at each step, what they do and where things go wrong.
Check the map against real data before you trust it. Support tickets, analytics and a short survey at each step show whether the pain points you guessed are the ones customers feel.
- Pick one type of customer and one goal, such as a first order
- List each step and touchpoint from the customer's side
- Note what they want, what they do and how they feel
- Mark the steps where people get stuck or leave
- Test each pain point with feedback from that step
Customer journey questions to ask
Ask one short question at each touchpoint, right after it happens, and keep the question about that step. An effort question fits a task such as checkout, a satisfaction score fits a single interaction, and a recommendation question fits the relationship as a whole.
- After checkout: “How easy was it to complete your purchase?”
- After sign-up: “What almost stopped you from signing up today?”
- After a support case: “Did we solve your problem?”
- After a few months: “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”
How to measure the customer journey
Give each stage one metric and ask it the same way every time, so you can follow it month by month. Customer effort (CES) suits tasks such as checkout or setup, customer satisfaction (CSAT) suits single moments such as a delivery or a support chat, and Net Promoter Score (NPS) suits the relationship.
Say you ask the same 1 to 5 satisfaction question after three stages in a month. Delivery scores 81%, returns 74% and support 64%, so support is where to look first, and the comments from that stage tell you why.
- Delivery
- 211 of 260 rated 4 or 5, 81%
- Returns
- 148 of 200 rated 4 or 5, 74%
- Support
- 77 of 120 rated 4 or 5, 64%
- Stage to look at first
- Support, 64%
Customer journey vs customer experience
The customer journey is the path: the steps a person takes, in order. Customer experience is how that whole path feels to them. Mapping the journey and asking at each step is how most teams improve the experience, one stage at a time.
Following the customer journey in Usertick
Place a survey at each touchpoint you want to hear about. On your website or web app, triggers open it at the right moment, such as after a delay, on scroll or on exit intent on every plan, and on a form submit or a custom event from your app, on 1 survey on Free and on every survey from Starter. Page rules show each survey only on its step of the journey.
Reach the steps outside your site too: Usertick sends a survey email to a contact list now or on a schedule, and a link or QR code covers a store, a parcel or an event. On your website, earlier survey rules (on 1 survey on Free, on every survey from Starter) skip customers who answered another survey recently, so one customer isn't asked at every step.
Results gives each survey its scores against the period before, and for a score question the Audience tab shows the result per page, country, device and language, so a weak step stands out. Every answer from every step lands in the same inbox and the same set of themes.
Mistakes to avoid with customer journey mapping
Small choices that keep the results useful.
- 01
Mapping the journey you designed
Teams often draw the path they built instead of the one customers take. Check every step against real feedback and data.
- 02
One map for every customer
A first-time shopper and a repeat buyer take different paths. Make one map per type of customer.
- 03
Asking at every touchpoint at once
A survey at each step means one customer sees five in a week. Ask at the few steps that matter most and space the surveys out.
- 04
Mapping once and never again
Journeys change when your prices, pages or products change. Review the map whenever the score at one stage moves.
Frequently asked questions
A common version names awareness, consideration, purchase, retention and advocacy. Many teams add onboarding and support, and the names matter less than covering the whole path from first contact to coming back.
A touchpoint is any moment a customer meets your business: an ad, a product page, a checkout, a delivery, a support chat or an invoice. A journey is made of touchpoints in order.
Ask a short question right after each key step, in the channel where it happens: on the website for checkout, by email for delivery and in the web app for setup. Keep each question about that one step.
Review it when something changes the path, such as a new checkout, a new plan or a new support channel, and when the score at one stage moves. A full review once or twice a year catches the slower changes.
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