Define your buyer persona

The first step in creating a customer journey map is to get clear on who your users are - if you have not already, start developing your personas. When doing this, you should remember that it's not enough to have just one personas. So it's worth differentiating between someone who has been doing market research for a few months and is ready to make a purchase, and someone who has only recently started thinking about solving their specific need by trying your product or service.

Understand the goals of your users

Once you have created your personas, the next step is to dive deep and understand what each of them hopes to accomplish as they move through the customer journey. Consider what your customers' goals are at each stage, and keep in mind that these goals may change throughout the process. Some examples might be:

Exploring the different options that are available

Making sure the user is paying a fair price

Exploring the different options that are available

Making sure the user has all the information they need about the product

A good way to do this is to first identify the paths your visitor might take to your product. If your visitor is a member or existing customer, the first thing they will do is sign up. Other activities include browsing, searching for products, comparing products, and more. Once you have a complete list of these activities, you can identify all the touchpoints and the goals associated with each touchpoint.

The next step is to clearly define the goals for each user stage on your map. This way, you can check how well you are meeting those goals and answering customers' questions. Here are different ways to understand user goals:

Survey/survey different customer groups

Obtain feedback from user tests

Study customer support emails/transcripts

Identify customer questions at each stage

Use customer analytics tools like Hotjar or Google Analytics, to gather information

Map out touchpoints

A "touchpoint" refers to any moment when a user comes into contact with your product - before, during, or after they purchase a product from you. This includes moments that happen offline/online, through marketing, in person, or on the phone. Some touchpoints can have more impact than others. For example, a bad experience when checking into a hotel can affect your entire stay.

You should consider all potential touchpoints between your customers and your business. That way, you won't miss an opportunity to listen to your customers and make improvements that will satisfy them. Here are a few tips on how to identify touchpoints:

Where do I go (and how do I get there) when...?

I've a [problem that your product/company solves]?

I discover the product or company that solves my problem?

I make my purchase decision?

I encounter the company again after the purchase?

This should make all the touch points pretty clear. Another way to accomplish this task would be to ask users directly about their experience with your product - or put the above questions into a survey.

Identity user pain points

At this point, it's time to pull all the data together (both quantitative and qualitative) and look at the big picture to identify any obstacles or pain points in the journey map. You may also want to note areas where you're currently doing everything right and figure out how to improve. Possible questions include:

Are my customers achieving their goals with my product?

Where are the biggest points of friction and frustration?

Where are customers abandoning purchases (and why)?

Once you know where the obstacles and pain points are, mark them on your user journey map.

Prioritize and remove obstacles

Looking at it from a micro perspective, you can ask yourself a few questions: What needs to be fixed or built? Is it necessary to dismantle everything and start over? Or are a few simple changes enough to make a big impact? For example, if customers frequently complain about how complicated your sign-up process is, it's probably time to revamp and simplify it.

After identifying these obstacles, take a step back and look at the big picture from a macro perspective. Realize that the goal isn't to optimize every single step or touchpoint just for the sake of optimization, but so that you can move your customers further down the funnel and get them one step closer to converting.

Ultimately, you want to drive more conversions. Therefore, everything you optimize at each customer touchpoint should contribute to this one goal.

Update and improve

Your user journey map shouldn't gather dust on the shelf once it's completed. As your customers are constantly changing and evolving, your customer journey map should change accordingly. Think of it as a living document that's constantly growing and evolving.

Test, update, and improve your user journey map every 6 months or so, if possible. In addition, customer journey maps should be adjusted accordingly whenever you introduce significant changes to your product/service.