Customer Journey Maps

A business model for assessing the current performance of marketing and sales processes

Use this model to find out how customers react to your offer at different
stages during the buying process.

A customer journey map is made up of a spine (the

major stages that the customer goes through in the
life cycle with the supplier) and all the moments of
truth during each of these stages.

Most customer journey maps begin with you

hypothesising how your customers act and feel at
each stage of the journey. This process typically
begins in a workshop of people from different parts
of your company and debating what they believe to
be the spine and all the moments of truth. When
this hypothesised customer journey map is finished,
research might be carried out amongst a number of
customers to validate and refine it.

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 STEP 1: AGREE ON SEGMENT
Customer journey maps should be prepared for selected groups of customers – segments. The first step is to agree on the
segment for which the map will be prepared.

There will be specific decision-makers within the segment and they should be listed. Decision-makers may change during the
customer journey. For example, at the beginning of the journey a technical person may identify a need. Later on in the journey
other people could become involved such as procurement managers, finance managers, logistics managers etc.

Decide on the segment you will address and the various decision-makers who are involved.

Titles of decision-makers/influencers Roles and responsibilities

   
   
   
   
   
   
   

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 STEP 2: INVITE TO WORKSHOP
Bring together a cross-section of people within your company who have a direct or indirect influence on the customer journey.
Likely candidates will come from sales, marketing, finance, logistics, technical, production – indeed every department. Convene a
manageable number of participants – say between 10 and 20 people.

Appoint a moderator who will lead the workshop and who is familiar with customer journey mapping.

Between half a day and the day will be required for the workshop.

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 STEP 3: RUN WORKSHOP
The moderators should introduce the concept of the customer journey and explain the process of the workshop and the
expected output.

From the outset people should be told the segment of customers for which the customer journey will be prepared.

As a warmup session, the moderator could ask everyone to spend half an hour debating the key factors which are believed to
influence the decision makers in their choice of supplier.

The sessions could be run in plenary or work groups depending on how many people attend the workshop. At the end of each
group activity the moderator should run a feedback session to ensure that everyone is at the same level of understanding.

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 STEP 4: SETTING THE SPINE
The first part of the customer journey map is to agree the major stages. These stages are likely to broadly follow the AIDA model
(awareness, interest, desire, action) with as many variations as is appropriate. The following is shown as an example:

Write in the components of the spine for your customers:

Components of the spine

                 

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 STEP 5: DETERMINE THE MOMENTS OF TRUTH
The hardest part of the exercise is determining all the moments of truth (MOT). These are the points in the customer journey
when the customer has some sort of interaction with the supplier. These moments of truth should be determined within each of
the major stages of the customer journey as identified on the spine. Typically people write down the moments of truth on post-it
notes and stick them below the headings of the spine which are listed on flipcharts. People should be encouraged to list as many
MOTs as possible at this stage. The post-it notes are tidied up later into an Excel chart as in the example below (it should be noted
that many more moments of truth were mentioned but have been cropped):

Service Relationship
Awareness Interest Decision Service set-up Concern Leave Return
delivery strengthening
What Company X
How customers The things that
What Company X The day-to-day does to develop What Company X
How customers become interested help customers How Company X How we win back
become aware of in doing make the decision does when setting- elements involved on-going deals with concern does when a previous lost
Company X businesses with to do business with a new customer
up in the delivery of relationships and and complaints customer wants to customers
account the agreed service delight its leave
Company X Company X customers

Proposal / phone / fax / email Additional product Receiving

Trucks / Livery Prospect material presentation Customer site visit for order installs complaints Leaving phone call Prospects lists

Brands - portfolio Promotional offers Face-to-face visits Customer site Customer places Customer training Following up Stop ordering AM contact plan
aseessment order complaints altogether
Brand - umbrella / Existing product Agreement Welcome call Customer places Business Dev. Price rise letter Visit Lapsed customer
corporate lines order - phone call Manager call

CSR Customer Referrals Negotiations Account creation Product delivery Free service extras Standard AM calls Last chance' visit  

Hospitality /
Website Key advisors Site visit Credit check Couriers Missing deliveries Debt recovery  
contact
Account manager Key account
Trade press Cold calling Ongoing contact Credit application Failed deliveries Debt chasing  
visits programme

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 STEP 6: ESTABLISH THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MOMENTS OF TRUTH

Once all the moments of truth have been established and listed as post-it notes, participants should be asked to mark the post-it
notes using some notation which indicates the level of importance of the MOT at that stage of the journey. At a later stage when
the map is being finalised, the moments of truth can be coded or shaded to indicate their importance, as per the example below:

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 STEP 7: DETERMINE THE PAIN AND PLEASURE POINTS
In the same way that the moments of truth are categorised according to their importance, another notation should be found to
indicate which of the moments of truth cause pain for the customer and which are please the customer. The example below
shows pain points. A similar exercise would show pleasure points.
Relationship
Awareness   Interest   Decision   Service set-up   Service delivery     Concern   Leave   Return
strengthening
                                 

The things that help What Company X does to

How customers become What Company X does when The day-to-day elements
How customers become customers make the decision develop on-going How Company X deals with What Company X does when How we win back previous
  interested in doing     setting-up a new customer   involved in the delivery of the        
aware of Company X to do business with Company relationships and delight its concern and complaints a customer wants to leave lost customers
businesses with Company X account agreed service
X customers
                                 
                                 
Trucks / Livery   Prospect material   Proposal / presentation   Customer site visit   phone / fax / email for order   Additional product installs   Receiving complaints   Leaving phone call   Prospects lists
                                 
Brands - portfolio   Promotional offers   Face-to-face visits   Customer site aseessment   Customer places order   Customer training   Following up complaints   Stop ordering altogether   AM contact plan
                                 
Customer places order -
Brand - umbrella / corporate   Existing product lines   Agreement   Welcome call     Business Dev. Manager   Price rise letter   Visit   Lapsed customer call
phone call
                                 
CSR   Customer Referrals   Negotiations   Account creation   Product delivery   Free service extras   Standard AM calls   Last chance' visit    
                                 
Website   Key advisors   Site visit   Credit check   Couriers   Hospitality / contact   Missing deliveries   Debt recovery    
                                 
Trade press   Cold calling   Ongoing contact   Credit application   Account manager visits   Key account programme   Failed deliveries   Debt chasing    
                                 
Advertising   Pre decision visits       Credit follow-ups / verification   Account manager phonecalls   Account manager   Incomplete deliveries   Find alternative supplier    
                                 
Sponsorship   Hospitality       SLA / T&Cs   Invoice   Site visits   Late installs   Collection letter    
                                 
Company reps   Warm calling       Handover   Credit notes   AM visit   Staff Churn   Account manager contact    
                                 
Employees   Customer service       First order   Follow-up credit control   Forum venues   Credit control        
                                 
Regular contact with AM or
Customer Referrals   Lending         Customer communication   Loans / commercial manager            
similar
                                 
Word of mouth   Brand's literature       Face-to-face rep-visits   Customer service calls   Promotional support      
Pain  points    
                                 
Site / Plant visibility                   AM phonecall            
 

                                 
Extremely painful
Prospecting                   Customer audit            
                                  
Charity involvement                   Face-to-face visit            
Very painful
                                 
Favourable credit / increase
Social media                              
limit

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 STEP 8: VALIDATE THE MAP
Once the internal workshop has created the customer journey map, there will be some outcomes that can be actioned
immediately. The workshop team will almost certainly have recognised things it can do to improve the customer journey. Some of
these things could be internal processes which are unseen by the customer. Other things can be plotted on the customer journey
map besides moments of truth. For example, it may be interesting to identify the strength of customers emotions at different
stages or their interactions with other decision-makers and influences. The customer journey map is a flexible model.

Not all customer journeys are validated with external customer interviews. However, it is good practice to interview in depth a
number of customers (up to 30) to obtain a deeper understanding and check out the validation of the stages, the MOTs, the
problems and possible solutions.

Once the customer journey map is finalised it can be given to a visualisation team who produce wall posters or flashcards to
remind people in your company about the moments of truth and what actions are required.

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