Jacob Morrow
Updated: 2025-05-21
For every business nowadays, understanding its customers isn't just a competitive advantage, but rather a necessity. The ones that succeed are those that truly recognize how their customers interact with their brand, how they move, and what they are looking for. And this is exactly what a customer journey map (CJM) can help you achieve. This powerful tool visualizes the path a customer takes, highlighting both the highs and the pain points along the way.
In this guide, you will learn how to create a customer journey map , study specific examples, and ultimately, how to use the best platform to implement it in your processes.
Everything You Need to Know about the Customer Journey Map
What is a Customer Journey Map?
A customer journey map is a visual representation of the process a customer goes through when interacting with a brand. This visualization includes all steps of the interaction, from the first point of contact to long-term engagement.
At its core, a customer experience journey map illustrates the story of a customer's experience with your brand over time and through various touchpoints. For this reason, to create customer journey maps, you will need to include the stages of interaction, the channels used, the emotional highs and lows, and the potential pain points.
Usage Objectives of CJM
But why use customer journey maps? The primary goal of this technique is to enhance your customer experience by identifying friction and opportunities for engagement. For this reason, you will find templates for every possible industry, be it a B2B or a retail customer journey map.
Additionally, this valuable tool has even more uses. In more detail, a CJM focuses on these objectives:
- Align your team members with your marketing strategies.
- Reduce churn by optimizing your customer experience and identifying potential pain points.
- Personalize your communication content, as well as your direct interactions with your customers at each stage of their journey.
- Identifying improvements for your product design, marketing endeavors, and customer support services.
Core Components of a Customer Journey Map
Upon deciding to create your own CJM, you will find plenty of customer journey map examples to study. When you compare them, you will notice that regardless of your industry, there are some core components that you should include in your map. Of course, the right customer journey map tool for you will give you the option to customize it by including all or some of these components.
In general, a well-structured customer journey map will include all or some of the following components:
- Customer Persona: In reality, this is a representation of your ideal customer. Even though it is a fictional person, their characteristics are based on your real customers'data. Thinking of your customers as real people, and not some abstract ideas, will help you understand their needs, objectives, and emotions much better.
- Touchpoints: these are all the moments where the customer interacts with your brand, such as visiting your website, receiving your newsletter, or reaching out to customer support. Understanding these points will help you craft an efficient communication strategy.
- Stages of the Journey: Every customer goes through some specific stages within their customer experience journey map. These include awareness, consideration, purchase, retention, and advocacy or loyalty. In each stage, your customer's emotions toward your brand are vastly different, and so it is important to distinguish between them.
- Customer Goals: This component refers to what the customer aims to achieve at each stage. This also includes what the customer expects from your brand at each stage. Being able to meet their expectations increases the chances of them moving forward to the following step of the journey.
- Emotions and Pain Points: In this component, you are studying the emotional impact of your strategies on your customers. Their emotional response is very important to identify what creates a pleasant experience, and what could be a pain point. The latter refers to the areas that create negative emotions, such as confusion.
- Opportunities: This general section is dedicated to improvements or innovations that you can make at each stage of the journey. The pain points you have identified are often a great source for spotting the opportunities.
- Channels: This is an optional component that has gradually become essential in the customer journey map examples. Nowadays, you can reach out to your customers in a variety of ways, such as via email, SMS, push notifications, and even through messaging apps. You will decide on which channel to use in each stage for an optimized customer experience.
Types and Uses of Customer Journey Maps
Common Types of Customer Journey Maps
Finding a reliable customer journey map tool is the first step to creating CJMs. However, before doing that, you also need to determine what type of customer journey map you wish to develop. The truth is that this visualization comes in various formats depending on your different business needs.
The most common types of CJM you will find are the following:
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Current State Maps
Probably the most common CJM type that every customer journey map tool will allow you to create is the current state map. This visualization shows the actual customer experience as it happens today. This means that the map contains only existing touchpoints, pain points, and emotional reactions. For this reason, it is the perfect type for evaluating the current state of your customer journey. -
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Future State Maps
Another customer journey map is the future state map. As its name suggests, this CJM visualizes the ideal or desired customer experience. This type of map is more suitable for setting goals for your brand. For instance, you should take it as a guide for how the idea journey will look for your product or service. In general, a future state map is created along with a current state map so that you can compare the actual and ideal journeys at a glance. -
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Day-in-the-Life Maps
The following type is the day-in-the-life map. However, instead of focusing only on your product, you shift the focus towards your customer persona. In this customer journey map example, you are detailing how the typical day of your customer type goes, including activities that might be unrelated to your product or service. This is a great tool to use when you want to understand the state of mind of your audience throughout the day. By doing that, you will be able to find the right timing and channel for your communications. -
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Service Blueprint Maps
The next type extends the customer journey map example by including the back-end processes that support your services. As we see in the example map, there are several support systems that get activated once the customer orders coffee from the mobile app. In essence, this customer experience journey map showcases the relationship between how your product works and what your customers see. -
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Channel-Specific Maps
If your company operates on various channels, then you will benefit from channel-specific maps. In reality, this customer journey map can be any of the other types we have already discussed. Its main distinction is that it focuses on how customers engage through a specific channel. For instance, you might have a mobile app and an online store, so the channel-specific map will analyze the journey in one of these two channels. - Improved Customer Experience: The main characteristic of journey maps is that they put your customers'experience at the forefront. This way, they are able to reveal the pain points and emotional highs in the customer experience. If you take this tool as a guide, you will be in a position to proactively address issues, meet customer expectations, and gain their loyalty.
- Increased Customer Retention and Loyalty: By identifying potential friction points, and actively working on them, you can present your customers with something that boosts their satisfaction. If they keep feeling happy with your product, then they will turn into loyal and long-term customers.
- Higher Conversion Rates: Understanding the decision-making process of your customers helps you refine your marketing and sales strategies. For example, in an ecommerce customer journey map, you will eliminate any friction points so that your e-shop visitors complete their purchases.
- Cross-Functional Alignment: In Large companies and enterprises,it is very common to have marketing, sales, product, and customer support teams work independently from one another. When you learn how to create a customer journey map, you gain an invaluable tool that allows you to share the customer experience with all teams to achieve your common goal.
- Making Data-Driven Decision：The specific customer journey highlights where and how to collect data on your customers. In addition to this, it helps you decide on which investments to make based on real customer needs that you have identified as opportunities.
- Enhanced Personalization: When you create a customer journey map, you highlight the touchpoint between your brand and your customer. This way, you can tailor your messages more effectively to boost engagement.
- Reduced Operational Costs: A long-term benefit of a CJM is that it spots inefficiencies and service gaps. For this reason, they actively contribute to uncovering opportunities to streamline processes and automate tasks.
- Define Objectives: start with a clear purpose. In which element is your journey map focusing? Are you looking for opportunities to improve support? Do you seek ways to reduce churn? Different objectives have distinct courses of action, so it's worth dedicating some time to define them.
- Build Personas: When you are thinking of your customer base, it is like talking about some abstract idea that doesn't feel real. Personas are a tool that helps you create a mental image of your brand's average customer. So, instead of asking “What does my audience like?”, you ask “What does John Smith like?”. Use data and interviews to construct personas that represent the different customer types you might have.
- Collect Data: Every business decision requires data, and the same applies to your customer journey map examples. Gather both quantitative and qualitative data so that you have plenty of insights to draw your conclusions.
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Identify Stages
Map out the major stages of your customer journey. We have already mentioned that the most common ones are awareness, consideration, decision, retention, and loyalty. Nevertheless, you should keep in mind that depending on your product and industry, you might need to include more or fewer stages. -
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Map Touchpoints and Emotions
The following step is to identify the touchpoints between your company and your customers. Note that you should do this for each stage separately. Along with how your customers interact with your brand, you should also note how your product affects their emotions both positively and negatively. -
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Analyze Pain Points and Opportunities
The next step is to highlight what elements create friction, which will be your pain points. Then, you can brainstorm improvements, add new features, and create growth opportunities. -
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Visualize the Map
Once you have all of the above information down, you can create a visualization of your map. Find the best customer journey map tool for you among your numerous options in the market. Fortunately, you can find both templates and customer journey map examples for many different industries and cases. -
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Share and Iterate
Now you are ready to share your CJM with your teams. However, the process doesn't end there. Regularly revisit and revise the map based on the feedback you receive and the evolving customer behavior. - Start with Real Data: Large corporations, like Amazon, rely heavily on customer behavior data to build their journey maps. It is important to avoid assumptions and refine your maps with updated data.
- Cross-Team Collaboration: Big brands use shared CJMs across their different teams to ensure that their vision is consistent.
- Keep It Customer-Centric: Many enterprises prioritize user goals over internal metrics to ensure that their product meets customer expectations. Spotify is a great example of that.
- Update Regularly: Your customers and their behavior are always evolving, and your journey maps should evolve with them. Big organizations, like Slack, have implemented this practice.
- Assuming the Journey: Don't just guess what your customers'emotional reaction is. Try to validate the journey with data you have gathered from your real audience.
- Too Many Personas: Chances are that your brand has many different customer types. However, creating a persona for each one is unproductive and might cause confusion between your teams. Focus on 2–3 core personas to retain clarity.
- Neglecting Emotions: Ignoring how a customer feels means missing out on important information. Make sure that you have enough data to determine their emotional response to your product.
- Overcomplicating the MA: Depending on the customer journey map tool you will use, you will gain access to many visual elements. However, the overall result should remain clean and focused.
- Failing to Act: A CJM is just the first step, which should always be followed by the implementation of your findings.
- E-commerce: Trigger cart abandonment or delivery follow-up web or app push notifications.
- SaaS: Create onboarding flows that guide users step-by-step.
- Banking & Finance: Notify users about application status, payment reminders, or loan eligibility. Furthermore, protect your users'data with OTP.
Usage & Business Value
As you can understand, the different types of customer journey maps give you a much deeper understanding of your company and how your customers interact with it. Therefore, it is an undeniable truth that this technique provides tangible business value, such as:
Steps to Create a Customer Journey Map
Now that you know what is a customer journey map, you can move on to explain how to create it. In this section, we will go through all the preparatory and actual steps that you will need to complete.
#1 Preparation
Preparing to create a customer experience journey map is very important, as it will affect the actual success and effectiveness of your map. Therefore, before you begin, ensure that you have completed the following:
#2 Design Process
Once you have done all of the above preparatory work, you are ready to create customer journey map. The process can be summarized into 5 separate steps that you must follow to create a complete visualization of your customer journey.
These steps are the following:
Customer Journey Map Examples
In this section, we are going to give you specific examples for different industries. Find the customer journey map example that is the most suitable for your company to get inspired and create your own map.
E-commerce
Our first customer journey map example is ideal for businesses in the e-commerce industry. In more detail, it is about a fashion app and the overall experience of shopping through it.
Persona: Emily, 28 years old, a fashion-conscious and stylish young woman, loves to shop online.
Stages: Browsing → Product Comparison → Purchase → Delivery → Feedback.
Emotions: Mostly positive. The product comparison and feedback stages were the ones containing negative emotions that needed addressing.
Key Pain Point: Insufficient sizing visuals and confusing return policy.
Main Opportunity: Create standardized size charts and add a visual return policy guide post-checkout.
SaaS
The following example is a B2B customer journey map for a SaaS. In this case, we examine the stages that a product manager goes through when they try to adopt a new management software.
Persona: John, 36 years old, product manager, very goal-driven and time-conscious.
Stages: Research → Free Trial → Setup → Training → Renewal.
Emotions: Very positive in all stages, apart from setup, which overwhelmed John.
Key Pain Point: Frustrating setup process with complex UI.
Main Opportunity: Simplify onboarding with tutorials and in-app walkthroughs.
Finance
The bank customer journey map example focuses on one of the services that banks offer. In this case, we are examining the journey of a customer who wants to apply for a mortgage. Since they are first-time homebuyers, they are anxious to complete the process correctly.
Persona: Sarah, a first-time homebuyer applying for a mortgage, is feeling very anxious.
Stages: Research → Application → Review → Approval & Closing → Onboarding.
Emotions: Anxiety and uncertainty during the application and review processes.
Key Pain Point: Unclear application requirements.
Main Opportunity: Provide a pre-application checklist, step-by-step walkthroughs, and regular email updates of the review process.
Healthcare
This example is a customer experience journey map for a healthcare provider. In this case, we are seeing the journey that a person with a chronic illness follows.
Persona: Alex, 40 years old, full-time professional, has a chronic health condition.
Stages: Symptom Research → Appointment Booking → Diagnosis → Treatment Plan → Follow-up
Emotions: Easy appointment and diagnosis processes, but uncertain post-diagnosis.
Key Pain Point: Long wait times and unclear next steps post-diagnosis.
Main Opportunity: Offer online scheduling, pre-visit digital forms, and automated follow-up messages via email/SMS.
Education
The following example is suitable for organizations in education. It takes the example of a recently graduated woman that wants to find and attend an online MBA.
Persona: Maria, 22 years old, recently graduated, looks for an online MBA program as she seeks flexibility.
Stages: Awareness → Program Comparison → Application → Enrollment → Course Engagement → Graduation
Emotions: The process creates positive feelings for the user. The only stage that causes confusion and negative feelings is the application.
Key Pain Point: Overwhelming application requirements and lack of clarity on financial aid.
Main Opportunity: Provide guided onboarding checklists and automated reminders via email and SMS.
B2B
This is yet another B2B customer journey map example. This time we are not focusing on Saas, but rather on a commercial office furniture supplier. In this example, an office manager reaches out to the company to get furniture for a new office space.
Persona: David, 38 years old, office manager, works in a growing company, has been tasked to furnish a new office space.
Stages: Discovery → Consideration → Purchase Decision → Delivery & Setup → Post-Sale Support
Emotions: Every stage went smoothly, apart from the delivery and setup, when delays created negative feelings.
Key Pain Point: Delays and lack of clarity during fulfillment.
Main Opportunity: Provide fast quoting, delivery visibility, and quick post-sale care.
Omnichannel Retailer (Brick-and-Mortar and Online)
The final example we are going to see is a retail customer journey map. This retailer has both a brick-and-mortar location and an online store. Therefore, the persona we are using searches for items and makes purchases both ways.
Persona: Lily, 34 years old, urban shopper, alternates between shopping in-store and on the mobile app.
Stages: Product Discovery → Store Visit or App Browse → Purchase → Delivery or Pickup → Returns or Loyalty Engagement
Emotions: Shopping in the retailer is a positive experience. There are only some inconsistencies between the physical store and the online app.
Pain Point: Inconsistent promotions across online and physical stores.
Opportunity: Sync promotions and inventory across channels and enable in-store pickup and app-based loyalty rewards.
Best Practices & Common Mistakes
One of these customer journey map examples is going to be suitable for your business. In this section, we are going to analyze the best practices and common mistakes to keep in mind while creating the customer journey visualization.
Best Practices to Create a Customer Journey Map
The most significant of the best practices to create CJMs are the following:
Common Mistakes
Finally, here are some common mistakes you must avoid when learning how to create a customer journey map:
How EngageLab Supports the Construction and Implementation of Customer Journey Maps
It's not just important to know what a customer journey map is, but also to have the right tools to implement it.
EngageLab is the communication platform that allows your business to turn your customer journey map into actionable communication workflows. Here's how:
Multi-Channel Messaging: EngageLab helps you target users at key journey stages via WhatsApp, SMS, email, and push notifications.
Behavioral Triggering: Set up marketing automation based on different user journeys. EngageLab allows you to set up numerous behavioral triggers for every step of the journey.
Segmentation Tools: In EngageLab, you can create contact lists quickly and easily. Separate your audience into personas and send them personalized communications.
A/B Testing: Optimize each touchpoint with experiments to test content, timing, and channels.
Journey Analytics: Gain access to invaluable statistics to measure drop-offs, conversion rates, and user satisfaction across the journey.
EngageLab is the best choice for implementing the customer experience journey map of businesses of all sizes. It is a very scalable tool, meaning that it grows along with your business. Plus, your marketing team can try different things without having to use any code. This low-code environment makes it perfect for developing an omnichannel strategy from one single platform.
Indicatively, here is how you can use EngageLab in different industries:
The Bottom Line
A customer journey map is not just a visual diagram, but rather a strategic tool that bridges the gap between your business goals and customer needs. For this reason, it has become essential for companies that want to improve and offer the best possible experience to their customers.
By combining all the knowledge from this guide, you can now use EngageLab to implement the opportunities you have found in your CJMs. Register for EngageLab today to gain a strategic advantage.
