What is and how to make a customer journey

By the Gerund team

Do you know how, when, and where your customers interact with your brand the most? Do you have any idea of the emotions they feel during all these interactions? Don't miss this article and learn all about what a [customer journey map] is and how to make one. Customer journey.

Nowadays, with so many factors surrounding our brands, sometimes it seems like we forget to take care of the fundamental: the interactions we have with our customers.

Keep reading and learn all about this foolproof technique to understand your clients, their behaviors, perceptions, and emotions around their interaction with your brand, and find out how to improve this experience to strengthen your relationship with them.

What is a customer journey

Have you ever thought about what your customers do when they enter your physical or virtual store? It seems like a complicated idea, right? How can we know what our visitors will do if we aren't by their side at all times?

That is the purpose of a tool called customer journey A way to map the steps a person usually takes when interacting with your brand, even before and after being face-to-face with it.

Through a journey mapping We can anticipate the usual interactions our clients have with us and plan the best strategy to provide them with a pleasant experience at all touchpoints.

Sounds good, don't you think? But now you'll wonder, how do you make a customer journey

For this, we have prepared a series of steps that can help you build a map of your regular customers' journey to design a brand experience that better fits what you want to project externally. Keep reading!

Know your customers

We know this is one of our most common pieces of advice, but the first step to planning the experience you want to create for your clients or users depends precisely on knowing them in depth.

You must ask yourself, what are their goals and objectives? What are they looking for by daring to interact with your brand?

If you can answer these questions clearly, then you can spot opportunities throughout their journey to enhance their experience by meeting their expectations of your brand.

2. Inventory your touchpoints

You, better than anyone, should know exactly at which points a potential user or customer interacts with your brand.

It's not just about your store counter or your website. A brand experience typically involves multiple interaction points, and to create a consistent and harmonious experience, we must consider each and every one of them.

Consider all types of customers: those who prefer to go to your physical store or those who look for you online; those who call by phone to know all the details or those who prefer to venture out and discover as they go.

This way, you'll become aware of all those moments when a person can interact with your brand. Once you have them, document them!

3. Identify barriers and pain points

Let's be realistic... even the best brand experiences can be improved in certain aspects, but the first step is to recognize them.

Therefore, once you have mapped out all your touchpoints, it is important to consider the emotions involved and identify which of them tend to cause the most frustration for your clients or users.

In some cases it's after-sales service, in others it's customer support, but in reality they can be found anywhere in the journey.

What do you think some of the barriers or frustrations your clients typically encounter when interacting with your brand, product, or service might be? When and where do these occur?

4. Measure frequently and improve your experience

Things change very rapidly. That's why it's important that you observe and analyze your brand experience constantly.

Perhaps new concerns have arisen that you will need to consider and integrate into your journey, Maybe something that was wonderful stopped meeting your customers' needs, or perhaps a paradigm shift in the industry altered your users' expectations.

Only by frequently measuring and analyzing will you be able to detect these types of changes and, above all, learn and improve along the way to continue delivering a consistent brand experience that invites your customers or users to re-engage with your brand.

The journey mapping It's an extraordinary tool for knowing where your brand stands, what it's doing well with customers, and what kinds of things could be improved to have a much closer and more pleasant relationship with them.

Do you want a hand creating your own customer journey Would you like to identify these kinds of issues in depth? Write us a message and let's work on it together.