The ultimate guide to understanding, creating, and improving the customer journey

If you want to improve sales and build your brand, you should think less like an entrepreneur—and more like a customer. Why? You could have great products, an excellent website, speedy delivery, and a dedicated customer service team. Still, any problem in your customer journey could send potential customers elsewhere.

How do you improve this process? Thinking like a customer and plotting the customer journey can help you trace customer touchpoints from the first contact to post-purchase engagements. Identifying and improving customer touchpoints will enhance the customer experience (CX) and lead to a satisfied, loyal customer base.

Learn about customer journeys in our ultimate guide. Find out what they are, how to identify your customer journey, and map it for increased sales.

A customer journey is the sequence of interactions a buyer has with your brand over the customer lifecycle. The customer journey extends from the first touchpoint a customer has with your brand to the retention phase. 

Gaining insight into the customer journey your audience takes enables you to optimize it, ensuring a satisfactory customer experience. Considering that 89% of CX pros believe that the customer experience is the leading contributor to churn, improving it should be your highest priority.

Although we think of the customer journey as a single concept, it consists of nine distinct stages.

A new customer may feel differently about your brand than a long-time customer. Knowing each step of the customer journey helps your business communicate with customers at each stage.

Let's look at each step of the customer journey and how customers interact with your company at that point.

The first stage of the customer journey is awareness. At the awareness stage, a customer comes across your brand for the first time. Customers may not know a lot about your company, but they want to learn more about what you offer. 

There are several potential ways that a customer could have come across your brand:

The second stage of the customer journey is consideration. At the consideration stage, the customer has engaged with your content and may have read through your offerings. Typically, they want to see how you stand out from competitors and whether your products and services are unique.

The consideration stage defines customers as:

The third stage of the customer journey is interest. At the interest stage, potential customers engage in thorough research. Potential customers may read through your product descriptions and participate in product demos.

Customers in the interest stage will:

The fourth stage of the customer journey is intent. At the intent stage, your customer decides that they want to try out your products and services. They will identify a potential pain point you can solve and prepare to purchase. 

Customers in the intent stage of the customer journey may:

The fifth stage of the customer journey is purchase. At the purchase stage, your customer commits to doing business with your company. Purchase is the first transactional touchpoint, converting a lead into a paying customer.

This stage of the customer journey is the product of all of the earlier research. Customers in this stage will:

The sixth stage of the customer journey is post-purchase. In the post-purchase phase, your customers will use and interact with your products and services for the first time. They’ll likely assess the quality of your offerings and see if they meet expectations.

Your company may engage with the customer in the following ways during the post-purchase phase:

The seventh stage of the customer journey is retention. At the retention phase, your business will focus on strengthening its relationship with a customer. You’ll aim to foster loyalty and increase their satisfaction with your brand.

At this stage, customers typically:

The eighth stage of the customer journey is advocacy. At the advocacy stage, your customers are seasoned buyers of your business. They enjoy your products and have high satisfaction rates, prompting them to actively promote your business to their friends and colleagues. 

Customers who are in the advocacy stage of the customer journey will:

The ninth and final stage of the customer journey is loyalty. This ongoing stage of the customer journey is for your most satisfied customers. At this point, your customers are very happy with your products and services and have decided to stick with your business.

Customers in this final stage of the customer journey will:

Customer journey mapping is a visual representation of customer touchpoints. Here is an example:

Customer touchpoints are any moment when a customer comes into contact with your brand. These can extend from initial contact, like seeing an ad, to engaging with your loyalty program after being a devout customer. 

Identifying the most critical customer touchpoints across your journey map can help you optimize each point. Better customer touchpoints will provide a seamless experience that enhances customer satisfaction.

Customer journey mapping gives you full visibility of your customer journey. There are numerous benefits to customer journey mapping.

Creating a customer journey map allows your business to better understand every interaction with your customers. Monitoring each touchpoint with customer satisfaction metrics will help you improve your customer experience and satisfy your customers.

Mapping your customer journey allows you to enhance and streamline every interaction a customer has with your business. Companies that improve the cust