What is the customer journey
Also known as: buyer journey, customer journey map, purchase journey
The customer journey is the path a person takes from the first sign of a need to the purchase, and beyond it, across every touchpoint with the company: search, ads, website, conversations, delivery and support. Mapping the journey means putting that path on paper from the customer's point of view, with what they do, think and feel at each stage.
A private school maps the journey of families looking for a spot. The trigger is usually moving to a new city; then come Google searches, reviews, the school's Instagram, the visit and a chat conversation.
The map shows where the journey breaks: most families who give up disappear after the visit, because nobody follows up. The school starts sending a follow up message two days after each visit, and drop off at that stage falls.
The most common stages
| What the customer does | What the company offers | |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness | Notices a problem or desire and starts researching | Content that helps understand the problem |
| Consideration | Compares solutions and providers | Comparisons, cases, clear answers |
| Decision | Chooses and buys | Price, proof, an easy way to close |
| Use | Receives, uses, asks questions | Onboarding, support |
| Loyalty | Buys again and refers | Relationship and referral programs |
The messy middle
In 2020, research by Google's consumer insights team, by Alistair Rennie and Jonny Protheroe, showed that the path between trigger and purchase is not linear. In the middle, people switch between two mental modes, exploration, which expands options, and evaluation, which narrows them, and loop through that cycle as many times as they need.
The study highlighted six biases that shape choices along the way: category heuristics, the power of now, social proof, scarcity, authority and the power of free. They were tested in an experiment with real shoppers simulating 310,000 purchase scenarios.
How to build a journey map
Nielsen Norman Group notes that a map combines storytelling and visualization to create a shared vision. Without it, each department measures only its own part, and nobody sees the customer's full experience.
- Pick a point of view: one persona and one scenario, such as buying a plan.
- Break the experience into stages.
- For each stage, record what the person does, thinks and feels, based on real research: interviews, support logs, data.
- Mark the touchpoints and who in the company owns each one.
- Highlight where the experience breaks and turn that into an improvement list.
Journey and funnel
The sales funnel shows the company's view: how many people move from one stage to the next. The journey shows the customer's view: what they experience at each stage. The funnel tells you where people are lost; the journey helps explain why.
Where journeys usually break
- Slow response to the first contact.
- A website that does not answer the question that brought the visitor.
- Hidden pricing when the customer is ready to decide.
- Channels that do not talk to each other, forcing the customer to repeat their story.
- Silence after the sale.
Frequently asked questions
What is the customer journey?
The path a person takes from the first sign of a need to the purchase and beyond, across every touchpoint with the company.
What are the stages of the customer journey?
A common split is awareness, consideration, decision, use and loyalty. Each company adjusts the stages to its own process.
What is a customer journey map?
A visual representation of the journey, from one persona's point of view, with what they do, think and feel at each stage and where the experience breaks.
What is the difference between the customer journey and the sales funnel?
The funnel shows how many people advance at each stage, from the company's view. The journey shows what the customer experiences at each stage, from their view.
What is the messy middle?
The name a 2020 Google study gave to the stretch between trigger and purchase, where people switch between exploration and evaluation in a non linear way.
Related terms
- Sales funnelA sales funnel is the model that splits a person's path, from first contact with a company to purchase, into...
- Buyer personaA buyer persona is a description of a company's typical customer, with a name, context, goals, questions and...
- TOFU, MOFU and BOFUTOFU, MOFU and BOFU stand for top, middle and bottom of the funnel, the three stages the buying journey is...
- ChurnChurn is the rate of customers who stop buying or cancel during a period, relative to those the business had...
- Landing pageA landing page is the page a person reaches after clicking an ad, email or link, built to lead to a single...
Rodrigo Fávaro
Founder of ROO3, a marketing and technology agency in São José do Rio Preto, Brazil. Builds AI products running in production (Tobia, gerar.app, Pense Mercado) and maintains the AI Benchmark, a public ranking of AI models.
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