{"id":6139,"date":"2023-03-21T16:42:29","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T15:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/?p=6139"},"modified":"2025-06-18T17:43:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T16:43:52","slug":"customer-journey-the-what-the-why-a-free-customer-journey-mapping-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/customer-journey-the-what-the-why-a-free-customer-journey-mapping-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Customer Journey &#8211; The What, The Why &#038; A Free Customer Journey Mapping Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"6139\" class=\"elementor elementor-6139\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-6531cae0 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"6531cae0\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-4f920e66\" data-id=\"4f920e66\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2a248495 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"2a248495\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-6135\" src=\"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/CS-Guide-1024x536.png\" alt=\"Customer Journey Title Image\" width=\"1024\" height=\"536\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/CS-Guide-1024x536.png 1024w, https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/CS-Guide-300x157.png 300w, https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/CS-Guide-768x402.png 768w, https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/CS-Guide-600x314.png 600w, https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/CS-Guide.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h3><b>What is a Customer Journey &amp; Customer Journey Mapping?&nbsp;<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We define Customer Journey as every interaction across every touch-point that a customer has with a company. Every one of those interactions contributes to the overall Customer Experience.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At a high level a customer\u2019s journey starts when they first show interest in doing business with you. At a more detailed, specific level Customer Journeys can become quite complex as a customer may go through many different journeys during the course of your relationship.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are a few examples of customer journeys:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A welcome journey when the customer first joins the company<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Journeys around queries that customers may have with a product or service<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A complaint or returns journey when things go wrong or need to be sent back or replaced<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A contract renewal journey for a service such as insurance or utilities<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A cancellation journey when a customer wants to leave<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each of these journeys may take place in one or multiple channels.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><br><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The channels can include:&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Website<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Webchat<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Helpline<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Text<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Email<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Social Media<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Branch or Store<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each journey is different for each customer because they have different needs, different expectations and will experience different emotions at every touch point in the journey. However by studying the current steps your customers take to reach their goal you can establish the main journeys in your business and identify where there is room for improvement.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><br><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is where Customer Journey Mapping comes in.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><br><\/p>\n<h3><b>Why is Customer Journey Mapping important?&nbsp;<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you don\u2019t know what your customers are doing, how they\u2019re doing it and what their experience is like you won\u2019t get the full picture of how your business is operating. You won\u2019t be able to make the right changes to make things better for both customers and staff.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Walking in your customers shoes is fundamental to delivering CX Excellence and Customer Journey Mapping allows you to do this.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The CX Academy has identified six key benefits of doing Customer Journey Mapping:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Customer Journey Map will give you a clear and simple picture of how customers interact with your company&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Understanding the needs and emotions for different customers<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seeing the overall flow of the Customer Journey from start to finish<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Focusing on individual elements of a journey rather than the whole journey<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Identifying key issues and pain points and removing them<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Providing a roadmap for you to deliver your CX initiatives<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The outcome of all of these is an improvement in the Customer Experience which will drive growth through greater retention, increased sales, reduced costs to serve and better acquisition from advocacy and recommendations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There will also be an improvement in staff experience as departments work closely together to create seamless customer journeys and issues and problems are solved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have summarised our full course module into a detailed guide that you can follow to create your customer journey. It will help you understand and choose the customer journey you will focus on first, get to know your customers and outline how to gather the right people from your company.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Get your free Customer Journey Mapping Guide here:&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-53b0ddd elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"53b0ddd\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-2e95cc1\" data-id=\"2e95cc1\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-38d67bd elementor-align-center free-temp-popup elementor-widget elementor-widget-button\" data-id=\"38d67bd\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"button.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-button-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"elementor-button elementor-button-link elementor-size-sm\" href=\"#\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-content-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-text\">Download Your Free Guide<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5994c84 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"5994c84\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you would like to learn more about Customer Journey Mapping and get a more detailed Step-by-Step enrol in our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/professional-diploma-in-customer-experience\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Professional Diploma<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/professional-certificate-in-customer-experience\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Certificate<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in CX today.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is a Customer Journey &amp; Customer Journey Mapping?&nbsp; &nbsp; We define Customer Journey as every interaction across every touch-point that a customer has with a company. Every one of those interactions contributes to the overall Customer Experience.&nbsp; At a high level a customer\u2019s journey starts when they first show interest in doing business with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":6135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[43,17,42,55,21,28,30,47],"class_list":["post-6139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cx-article","tag-customer-acquisition","tag-customer-experience","tag-customer-journey","tag-customer-loyalty","tag-cx-excellence","tag-the-cx-academy","tag-the-cx-framework","tag-trust"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6139"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13065,"href":"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6139\/revisions\/13065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecxacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}