Journey Mapping.

What is journey mapping?

Journey mapping is the process of documenting the steps a customer goes through when they discover, evaluate, buy from and work with a business, including what they do, think and feel at each stage. The result, a customer journey map, shows every touchpoint, from a Google search or a referral through to the quote, onboarding and aftercare, and highlights where the experience breaks down.

Why it matters

Buyers experience your marketing, sales and delivery as one journey, and they leave at its weakest point. A map shows where enquiries stall, where promises made in marketing are not kept in delivery and where a small fix, such as a faster quote or a clearer onboarding email, would lift conversion and referrals. It gives every team a shared picture to prioritise from.

How it works

• Pick one customer type Map one kind of customer at a time, such as a new commercial client, because journeys differ.
• Define the stages Typically awareness, consideration, decision, onboarding and ongoing service.
• List the touchpoints Every interaction at each stage, online and offline, including phone calls and paperwork.
• Capture thoughts and feelings What the customer is trying to achieve and what worries them at each step.
• Mark the gaps Highlight friction points, drop-offs and the moments that matter most, then assign an owner to each.

What to do about it

Choose your most valuable customer type and interview three people who bought from you in the last six months. Ask how they first heard of you, what they compared you against, what nearly stopped them and what happened after they signed. Plot their answers as stages on a single page. Pick the one moment where most of them hesitated and fix it this month.