How Customer Journey Map Helps You Create a Meaningful User Experience

Customer journey mapping is the process of documenting the entire experience a customer goes through with your business. A lot of attention is given to designing user interfaces, but oftentimes the back-end processes are forgotten that happens behind the scenes. These processes affect how your clients feel about their experience and whether or not they’ll come back to use your product again. That’s where a customer journey map comes in. It helps you reveal patterns in customer behavior so you can improve your process and make it more personalized for each individual.

Customer journey mapping is a visual representation of the entire customer experience

A customer journey map is a visual representation of the entire customer experience. It helps you think about your client’s needs and understand their perspective, which in turn helps you explain processes and get buy-in from coworkers and clients.

In an ideal scenario, all businesses would use customer journey maps to identify gaps in their user experiences—and then they would fully close these gaps by creating solutions that meet or exceed the expectations of consumers. The reality is this doesn’t always happen; we all live in a world where business owners don’t always think about how their products or services impact customers as much as they should.

A user experience map helps you think about your clients’ needs

A user experience map helps you think about your client’s needs and spot patterns in customer behavior. This allows you to see how your team can improve the user experience.

Think of it like this: if someone has a toothache, they will probably go to the dentist immediately. On the other hand, if they have pain that comes and goes, they might not be as motivated to seek treatment—they might just keep putting off calling until the pain is unbearable again.

The pattern here is clear: dental-related pains tend to appear suddenly and disappear after a few days or weeks. But what about less severe pains? What about headaches? Ankle sprains? If these kinds of ailments were shown on a chart, would you expect them all to occur at once every month only for half an hour before disappearing forever? It seems unlikely. Instead, you’ll likely see much smaller clusters of outbreaks happening more frequently than once per month—maybe even multiple times per day.

Customer journey maps help you explain processes and get buy-in from coworkers and clients

A customer journey map can be a powerful tool for explaining the user experience of your project to stakeholders, especially if this is the first time they’ve been exposed to UX design principles. Journeys are often easier for people to understand than wireframes, so it’s easier for them to visualize what you’re trying to accomplish. Journey maps also provide an opportunity for stakeholders to give input on your process as they review it together with you.

Create your customer journey map by stepping into your customers’ shoes

Customer journey mapping is all about putting yourself in the shoes of your customers. It’s a tactic that helps you create an experience that solves your customer’s problems, rather than just sell them more products or services they don’t need.

Once you’ve figured out what’s important for your user’s mental model (or “head space”) at each step along their user journey map, think about how to keep them focused on those goals throughout their experience with your brand and product or service. For example, you can provide relevant content that addresses those needs as soon as possible after purchase or registration. Keep in mind that no one likes being sold something before they’ve even had a chance to explore whether or not it’ll meet their needs.

Customer journey mapping helps you spot patterns in customer behavior

It gives you a bird’s-eye view of your customers as they use your product, which allows you to understand the different experiences of different users. You can also see where users get stuck or lose interest in using your product and identify opportunities for improvement.

Conclusion

A customer journey map is a great way to visualize your customers’ experience. It helps you think about their needs and get buy-in from coworkers and clients. Customer journey mapping also helps you spot patterns in customer behavior that might not be obvious at first glance.