Here’s How (and Why) You Need to Create a Map of Your Customer’s Journey

Here’s How (and Why) You Need to Create a Map of Your Customer’s Journey 

As customer success professionals, we spend a lot of time and energy trying to enforce processes and procedures for our customers. After all, the right processes can help increase product utilization, satisfaction, and ultimately lead to upsells. It’s important to remember, however, that no two customers are the same, especially in the SaaS world. When customers begin to ask questions outside of the norm or decide to adopt a new use case on their own, this shouldn’t be a cause for panic. Instead, CSMs simply need to address their customer journey map to determine next steps. 

What is a customer journey map

A customer journey map outlines every single touchpoint of customer experience and engagement with your platform or service. From the initial sales conversation to the handoff between sales and customer success to long-term support, a customer journey map maps out the steps a customer will take to achieve their ultimate goal: value. 

While a customer journey map has a beginning and an end, it also has multiple touch points along the way. At each one of these points, information is required that helps inform the direction and interactions that will help the customer move on in their journey. For example, at the onboarding stage, things like time-to-value, educational training, and dedicated support are important to excite the customer and keep them moving forward. 

Why are customer journey maps important?

You already know that customers are all different, and they will all engage with your team differently. In order to keep your internal team on track and understand the product experience from your customer’s point of view, you should have a customer journey map in place. These maps help your internal team know how to best help a customer through specific touchpoints in the process as well as identify any roadblocks or gaps that could be making it harder for customers to be successful. 

How to create a customer journey map

While CSMs should create a unique customer journey map for every account, it’s okay to build a template and use this as a jumping off point for new customers. Create a master version of the customer journey and pass it out internally to help all of your employees and team members become acquainted with what success means to customers. 

Here are the three main stages of building a customer journey map:

1. Research your customer and users to understanding their goals and success metrics. Work with sales and product teams to ensure you’re on the right track. Create context for every stage of the process. 

2. Create a visual customer journey map (usually a timeline or infographic) that highlights all of the stages in the customer journey. Add customer goals, deadlines, and value drivers to make it personal to every account.

3. Present your customer journey map to your internal and customer stakeholders. When prospects and customers see first-hand how you’re going to help them succeed, they’ll be more likely to enter into a partnership with your team and invest in innovative solutions. 

Increase customer satisfaction with customer journey mapping

When your internal team is on the same page about what constitutes customer success, and when your customers know that you have their best interests at heart, your team can be more successful and deliver better customer engagement experiences. You can learn more about creating a comprehensive customer journey map here, or you can check out some of these other resources to ensure your team is operating with customer best interests in mind:

 

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