Customer journey mapping

To build an effective customer journey map, focus on real, actionable insights rather than assumptions. There are two essential data types to collect: solicited and unsolicited data. Both play a critical role in understanding how your customers think, feel, and behave at each stage of their journey.

Solicited data includes any information you actively ask your customers to provide. It offers emotional and contextual insights into their experience, but it can be biased or limited to specific touchpoints. Examples of solicited data include:

• Surveys to gauge satisfaction and loyalty
• Post-purchase feedback to identify what worked or what was confusing
• 1:1 interviews to explore motivations, frustrations, or decision-making
• Feedback from non-buyers to understand barriers to conversion

Unsolicited Data is behavioural or operational insight data that customers don’t directly give you. It’s collected through their behaviours and interactions across platforms. It’s often quantitative and can reveal friction points customers may not express in feedback. Examples of unsolicited data include:

• Organic and paid campaign performance
• Website analytics like page views, bounce rates and cart abandonment
• CRM data, including email engagement
• Operational data like support tickets
• Social media mentions and reviews

Next, we map out your existing customer journey. We capture every touchpoint digital or physical, and evaluate the emotions, pain points, and expectations at each stage.

This stage often reveals:

• Engagement touchpoints (e.g., organic search, paid ads, website, social media, email).
• Where these touchpoints intersect with stages or steps in the journey
• What the customer is doing at each stage and the actions they take.
• What they’re thinking and feeling at each step.

Creating a customer journey map is just the beginning. The real value lies in analysing the data to uncover actionable insights. We ask key questions like:

• Are users dropping off before converting?
• Which touchpoints are performing well or poorly?
• What are the customer obstacles causing confusion?
• Where are customers experiencing friction points causing drop-off?
• What are the opportunities to improve the experience across each touchpoint?

This analysis helps identify unmet needs and opportunities to improve the experience. It’s also a chance to test assumptions and validate hunches. These often reveal unexpected insights that help shape a stronger strategy.

Once insights are gathered, the next step is to brainstorm improvements, focusing on simplifying the process and helping customers achieve their goals more easily.