What is a Customer Journey Map (CJM)?

Customer Journey Map (CJM) is a step-by-step scenario of user interaction with a specific e-commerce site. The process described in the scenario is not linear. This means that it is extremely important for UI/UX designers to foresee all possible options for user actions so as not to lose him or her at any stage.

CJM can help you to improve the customer experience without wasting a lot of time and effort.

5 Steps To Create a CJM

There is no single algorithm for building a customer journey map, but there are several preliminary procedures that will help you in this process.

To draw up a portrait of the client

What kind of people they are, where they live, what they are interested in. In general, you have to draw up separate maps for each type of client — after all, their scenarios can be very different.

You can use personas here. Personas are typical users of your product with specific features. This approach is more effective than describing groups of potential clients as it helps designers to build empathy with end-users.

To analyze sales funnel

Here you need to figure out exactly which stages and in what sequence the user goes on the way to becoming a client: for example, searching for a product in search engines, going to a website, communicating with an online consultant, ordering, using a product. You also need to provide an approximate time frame for each of these stages.

To define the user’s goals

For example, for the search stage, it can be a search for an item in a given category with the lowest cost. This can also include questions that buyers ask themselves on each of them. This will give you a glimpse of your website's usability through the eyes of a real customer.

To analyse sales channels

This can be an offline point of sale, search results, an affiliate site, an influencer's blog, etc. It is also important to take into account such channels that marketers may not work on — for example, forums, publics on social networks.

To identify barriers

Finally, you will need to figure out the aspects that prevent users from moving to the next stage of the sales funnel. Standard options are a complicated registration procedure, unreasonably high or low cost of goods, incorrectly working search on the site.

4 CJM Components

1. Time frames
2. This is the approximate time required to complete all stages of the journey
4. Scripts
5. This is a clear sequence of actions from your potential customers that help them achieve their final goal. For example, buy a vacuum cleaner. It is also important to consider the context and their intentions at each stage.
6. Touchpoints
7. These are specific manipulations that users perform within your website in order to achieve the final goal.
8. Channels
9. These are the locations from where users come to your website.