What are the key touchpoints to include in a customer journey map?

1 Define your goals and scope

Before you start mapping your customer journey, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and what you want to focus on. Do you want to map the entire lifecycle of a customer, or a specific segment, persona, or scenario? Do you want to map the current state of the journey, or the desired future state? Do you want to map the interactions across all channels, or only the ones that are most relevant to your goals? By defining your goals and scope, you can narrow down the touchpoints that matter most.

2 Research your customers

The next step is to gather data and insights about your customers, their behavior, preferences, expectations, and feedback. You can use various methods to research your customers, such as surveys, interviews, analytics, reviews, social media, or customer service records. The more you know about your customers, the more accurate and realistic your customer journey map will be. You can also create customer personas to represent your target segments and their characteristics.

3 Identify the stages and actions

Once you have a good understanding of your customers, you can start mapping out the stages and actions of their journey. The stages are the main phases that your customers go through, from awareness to loyalty. The actions are the specific steps that your customers take at each stage, such as searching for information, comparing options, making a purchase, or contacting support. You can use a timeline, a flowchart, or a table to organize the stages and actions of your customer journey.

4 Add the touchpoints and channels

The touchpoints are the points of contact or interaction between your customers and your brand. They can be physical, digital, or human, and they can influence how your customers perceive and evaluate your brand. The channels are the mediums or platforms that enable the touchpoints, such as your website, email, social media, phone, or store. You can add the touchpoints and channels to your customer journey map by listing them under each action or stage, or by using icons, symbols, or colors to represent them.

5 Evaluate the emotions and pain points

The final step is to assess the emotions and pain points of your customers at each touchpoint. The emotions are the feelings that your customers experience during their journey, such as happiness, frustration, satisfaction, or disappointment. The pain points are the problems or challenges that your customers face, such as confusion, delays, errors, or dissatisfaction. You can use emoticons, ratings, scales, or graphs to show the emotions and pain points of your customers on your customer journey map.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?