A customer journey map is a visual of the steps a typical customer takes from first hearing about your brand to becoming a loyal customer. To create one, gather your customer data, write a persona, set up a table with a column for each stage and fill in what the customer does, feels and touches at each one.
Shopify describes the map as a visual representation of a hypothetical customer's experience, running from awareness through to post-purchase actions such as leaving a review or recommending you. It's built from real customer data, such as how many times the average user visits your site before buying, then given context with buyer personas. The persona's emotions and motivations are what make otherwise dry data useful.
The five stages of the customer journey
Shopify's maps usually follow five stages. The touchpoints below are examples of the types Shopify lists, not a fixed rule.
| Stage | What the customer does | Example touchpoint |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness | Learns about your brand | An Instagram ad |
| Consideration | Knows you and compares you with competitors | A self-service FAQ page, review sites |
| Acquisition | Buys | Your website or app, a third-party selling site such as Amazon |
| Service | Uses the product and may ask questions | Chatbot, email or phone support |
| Loyalty | Is satisfied, recommends you and keeps buying | Your newsletter, review sites |
Notice there are two stages after the sale. Shopify points out that it can cost more to acquire a new customer than to keep one, so a map that stops at checkout misses the cheapest growth.
The eight rows every map needs
Here's the part most guides skip: Shopify says a typical map is a table, with columns for the stages and rows for eight components. The persona usually sits above the table and the other seven are the rows.
- Personas: the fictional customer whose journey you're following.
- Stages: the five columns above.
- Time frame: the number of days spent in each stage, for example a week in consideration and a day in acquisition.
- Action: what the persona does, such as clicking an ad or researching competitors. There can be several per stage.
- Touchpoints: where they meet you. Shopify's types are owned channels (website, app, blog, newsletter, social), ads, third-party selling sites such as Amazon and eBay, review sites such as Google Maps and Yelp, customer service (chatbots, phone, email) and physical touchpoints such as stores and packaging.
- Emotions: how they feel at that point.
- Owner: the person, team or department responsible for a good experience at that stage. A stage with several touchpoints can have several owners.
- Opportunities: ideas for improving the stage, tied to the pain points that stop customers moving on.
The catch: the empty cells are the findings
Once the table is filled in, the gaps tell you more than the full cells. A stage with no owner is a stage nobody's looking after. A stage with no opportunity written in is one you haven't questioned. Shopify suggests five questions for every stage: what's the customer trying to achieve, how well are we meeting their needs, what friction might they meet, how does this touchpoint influence the next action, and what emotions might they feel?
How to create a customer journey map in four steps
Shopify's method has four steps:
- Gather data. Use quantitative data such as email opens, purchase history and traffic by channel, plus qualitative data from customer interviews and post-purchase satisfaction surveys.
- Create a customer persona. A short, fictionalised profile based on real data.
- Map out the stages. Set up the table with five stage columns, then fill each row for every stage with details such as time frame, actions, touchpoints and emotions.
- Update it. Shopify says to update the map after every change to a customer touchpoint and to review it at least quarterly.
Keep the persona section short. One persona and one map is plenty to start with, and if you need help writing the persona, this guide to creating buyer personas that drive conversions walks you through it.
Three types of customer journey map
| Type | What it shows | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Current state | The journey today | To spot gaps and friction and plan fixes |
| Future state | The ideal journey | Often paired with a current-state map |
| Service blueprint | Customer service touchpoints only | When the problem sits in support |
Shopify also separates the customer journey from two related ideas. Some marketers treat it as part of a larger buyer journey, which starts before someone knows your business, at the moment they feel a pain point. A user journey follows someone trying to complete a goal in a website or app and is used by UX and product teams, while customer journey maps are used mainly by sales, marketing and customer experience teams.
What a good map gives you
Shopify lists four benefits: more relevant messaging at each stage, spotting gaps (the journey isn't always linear), getting teams such as marketing and customer service aligned, and a sharper focus on retention. On messaging, it quotes Shingly Lee, VP of marketing at Guru, who says awareness-stage customers are about "selling the brand, then selling the can", with direct, tactical messaging saved for conversion.
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You don't need software to do any of this, as a spreadsheet works. If you'd rather use a tool once you've got the hang of it, this guide to the best customer journey mapping software compares the options.
Where I come in
I work with SaaS marketing teams and small businesses on turning the map into marketing that fits each stage: the right message for someone comparing you with competitors, and the follow-up that turns a first buyer into a repeat one. You can see how I work on my work with me page.
My verdict on customer journey maps
Start with one persona and one current-state map. A messy, honest map built from your own data beats a polished guess every time. Put a name in every owner cell, write at least one opportunity per stage, and put a date in the diary to review it next quarter.
Frequently asked questions
What are the five stages of a customer journey map?
Shopify's five stages are awareness, consideration, acquisition, service and loyalty.
What should a customer journey map include?
Shopify lists eight components: personas, stages, time frame, action, touchpoints, emotions, owner and opportunities, usually laid out as a table with the stages as columns.
How often should you update a customer journey map?
Shopify says to update it after every change to a customer touchpoint and to review it at least quarterly.
What is the difference between a customer journey map and a user journey map?
A user journey follows someone completing a goal in a website or app and is used by UX and product teams. Customer journey maps are used mainly by sales, marketing and customer experience teams.
