This document provides an overview of customer journey mapping, which is the first stage of a four-part design process. It discusses segmenting customers, creating customer personas, mapping the hypothetical and actual customer journeys, identifying gaps between them, and using the insights to improve the customer experience and business model. The goal is to deeply understand customers to maximize revenue by ensuring the business is designed to best solve customer pains. A series of activities are outlined to guide mapping the customer journey, including research techniques, plotting touchpoints, and noticing advocates.

1. Customer Journey Mapping
Part 1 – ‘What is…’ of the Design
Process
Customer’s experiences of interacting with your business.
Prepared by James Cracknell – Growth Consultant and
Senior Partner Relcon-East

2. Business
Development
– designing
your business
for growth
“What is…” the first
stage of the design
process. What you are
delivering today with an
eye on making
incremental changes
building to wider
improvements.

3. “The only way to have great customers is
to be one.”
― Daniel C. Felsted
Do you really know your existing
customers? If so ‘how well are you
designed to solve their pains?
Once you have solved them – how do
you extend the relationship?
The aim of this piece of work is to
break-open the ‘customer relationship’
building block by being a customer and
asking ourselves some pertinent
questions about the journey.

4. Objective
The Journey Map is one of the primary
tools to understand the sort of
relationship you have with your customer
as well as the relationship you want.
You need to create value for your
customer but generate real value for your
business. The Journey Map will help you
deliver the best value proposition in the
most effective way with the goal of
maximising revenues.
This is a process of assessing today,
envisaging tomorrow and identifying the
gaps.
“What is your customer trying to do and
how are you helping or hindering them?”

5. Tools we will use as to build the
‘Customer Journey Map’ - As part of
the ‘What is… of the design process’
Segmentation and
personas. Building insight
into you’re your existing
relationships. Mapping
the hypothetical
1
Research techniques – to
develop the persona use
interviews, on-line
sources, surveys, external
impersonators,
experiment`
2
The customer journey –
Remap the journey this
time with greater insight
and empathy
3
Identify the gaps - Tools
for testing and learning
what to do. Implement
some changes (gradually)
test and learn
4

6. Activity 1.
Define the purpose of the work
Define the purpose and make a
commitment to change.
Write down why you want to do this
work and what you will do with the
information once you have it. This is
your contract to take action.
Questions:
Is there just one aspect of the journey
that concerns you?
If yes – focus on this otherwise focus
on the entire journey

7. Activity 2:
Segmentation
What is the job you are
offering to do for each
segment?
In the case of a ‘pub’ you
could have two segments:
1. The ‘social drinking
crowd’
2. The ‘sit down to eat’
clients
Of course you could have
more – takeaway clients,
maybe a ‘real ale beer club’.
Each segment is a potential
revenue stream, each has a
value proposition and a
customer.

8. Activity 3. Create two customer
personas for each segment
This is a visualisation process. You need to be able to
see the customer, to understand why they need you,
and how you make them feel. Sometimes we have
buyers and users – make clear who is who.
In the case of the pub the ‘sit down and eat’ segment
could be Dave and Mandy out for a romantic meal or
the Mum looking to take the family out.
In the case of the family – the parents are the buyers
but the children are users.
The template (curtesy of BufferApp.com) is a start.
Prioritise those customers who bring in the greatest
value and then just start to write down your answers.
The persona will grow in the 2nd phase of the journey
mapping – but start!

9. Why do this work?
You are probably thinking – why? So it is worth making
the case for this work.
1. If you are making things, or delivering a service
best you make sure you ‘really’ know who it’s for
and that it is ‘truly’ designed for this purpose.
2. If you are spending money on marketing (and
who wouldn’t?) best you strive to deliver a chute
not a funnel; being precise rather than scatter-
gun.
3. Before you jump in with both feet in a grand leap
of faith please use the build, test, measure and
learn process specific to your target user.
Personas are your potential market, they could be your
customers now as well as in the future. Treat them with
care and love – and take their journey.
"Leap of faith – yes, but only after
reflection"
— Søren Kierkegaard

10. Activity 4. Plot the hypothetical journey
from the beginning to the end
Put yourself in ‘a’ customers shoes. Take their journey, it will be different
for each persona. Record how you want to ‘wow’ them at every stage.
Decide
Emotional prompt
What prompts the initial
search for answers?
Research
Awareness
Could be on-line, calls to
friends or looking for
experts
Analysis
Consideration
Consider their choices.
Which route to adopt
and which gives them
the greatest gain and
solves the pain?
What gives them
the greatest levels
of anxiety? What
problem are you
solving?
Give them every
reason to find the
answers they are
looking for. Where
are they doing this?
Connect with them
on an emotional
level. Are you clearly
solving the problem?

11. Activity 4. Plot the hypothetical
journey from the beginning to the end
(cont.)
Purchase
How will they find
you? Think of the
most likely times and
places to buy
Delivery
Where does it take
place? How does it
make them feel?
After-sales
Retention
Are they happy or
anxious about the
sale? How are you
letting them know
you care?
Rate, review &
reward
Loyalty, attachment,
community and
engagement
Strive for a
frictionless as
possible buying
experience. Is it
frictionless? How
easy can they buy
your service /
product?
What does the
delivery process
say about you? Is
it nicely
packaged? Would
you like the way it
is delivered?
What could make
it better?
How easy is it to
extend the
conversation?
Can they
complain? What
social media
channels are
open – what are
your responses?
Get this right and
you are in the big
league. How do
you reward
them? Is it fun?
Do they feel a
part of
something?

12. Customer
immersion
techniques
We have our perceptions in place but
how do they stack up to reality?
This is more than just surveying – since
this leads to uneven response rates,
apathy and often lack of clarity around
motives.
Just remember
"Such innovation and learning will
come only from people who are in
touch with the voice of the customer
and the voice of the process”
- H. Thomas Johnson
This is YOUR goal!

13. Interviews
Your ambition is to gain ‘relevant’ insight, I
stress ‘relevant’ because so many interviews
end up being feedback designed to confirm
not illuminate the process.
So we are trying to learn not sell, not pitch
and not damage an existing relationship.
Use the ‘hypothetical journey map’ to
embed the flow to your questions.
So early question might be “What incident
or event first prompted you to seek out our
service?”
“Directly after the event occurred what
were you feeling?”

14. Maximise your interviewing success
Action please:
• Identify a small number (10 – 15) of your
customers who best represent your
personas and are amiable to being a part of
the process.
• Incentivise their participation in a nice way
and be honest about why you want to do
this. Make them feel like they are a part of
the discovery process. You can deepen the
relationship and create advocates.
• These are your pilot interviews – the goal
here is to hone the questions so that if
there is a step in the journey that might be
of the greatest concern you can pick away at
it to deepen the learning.

15. General tips and advice
• Pick a relaxing setting where you both feel at
ease. Cup of coffee but not too noisy
• Adopt the mind of an outsider – all of this
must be fresh information to you
• You know what they say about ears and eyes
versus your mouth – watch & listen
• Keep the language clean and simple – avoid
leading questions. Stay away from jargon and
if you need to confirm something, repeat it in
the language of the person being interviewed
• Don’t even consider solutions – you are hear
to learn not solve or sell
• Gain feedback and if possible some additional
insight and direction

16. Final word on interviewing
• Interviews are a great starting place –
they can give you a sense of where to
focus by showing you these ‘essential
moments of truth’.
• Capture responses – best to do
interviews in pairs, someone to observe
and capture shifts in body language,
pain points and gain points. Make sure
these are recorded and correlated to
the questions.
• Work with your interview partner to
look for themes, common threads and
emotional highs and lows - make sure
these are based on human needs*
*A list of human needs can be downloaded at
https://www.cnvc.org/Training/needs-inventory
(c) 2005 by Center for Nonviolent Communication
Website: www.cnvc.org Email: cnvc@cnvc.org
Phone: +1.505-244-4041

17. Ethnographic Research – big word
for a simple idea.
Here we are talking about
observation of your clients
in their natural habitat.
Easier said than done but
when you have the
opportunity to watch as
they interact with your
product or service – make
sure you do. Make an
excuse to do this, a home
visit or a consultation.

18. What to watch for as you observe
• Confusion – notice their faces, what they say
or do and ask yourself – How can I make this
more intuitive?
• Friction – how hard are they having to work
to achieve a result? Too hard – then “How can
you grease the wheels of the process?”
• Pain points – well this is uncomfortable and
annoying. Pick up on it and lessen the pain by
increasing the gain.
• Appropriation – that hanging basket has just
become a fruit bowl. Anything you can do
with that?
• Skipped steps – the user simply saying ‘not
needed’ – if there is a cost of delivery you just
saved yourself a few quid.

19. Next step on
the journey

20. Data – what to do with it and
what to use is it for?
• All the information you have
amassed is there to inform you
about your clients.
• There is no guarantee but
patterns should emerge. Patterns
about their values, their needs
and their pains.
• Divide your clients into those
who share similar pains – the
creation of a service or product
to match those pains with gains
is a new objective
• Are there any additional clusters
that can help you figure out how
you can reach them?
• Are some of your client’s needs
too diverse – too expensive for
you to solve?
• Finally – map the actual journey
for each persona. How can you
become more relevant?

21. The means to record the data and build
the picture – persona by persona
Decision Research Analysis Purchase Delivery Post-sales Advocacy
Touchpoints 1
Touchpoints 2
Touchpoints 3
Touchpoints 4
Other Touchpoints
Emotional state
Physical state
Questions most likely
asking themselves
Additional Insight from
interviews

22. Notice your advocates – is it a
seamless fit
As you research your customers, interviewing them and
simply building a relationship, you will notice what the
next step might be.
• You perceive that their wants match your delivery
straight away
• Customer recognises their problem and need a solution
• Customer is already looking for a solution
• Customer solved it for themselves, piecemeal
• They have money to buy the solution

23. Section 4 –
the
commitment
to deliver and
test some
changes

24. Mind the Gap!– the existing state
vs. the desired state
Take the ‘hypothetical journey’ – the desired emotions, all the touchpoints
you really hope they would have found you, and lay bare all your assumptions
Take the
journey
Now plot out the actual journey by persona. How the really felt, what
touchpoints they really did use including ‘luck’, and test them against your
assumptions.
Plot out
Notice the gaps? Now start to think about how to fill them.
Notice the
gaps

25. Record the
outcomes
• Now is the time to start thinking
about the value proposition, does it
match the wants of the customer?
• Is your existing business model
maximising the revenue streams?
• Is the model sticky – is it expensive
for customers to switch to another
provider?
• Can the existing model scale? If so
what would be the scaling costs?
• Do you look at the competition or do
they look at you?

26. Stage 1 – of the design process
This is the first part of a four part design process that we have
used on a number of businesses including Relocon-East.
The first part of the process and key to the visualisation of the
business is ‘What is..’ A clear audit of where we are. Part of
that understanding is a deep piece of work around the
building block associated to Customer Segments and
Relationships. The next aspect is an analysis of the Value
Chain and a complete overhaul of the valued proposition.
If you are interested in working with Relocon-East we provide
consultancy services and for those businesses local to us, who
are eager to scale and can scale – we will also invest capital.
Call 07854 430623 to speak to James or email
jcracknell@Relocon-east.co.uk

27. Bibliography
With thanks to:
Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Bernarda, G., Smith, A.
(2014), Value Proposition Design. John Wiley & Sons,
Inc. Hoboken, New Jersey, USA
Liedtka, J., Ogilvie, T. (2011), Designing for Growth: a
design thinking tool kit for managers. Columbia
University Press, New York, USA