CX journey mapping lays out the stages a customer moves through and pins real feedback to each one. Most teams draw those stages in a workshop. Better maps come from the feedback you already hold. Reviews, complaints, call notes and survey comments reveal which stage someone had reached when things went wrong. Respondents describe the journey for you, one grumble at a time. The result is a map with an owner for every stage and a way to stay current.
Key takeaways
- A CX journey map pins real feedback to each stage of the customer experience.
- Reviews, complaints, calls and comments already show you the stages.
- Every stage gets one named owner.
- Stages without feedback show where nobody is listening.
- A map that stays connected to new feedback is easier to keep useful. A static one gathers dust.
What a CX journey map is
Nielsen Norman Group describes a journey map as a visualisation of the process a person goes through to accomplish a goal. A CX journey map does that for your customers. It shows each stage, what respondents said about it and how they felt.
Take a supermarket click and collect order. Choosing a slot, shopping online, driving to the store, waiting for the bag and unpacking at home make five stages. Each one collects its own comments.
Why most journey maps gather dust
Most journey maps start from what the business thinks happens. A team spends two days with sticky notes, produces a tidy poster and files it. The customer never sees it. After the workshop, neither does anyone else. A map on a meeting room wall is a very expensive poster.
The teams who run these workshops do a hard job well, and the goodwill they build in that room is worth keeping.
Teams clearly value an up-to-date map. Among companies that had already refreshed their map, 75% planned to do it again, according to a 2022 Hanover Research survey of 400 US companies. A steady stream of feedback makes that refresh far easier.
How to start CX journey mapping with feedback you already hold
Six steps take you from a pile of comments to a living map.
1. Pick one journey
Choose one journey and one problem. Click and collect works better than the whole customer experience. A smaller scope finishes faster and teaches the team how to map the rest.
2. Pull the feedback you already hold
Gather the last three months of reviews, complaints, call notes, chat transcripts and survey comments. Everything counts. Call notes and chat transcripts can describe the journey just as clearly as survey comments. Three months of existing feedback can reveal the stages before you write a single new survey.
3. Let the stages fall out of what respondents describe
Read the comments and note which moment each one describes. Respondents describe moments, such as “stood in bay four for 25 minutes while two staff chatted about bin day.”
Group those moments into stages in the order customers meet them. The right number depends on the journey and on where ownership changes. Give a moment its own stage when a different team would own it. Once every comment sits on a stage, you can map your journey against real feedback and see where the grumbles gather.
4. Name an owner for each stage
Give every stage one named owner. Slot booking might belong to the digital team and bay waits to store operations. A named owner is accountable for investigating and fixing problems at their stage. Owners often sit outside CX, so they need the evidence for their stage.
5. Mark the stages without feedback
Colour the stages with plenty of comments. Then look at the grey ones. Grey shows where the listening stopped, and a stage nobody listens to often hides the problem nobody owned.
Alton Towers listens at several moments of a day out. It gathers instant feedback during seasonal events, runs surveys after a visit and sends follow-up emails to resort guests. Each one listens at a different point of the visit.
SmartCX is the VoC platform that helps CX teams turn feedback data into CX intelligence the whole business can act on. With topics matched to journey stages, an empty stage shows where the listening stopped. Watch a tour to see it on real feedback.
6. Keep the map connected to new feedback
A map in a slide deck ages like milk. Put the map where leaders already look, such as a dashboard they open before a decision, and keep it connected to new feedback. Review it regularly. A map that reflects the latest feedback is more useful than one that gets dusted off once a year.
How to tell the map is working
The map is working when people quote it in meetings. Owners ask for the comments behind their stage. A fix goes in and the feedback for that stage shifts. A decision changes because of what the map showed.
Oliver Shreeve, Principal UX Researcher at BPP, puts the payoff plainly: “It’s not just feedback, these are actual insights that will help improve our organisation.”
Frequently asked questions
What is CX journey mapping?
CX journey mapping is the practice of laying out the stages a customer moves through and pinning real feedback to each one. The map shows where people feel good, where they struggle and who owns each stage, so teams can decide what to fix first.
How is CX journey mapping different from a customer journey map?
A customer journey map is the visual itself. CX journey mapping is the practice around it, from drawing stages out of real feedback to naming owners, spotting stages without feedback and keeping the map current as new feedback arrives.
How many stages should a journey map have?
A journey map needs as many stages as the journey has moments that matter. The right number depends on the journey and on where ownership changes. Give a moment its own stage when respondents describe it consistently and a different team would own it, and merge stages that always appear together.
How often should you update a journey map?
A journey map should stay connected to new feedback and get a regular review, so the stages and owners stay relevant. If you refresh it by hand, review it at least every three months.
Want to see how it works? Watch a tour or talk to us.