Customer journey mapping uncovers the myriad of ways customers touch; your people, your processes, your marketing content and your solutions. And, as with anything new, getting started is easier when you have a sense of what the outcome is like.

Maybe you’re looking for examples to introduce the idea of customer journey mapping to your team (or even your boss). Perhaps you just want to get a sense of it yourself.

And what do excellent, grounded, inspirational customer journey map examples look like anyway? (Phew that’s a lot of superlatives!)

Grounded; meaning keep it real, make clear.

Inspirational; meaning stimulating and creative, and also practical. For each map a ‘be inspired’ section is included.

section is included. Excellent: You be the judge of that one!

Imagine how these B2B and B2C customer journey maps will enrich your understanding of customers to inspire new service development and better answer prospects questions.

Customer Journey Maps Examples

Customer Persona -> The Customer Journey Mapped

B2C American in Europe -> The Journey From Researching Destinations Through Using Rail Travel Service

B2B Marketing Professional -> The Journey To Attending A Virtual Conference Attendance (& Signing Up For A Subscription Service)

B2C Young Family Segment -> The Journey To Purchasing Health Insurance

B2B ProductCamp Participant -> The Journey From Event Awareness Through To Event Registration

B2C An American in Europe – The Journey From Researching Destinations To Using Rail

With lots of details, this B2C customer journey map from Adaptive Path (who now work for Capital one exclusively) is professionally designed with lots of detail.

Structured with the customer journey phases clearly mapped across the top, the map starts with ‘research’ and continues through service usage, until the customer is safely home. A reminder to think comprehensively through to the journey’s natural end.

Guiding principles summarize key takeaways. (But don’t expect to identify these until you are finalising your journey map.)

Thinking, doing and feeling provide rich insight into a multidimensional experience. The map depicts a core challenge for today’s business leaders and marketers; frequently the journey to purchase is not linear. This map moves beyond acknowledging the ‘as is’ situation and looks at areas for process and service improvement as noted under the ‘opportunities’ section.

The customer persona is lacking some detail. Different age groups and budgets likely have different needs.

This depiction is difficult to read on screen; a reminder to ensure your map is easy to share and read (for a larger version click the image). As a strategic business planning and marketing document it should be easily accessible for your whole team from product development through after-sales service.

Be Inspired By:

customized phase names from ‘booking’ to ‘post-travel’.

immediately recognizable touchpoint symbols which negate the need for a legend.

overriding ‘guiding principles’: what concepts add core context to your customers’ journey?

Back To The List Of Customer Journey Maps

B2B Marketing Professional – The Journey To Attending A Virtual Conference (On The Way To Subscription Renewal)

Above all customer journey maps provide a visual of the customers’ experience. Most, like this one from Solutions Through Research, depict a flow from left to right.

In our multichannel communication world, this example includes actual communication touchpoints from email, social media, technical support, and the core productivity tool of every professional -> the calendar. There is no loss of customer context.

Actions are included in yellow line call outs. Overall emotion (brand happiness) is mapped through the journey with individual emotions augmenting individual touchpoints (hopeful, thoughtful, frustrated, etc). The core business outcome (resubscribe) is front depicted by the green block including stumbling block (such as inoperable links and mobile not supported)

A huge amount of qualitative detail is easily communicated. It took a lot of work to refine to this level of clarity.

Be Inspired By:

the ‘brand happiness’ metric: can you include your Net Promoter Score or similar at each point through the customer journey?

the communication examples: can you show actual examples of customer touchpoints?

the presentation. I absolutely love Amy’s communication: details without compromises. Click through the slides below to experience this communication joy.

Back To The List Of Customer Journey Maps

B2C Young Family – The Journey To Health Insurance Purchase

In marketing everything starts with understanding customers. This map from Heart of the Customer make the target customer persona front and central. Don’t assume everyone is familar with your product development / marketing speak.

Questions are explict, and different at each stage.

Each communication channel is clearly depicted in it’s own row. Both formal and informal channels, only some of which the company controls, are included. I love this: so close to the real world.

Tell a rich story. But tell the right story. Qualitative data puts meat on the bones. And helps you decide where to focus.

Be Inspired By:

explicit description of the customer persona for shared understanding.

satisfaction at each touchpoint. What existing organizational metrics can you incorporate? Ground your new customer journey in the existing organizational narrative. Focus on areas which result in weaker customer satisfaction.

qualitative and quantitative data sources to tell a rich story, and the right story.

Back To The List Of Customer Journey Maps

B2B ProductCamp Participant – The Customer Journey From Awareness Through To Event Registration

Journey mapping typically starts with assembling knowledge from a variety of data sources. Nothing beats listening to and observing voice of the customer. In this customer journey map example from ProductCamp participants contributed their personal experience of the journey from awareness of the event through to registration.

Involving multiple functions ensures individual touchpoints are covered. Product development focuses on the end user of products and services. Marketing paves the road as prospects refine understanding of the problem, and explore alternative solution routes. Sales are intimate with detailed scoping to select the right solution and addressing specific concerns. Post-sales technical support assists those who’ve landed in a ditch. 🙁

Whether exploring how pre-sales or existing customers interact with your teams, processes and solutions, working across multiple channels / functions helps identify key transition points where customers can get lost “off road”(noted here in red diamonds). Anticipate what process bumps and information pot holes exist, and go fix them.

Be Inspired By:

simple effective layout.

organize and reorganize the information for insights, (in this example by separating into communication channels you do and do not cannot control).

highlighting transition points where there’s a risk of losing prospects.

Bonus Customer Journey Examples!

Joyce Hostyn of Designing Change has some examples of customer journey maps including an interesting format from Lego called the “customer experience wheel”. Be inspired to design in a “WOW” moment.

Next Steps in Customer Journey Mapping

So where do you want to go from here?

Get assistance with your customer journey mapping project: