Customer journey mapping in design thinking

The Customer Journey Map is a crucial tool in the Design Thinking process that helps to understand the behavior and experiences of end users. By analyzing the customer journey, you can identify specific touchpoints where potential customers interact with your product or brand. These insights are not only important for product development, but also for marketing, sales strategies, and customer retention.

Key Insights

• The Customer Journey Map helps identify various touchpoints between the customer and the product.
• Customers need to come into contact with the brand multiple times before making a purchase.
• It is crucial to understand how customers seek and compare information about products.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Define the Target Audience and Context

The first phase involves clearly defining who your target audience is. Who are the end users of your product? Are they individual customers (B2C) or business customers (B2B)? To clarify this, you should gather relevant information and create the desired personas.

To gather this information, you can use surveys, interviews, or existing data analyses. The more you know about your user, the more precisely you can define the touchpoints.

2. Identify Touchpoints

Now you begin visualizing the Customer Journey. Note down all touchpoints where the customer interacts with your product or brand. It is important to consider both offline and online interactions.

For example, in the case of a beverage manufacturer, you might consider how customers become aware of your product - whether through TV ads, posters, social media, or online shops. Make sure these touchpoints cover the entire journey from brand perception to purchase.

3. Distinguish between Brand Awareness and Product Awareness

It makes sense to distinguish between the awareness of your brand and the awareness of your product. Often, customers see your brand through advertising or other media before they even know the product.

For example, they may see Coca-Cola ads repeatedly before finally making a purchase. So, you should record how often and in what form these touchpoints occur before they decide to make a purchase.

4. Consider the Number of Touches

In marketing, there is often talk of the "7-touch rule," which states that a customer needs between 7 and 11 touchpoints to ultimately make a purchase decision.

This means that you should analyze exactly how many interactions are necessary and what repetitions occur before a potential customer makes a purchase. This information is crucial for creating effective campaigns.

5. Analyze the Purchase Process

How does the purchase process unfold? Consider both the initial visit to the store or online shop and all subsequent interactions.

You should also consider the possibility of recommendations or comparisons on the internet. Customers often tend to compare products based on reviews or recommendations before making a purchase.

6. Validate Customer Feedback

Once you have sketched the Customer Journey, you can start gathering feedback from real customers. Surveys or interviews will provide valuable insights to help you refine the touchpoints and the entire process.

The feedback will also help you identify and correct potential issues in the Customer Journey to enhance the user experience.

7. Create the Final Customer Journey Map

Now you can bring together all this information and create a visualized Customer Journey Map. This should include all identified touchpoints as well as the respective phases of the purchase process.

Modern tools or software solutions can help you create and adjust this map to dynamically respond to changes.

Summary

The Customer Journey Map is a valuable tool that helps you better understand your customers' path. You can identify relevant touchpoints, analyze the purchase process, and ultimately adjust your strategies to optimize the user experience. By looking at the entire process from the customer's perspective, you create a solid foundation for your product and marketing design.