What is Customer Journey Management?

The customer journey is the “path” customers take when interacting with a company, hopefully on their way to a purchase. It can consist of a series of touchpoints, is often not linear, and it can vary among customers. For example, a customer’s journey may begin with a promotional email, move to the business's website via a link in the email, and then end in a retail store where a purchase is made. Another customer of the same company may find an item via a web search, read reviews online, and ultimately make a purchase from the store website. Customer journey management is the series of activities organizations undertake to understand the current customer journey, with a vision toward future interactions.

Customer journey management teams frequently map the "as-is" with a customer journey map. This mapping process allows organizations to understand the behavior of their customers, in addition to how they think and feel. When combined with multichannel data, maps often identify pain points in the customer journey, such as confusing checkout screens or long response times for email inquiries. Customer journey management teams use this information to remove barriers customers encounter along the way to making a purchase or getting support.

Challenges and benefits of customer journey management

Customer journey management requires organizations to truly understand their customers' goals and the paths they may take to accomplish them. The multichannel nature of many customer journeys adds complexity not only to the heavy data analysis that is part of customer journey management, but also in aligning often siloed departments to the forward-looking vision. Organizations that are willing to put forth the effort are likely to reap rewards such as higher revenue and increased customer loyalty.