{"id":20301,"date":"2020-01-30T11:41:52","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T11:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/glosario-digital\/customer-journey"},"modified":"2026-09-28T05:53:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T05:53:01","slug":"customer-journey","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/customer-journey","title":{"rendered":"Customer Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"boxpad alignright wp-image-14169 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/customer_journey.jpg\" alt=\"Customer Journey\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/customer_journey.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/customer_journey-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><strong>Definition:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <strong>customer journey<\/strong> is the sequence of experiences a person has with an organization before, during, and after acquiring or using a product or service. It includes the person&#8217;s actions, goals, questions, emotions, and difficulties, as well as the digital, physical, and human touchpoints involved in the journey.<\/p>\n<p>The journey does not necessarily begin with a campaign or end with a purchase. It may start when a need emerges, continue through searches, comparisons, and conversations, and extend into use, support, renewal, or recommendation. <strong>Each customer may follow a different path and move between channels several times<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Customer journey and customer journey map<\/h2>\n<p>The customer journey is the actual experience a person goes through. A <strong>customer journey map<\/strong> is its structured visual representation, created to examine what happens at each moment and connect it with the organization&#8217;s response.<\/p>\n<p>A map may show stages, actions, needs, expectations, emotions, friction points, channels, and internal owners. Its level of detail depends on the purpose, such as analyzing a complete purchase, examining onboarding to a service, or understanding a specific customer support interaction.<\/p>\n<p>The map is not an automatic description of every customer. It normally represents a defined segment, context, and scenario. When it is based only on internal assumptions, it remains a hypothesis that should be tested against information from real users.<\/p>\n<h2>Common journey stages<\/h2>\n<p>Stages help organize the analysis, but they do not form a universal sequence. A common model distinguishes these moments:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Discovery:<\/strong> A person recognizes a need or encounters a possible solution through search, recommendations, advertising, or content.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Consideration:<\/strong> The person compares alternatives, reviews information and conditions, and evaluates whether an option meets the identified need.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Decision:<\/strong> The person selects a solution and completes an action such as registering, requesting information, subscribing, or purchasing.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Use and continuity:<\/strong> The customer receives the product or service, learns to use it, seeks assistance, and decides whether to continue, renew, or leave.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Advocacy:<\/strong> The customer shares an experience, publishes a review, or recommends the solution after perceiving value.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The journey may move backward, repeat, or stop. A person can resume comparison after starting a purchase, use several products at once, or return to discovery when circumstances change.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-80867 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/customer-journey-map-en.png\" alt=\"Customer journey stages and touchpoints\" width=\"1200\" height=\"650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/customer-journey-map-en.png 1200w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/customer-journey-map-en-300x163.png 300w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/customer-journey-map-en-768x416.png 768w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/customer-journey-map-en-360x195.png 360w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Touchpoints and channels<\/h2>\n<p>A touchpoint is any interaction that influences the experience. It may be a search result, review, store visit, telephone conversation, email, package, invoice, or response to a support request.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A channel and a touchpoint are not the same thing<\/strong>. Email is a channel, while an order confirmation, support message, and renewal notice are different touchpoints within that channel. Each serves a different need and can create a different perception.<\/p>\n<p>The analysis also includes interactions that the organization does not directly control, such as recommendations, public comments, or comparison services. In an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/omnichannel\">omnichannel<\/a> journey, continuity depends on channels sharing enough context so the person does not have to restart the process.<\/p>\n<h2>Components of a journey map<\/h2>\n<p>A useful customer journey map connects the customer&#8217;s perspective with the processes that support the experience. Common components include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Persona and scenario:<\/strong> The segment being studied, its initial need, and the situation in which the journey occurs.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Stages:<\/strong> Moments that organize the experience without assuming that every user progresses in a straight line.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Actions:<\/strong> Observable behaviors such as searching, comparing, asking, purchasing, configuring, or requesting help.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Goals and questions:<\/strong> The outcome the person is trying to achieve and the information needed at each stage.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Emotions and friction:<\/strong> Perceptions, unmet expectations, and obstacles that help or hinder progress.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Touchpoints and owners:<\/strong> The interactions, channels, teams, and systems involved in the organization&#8217;s response.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some maps also add metrics, opportunities, or internal processes. When the analysis focuses on visible and backstage service activities, roles, and operational dependencies, it may take the form of a service blueprint.<\/p>\n<h2>Information sources and measurement<\/h2>\n<p>A map may combine interviews, surveys, observation, usability tests, support requests, reviews, sales data, and channel analytics. <strong>No single source describes the entire experience<\/strong>: behavioral data shows what happened, while qualitative research helps explain expectations and motives.<\/p>\n<p>Metrics should correspond to the stage and objective being studied. They may include task completion, abandonment, resolution time, repeated contacts, returns, retention, or satisfaction. A conversion alone does not show that the journey was easy or that the relationship will continue.<\/p>\n<p>Connections between interactions across devices and channels may be incomplete. Analysis should respect stated purposes, the applicable legal basis, and consent, rather than turning the map into a mechanism for indiscriminate tracking.<\/p>\n<h2>Differences from related models<\/h2>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/buyers-journey\">buyer&#8217;s journey<\/a> focuses mainly on the buyer&#8217;s decision process from recognizing a problem to choosing a solution. The customer journey has a broader scope and may include use, support, renewal, abandonment, and advocacy.<\/p>\n<p>A funnel organizes a population into aggregated stages and measures how many people progress toward an outcome. The customer journey describes paths, needs, and touchpoints from the customer&#8217;s perspective. <strong>A funnel summarizes volumes; a journey map explains experiences and relationships between interactions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>A map is also different from a buyer persona. A persona describes relevant patterns within a group, while the map places those patterns within a specific scenario and sequence. The two can be used together, but the same profile may follow different journeys depending on its need or context.<\/p>\n<h2>Scope of the analysis<\/h2>\n<p>The customer journey can reveal friction, duplicated work, breaks between channels, and differences between what an organization promises and what a person experiences. It can also help coordinate teams when several areas participate in the same journey.<\/p>\n<p>Its conclusions depend on the quality and recency of the evidence. <strong>A map based only on internal opinions can reinforce incorrect assumptions<\/strong>, while an overly general map can hide important differences among segments and situations.<\/p>\n<p>The journey changes as channels, products, regulations, and behaviors evolve. A customer journey map therefore represents a scenario during a particular period and should be reviewed when evidence indicates material changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A customer journey covers the customer&#8217;s experiences and touchpoints before, during, and after a purchase. Learn its stages, mapping, measurement, and limits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":80863,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[1315],"class_list":["post-20301","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","encyclopedia-tag-sales-funnel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/20301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=20301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}