Lecture 6 – Understanding the Customer Journey

Consumer Insights

• Go beyond facts; uncover the “why” behind behavior
• Analyze thoughts, feelings, motivations → empathy
• Example: Daily energy-drink purchase ≠ insight; feeling overwhelmed is the insight

Key Customer Information

• Need / Expectations
• Motivation
• Personality & Lifestyle
• Pain points / Problems
• Attitudes & Emotions
• Touchpoints & Overall Journey

Customer Journey Basics

• Path of direct + indirect interactions with brand, product, service
• Visualized as Consumer Decision Journey (goal-oriented process)

Six Core Journey Stages

1. Awareness – first exposure (PR, ads)
2. Evaluation – information search (reviews, blogs)
3. Purchase – transaction (e-commerce, in-store)
4. Usage – product experience (guides, follow-ups)
5. Repurchase – repeat buy if satisfied (email, coupons)
6. Advocacy – promote brand (reviews, social posts)

Why Journey Matters

• 63\% of consumers favor brands that exceed expectations across the journey
• 87\% of firms rank exceptional CX as “very/extremely” important
• Top 45.9\% business priority for next 5 years = Customer Experience

Customer Journey Map (CJM)

• Diagram of end-to-end customer experience
• Reveals friction & delight → action priorities

Benefits of CJM

• Pinpoints pain/joy moments
• Humanizes data → empathy
• Guides optimization of every touchpoint

Building a CJM — 8 Steps

1. Create customer personas
2. Interview / analyze data
3. Define journey stages
4. List actions per stage
5. Map touchpoints & channels
6. Capture thoughts & emotions
7. Identify pains & expectations
8. Analyze findings → assign ownership & improvements

Customer Personas

• Semi-fictional, research-based profiles of target users
• Uses: audience understanding, targeted marketing, product design alignment

Persona vs Segmentation

• Segmentation: group-level clustering for strategy (broad, analytical)
• Persona: individual-level story for design/content (detailed, narrative)

Proto-Persona vs Full Persona

• Proto: assumption-based, rapid, early-stage, aligns stakeholders quickly
• Full: research-driven, detailed, supports long-term strategy & 1:1 outreach

Essential Persona Elements

• Goals & Values
• Information Sources / Channels
• Demographics
• Challenges & Pain Points
• Objections to purchase