Customer Journey Map Examples
Many brands make journey mapping key to their customer experience strategy. But here’s the problem: creating a customer journey map is easier said than done. If you’ve never done this before, it can be difficult to know where to start, what to include, or how to make changes as your business grows.
It's a worthwhile undertaking, though, because a journey mapping project will help you gain a better understanding of your audience and optimize journey processes.
Fortunately, I'm here to help. In this article, I'll share a variety of customer journey map examples, along with a list of tools that you can use to get started.
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What is a Customer Journey Map?
A customer journey map is a visual representation of the steps customers take when interacting with a business, from their first point of contact to becoming loyal advocates. These maps can help make sense of either a B2C or B2B customer journey as they pertain to your organization.
It highlights their experiences, emotions, and behaviors at each stage, helping businesses understand what customers go through and how they feel.
By organizing the journey into stages—like awareness, consideration, decision, and retention—a journey map identifies key touchpoints, such as visiting a website, speaking with support, or receiving follow-up emails. It also reveals pain points and opportunities for improvement for key steps, like customer onboarding.
The goal of a customer journey map is to help businesses create smoother, more satisfying experiences that meet customer needs and expectations while building stronger relationships.
How to Build a Customer Journey Map?
First, you need to pick your customer journey map tool or software. AKA, with what are you going to build your map? Pen and paper? Canva free templates? Dedicated journey map software like Fullstory or Lucidchart?
Here are my top suggestions for the best customer journey map solutions:
10 Best Customer Journey Map Tools
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 10 tools reviewed.
5 Customer Journey Map Examples to Copy
Let’s look at five customer journey map examples that will inspire you.
1. The Simple Customer Journey Map
Best for: Small businesses, startups, and companies with straightforward customer journeys.
- Industries: Local services, retail, and B2C companies with minimal touchpoints.
- Why: Its clear, minimalistic format works well for businesses just starting with journey mapping or those with simple customer interactions.
Many people believe that creating a customer journey map is a long, complicated process. And while that can be true in some instances, it doesn’t have to bog you down.
Create your customer journey map with the same basic six-part layout. By starting with the scenario and expectations, it’s easier to complete the other four columns: decide, travel, experience, and return.
Not only is this customer journey map simple to create, but it’s easy to understand—and that makes for less friction when sharing with other departments.
2. The Complex Customer Journey Map
Best for: Agencies, creative industries, and teams presenting to stakeholders.
- Industries: Marketing, branding, website journeys, and customer experience consulting.
- Why: This map is ideal for impressing clients or teams and effectively communicating the journey in visually engaging ways.
Are you hoping to impress your colleagues and/or supervisor? Do you want a customer journey map that you’re proud to share with others? If you answered yes to either question, this visually stunning example is a good place to start.
Used by WCIG, a disability employment service, there’s a lot to like about this customer journey map:
- It’s engaging: From the layout to the colors, this is one of the most visually appealing customer journey maps you’ll come across. While that’s not as important as its function, it holds some weight.
- Easy to follow: Starting in the top left corner, there’s a “pathway” that takes you through the customer journey. Along the way, it shares a variety of useful information.
Despite the wealth of information, this map is both simple and attractive. It’s the best of both worlds.
3. The Linear Model Customer Journey Map
Best for: Businesses with a clear start-to-finish customer process, like subscription services or eCommerce.
- Industries: B2C, SaaS, and eCommerce platforms.
- Why: The step-by-step format is intuitive for mapping a linear customer journey, such as signing up for a service or completing a purchase.
The linear model is one of the easiest ways to map a customer journey because it breaks everything down into clear, sequential steps. It shows how a customer moves through specific stages, such as awareness, consideration, purchase, and post-purchase.
This type of map works well for businesses with straightforward customer interactions, like signing up for a subscription or buying a product online. By following this step-by-step format, businesses can quickly spot where customers may face challenges and adjust their processes to improve the experience.
4. The Circular Model Customer Journey Map
Best for: Businesses focused on retention, loyalty, or subscription models.
- Industries: B2B, SaaS digital customer journeys, membership platforms, and any business with recurring customer interactions.
- Why: The loop emphasizes the ongoing nature of relationships, making it ideal for businesses prioritizing long-term engagement.
The circular model is designed to show that a customer’s journey with a brand doesn’t end after a purchase—it keeps going. This type of map highlights how relationships with customers are ongoing, cycling through customer journey stages like purchase, loyalty, and advocacy.
It’s especially useful for businesses that focus on retention, like subscription services or loyalty programs, as it reinforces the importance of keeping customers engaged and satisfied over time. The loop structure helps businesses plan for long-term success, not just short-term wins.
5. The Matrix Model Customer Journey Map
Best for: Enterprises, complex organizations, or businesses with multiple customer personas.
- Industries: B2B, multi-service industries, and companies with diverse target audiences (e.g., telecom, healthcare).
- Why: The grid format enables comparison across different segments, making it valuable for complex, multi-channel customer experiences.
The matrix model is a more detailed approach that works for businesses with multiple customer segments or complex journeys. It uses a grid to show how different types of customers, like new users or loyal advocates, move through their unique paths with the brand.
For example, a telecom company could use this map to compare how a new customer’s onboarding experience differs from that of a long-time subscriber.
This approach helps businesses analyze and improve the journey for all customer types, ensuring that no group is overlooked.
Improve Your CX with Customer Journey Maps
You know that your organization could benefit customer journey mapping, but the first step is often the most difficult. That’s why you should spend as much time as it takes reviewing these customer journey map examples and our customer journey map templates.
Once you have two or three examples that pique your interest, plug in some of your company-specific information to see if it works for you. If it does, follow through with the process to completion, share it with others for feedback, and continue to tweak it until you’re happy with the result.
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