Customer journey tool

Customers or clients move through a series of phases when deciding on taking up a new service or product:

Contemplative: thinking about taking up a service or product
Awareness: of a service, product, or concept
Research: becoming more familiar with the service or product
Procurement: choosing to take up the service or product
Experience: how it feels once the service has been experienced/bought.

Mapping this journey for potential customers gives organisations a way to understand how their services and products might be experienced and where the opportunities might be for change or improvement.

In our example, we look at a product — community exercise equipment — often provided by local governments as a service to the community.

Customer	Contemplative	Awareness	Research	Procurement	Experience
Community Exercise Equipment Example Woman aged 65–70 years: "Maureen"	Doctor advises more gentle exercise. Considers local gyms, yoga but feels not the right 'fit'	Hears about community exercise equipment on neighbourhood Facebook group. The Facebook post includes a picture with people in Maureen's age group using the equipment.	Looks up location of community exercise equipment online. Notices equipment is located in a nearby park. Worries about safety in park.	Talks with friends about going to park together. Organises a morning exercise session with friends.	Likes the feeling of exercising outdoors. Realises that the park is quite busy during the day. Feels less worried about safety issues.

You can use our template to map your own customer journey(s) and feed it into your action plan.

Things to think about when doing your customer journey

When we research our example customer — a woman aged 65–70 years — several issues are raised that could be improved through age-friendly considerations.

For example, addressing people's concerns about safety, providing information to local information gatekeepers such as doctors, pharmacies and so on, as well as considering promotion and awareness on digital channels.

Actions: What is the customer doing at each stage? What actions are they taking to move themselves onto the next stage?

"Maureen" is prompted by information online to find out more.

Motivations: Why is the customer motivated to keep going to the next stage? What emotions are they feeling? Why do they care?

The Facebook post encourages Maureen to find out more information because she sees 'herself' in the accompanying image. Maureen is also motivated because she trusts her doctor's advice.

Questions: What are the issues preventing the customer from moving to the next stage?

For Maureen, she questions the safety of the park and talks to her friends. This helps her to move to the next stage.

Barriers: What structural, process, cost, implementation or other barriers stand in the way of moving on to the next stage?

Safety could easily be a barrier to participation but Maureen is proactive. For other customers who are less motivated, this could be an opportunity for change; improving the perception of safety in the park, for example, by programming more structured activities.