Best Customer Journey Mapping Tools
Prashanth Kancherla
Feb 22, 2024 | 15 mins read
Understanding customers’ journeys and tailoring strategies to create memorable experiences is crucial for retaining clients and driving revenue growth. Research shows that 88% of customers now value their experience with a company as much as its products. Businesses that neglect customer experience risk losing clients to competitors who prioritize it.
Thankfully, there are several customer journey mapping tools available to help businesses understand their consumers’ needs, behaviors, and preferences. These tools enable firms to enhance client journeys and reduce turnover. However, with the abundance of options, selecting the right tool can be challenging. While you know you need a tool to capture customer experiences and view your services from their perspective, determining the ideal one requires careful consideration.
In this article, we’ll make your decision easier by providing information on the top customer journey mapping tools for visualizing customer interactions and gaining deeper insights.
Table of Tools
Before we get into each tool in detail, here’s a brief overview of some of the best customer journey mapping tools and which company they are best suited for:| Platform | Best For |
|---|---|
| Hotjar | Website user experience and behavior analysis |
| Google Analytics | Comprehensive website analytics and insights |
| Heap | Data-driven product analytics and optimization |
| TheMiro | Collaborative customer journey mapping |
| UXPressia | Visualizing and analyzing user journeys |
| Smaply | Customer journey mapping and experience design |
| Gliffy | Diagramming and visual representation of journeys |
| Qualtrics | End-to-end customer experience management |
| InMoment | Real-time customer feedback and experience analytics |
In this article, we will explore:
- 1. What are Customer Journey Mapping Tools?
- 2. Importance of Customer Journey Mapping Tools for Businesses
- 3. Types of Customer Journey Mapping Tools
- 4. Top Customer Journey Mapping Software
- 5. What Features to Consider Before Choosing the Customer Mapping Software?
- 6. How Customer Journey Mapping Tools Help Improve Customer Experience.
- 7. Integration of Customer Experience Management Software and Customer Journey Mapping Software
What are Customer Journey Mapping Tools?
Customer journey mapping tools are programs that allow businesses to visually portray customer touchpoints and experiences. Customer journey mapping entails analyzing and documenting a customer’s interactions with a company, from initial awareness and engagement to final purchase, onboarding, and post-purchase experience.
The finest customer journey mapping tool often has easy-to-use interfaces that allow firms to generate visual diagrams of the customer journey on digital whiteboards or mind maps. These journey maps frequently feature various stages or phases of the customer’s experience and aspects like awareness, deliberation, decision-making, purchase, and after-sale.
Within each stage, the user journey map tool lets you design and specify precise touchpoints, channels, interactions, and emotions the client may encounter. Mastering the customer journey mapping process allows you to make sense of customer data, gather insights, and identify opportunities to improve your average customer experience.
Importance of Customer Journey Mapping Tools for Businesses
Planning a customer’s journey takes time and effort, but the correct software can speed up the process. Let us look at five reasons for using a mapping tool.
Enhance the client experience
After understanding the customer’s pain areas, improve their experience by concentrating on what makes them happy. A customer journey map can help you recognize communication or service delivery gaps while customer journey orchestration can help streamline interactions and reduce friction throughout the client lifecycle which in turn will improve the customer retention
Improve cross-team collaboration
Have segmented teams that are working independently to address consumer needs? A client journey map can help them accomplish common goals while reducing fragmentation. Teams will understand how customers interact with the company, regardless of who is in charge.
Predict customer behavior
A customer journey software can create a visual depiction, or map, of the client’s experience. Using the map, you can forecast a customer’s behavior. You can track all of a customer’s interactions with your business. This can help you predict sales and the steps you need to take to satisfy them.
Boost sales
Customer path mapping software can assist in increasing sales. When your teams understand the customer acquisition process and how they interact with the business, they can make changes to retain customers and upsell or cross-sell to them, generating more income. Furthermore, you can adapt your marketing to target individuals individually, boosting sales.
Increase Customer Retention
Journey maps show you where clients drop off in the sales cycle. Once you’ve identified the potential churn, responsible teams within the company can endeavor to eliminate roadblocks that impede customers. Better customer retention might result in increased income for your organization.
Types of Customer Journey Mapping Tools
There are a variety of tools for creating customer journey maps. However, the right technology will be determined by your organization’s needs, budget constraints, and level of experience in producing customer path maps. The following are the primary methods for building customer journey maps:
- Spreadsheet Tools: These are basic tools for creating customer journey maps using spreadsheets like Excel or Google Sheets. They are simple to use and allow you to develop basic travel maps.
- Online Customer Journey Mapping Tools: These web-based tools enable you to build, share, and collaborate on customer journey maps. Examples of such tools are Canva, Miro, and UXPressia.
- Diagramming Tools: These tools are designed to create flowcharts, visual diagrams, and customer journey maps. These programs include Lucidchart, Microsoft Visio, and Gliffy, among others.
- Analytics Tools: These tools help monitor and analyze customer activity and provide data that may be used to create valuable customer journey maps.
Top Customer Journey Mapping Software
Here’s a list and a brief explanation of some of the top customer journey mapping software, along with user reviews and G2 ratings for each:
Hotjar
Hotjar is a robust and comprehensive platform that helps organizations acquire vital insights into user activity. Hotjar has been established as one of the industry’s greatest solutions because of its robust functionality and user-friendly UI. Hotjar provides everything a business needs to optimize customer journeys, from visual representations to user feedback gathering and seamless collaboration.
Features
- Records visitors’ sessions, including clicks, taps and scrolling activity to visually understand behavior.
- Reveals where users click, tap, move the cursor and scroll on a page to expose engagement.
- Identifies critical drop-off points in your conversion funnel across key pages and how to optimize.
- Lets you add surveys and feedback requests to gather first-hand qualitative data.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics (GA) monitors and assesses website traffic metrics such as bounce and exit rates, source traffic, goal conversions, and user demographics. Furthermore, GA tells you how much traffic your website receives, where it comes from, and which channels convert the best. You may also examine your most popular landing pages and where customers leave your website.
Features:
- Provides data on website visitors including traffic sources, visitor demographics, page views, bounce rates, session duration, and more.
- Ability to set up goals and conversion funnels to track performance of key pages and user flows.
- Flexible report and dashboard builder to visualize website, traffic, and conversion data.
- Provides real-time data on visitors currently on site.
User Reviews: Google Analytics provides many essential metrics to understand my site’s performance.
G2 Rating: 4.5/5
Heap
Heap.io is another popular tool for analyzing travel maps. It provides several tools for tracking user behavior, such as event tracking, segmentation, and funnel and retention analysis. Furthermore, it uses qualitative and quantitative data to create a comprehensive digital consumer journey map. Heap collects all consumer information automatically. Heap is a low-code platform that allows any user to make data-driven decisions without technical knowledge.
Features:
- Heap automatically captures every user action on your site – clicks, submits, and pageviews.
- Auto-detects trends and patterns in your customer data and surfaces targeted insights that highlight opportunities.
- Heap enables you to visualize behavioral data on custom dashboards and share dynamic reports that update in real-time.
- Integrates with web, mobile, server and database sources to connect user behavior data across platforms into one analytics tool.
Miro
Miro facilitates creating, collaborating, and centralizing communication for all cross-functional teams. This application provides a comprehensive toolkit for a user story or customer journey mapping, roadmap planning, wireframing, and retros. It is becoming increasingly challenging for teams to collaborate as the working environment changes due to Agile and remote working.
Features:
- Enables teams to simultaneously collaborate on customer journey maps. Everyone has visibility of changes, comments, etc.
- Embeds data, feedback, research etc. from third-party tools like Amplitude, Looker, UserTesting to enrich maps.
- Lets you export customer journey maps as images, PDFs or web links to easily present or share in tools like Confluence.
- Provides ready-made templates for various mapping needs – persona building, touchpoint mapping, and service blueprinting.
UXPressia
UXPressia is a cloud-based CX management tool that enables teams to visualize, share, present, and improve customer journeys. They provide real-time online collaboration for multiple users, integrations with various data sources, and a modern UI with an accessible drag-and-drop environment.
Aside from customer journey mapping, UXPressia provides configurable customer persona and Impact Map builders, as well as several predefined templates, with the option to create and share proprietary templates around the organization.
Features
- Allows easy creation of user journey maps and service blueprints using drag-and-drop editor with a library of pre-made templates.
- Enables creation of rich personas with behavioral and demographic profiles.
- Provides visual dashboard to analyze key metrics like NPS, CSAT, sentiment and identify hot spots and pain points.
- Built-in collaboration tools allow teams to co-edit maps, comment, mention users and assign tasks to streamline work.
Smaply
Smaply is a customer journey mapping application that allows you to create customer personas, journey maps, and system maps. The application will enable you to create journey maps for numerous personas and view them in detail, helping you make better decisions about your various types of consumers. Finally, it allows users to export projects as PDF, Excel, or HTML. The application also allows you to add images, emotions, text, and communication channels to your maps to help you better understand your customers’ journeys.
Features:
- Allows creation of advanced customer journey maps with a drag & drop editor.
- Journey maps can be shared and edited by multiple team members in real-time.
- The platform provides tools to create detailed customer personas with demographic and behavioral data to understand motivation.
- Journey maps can be completely tailored with custom colors, logos, and themes.
Gliffy
Gliffy is a free diagramming and team communication tool for small teams using Confluence and Jira. You may use them to create flowcharts, wireframes, and customer journey maps. It offers a drag-and-drop feature that lets you create diagrams quickly. In addition, the side pane contains a section called ‘most used’ that records all of the shapes you’ve used recently. All editing options for items on the whiteboard are available simply by clicking once on the shape or form, and layers are handled via the top menu.
Features:
- Gliffy provides an easy-to-use interface for creating flowcharts, diagrams, wireframes, UML diagrams, and more.
- Multiple people can edit and comment on the same diagrams in real time.
- Gliffy integrates with popular platforms like Jira, Confluence, and Google Drive allowing you to incorporate diagrams into other work.
- Diagrams created in Gliffy can be exported as PNGs, JPGs, SVGs, and PDF files.
Qualtrics
Qualtrics is an AI-powered customer experience management platform and dynamic feedback analytics tool. It may collect massive amounts of brand and business-specific client feedback from various sources and analyze overall views toward your company’s products and services. This solution can help CCOs improve user journeys by removing manual data-collecting methods and incorporating conversational analytics into customer communication.
Features
- Consolidates customer feedback data from calls, chat, email, social media, and reviews to create a single customer profile.
- Leverages AI, machine learning and NLP to analyze unstructured text, survey verbatims, call transcripts etc. to uncover insights.
- Integrates with CRM systems and business tools like Salesforce, ServiceNow etc. to connect insights to operations.
- Automatically routes negative sentiment customer conversations to appropriate teams for swift resolution and close feedback loops.
InMoment
InMoment is among the most efficient AI-powered solutions, providing more in-depth and relevant customer feedback. Its bot encourages your customers to provide thorough feedback. If they appreciate your service, the bot inquires about the specific service they like. Furthermore, the program is a customer journey mapping tool that examines your clients’ in-store purchases, internet behavior, and social media activity. It also records brand enthusiasts and opponents to help you optimize your digital strategy.
Features
- InMoment gathers customer feedback and experience data across every channel – website, mobile app, email, in-store, and call center, among others.
- The platform provides real-time and historical analytics on customer feedback and behavior data.
- InMoment visually maps the end-to-end customer journey to identify pain points and opportunities to improve.
- You can assign tasks to individuals to resolve customer issues and improve experiences.
What Features to Consider Before Choosing the Customer Mapping Software?
Now, that was a very comprehensive list of tools, so let’s look at some factors that you should consider before you choose a customer mapping software for your business:
Simple design
You shouldn’t need technical skills to begin customer journey mapping; therefore, whichever tool you pick should have simple design features. On the other hand, you should not be forced to use a strict customer journey map template that does not fit your client journeys.
Customer journeys can be complex; therefore, being able to visualize them is pretty beneficial. If your user interface is simple to understand, it will significantly improve decision-making efficiency.
Sharing feature
What’s the use of a journey map if you can just view it? Your selected customer journey mapping solutions should allow you to rapidly and easily share your maps with as many stakeholders as possible. The customer experience should be a company-wide responsibility, from marketing to customer service.
However, only by understanding how customers interact with the brand throughout their journey can your staff ensure that the experience meets their requirements and expectations. Customer journey mapping is collaborative, so ensure that your application supports numerous input sources.
Action Trackers
Once you’ve identified pain areas and devised solutions, you should be able to assign tasks and monitor progress using your customer journey mapping tools. With access to a single platform, teams from across the organization should be able to collaborate and work toward a shared vision and an enhanced customer experience. This is because a journey map is just a piece of paper until you use it to obtain insights and take action based on them.
Also, this is when the total value of customer journey mapping can be shown. A solid path-mapping application can also automate these tasks, saving your team members time and effort. Your consumer metrics are already automated; your actions should also be wherever possible.
Customer Personas
Some of the top customer journey mapping tools also allow for the creation of customer personas. At the very least, you should be able to use existing personas in your maps. Why is this important? Customers do not take a single voyage, although similar groups of people may travel the same journey.
This is where segmentation (splitting clients into personas) comes in handy since it allows you to understand how the customer experience varies for different groups of customers. Finally, client personas enable you to adapt your mapping process even more precisely.
Omnichannel data integration
The best customer journey mapping tools will combine offline and online data sources, reflecting that your customers will switch between the two during most journeys, and some will prefer one over the other based on their preferences and demographics. This implies that your journey mapping will reflect the entire picture, making it as accurate as possible.
Remember that your consumer data will not come solely from the channels you control or the customer satisfaction surveys you send out. Your customer’s feedback will also be reflected in the data you collect about consumer activity, such as operational and contextual data and third-party channels.
Easy to use
Senior buy-in is easier to obtain when your customer journey maps match your brand colors and are simple to grasp. Don’t choose a tool for developing customer journey maps that are unnecessarily complex and, frankly, unsightly. As a business, you want your teams to be involved in the process. Create simple customer journey maps to comprehend, recognize, and use repeatedly.
Branding will also help because it will establish a sense of familiarity. Getting the look and feel correct is a tiny but effective method to increase organizational buy-in.
Built-in templates and resources
Customer journey mapping software should help you get started on constructing your map. The finest ones come with built-in templates to help you get started as you create your customer journey. You need adaptable templates to tailor them to your specific needs. The tools should also allow you to add consumer touchpoints and other channels manually.
The customer journey mapping tools must also include resources such as documentation, training, and onboarding sessions to help you get the most out of the platform. If you run into problems, you should have a troubleshooting manual and a helpdesk to contact.
How Customer Journey Mapping Tools Help Improve Customer Experience.
Customer journey maps emerge as a transformational method for improving customer experience. Customer journey maps can enhance the customer experience in a variety of ways, making them an essential tool for any forward-thinking business:
Simplifying client interactions
Businesses that fully understand the customer journey can streamline interactions to improve efficiency and satisfaction. For example, if the map shows that customers frequently seek assistance via social media, firms can increase their social media support, ensuring that issues are resolved quickly and effectively.
Empathizing with customers
One of the major advantages of a customer journey map is that it promotes customer empathy. Walking in their shoes allows organizations to better grasp the emotions and obstacles that customers confront at each stage of their journey. This sympathetic approach is critical for developing experiences that fulfill and anticipate client demands, enhancing happiness and loyalty.
Create a customer-centric culture
The potential of customer journey maps to foster a culture that prioritizes consumers is key. When every department, from sales to support, is aligned with the customer’s perspective, it results in a more coherent approach to managing customer interactions. Regular path map conversations and analyses can help to keep customer experience objectives at the forefront of organizational decision-making, ensuring that actions and plans constantly emphasize client welfare.
Identifying and tackling pain points
Customer journey maps help identify pain points in the customer experience. Visualizing the customer’s journey allows businesses to determine where they encounter roadblocks or problems. Whether it’s a complex checkout procedure on a website or a poor response from customer service, identifying these problems is the first step in resolving them and improving the overall consumer experience.
Enhancing the user interface and customer support
Journey maps allow firms to examine their digital interfaces and customer support methods critically. Businesses may make informed adjustments by learning how and why customers use their websites or contact support. It could include changing a web interface to improve usability or training customer service representatives to answer requests more effectively.
Integration of Customer Experience Management Software and Customer Journey Mapping Software
By integrating the data and insights from customer experience management software and journey mapping tools, companies can gain a complete view of the customer experience across channels and touchpoints. This allows for more precise identification of pain points and opportunities.
Here are some more ways that CX management software and customer journey mapping software can be integrated to provide enhanced capabilities:
- Closed-Loop Optimization: Customer journey maps visually represent CX flows, while CX software allows you to monitor metrics. Integrating the two allows for the visualization of underperforming areas of the journey so they can then be optimized within the CX platforms.
- Personalization: By combining behavioral data and journey stage data, companies can segment users and provide tailored content, offers, and experiences to customers. Integrations enable this personalization to be executed via the CX system.
- Automated Mapping: Some integration options include auto-generating visual maps based on CX data to show critical journeys. This saves the manual effort of mapping while providing visualizations to uncover insights.
- Lifecycle Measurement: Integration allows KPIs related to lifetime customer value to be monitored visually via customer journey progressions. This leads to optimizations that maximize retention and loyalty.
Wrapping Up
Understanding consumer behavior and pain points enables your team to build new initiatives to improve conversion rates and customer experience. Also, this collection of platforms includes analytics tools, visual representations of the user experience, automated processes, buyer persona profiles, and impact maps that provide vital information about how your customers are currently engaging with your product.
Ready to take control of your call transfer
experience for better CX outcomes?
Frequently Asked Questions
Customer Journey is the complete sum of experiences that customers go through when interacting with a company and brand. It spans from the initial discovery of a product or service, through the purchasing process, to post-sale support, shaping perceptions and loyalty at each touchpoint along the way.
The 7 steps to map the customer journey include: Research, Define Personas, Identify Touchpoints, Map the Journey, Analyze and Identify Gaps, Implement Improvements, and Monitor and Adjust. Each step contributes to understanding and enhancing the customer’s experience throughout their interaction with a product or service.
The 4 stages of customer journey mapping are Discovery, Consideration, Purchase, and Post-Purchase. These stages represent the key phases that a customer typically goes through during their interaction with a product or service, from initial awareness to after-sales support and engagement.
The 5 key components of a customer journey map are Persona, Touchpoints, Customer Goals, Emotions, and Pain Points. These components help businesses understand their customers’ experiences, preferences, and challenges at various stages of their journey, facilitating the creation of more effective strategies and solutions.
A typical customer journey map can have varying numbers of steps, typically ranging from 5 to 7, depending on the complexity and granularity of the mapping process. The steps generally include research, defining personas, identifying touchpoints, mapping the journey, analyzing gaps, implementing improvements, and monitoring progress.
