How to build a seamless customer journey to deliver memorable experiences

The customer journey represents all the customer's actions and interactions with your company, at different stages, from consideration to purchase, through to recommendation of the product or service.

It can be an in-store customer journey, a digital customer journey or a combination of the two (research on the internet then purchase in a physical shop). It is a broader concept than the " purchase path ", as it takes into account the "pre-purchase" and "post-purchase" dimensions and focuses on the customer experience as a whole.

But with the development of the internet and digital uses, the customer journey is richer, but also more complex to follow. You need to be present online and offline, multiplying the points of contact, transforming the country lane into a motorway network, the traditional customer journey into an omnichannel customer journey.

Why study it and what are the key stages in the customer journey? Find out the answers in this article, co-written with Gabriel Dabi-Schwebel, Chairman and Founder of 1min30.

See all software Customer relationship management

What is the customer journey? Definition

The customer journey is quite simply the path followed by a consumer from the moment they discover a need... to the moment they recommend your brand to friends and family (the ultimate goal!). This lifecycle can start on social networks, continue on a website, go through an exchange with customer service and end up in a shop or any other physical point of sale. Or just the opposite!

👉 The customer journey is rarely linear; it is very often unpredictable and always rich in interactions, contacts and data.

A complete customer journey encompasses several key stages, which we'll come back to later in this article:

1. gathering information
2. comparison
3. purchasing
4. receiving the product or service
5. evaluation,
6. after-sales (or loyalty)
7. and recommendation.

These are all contact points where the company's reputation and the buyer's trust are at stake. The customer journey is not (just) a matter of marketing strategy, but above all an essential lever for improving customer relations and strengthening your loyalty strategy, across all channels, both online and physical.

Why study the customer journey? What's at stake?

To understand your customers' deepest needs

Knowing exactly how your customers feel at each stage of the customer journey is vital for any business today! Indeed, the customer experience is almost as important as the quality and use of a product or service itself.

💡 A few figures to illustrate this:

• According to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2025, 73% of consumers believe that a positive customer experience throughout the journey is the main factor in their purchasing decision.
• Salesforce's State of the Connected Customer study shows that 88% are more likely to buy if their user experience has been good.
• Conversely, one wrong move and customers are on the run! The study published by Emplifi, The state of consumer - brand social engagement in 2025, confirms this: 70% of consumers say they would abandon a brand after just two bad interactions. And for around a quarter of them, the first negative experience would be directly fatal.

Moral: studying a company's customer journey means identifying critical moments, improving every point of contact and never letting a prospect get lost along the way. We need to turn every opportunity into concrete action.

To propose a tailor-made offer and trigger a purchase

By analysing :

• the different phases the customer goes through
• the channels used, online and offline,
• breaking points and (decisive) moments of truth ,
• their motivations and behaviour;

you will know how to be present in the right place at the right time to propose your offer and guide them towards their purchasing decision.

To be in line with your inbound marketing strategy

Studying the customer journey therefore contributes to the inbound marketing strategy, , which focuses on the consumer and aims to :

• target the right people ;
• attract them to the company :
  • by offering them high-quality content
  • that responds to real-life issues,
  • at the right time, depending on the stage in the customer journey;
• offer them a good customer experience;
• build customer loyalty ;

and therefore :

• optimise marketing and communication investments,
• attract and convert more customers,
• Identify growth drivers and the strengths and weaknesses of the brand or product at each stage of the customer journey;
• continuously improve the product offering and the product and/or service catalogue.

A word from the expert

We are witnessing a major transformation in the customer journey, driven by the constant evolution of technologies and consumer expectations. A key trend is the centralisation and strategic use of data. Data is becoming the fuel that powers memorable experiences.

Centralising data in CRM is crucial. It enables customer interactions from a variety of channels to be consolidated, providing a holistic view. It is from this centralisation that the possibility of advanced personalisation is born. Interconnecting all the tools with a CRM at the heart of the ecosystem is the key to collecting data consistently and in real time.

This approach allows us to be ever more precise in our understanding of customers' individual needs. Using this data, we can personalise our marketing actions, anticipate expectations and offer customer experiences that go beyond simple transactions. In this way, the centralisation of data, combined with intelligent interconnection, becomes the foundation for effective marketing actions and smooth, memorable customer journeys.

Gabriel Dabi-Schwebel,

The 4 stages of the customer journey

1 - Awareness and information gathering

This stage includes :

• identifying the need,
• defining priority criteria,
• finding generic information about a product.

🎯 This is when you need to :

• identify their problem or buying motivation,
• offer them informative content about the product or service they need.

2 - Considering and comparing offers

This is also known as evaluating offers. The prospect goes to the shop to try it out, or does more in-depth research on the internet to compare offers and the competition on different criteria:

• product characteristics
• ancillary services (guarantees, delivery, etc.),
• price,
• customer experience, thanks to reviews or past experience with certain brands).

🎯 This is the time for the brand to highlight all its assets. Don't hesitate to use "drive to store" or "click and collect" techniques to create a bond with your customers and show them your expertise.

95% of people intending to buy do research.

« Le parcours d’achat des Français en 5 étapes clés » — IFOP pour Wincor Nixdorf

Most of the time, this research is done on the internet, before visiting the shop. An effective digital strategy, i.e. good natural referencing and an appropriate SEO strategy, as well as an ergonomic, well-constructed website, are now essential.

3 - Decision-making

This involves :

• the purchase and in-store collection,
• ordering online and receiving the goods.

🎯 Even if the sale is completed, it remains a fully-fledged customer experience that should not be neglected:

• physical welcome
• atmosphere in the shop,
• short checkout times,
• speed of delivery,
• availability in shop,
• customer service, etc.

4 - Reception

This is the first physical contact with the product or service. Careful packaging? 📦 Fast delivery? Tutorial on how to use the product? This stage triggers the first impressions, good or bad, that will influence the entire customer experience:

• Adherence to delivery times

• Delivery or collection as expected

• Careful packaging, product in good condition

• Ease of use

• Clear welcome materials (instructions, email, interface).

Reception is a fragile moment when the promise must become reality. The ideal moment to provoke a "wow" effect. ✨

5 - Evaluation

Once the product or service has been used: it's time for the verdict! Evaluation, whether conscious or not, compares expectations and reality:

• Judgement on perceived quality

• Functionality of the product or effectiveness of the service

• Ease of use

• General feeling about the customer experience

• Possible trigger for a return, an opinion or a complaint.

👉 This phase provides valuable data for analysing the experience and better responding to future needs. This is the moment when people decide whether or not to come back!

6 - After-sales

This involves doing everything possible to guarantee customer satisfaction, future purchases and the recommendation of your brand to other potential customers, in particular through :

• handling after-sales requests
• technical support
• personalised promotional offers.

🎯 This is the ideal time to carry out a satisfaction survey, for example, to gather customer feedback, their return on experience throughout the customer journey.

☝️ The customer journey can also be broken down into 10 more specific stages, as suggested by Social Business:

1. raising awareness
2. research
3. selection
4. acquisition
5. discovery,
6. use,
7. maintenance,
8. loyalty,
9. recommendation,
10. engagement.

7 - Post-purchase commitment

Customer relations don't end with the purchase! The aim of this phase is to maintain an active link with the customer through appropriate channels in order to build loyalty and enhance the customer experience. For example, by

• Sending follow-up emails or useful content,

• suggestions for additional services or improvements,

• an invitation to join a community (on social networks, in a club, for example),

• personalised messages or exclusive offers,

• and, of course, the availability of customer service to support the user.

The aim? To create a seamless experience, reinforce trust and avoid the "thank you, goodbye" effect. Active customer service at this stage can make all the difference and turn a customer into a true ambassador.

8 - Recommendation

When everything has gone well, the customer becomes your brand's best salesperson! This phase adds value to your company through the voice of someone recounting an experience, via an online review, arecommendation on social networks or in person,participation in a referral programme, or even a repeat purchase followed by positive word-of-mouth.

This recommendation is a reward for you, but also a powerful acquisition lever. That's why it should be encouraged. 🔥

Visualise the customer journey with mapping

What is customer journey mapping?

To visualise the customer journey and summarise all the information collected, one recommended method is customer journey mapping (or customer journey modelling).

Customer journey mapping is the result of answering these questions:

• What path(s) did your customer take to get to you?
• What user experience did this produce?

Customer journey mapping provides a visual representation of all the points of contact your customers have with your company and your product, at the different stages of their customer 'life', across all channels.

As a collaborative approach, it provides a common vision and objectives for all the company's stakeholders.

If you have a wide variety of customer profiles, you can choose to focus on :

• its main typical customer (persona), the one who buys most of its product or service,
• all its customer types: it then needs to create a typical customer journey for each of these profiles.

What data should be used?

Customer mapping is based on data from :

• analysis of the browsing patterns on your website (most frequently visited product pages, for example),
• customer relations monitoring and marketing campaigns,
• satisfaction questionnaires
• in-store mystery visits,
• statistical studies, etc.

It is possible to focus on :

• certain points of contact, those that have the greatest impact or generate the most frustration (after-sales service, for example);
• certain stages of the customer journey, the most sensitive, in particular customer onboarding, i.e. helping new customers to use the product;
• typical, circumstantial paths, such as the "termination path" for a telecommunications company.

A word from the expert

Acquisition Strategy Design is a methodology we have developed to maximise the effectiveness of customer acquisition. It is based on an in-depth understanding of your target audience and the alignment of your marketing, sales and service teams.

The first step is to put yourself in your customer's shoes by asking the right questions. The Acquisition Canvas guides you through this stage, allowing you to detail your customer's buying journey so you understand their path and the steps they need to take to purchase. The second stage consists of formalising the buying journey in detail, with the key stages and actions taken by the customer.

To build the buying journey, we need to focus on 3 levels:

• the customer's stages of maturity
• the customer's actions
• and their emotional experience throughout the journey.

Then, using the acquisition matrix, you design and list the acquisition actions carried out by your company in relation to the customer's actions.

Finally, you build your Acquisition Plan by prioritising your investments and aligning your marketing, communication and sales teams on the actions to be taken.

Gabriel Dabi-Schwebel,

Example of a customer journey and diagram

Mapping like this takes into account :

• points of contact with different company departments (or touchpoints),
• points of sale (website, shop, etc.),
• communication channels (telephone, chatbots, mobile applications, social networks, etc.),
• customer feelings (emotional curve).

[Bonus] Tips and tools for creating a customer journey

Tips for modelling the customer journey

• Use quantifiable, usable data.
• Involve all teams in a cross-functional way to get a 360° view.
• Break down the stages of the customer journey exhaustively to target the actions to be implemented.
• Prioritise your customer relations objectives.
• Draw up relationship scenarios according to the reasons for contact and the different contact points.
• Define satisfaction measurement indicators.
• Use appropriate CRM or marketing software.

Examples of tools for optimising the customer journey

• A Data Management Platform (DMP) such as Mapp Acquire, to collect, reconcile and unify omnichannel customer data for personalised marketing actions, taking into account the customer journey.
  
  
• A CRM suite such as Salesforce's, including :
• Salesforce Marketing Cloud, to engage customers at every point of contact by building personalised journeys (using the Journey Builder module) across different channels (email, mobile, advertising, social networks, etc.);
• Salesforce Service Cloud, to provide omnichannel customer support and data centralisation, as well as a better understanding of the customer journey, obstacles encountered and customer satisfaction criteria.

• A multi-channel customer engagement platform such as Twilio Flex, to :
  • optimise your customer relations across the various channels
  • personalise each stage of the customer journey
  • automate certain interactions using a chatbot, for example.

Free template for a customer satisfaction questionnaire

How do you know whether your customer journey is smooth, consistent and enjoyable... or just long and frustrating? Sometimes you just need to ask the right questions. A well thought-out customer satisfaction questionnaire helps you to collect valuable data at every stage of the customer journey: whether in-store, on your website, after a purchase or following an interaction with customer service.

It's a simple tool to deploy, but formidably effective, to include in any project aimed at analysing, improving and personalising your customer relations strategy.

❓ Here are some examples of the different questions to include in your satisfaction survey:

• What was your first point of contact with our brand?

• Was the necessary information easy to find?

• How would you rate the quality of the customer experience on our website?

• Did the product or service delivered meet your initial expectations?

• Would you recommend our company to others?

• What could we do to improve your shopping experience?

✅ A few tips to help you make the most of the survey:

• Remember to adapt the questions according to the type of customer profile and behavioural variables (new, regular, B2B, B2C, etc.).

• Use clear formats: stars, scales or free feedback.

• Don't forget to send out the questionnaire just after a key phase in the customer journey, to capture immediate impressions.

• You can also offer an express version when the order is confirmed.

What happens next? Take the time to analyse the responses. This will enable you to identify areas for improvement, refine your marketing strategy and optimise each phase of the customer journey. Each response should lead to a concrete action, otherwise what's the point?

How do you measure customer journey performance?

Steering a customer journey is not a matter of instinct. If it is to be truly effective, it must be based on concrete data. Your marketing strategy must meet clear objectives. And for that, there's nothing like well-chosen performance indicators. By monitoring these KPIs throughout the customer lifecycle, you can identify :

• which contact points are working
• the stages in the customer journey that are causing problems
• and the times when customers drop out.

In short, everything you need to carry out a relevant analysis.

Awareness and commitment

This is the first stage in the customer journey. This is where you try to attract attention and create a point of contact with a consumer who is still unknown to you. To do this, you need to be present in the right places, activate the right communication channels and pick up the first signals of engagement.

Here's the data you need to track for this phase:

• Number of visitors to your website or in-store.

• Time spent on key pages.

• Click-through rate on your digital content.

• Interaction on social networks.

• Responses to campaigns, e-mails and publications.

All this information enables you to map the customer journey from the outset. And to test, little by little, what really catches the eye, arouses desire or triggers interaction. This is the time to lay the first building blocks of your communication. 🧱

Conversion rate

This stage of the customer journey is crucial: it's here that we check whether your strategy really leads to acts of purchase. And above all, whether your efforts on the various communication channels are bearing fruit. To do this, certain indicators are essential.

Keep a close eye on :

• Conversion rate by communication channel.

• Number of sales by customer profile.

• Detailed analysis of customer journeys leading to conversion.

• Performance of your sales tunnels.

Good analysis enables targeted optimisation of this key phase. By combining customer journey mapping and the use of an appropriate tool, you can improve your results... and your understanding of customer behaviour.

Acquisition

At this stage of the customer journey, the aim is to move from interest to commitment. To put it simply: to capture attention and then convert a simple visitor into a qualified prospect. This is one of the most important levers for growing your business, provided you monitor the right indicators.

Here's what you need to look at:

• Number of leads generated per channel.

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC).

• Rate of completion of forms or registrations.

• Performance by customer profile.

Each channel attracts a different customer profile, with specific behaviours and needs. Hence the importance of clearly identifying the most effective sources, and adjusting your approach according to user behaviour.

Satisfaction and loyalty

The customer relationship does not end with the purchase: it is nurtured by loyalty, retention and recommendation. So keep a close eye on

• the results of your customer satisfaction questionnaire

• the number of positive reviews left online,

• participation in a sponsorship programme,

• the retention rate and frequency of repurchases,

• the level of satisfaction measured by the NPS.

These indicators reflect the quality of the customer experience and help to deliver a high-value, personalised experience.

Remember: the more reliable your indicators are, the more you can provide a relevant experience, adapt your content and offer a truly customer-centric experience. ✅ To help you do this, think about journey mapping, an effective method for mapping the customer journey, visualising each point of contact, and adjusting your marketing strategy in real time.

See all software Customer relationship management

A (customer) obstacle course?

You know your product inside out, but how well do you know your customer? Do you know where they come from and where they want to go? Why and how did they get to you? Why and at what point did they abandon their decision to buy?

By analysing, modelling and adapting the customer journey over time and as technology evolves, we can improve the customer experience.

Combine your inbound marketing strategy with intelligent software, and you'll also be able to address each and every one of your customers, thanks to detailed, real-time analysis and functions that allow you to personalise and automate marketing actions.

What methods and tools have you chosen to find out about your customers and build up their loyalty?