You ever notice how everyone talks about the “customer journey” like it’s this magical, well-orchestrated process that just naturally happens when a business puts some nice words on their website? Yeah, that’s not how it works.
I used to think customer journey marketing was just about getting people from point A to point B as efficiently as possible. But after years of seeing potential customers slip away, I’ve realized it’s way more complicated. The customer journey isn’t a straight road. It’s a maze full of distractions, second-guessing, and a whole lot of human unpredictability.
I’ve been thinking a lot about customer journey marketing, but not the eCommerce version where you optimize checkout flows and upsell widgets. I mean the kind that applies to businesses with longer, more complex sales cycles. You know, the ones where people actually have to think before they buy.
Mapping out a customer journey isn’t just some marketing exercise that makes teams feel productive. It’s a way to figure out where you’re losing people, where you’re frustrating them, and where you actually have a shot at keeping them engaged.
The Problem with Most Customer Journey Maps
I have found that most customer journey maps are complete fiction. They’re based on some idealized version of how we want people to behave, not how they actually behave. They follow a clean Awareness → Consideration → Decision path, as if customers wake up one day and neatly follow each step without hesitation.
But in reality, people get distracted. They loop back, forget about you, reconsider, compare you to competitors, and sometimes disappear for reasons that have nothing to do with your business. Maybe they lost budget approval. Maybe they got pulled into another project. Maybe they just decided it wasn’t a priority anymore.
Yet, businesses keep creating these rigid journey maps that assume customers move in a straight line. If your customer journey map doesn’t account for real-world messiness, it’s just a pretty graphic with no real value.
Start Mapping for Reality
Instead of thinking about your customer journey like a well-organized funnel, think of it like troubleshooting a frustrating user experience. The goal isn’t to move people through a perfect sequence. It’s to eliminate friction.
Here’s what to look for:
- Where do people drop off? Customers don’t always leave right before the “decision” stage. Some of them ghost way earlier.
- What’s annoying them? Maybe your messaging is confusing, your process is too complicated, or your follow-ups feel like spam.
- Are you missing opportunities? If someone expresses interest and you just assume they’ll “come back when they’re ready,” you might never hear from them again.
The best journey maps diagnose these pain points rather than trying to force customers into an artificial sequence.
A Better Way to Map the Customer Journey
Forget the typical five-step funnel. Try this instead:
1. Start with Real Conversations
No more generic surveys where people give the answers they think you want to hear. Instead, talk to real customers—those who bought, those who almost bought, and those who bailed early. Ask them:
- How did you first hear about us?
- What made you hesitate?
- What almost made you say no?
- What finally convinced you to buy?
- What do you wish had been different?
- Have you recommended us to anyone? Why or why not?
The responses might surprise you. Customers don’t always buy because of logical reasons. Sometimes it’s a gut feeling, a single sentence on your website, or the way someone from your team followed up at just the right time.
2. Identify the “That’s Annoying” Moments
Every customer journey has friction points. The biggest offenders tend to be:
- Confusing Messaging: If people can’t immediately understand what you do, they’re gone.
- Too Many Steps: A complex process makes people rethink whether it’s worth the effort.
- Poor Follow-Up: If they express interest and hear nothing, they’ll assume you don’t care.
- Unclear Value: If they can’t tell why you’re better than the competition, they’ll assume you aren’t.
- Too Much Jargon: Nobody wants to read something that sounds like it was written for an internal meeting.
- Inconsistent Touchpoints: If your social media, website, and sales team aren’t aligned, customers get confused.
Fix these before you start worrying about optimizing conversion rates. A smooth, intuitive experience is far more valuable than a perfectly crafted sales funnel.
3. Test, Break, and Rebuild
A customer journey map shouldn’t be something you create once and never update. It should evolve based on what’s actually happening.
- Change your messaging and see if engagement improves.
- Test different email sequences to see what keeps people interested.
- Adjust your follow-up timing—some people need space, while others need reminders.
- Identify where automation helps and where it makes you sound robotic.
- Look for patterns in lost deals. Do most people hesitate for the same reasons?
Every adjustment should be based on actual behavior, not just marketing “best practices.” You have to be willing to test, refine, and sometimes throw out ideas that simply don’t work.
The Big Takeaway
If you take away one thing from this, let it be this: customer journey marketing isn’t about creating the perfect map. It’s about eliminating friction.
Forget the idealized customer path. Focus on the one people actually take, even if it’s messy. Identify the frustrating moments and fix them. The smoother and more natural the experience, the better your chances of turning interest into action.
And if you’re still relying on a generic Awareness → Consideration → Decision funnel without questioning if it reflects how your customers actually behave, it’s time to rethink your approach. Customer journey marketing isn’t about following a formula. It’s about understanding people and making their experience as seamless as possible.
