What are the key steps to creating a customer journey map for subscription-based services?

1 Define your scope and objectives

Before you start mapping, you need to clarify the scope and objectives of your project. What is the purpose of your map? Who is your target audience? What is the time frame and the level of detail you want to cover? How will you measure the success of your map? Having a clear vision and scope will help you focus your research and analysis, and align your team and stakeholders.

2 Research your customers and segments

To create a customer journey map, you need to have a deep understanding of your customers and their segments. You can use various methods to collect and analyze data, such as surveys, interviews, analytics, feedback, personas, and segmentation models. You want to gather information about their demographics, behaviors, preferences, motivations, challenges, and expectations. You also want to identify the different segments of your customers, based on their subscription plans, usage patterns, loyalty levels, or other criteria.

3 Map out the stages and touchpoints

Next, you need to map out the stages and touchpoints of your customer journey. The stages are the main phases that your customers go through when they use your service, such as awareness, consideration, purchase, onboarding, usage, renewal, and advocacy. The touchpoints are the specific interactions that your customers have with your service at each stage, such as visiting your website, signing up for a trial, receiving an email, using a feature, contacting support, or leaving a review. You can use a timeline or a matrix to visualize the stages and touchpoints.

4 Add the customer actions, emotions, and pain points

Once you have the stages and touchpoints, you need to add the customer actions, emotions, and pain points. The actions are what your customers do at each touchpoint, such as clicking a button, filling a form, or watching a video. The emotions are how your customers feel at each touchpoint, such as happy, curious, frustrated, or satisfied. The pain points are the problems or issues that your customers face at each touchpoint, such as confusion, delay, error, or dissatisfaction. You can use icons, colors, or words to represent the actions, emotions, and pain points.

5 Identify the gaps and opportunities

The final step is to identify the gaps and opportunities for improvement. The gaps are the discrepancies between what your customers expect and what they experience at each touchpoint. The opportunities are the potential solutions or enhancements that you can implement to close the gaps and improve the customer experience. You can use a SWOT analysis or a prioritization matrix to evaluate the gaps and opportunities, and create an action plan to address them.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?