Customer Journey: Steps a customer takes before buying

Mapping the Customer Journey

Take a concrete case: imagine an online garden centre in Cork wants to better understand how its customers go from first hearing about the shop to finally purchasing plants or tools. The team starts by mapping their journey, charting each interaction point along the way—such as seeing a paid ad, browsing the website, reading reviews, and receiving a follow-up email. These steps are lined up visually, like stations on a train line, giving a clear overview of how people move from curiosity to putting an item in their basket.

Carefully mapping this path reveals key moments where people drop off, hesitate, or look for extra information. Common pitfalls include assuming everyone follows a direct route or missing out on touchpoints like social media mentions. It’s important to consider that some journeys may loop back or stall, especially if customers need reassurance or more details to buy. By outlining each phase, businesses can see where to smooth friction or add value.

• Identify every customer touchpoint, not just the obvious ones
• Use clear visuals like flowcharts or diagrams for mapping
• Interview real customers to validate the journey steps
• Watch for areas where customers often pause or abandon
• Update the journey map regularly as behaviours change
• Align this map with your marketing and sales strategies

Identifying Key Touchpoints and Milestones

Look at the numbers: a growing food delivery business tracks 7,200 website visits each month. They notice that key touchpoints—such as viewing the menu, adding items to the basket, and requesting delivery times—are where most customers spend the bulk of their time. Analysing these moments uncovers that 60% of users drop off after the basket stage, often due to unclear delivery fees. Recognising this, the business refines its checkout page to display fees upfront, which quickly leads to a lower abandonment rate.

Missing or underestimating these milestones puts marketing spend at risk. If you focus heavily on homepage banners but overlook follow-up emails or live chat support, you might fail to capture customers who are moments away from purchasing. Identifying customer journey highlights isn’t just about observing; it means acting on points where customers hesitate. Simple tweaks, like faster support responses or instant quotes, often boost engagement and conversions where it matters most.

• Homepage visits and product searches signal initial curiosity
• Email sign-ups and newsletter opens reflect growing interest
• Viewing pricing or requesting a quote shows intention
• Adding products to a basket or booking a demo signals commitment
• Checkout process or payment completion marks the final milestone
• Support queries before buying may reveal doubts or last barriers
• Customer feedback after purchase closes the loop for future improvements

Common Challenges and Pitfalls

Businesses often assume they have a clear view of their customers’ decision-making, but blind spots and gaps appear quickly. Tracking the full journey is frequently hampered by disconnected systems or teams focusing only on their own channel. For example, marketing may measure website visits but miss follow-up emails, while sales see only converted leads. This siloed approach results in missed signals and an incomplete understanding of customer behaviour.

Even when journey data exists, making sense of it can prove tricky. Companies may collect vast amounts of touchpoint information—such as 9,600 contact centre queries in one month via phone, web, and email—but struggle to identify useful patterns. Without structured analysis, efforts to improve can lack direction and fail to deliver results that matter to real customers.

Typical challenges and pitfalls include:

• Tracking only digital or only offline touchpoints, not both
• Failing to join up analytics across different departments and platforms
• Overcomplicating data collection instead of focusing on meaningful metrics
• Relying on assumptions about customer actions without direct feedback
• Neglecting post-purchase phases such as support or returns
• Struggling to prioritise improvement projects that deliver visible change

Practical Example of a Customer Journey

Run the maths on this: imagine a local online florist that sees around 9,600 monthly website visits (using the formula: 1200 x (4 + 4)). A potential customer starts with a Google search looking for next-day flower delivery for a birthday. After clicking on a search result, they browse popular bouquets, read customer testimonials, and compare prices. They sign up for the newsletter to get a 10% discount code, which arrives in their inbox within minutes. Two days later, a reminder email prompts them to return, where they complete the purchase.

This journey highlights key touchpoints: organic search, website content, email marketing, and conversion. Risks at each stage include high bounce rates if the website is slow to load, or the discount code email lands in the spam folder. To optimise, regularly review user experience and monitor email deliverability. Ensuring seamless touchpoints keeps customers engaged and moving towards purchase.