Why the customer journey is so critical to modern marketers

The customer journey may seem very simple — you provide a service or offer a product and your customers buy it. 
However, when you take a closer look, you’ll see how complex the customer journey has become.
A Customer Journey MapA customer journey map is a visual story of how your customers interact with your brand on all of your touchpoints. Customers interact with brands via email, social media, live chat, etc. Here’s an example:
A millennial first interacts with your brand via social media. At that point, they look at your website on their smartphone. Then lastly, they purchase your product or service on a laptop or desktop computer.
When you have a visual representation of the customer journey, you are less likely to have customers slip through the cracks.
The Benefits of Creating a Customer Journey Map
A customer journey map gives you a strategic approach to understanding the expectations of your customers. When you create a customer journey map, you enhance the customer experience.
Personalization is critical to the modern customer experience. The majority of consumers flat out declare they are more likely to go with a brand when they feel like that brand is treating them like a human (not a number).
When you create a customer journey map, you can get a clear idea of what a customer expects from your brand. Then you can compare that to what a customer gets. You can also get a better idea of the variance in buyer personas as they proceed from prospect to conversion by way of the buying funnel.
Another benefit is that you create a methodical sequence of the journey of your customer. However, the greatest benefit is simply getting to know your customers better.

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