Where in the buying cycle are you losing the most customers? Which call to action buttons are most effective at getting visitors to click? Answers to questions like these are invaluable for a business that operates online.

Sure, when you build a website the customer experience should be the focus of the development process, but even after the site is up and running you want to keep a finger on the pulse of customer behavior.

Understanding the customer journey can provide valuable information which can be used to streamline your website and ultimately increase your profits.

The importance of knowing your customers' journey

When talking about the customer journey, we are referring to the experience a user has when they interact with your online assets.

It begins with a customer's first awareness of your brand online and cycles through them researching more, shopping around, and eventually making a purchase. It doesn't end there, however, the journey continues on in creating a loyal repeat buyer who advocates for your brand. This could include simply tracking the visitor behavior on your website, or tracking all customer interactions over several channels such as your website, email marketing, and social media.

By tracking behavior in different areas you can build what is known as a customer journey map, which like any kind of map, can help you plan where to go.

As a business owner, having a customer journey map gives you insight into the different types of buyers that are interacting with your company online and how they are doing so. It can tell you where traffic is coming from, provide a picture of how users move through the different processes on the site, show places where users are getting lost, and help to identify ways that the website or app can be improved.

By doing this, you are putting the actual customer at the center of the design process. You consider their goals, their reasons for visiting the site, and whether you are meeting their needs.

How to learn about the customer journey

The best way to learn about the customer journey is through a process called "customer journey mapping". With journey mapping, you will use an array of tools and techniques to gather information about the customers and their interactions with your company's online presence.

Depending on your goals, you could build a customer journey map that covers all users, or you can break them down into different groups of customers that may come to the site for different reasons such as the researchers, the browsers, and the buyers.

Tools to track the customer journey on your website

To gather the information you need for the customer journey map, you are going to need to employ the use of some analytical tools. Luckily, there are resources available online that have proved their value. Two great options are Google Analytics and Crazy Egg.

Google Analytics is a good place for most businesses to start. This is a free tool and it can provide information on factors like where traffic is coming from and which links are being used on the site.

Crazy Egg is another valuable tool that can provide information about customer interactions. Among other things, it can show which pages are getting the most attention and the different areas of pages users are viewing the most.

Beyond the tools that will measure the ways that customers interact, you can get information by listening to what the user has to say. This can be done by performing surveys on the site, providing a live chat feature, giving the customer the option to leave email feedback, and by monitoring social media activity related to your website. Once you gather this data, using a customer journey builder can help turn insights into actionable, personalized experiences across different touchpoints.

Optimizing your design and navigation for customers

Understanding the customer journey enables businesses to make improvements. It is similar to designing a bricks-and-mortar store to get more sales; you study where customers come in and go most often and then put your top selling items in the most accessible locations, get organized, and make it easy to check out.

Once you understand what is working well and what is causing problems, you can make adjustments. The information is crucial to guidiing your web designer and developer, and helps launch your web design brief on sites such as DesignCrowd.

As an example, maybe you find out that some customers are having trouble navigating their way through the purchase process and are clicking away on the second page of your form. You see the trend and replace the 3-page checkout process with a 1-page form. Then you watch your analytics and see the results. If more customers begin completing the form, you have streamlined the process.

With a website or an app, the customer experience is a determining factor of success. Even if you spend money on marketing to get good traffic, the customer will be lost if they encounter potholes on their journey.

By understanding the journey your customers are taking with your company, you can gain an understanding of the strategies that are working the best to drive traffic to your site and how to ensure a smooth path to conversions.

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Written by Jessica Walrack on Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Jessica Walrack is a professional freelance writer with a background in sales and marketing. After 7 years in the corporate world, she stepped into the online sphere and has now been freelancing for 4 years. She specializes in helping businesses to create a stellar online experience for their audience in order to build industry authority and increase profitability. In her spare time, Jessica enjoys traveling all over the world with her family.