P/CJM involves the service provider meeting with the customer and discussing their experiences, recording them on the CJM template. The implementation of any suggested improvements may then be considered by the service provider. As the process records customer thoughts and feelings it is best done as soon as possible after their interaction with your service.

To map a customer journey using the Customer Experience Map template, fill it in with the customer. Record the journey and customer type and then complete all the sections.

Add information…

• Key journey steps - record each part of the journey, i.e. Describe each step. They should be in chronological order with between 6 – 10 steps.

• Moments of truth are key points in the journey where customers may pause and evaluate the experience, or make a crucial decision. Mark these with an X.

• Actions, feelings and thoughts should be recorded for each step, i.e. What the customer does and how they think and feel. Positive or negative emotions should be recorded.

• Touch points may occur at any point in the journey and are when customer has some sort of interaction with the staff or service, e.g. Face-to-face or by phone. It is an opportunity to explain things to the customer and improve the experience.

• Improvements. Record customer ideas that would improve the experience of each step. You may then discuss these with your team to consider implementation.

You will need to allow at least half an hour to fill in the template together with the customer.

An example to demonstrate how CJM may be applied is below, involving a scenario of someone going to a job interview and how their journey was mapped.

Example scenario: attending a job interview
Your letter tells you to go to the Human Resources office for 9am. When you enter the building at 8.30am there is a sign telling you HR is on the 3rd floor, but the lifts are behind a glass door with a security pass lock on it. There are no reception staff until 8.55am when the receptionist lets you in.

You reach the HR office at 9.03am, breathless and apologetic. It is raining heavily outside and you try to keep your wet coat and umbrella off your suit and papers while providing the receptionist with your documents.

The receptionist explains the person doing the tours isn’t in yet, but you will receive one after the interview. You sit in a waiting room and review your notes for 25mins. You are then ushered into the interview room where there are four people. The chair introduces himself, and starts to ask questions. Half way through, you ask a question and the chair tells you that you can ask all your questions at the end.

After the interview you go out to the waiting room again. The receptionist isn’t there. After 10mins you leave.

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. (2012). Intensive Care and Nursing Development Unit: Annual Report 2010-11. Retrieved 28 April 2014 ICU-Annual-Report-2010-11.pdf 

• The Chelsea and Westminster Intensive Care Unit (ICU) undertook customer journey mapping to better understand what it is like to be a patient or relative using the intensive care service. As the project element of a reflective learning programme improvements to an NHS Library Outreach Service were identified using customer journey mapping.

Oxford Strategic Marketing. (2008). Customer journey mapping: Guide for practitioners. Retrieved 28 April 2014 nationalarchives.gov.uk: cabinetoffice.gov.uk - journey_mapping1.pdf

• A guide demonstrating the use and value of journey mapping, including when and how to use it.