# Customer journey mapping: stages, touchpoints and moments of truth Source: https://sarang.pro/customer-journey-mapping/ Author: Sarang | Published: 25 October 2026 Inside a business, every team sees its own slice of the customer. Marketing sees the ad click, the warehouse sees the parcel, support sees the complaint. The customer sees one continuous experience, and judges you on the worst part of it. A customer journey map puts that experience on one page so the whole team can see where it breaks. This guide covers what goes on a journey map, how moments of truth fit in, how to run a mapping session with a small team, and how to turn the map into changes rather than a poster. ## What a journey map is Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g), the user experience research firm, defines it simply in [Journey Mapping 101](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/journey-mapping-101/): "A journey map is a visualization of the process that a person goes through in order to accomplish a goal." In its simplest form, the article says, you compile a series of user actions into a timeline, add their thoughts and emotions to make a narrative, then condense that into a visual. A few terms help. NN/g's article on [omnichannel journeys](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/customer-journeys-omnichannel/) describes the customer journey as "the end-to-end process that a customer goes through in order to complete a task over time". Channels are the routes customers use, such as the website, app, email, phone or a shop. Touchpoints are single interactions along the way: one email, one screen, one conversation with a member of staff. ## What goes on the map NN/g's 101 article lists the parts most maps share: - **Actor:** the person whose journey it is, usually a persona or segment. NN/g advises one point of view per map so the story stays clear. - **Scenario and expectations:** the situation and the goal, such as "replace a broken sofa before a family visit", plus what the person expects to happen. - **Journey phases:** the high-level stages. For an e-commerce purchase NN/g gives discover, try, buy, use and seek support. - **Actions, mindsets and emotions:** what the person does, thinks and asks in each phase, ideally in their own words from research, with emotion drawn as a single line rising and falling across the phases. - **Opportunities, ownership and metrics:** what could be better, who owns each change, and how you will measure it. Pains are the low points on the emotion line and the problems named in the mindset row. They are usually what the team acts on first. ## Moments of truth Not every touchpoint carries equal weight. The idea of moments of truth gives names to the ones that do. Wikipedia's article on [moments of truth in marketing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_of_truth_(marketing)) records that A. G. Lafley, then chief executive of Procter & Gamble, named two in 2005. The first moment of truth is when a shopper first encounters the product and chooses it over others. The second is when they use it and find out whether it lives up to the promise. In 2011 Google added the zero moment of truth, the research people do online before they act on a purchase. On a journey map, mark these moments clearly. They are where a customer decides to continue or leave, and they deserve more attention than routine steps. For a small online business the zero moment is often a search result or a review page you do not control, and the second moment is the unboxing and first use. ## How to run a mapping session NN/g's Kate Kaplan sets out [five steps](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/customer-journey-mapping-process/) for a journey-mapping project. A small team can run a lighter version over two or three weeks. - **Set the aim and gather allies.** Pick one persona and one journey, and bring together people from each team that touches it: marketing, sales, operations, support. Without focus and buy-in, Kaplan warns, the work will not change much. - **Collect what you already know.** Pull support tickets, reviews, survey comments, analytics and sales notes. Ask staff in each role what customers complain about. - **Draft an assumption map.** In a workshop of about two hours, put the phases across a wall and fill in actions, thoughts, emotions and touchpoints as the team believes them to be. Mark each sticky note that is a guess. - **Test it with customers.** Interview or observe real customers going through the journey. NN/g says a small sample of six to eight participants is enough to start when budget is limited. - **Revise and tell the story.** Update the map with what you learned, highlight the moments of truth, pains and high points, and share it in a second workshop where the team agrees what to change. NN/g also notes that making the map together builds a shared picture across the team. That shared picture is often worth as much as the finished document. ## An example (illustration only) A small online furniture retailer maps the journey of a first-time sofa buyer. After the assumption workshop and seven customer interviews, the core of the map looks like this: PhaseTouchpointsCustomer thinkingEmotionOpportunity DiscoverSearch ads, review sites, social posts"Will it fit through my door?"CuriousShow dimensions and doorway guidance on every product card CompareProduct pages, fabric swatch request"Is the colour the same in real life?"UncertainFaster swatch delivery; real-light photos BuyCheckout, confirmation email"When will it actually arrive?"AnxiousDelivery date shown before payment Wait and receiveDispatch emails, delivery call"Nobody has told me a time slot."Low pointProactive slot booking two days ahead Use and supportAssembly, care guide, support chat"Is this mark covered by the guarantee?"MixedClear care card in the box; photo-based claims The team marks review sites as the zero moment of truth, the product page as the first moment, and delivery day as the second. The lowest point is waiting for a delivery slot, which no single team owned. Operations takes ownership, with the number of "where is my order" contacts as the measure. ## Turning the map into change - List every opportunity on the map and give each an owner, as NN/g's ownership row suggests. - Rank them by how close they sit to a moment of truth and how often the pain appears in research. - Choose two or three to fix in the next quarter, each with one metric. - Revisit the map when the fixes are live, and redraw the parts that changed. ## Common mistakes - **Mapping from inside the building only.** An assumption map is a starting point. Without customer research it records what the team believes. - **Trying to map every customer at once.** Several personas on one map blur the story. Make one map per actor and scenario. - **Listing touchpoints without emotions.** The emotion line shows where people give up. A list of channels does not. - **Ending at the purchase.** Delivery, first use and support are where repeat business is won or lost. - **Leaving opportunities unowned.** A pain that crosses teams stays unfixed until someone is named. - **Polishing before agreeing.** A tidy design can wait. NN/g notes that agreement on the content matters more than what you call the map. ## When to use journey mapping Map a journey when customers drop out at a stage and nobody knows why, when complaints cross several teams, before redesigning a website or service, or when a new team needs to understand the customer quickly. Keep the scope to one journey that matters commercially. It is less useful for a single screen or a narrow usability problem, where direct usability testing is faster. It also needs follow-through. A map that is not tied to owners and measures tends to end up as a wall decoration.