Customer Journey - what is it and how to use it wisely?
For business
18 June 2025
The financial success of a company depends on a number of factors, among which the customer's buying process is an important one. To increase profits, it is worth knowing what the Customer Journey is. How do you implement this strategy in your company and what other benefits does it bring?
Customer Journey, or customer path - what is it?
"Customer Journey" is a concept translated into Polish as "customer journey" or "customer path". Its analysis consists of examining the so-called points of contact between the consumer and the brand. The first of these is the encounter itself, the next is the purchase decision and its implementation, and the last is the after-sales service. The various stages of the customer's interaction with the company serve to optimise the sales process and thus increase conversions.
Nowadays, the use of Customer Journey analysis has become so important that specialised companies are dealing with it. Strategies that improve the consumer path significantly increase a brand's competitiveness and are an excellent complement to other activities designed to multiply revenues. After all, it is important to remember that even the best pricing, positioning and marketing are not enough to first convince the customer and then keep him or her interested in the company's offer for longer. 
Stages of the Customer Journey - from awareness to sales
The Customer Journey consists of three stages where you analyse the customer's needs and behaviour before, during and after the sales process. To begin with, you need to find out how the consumer found out about the product or service and where to get it. The next phase is to find out how he or she contacted the company, i.e. how he or she sought opinions about it (e.g. from other people, from comments on social media, from articles in various types of media, etc.).
Then you move on to the second stage, which is the verification of the purchase itself. It is necessary to find out which customers (personae) have completed the transaction and which have abandoned it. On the basis of surveys, it is also possible to find out the consumer's opinion on the subject. The last step is to gather information about the buyer's further relationship with the company, i.e. to find out whether there has been a repeat purchase. For this to happen, the company should take care by fuelling the customer's interest.
Creating personas through Customer Journey - what is it and how do you go about it?
Building a customer path map should start with the creation of a persona, i.e. a silhouette of an exemplary consumer. Importantly, the creation of such a persona does not involve inventing one, but analysing real buyers. In other words, it is necessary to review all possible channels of communication and interpret data from available sources.
Information compiled from surveys, comments posted on social media and online forums, opinions heard, etc. are useful for this. Customer satisfaction surveys and information from employees can also be used for this purpose. On this basis, a model customer is created. For example, a buyer for a particular product category might be someone aged 40-50, from a large city, with specific interests, who occasionally shops online and has specific expectations from the product.
How do you track and create a Customer Journey?
One way to gain knowledge of the customer pathway is to send out surveys to people who have already purchased a product or service. Using modern technology allows you to reach them quickly. It is sufficient to prepare a short form and then send it automatically to the e-mail address provided by the user. The survey can also be conducted on the company's social media profiles. They themselves are another channel of communication with consumers, allowing their opinions to be known.
How do you make a Customer Journey Map even more effective? By talking to employees. A great deal of knowledge about their purchasing path is available not only to salespeople, but especially to those in charge of complaints. In addition, it is worth analysing recordings of conversations between employees and consumers, regularly checking the conversion rate and using programmes that measure buyer satisfaction (e.g. CSAT). In this way, a customer journey map is created, i.e. a collection of opinions and figures showing the good points of the sales process and the elements that need to be improved. 
Customer Journey versus Customer Experience - what are the differences and how to use them?
To understand what a Customer Journey is, we need an even broader term, Customer Experience. The former is purely the path taken by the customer from the moment they get to know a brand to purchasing one of its products or ordering a service. In other words, these are purely the touchpoints of the consumer-seller interaction. All of them need to be analysed in terms of their chances of being informed about the offer and buying. In addition to this, obstacles are identified that may result in low brand recognition or poor conversion in the online shop.
Customer Experience, i.e. the buyer's experience, is designed to test customer satisfaction against their expectations and needs. This is no longer only influenced by the marketing and purchasing process itself, but also aspects such as time and manner of delivery and after-sales service. In this case, however, it is not only about further customer involvement, but also, among other things, the efficient handling of possible complaints or warranty repairs.
Customer Journey and the sales funnel
Just as the Customer Journey is included in the concept of the Customer Experience, the sales funnel is part of the customer path. The common points of both activities are the acquisition of a loyal, satisfied consumer. In the case of the sales funnel, however, only the process from advertising to lead generation (collecting customer data) to sales and conversion analysis is considered.
In the Customer Journey, aspects such as building brand awareness and striving to make the customer an ambassador of the brand also count. In other words, through these activities, a good opinion of it will be passed on to other people who may become subsequent customers.
Is it worth creating a visualisation of the customer pathway?
There is no rule as to which form of Customer Journey is better. It largely depends on the preferences of those creating the customer pathway. The company commissioning the consulting agency to prepare the document also usually has an influence on how the data is presented. A table created in a spreadsheet may work just as well as a graphic or multimedia presentation.
The most important thing to remember is the usability of the Customer Journey. Properly presented information will be reusable, allowing changes to be made easily. It is also worth remembering that many people are visual learners, and therefore a graphical form of the customer journey will be easier to use in optimising the sales process.
How and why should you use customer pathway knowledge?
With Customer Journey, a company is able to improve its financial performance. By empathising with the customer, it is possible to improve the performance of the product or service, as well as the sales process itself. Another benefit is improved communication between consumers and the company.
In this way, it will also be easier to attract new customers to your offer in the future. The solutions developed will pay off in terms of successful sales of new products and services that may appear in the company's portfolio.
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