A Complete Guide To Customer Journey Software

To understand your audience, you need to know how it interacts with your brand. Studying the customer journey can help.

Customer journey software, which you will also see called customer journey mapping (CJM), is a tool you can use to track customers from the first moment they interact with your business until they make a purchase and become loyal, repeat customers.

To better visualize your customers’ paths from initial contact to long-term relationships, you will want to use your own customer journey software tool. Here is a selection of 11 tools you can test out to see which one works best for you.

11 Best Customer Journey Software Tools

Not all customer journey software is made equal. That’s why it’s important to research and try different kinds of customer journey software to see what works best for your workflows. Here are 11 of the best customer journey software tools to look into for your business:

UXPressia

UXPressia is best known as a cloud-based customer experience management tool. It works across teams, allowing for easy collaboration in real time. UXPressia helps with customer journey mapping, but it also has tools like customer and buyer persona builders.

You can try UXPressia for free, and the starter plan kicks off at $16 a month.

Lucidchart

Lucidchart is another customer experience tool that maps the customer journey and visualizes the results. For business owners who like to see visual representations of how their brand is handling customer engagement or how specific personas interact with it, this tool is one to try.

Lucidchart has a free plan, or you can get a paid subscription starting at $9 per month.

Microsoft Visio

Microsoft offers a tried-and-true classic, Microsoft Visio, for tracking the customer journey through visual flowcharts and diagrams. Diagram creation is straightforward with Microsoft Visio, but keep in mind that you will need to do it all by hand. Beneficially, this is a Microsoft product and is compatible with the MS Office suite.

Add on Microsoft Visio for as little as $5 per user/month.

Gliffy

If you’d like to use a web-based tool rather than one you have to download to your computer or mobile device, Gliffy could be right for you. The tool, which handles visualizations and has an editor, can be used to create Venn diagrams, technical diagrams, and organizational charts. Gliffy works with Jira and Confluence, too.

You can get Gliffy with a free trial, but you’ll need to contact Gliffy for pricing.

Custellence

If you like color coding your customer journey maps, you’ll be impressed by Custellence. Custellence is an intuitive tool designed to be user-friendly and cross-functional for teams. Uniquely, it has a feature called curve lanes, which you can use to track customer emotions.

Custellence does have a free plan, but you can also contact sales for enterprise solutions.

OmniGraffle

When OmniGroup created this software, they made it with precision in mind. OmniGraffle creates simple, streamlined customer journey maps. They can be expanded practically endlessly, letting you run the process down for every possible customer persona you have to consider. You can color code your work, too, to make it easy to read.

OmniGraffle has a 14-day free trial and starts at $12.49 a month.

Smaply

Smaply is slightly more intense than some of these other software tools at first glance, but it is user-friendly. It has tools to create a highly visual and detailed customer journey map. You can also make storyboards and track live key performance indicator (KPI) data right on the dashboard. And if you need to present your findings, you can export them to PowerPoint or other compatible programs.

Smaply has a free forever plan, or you can upgrade to a paid plan starting at €390 (approximately $424) a year when billed annually.

Visual Paradigm

For straightforward, easy-to-read mapping, Visual Paradigm is an excellent tool to try. It, unlike many other customer journey mapping tools, automates information acquisition. Then, it streamlines the process of setting up your map, making it much easier to break down the data by channel. You can use Visual Paradigm with agile project tools, too, so if you already use Scaled Scrum Process, PM Process Tool, or others, you’ll be in good shape.

The Modeler – Perpetual choice is the cheapest option to get started. It starts at $99. You can also try the subscription-based tool for as little as $6 per month.

Qualtrics

Customer experience management is made easier with Qualtrics, but that’s not all it does. It also offers employee experience management, which can be an added perk for larger companies. Qualtrics acquired Clarabridge, a software solution that uses AI, and together they help you get more feedback from customers to better understand their journeys with your company.

Qualtrics doesn’t list its prices, so you will need to reach out to its sales team for more information.

Miro

When you have multiple teams working together, having a cross-functional communication tool is a must. The toolkit handles multiple aspects of the customer journey, letting you build wireframes, work on sprint planning, and build customer journey maps that give you the insight you need to build a better customer experience.

Miro offers a free plan, but you can get a paid subscription for as little as $8 a month per user.

Trello

If you’re a highly visual person and like to use sticky notes or widgets, you’ll love the look and feel of Trello. Trello has drag-and-drop functions that let you rearrange to-do lists. It also integrates with a number of software tools your team may use during customer journey mapping, such as Bitbucket Cloud, Jira, and Google Drive.

Trello offers a free plan to get started. You can also upgrade for as little as $5 a month for additional functionality.

4 Benefits of Customer Journey Software

There are many reasons you’ll want to start customer journey mapping as soon as you can. When your brand gets a better look into the user experience and what it takes for a relationship to thrive, it can expand and improve exponentially.

Here are four benefits you’ll see when you work through the customer journey mapping process:

Improved Customer Understanding

With your customer journey map, you can see every touchpoint customers come into contact with. You’ll also be able to break down those touchpoints and see pain points or places for better opportunities. If you want to make a positive impression, understanding what customers go through when interacting with your brand is essential.

Enhanced Customer Experience

Once you make a customer journey map, you can go a step further and enhance the customer experience by making changes based on what you’ve learned. If you saw that customers were turning away from the company because of trouble with customer service, for example, you could train your customer service team or take steps to add additional customer service support.

Increased Customer Retention

When you address the pain points customers deal with, you have a better chance of retaining them in the long term. Increased customer retention also means you’ll see a higher customer lifetime value (CLV), which is great for your business’s bottom line.

Better Alignment of Business Strategies With Customer Needs

Finally, when you use a customer journey mapping tool, you’ll be in a position to better align your services with what your customers need. You’ll see what customers keep coming back for, and you’ll also be able to address problems or pain points to ensure they don’t result in lost leads or high turnover rates.

3 Types of Customer Journey Mapping Tools

Now that you know about some customer journey software, be aware that there are different kinds of customer journey mapping tools. Some include:

Journey Mapping and Visualization Tools

These tools create visual diagrams and let you lay your customers’ journeys out in front of you to identify touchpoints, pain points, and pathways you can simplify. You can combine some mapping tools with analytics tools to gather quantitative data, and you can also input behavioral information to help get a fuller picture of the customer experience.

Customer Experience Software and VoC (Voice of Customer) Software

Customer experience and Voice of Customer, or VoC, tools capture information from customers in their own words. Essentially, they gather feedback to help you learn what customers think about your products.

Collaboration Software

Customer journey mapping software with collaborative features helps larger teams work together cross-functionally. Tools like Miro, a whiteboard-like program that offers real-time updates, work well for teams that are collaborating to build a higher-quality customer experience.

Choosing The Right Customer Journey Software

Choosing the right customer journey software for your company starts with determining your goals. Keep these other factors in mind to ensure you get the right mapping tool for your brand:

Know Your Budget

The first thing you have to consider is your budget. While you might be interested in working with an enterprise solution, it may be hard to do that on a small business budget. Be realistic about your budget to rule out some of the more expensive software solutions. You’ll still have plenty of free and less-expensive options open to you.

Consider the Features

Think about the features you want in customer journey mapping software. Your mapping tool might need to be color-coded or highly visual. You might want communication tools to connect your departments. Some tools offer artificial intelligence and automation to streamline your processes, which you may be interested in as well.

Don’t Forget About Integrations

If you already use Jira or work with tools like Google Drive, for example, you’ll want to ensure your new mapping software will integrate with those applications. If the solution you’re looking into doesn’t offer integrations and won’t work well with the software or processes your team is used to, you may want to keep searching.

Consider Ease of Use

If you already use customer mapping tools or have software from a brand that integrates with a new customer mapping tool, you may find using more complex programs isn’t too much of a learning curve. But, if you haven’t used mapping tools in the past, you will want to consider the ease of learning the tool’s functions. Drag-and-drop visual tools tend to be easier to learn, but you will want to consider the digital literacy of your team before selecting a program that’s right for you.

Keep Scalability in Mind

Finally, think about scalability. Some pieces of software (and particularly their basic free versions) don’t have all the bells and whistles a larger enterprise could need. Keep scalability in mind; as your company grows, you’ll want a customer journey mapping tool that can handle more buyer personas and detailed data.

Use Podium for a Better Customer Experience

Customers want to love your company, but you have to provide them with an enjoyable experience during every step of their journey. By focusing on what your customers want and spending time providing high-quality customer service, you’ll show that you, too, are dedicated to building a positive relationship with them.

With Podium’s AI Employee, you can answer customer inquiries and handle lead management any time, day or night. And, when you’re ready to see what customers have to say about your brand, Podium Reviews helps you get more feedback with automated surveys. Ready to see how Podium can help you build a better customer experience? Watch a demo.