How is CJM different from a sales funnel?

Sales funnel is a quantitative model: how many people move from stage to stage. CJM is qualitative: why they switch or don’t switch, what they feel, where they get irritated. The funnel answers the question “how much”, CJM answers the question “why”. In practice, they complement each other: first the funnel shows where the dump is, then CJM explains the reason.

How long does it take to build a CJM?

If data is available, one business day. If there are no interviews and analytics, it will take 2–3 weeks to collect them. Often CJM is delayed not because of the methodology, but because of a lack of data. Minimum set: 10 interviews with customers, downloading the funnel from Metrica, 20–30 call recordings.

Do you need a designer for CJM or will a table suffice?

For internal work, a table in Notion or Miro will suffice. A beautiful design is only needed if CJM is used in a presentation to a client or stakeholders. A mistake is spending 3 days on visuals instead of content. I make CJM in FigJam in a few hours: it's fast, collaborative, and doesn't require a designer.

How often should CJM be updated?

After every significant product or market change. For most companies - once every 6-12 months. CJM, written two years ago and never updated, reflects the past, not reality. A quick way to check relevance is to conduct 3-5 recent interviews with clients.

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StrategyAugust 16, 202510 min

Customer Journey Map in practice: how to build CJM in one day and find where customers leave

CJM is not a pretty design for slides. This is a diagnostic tool: where the client gets lost, where he gets irritated, and where he goes to a competitor. Analysis of the methodology, a real example of CJM for e-com, typical errors and a template in Miro/FigJam.

CJM are drawn beautiful in Miro and placed in a folder. After a month they are forgotten. I did this for the first two years - then I realized that there was no point in it. CJM only works if it is built on real data and ends with a specific list of barriers to address.

The key question is not “what does the customer journey look like”, but “where does it get lost and why.” On a project for an online electronics store, we found that 40% of customers who reached the cart abandoned it not because they changed their minds - but because they could not figure out the delivery methods. This cannot be figured out from the funnel, it is only visible in the CJM with barriers.

The main takeaway from CJM is not “where to add contact points,” but “where to remove friction.”

1. Why does a marketer, and not just a UX designer, need CJM?

CJM is considered to be a tool of the UX team. In my practice this is a misperception. CJM directly affects CPL and conversion - that is, money.

Example. If a client at the “need awareness” stage is looking for information on Zen and YouTube, and you invest your entire budget in the context of commercial requests, you cut off the top of the funnel. A marketer without CJM does not know where the customer is making a decision. He only knows where he clicks “buy”.

Practical links between CJM and marketing metrics:

Stage “awareness” → CPL across content channels. If CJM shows that the client begins the journey with organic search for information queries, it is worth looking at the cost of a lead from SEO traffic separately.

Stage “comparison” → CR from retargeting campaigns. This is where the client compares alternatives - and this is where retargeting with a specific offer hits best.

Stage “purchase” → CR landing and form. Barriers at this stage are a direct job for the CRO.

More information about the funnel as a tool: How to build a sales funnel in 2026.

2. Three data sources for CJM

CJM without data is the team's fantasy of how they think customers behave. I build CJM only from three sources, and nothing else.

Source 1 - interviews with clients. At least 10–15 people who have already purchased or refused to purchase. The questions are not “what did you like,” but “tell me how you first heard about us,” “what you looked at before purchasing,” “where you almost went to a competitor.” I record, transcribe using Whisper, and group patterns.

Source 2 - funnel analytics from Ya.Metrica. Data on transitions between stages: traffic by source, CR at each step, exit points. Heat maps and Webvisor show where people stop on a page. This is the quantitative part: without it, CJM will remain a qualitative scheme without numbers.

Source 3 - call records from CRM. Listening to 30–50 calls is three to four hours of work, which gives more than weeks of hypotheses. Clients themselves name the barriers: “I couldn’t understand the terms of delivery,” “they didn’t call me back on the same day,” “it was cheaper from competitors.”

Setting up Ya.Metrica for data collection for CJM: Ya.Metrika 2026 - setting goals and connecting with Direct.

3. Stages of CJM: from awareness to repurchase

For e-com I use six steps. They seem obvious—until you start filling each one with real data.

Stage 1 - Awareness of the need. The client realized that he needed a product or service. The trigger can be external (advertising, advice from a friend, article) or internal (old one broke, tired of it). Touch points: search results, social networks, content marketing, word of mouth.

Stage 2 - Search for information. The client Googles, reads reviews, watches videos. Touch points: organic search, Zen, YouTube, thematic forums. At this stage, most e-com brands are not present at all - they rely only on commercial requests.

Stage 3 - Comparison of options. The client chooses between 2–4 brands. Touch points: website, pages in marketplaces, reviews, comparative articles, retargeting. Barrier: unclear difference between options, weak comparison page.

Stage 4 - Purchase. The client makes a decision and goes through the ordering scenario. Touch points: website/app, shopping cart, payment form, manager call. Barriers: unclear delivery conditions, too long form, distrust of online payment.

Stage 5 - Use and service. The client received the product, uses it, and can contact support. Touch points: email after purchase, support chat, instructions. Barriers: long delivery, failure to meet expectations, difficult returns.

Stage 6 - Repeat purchase and recommendations. The customer returns or recommends the brand to others. Touch points: email newsletter, loyalty program, customer retargeting. Barriers: doesn’t remember the brand, no reason to return.

4. How to find barriers - where the client gets angry and leaves

Barriers are the most valuable thing in CJM. There are usually 3-5 critical ones along the entire path, and eliminating each one gives a measurable increase in conversion.

How I find barriers in projects:

Signal metric: high bounce rate on a specific page, long time at a stage, abnormal dump in the funnel. It says "something is wrong here" - but doesn't explain what it is.

Webvisor and heat maps: I see where they are looking, where they are clicking past buttons, where they are scrolling and stopping. A common finding is the CTA button below the scroll line for 70% of mobile users.

Interview: I ask the question “was there a moment when you almost left?” Almost always the client names a specific barrier. On one project, 8 out of 12 interviewees said the same thing: “I didn’t understand whether I could pay by card - there were no card icons anywhere.”

Calls: “why didn’t you buy it online, call?” — customer responses provide a straightforward list of barriers to digital milestones.

Barrier diagnostic tools: 20-point CRO checklist for increasing conversions.

5. CJM example: online electronics store

Real project, client name under NDA. Average bill 18,000 ₽, Moscow + Moscow Region, main traffic - Yandex Direct and organic.

What Metrica showed before CJM: normal traffic (12,000 sessions/month), CPL 1,100 ₽, CR landing → cart 3.2%, CR cart → payment 31%. At first glance - not bad.

What we found when building CJM:

The “awareness” stage - the client reads reviews on YouTube and Zen. There is no brand there at all. Competitors with content are capturing audiences at the very top of the funnel.

The “comparison” stage - from an interview: 9 out of 12 buyers looked at Yandex.Market before purchasing on the site. The cards on the Market were filled out poorly - the rating was 3.8 versus 4.5 for competitors.

“Purchase” stage - Webvisor showed: 40% of users in the cart scrolled down in search of delivery information. Delivery conditions were only in the footer, 3 clicks from the cart. After adding the delivery block directly to the cart - CR cart → payment increased from 31% to 44%.

“Use” stage - 6 out of 12 interviewees waited for a confirmation call for more than 3 hours and thought that the order did not go through. Added automatic SMS confirmation - the number of cancellations was reduced by 35%.

The final effect of three changes without increasing the advertising budget: +28% to revenue for the quarter.

6. Six common barriers and how to eliminate them

Barrier	CJM stage	How to detect	Approximate CR effect
No shipping information in cart	Purchase	Webvisor, interview	+10–20% cart CR
Long wait for order confirmation	Usage	Calls, CRM cancellations	−20–40% cancellations
Weak cards on marketplaces	Comparison	Interview, Metrica ref traffic	+15–30% conversion from the Market
Unclear payment methods	Purchase	Heat maps, interviews	+5–15% CR of payment
No brand at the information stage	Awareness/search	Interviews, traffic sources	+20–40% to the top funnel
No repurchase trigger	Repeat purchase	Cohort analysis in Metrica	+15–25% retention

7. Template in Miro and FigJam - structure and what to fill out

I work in FigJam - convenient for a collaborative session with a team or client. The structure is the same for Miro.

Heading line: stages of the journey (awareness → search → comparison → purchase → use → repurchase). Each stage is a separate column.

Map lines:

Client actions - what exactly does he do at this stage. Example for “comparison”: reads reviews, goes to the site, looks at competitors, asks in chat.

Touch points - through which channels he interacts with the brand. Example: website, Market, VKontakte, email, call.

Emotions - scale from −2 (angry) to +2 (satisfied). I draw a curve through all stages - you can see where the failures are.

Barriers and pain points - specific phrases from interviews and calls. Not “inconvenient interface”, but “I couldn’t find the add to cart button on mobile.”

Metrics - CR of transitions, bounce rate, time on stage, drop in calls.

Opportunities - what can be done at this stage to remove the barrier.

For a starting template, 3–4 lines are enough: actions, touch points, emotions, barriers. You add metrics as you fill them with data.

8. How to link CJM with advertising campaigns and retargeting

CJM without integration with the media plan is just a diagram. In my practice, the link works like this.

Stage “awareness” → content campaigns. Articles, Zen, YouTube pre-roll. If CJM shows that the client begins the journey with information search, this is a channel for SEO and content marketing, not just paid advertising.

Stage “comparison” → retargeting with a specific offer. A client who visited the site and left during the comparison stage is the target of retargeting with a differentiating argument. Not “come back”, but “this is why we are better than competitor X.”

Stage “purchase” → CRO work with landing. Each barrier at the purchase stage from CJM is a hypothesis for an A/B test. A/B test methodology: A/B testing in marketing 2026.

Stage “repeat purchase” → retention campaign. Segments based on the recency of the last purchase, personalized email chains, look-alike to existing customers. More details: Retargeting in 2026 - segments and chains.

CJM directly influences the architecture of the media plan. Not “where to spend the budget”, but “where the client is in the journey and what they need to hear.” This is a different placement logic - and it works.

If you want to analyze the CJM of your project or find loss points, write to Telegram @dipustovalov or through form. Let's start with diagnostics - free of charge.