Understanding the 5 stages of a customer journey map

Understanding how customers interact with your business is no longer optional – it’s essential. Customer journeys remain one of the most important aspects of successful marketing strategies, but only if you fully understand and track them correctly.

You need to know the five stages of a customer journey map, from initial awareness to becoming loyal advocates, to derive key insights into customer behaviour that will refine your campaigns and increase conversions.

In this article, we’ll explore the five stages of a customer journey map and how software like call tracking will identify opportunities, improve the customer experience, and drive growth in your marketing efforts.

What is a customer journey map?

A customer journey map is a visual representation of the entire process a customer goes through when interacting with your business. Each ‘touchpoint’ is a moment of interaction, no matter how significant, whether that be clicking a paid ad, visiting a web page, or making a phone call.

Software, like Mediahawk’s call tracking, is needed to gather this customer journey data with precision, so you can create accurate customer journey maps. These journeys often unfold across multiple channels, both online and offline, so you need a comprehensive view of every touchpoint to understand customer motivations, pain points, and decision-making processes at each stage of the journey.

Understanding the 5 stages of a customer journey map

A typical customer journey consists of five key stages, each representing a different set of needs and level of purchase intent. Understanding these five stages of customer journey mapping will let you deliver the right message, through the right channel, at the right time.

1. Awareness

The awareness stage marks the beginning of the customer journey. This is where prospective customers first become aware of your business, often after recognising they have a problem or need, and begin searching for a solution.

The main touchpoints for this stage of the customer journey map are usually top-of-funnel activities like paid ads, social media campaigns, or organic searches that lead to blog content.

First-touch interactions are key for your marketing since they build an initial impression of your brand and have the potential to hook customers with a solution to their needs.

How Mediahawk helps:

• Call tracking software will reveal which channels (like PPC, organic, or paid social) drive the most phone call enquiries, so you know which activities are most valuable for awareness-based engagement.
• The platform will attribute every initial interaction to the correct marketing source, so you’ll know which campaigns and channels are most effective at introducing your business to prospects.

2. Consideration

During the consideration stage of the customer journey, customers are now aware of your business and are actively researching your solutions. They want to explore your offerings in full and find out if your products or services are right for them.

The key touchpoints here will likely include multiple web page visits, content downloads, and research into customer reviews.

How Mediahawk helps:

• Speech Analytics will provide in-depth speech insights into your phone call conversations. You’ll quickly identify common customer questions and pain points, whilst you gain indication of their readiness to buy. You can also use this data to create custom audiences in GA4 for retargeting campaigns that encourage prospects further down the funnel.
• Call-to-action (CTA) tracking: Track content downloads and phone calls to specific CTAs to reveal which are most effective at driving interactions, and refine your CTA copy accordingly.

3. Decision

The crucial decision stage is where customers commit to a purchase. After evaluating their options, they will determine the best solution for their needs, which is often a decision between your business and the competition.

This means that key touchpoints will be bottom-of-funnel activities such as product demo requests and phone calls to your sales team.

How Mediahawk helps:

• Multi-touch attribution is important to know exactly what led the customer to this vital point of purchase. Parameter Connect will provide detailed reports on cross-channel customer journeys, so you know how successfully every online and offline campaign influenced a buyer’s decision.
• Use Sales Matching to connect revenue to the original phone enquiry, so you have a more accurate return on investment (ROI) measurement and know which campaigns drive valuable phone calls that end in a purchase

4. Retention

The customer journey doesn’t end at purchase. The retention stage focuses on building strong and lasting relationships with customers to increase their satisfaction and encourage repeat business and upsells.

The relevant touchpoints at this stage will likely be customer service, support, follow-up calls, and satisfaction surveys.

How Mediahawk helps:

• Use Speech Analytics to analyse customer support phone call conversations and identify common reasons for calls. For instance, this may reveal changes that are needed to product pages if customers are finding similar pain points with product usage, or it will highlight a way to improve the buying process for a seamless customer experience and increased retention.
• The software allows you to score leads based on their likelihood to become repeat purchasers and brand advocates, so you can manage those relationships more effectively.

5. Advocacy

The final stage of the customer journey map is where satisfied customers are transformed into brand advocates who recommend your business to others. Positive and meaningful experiences with your business will encourage referrals and more prospective customers entering the awareness stage through word-of-mouth.

The key touchpoints can include writing reviews, giving referrals, and submitting case studies, which are crucial for both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) customers.

How Mediahawk helps:

• Call tracking software will accurately identify trends in engagement from specific channels that are used for referrals. For instance, if you encourage satisfied customers to share your social media page with friends, you can monitor the impact of this through social media campaign metrics – phone calls, post shares, website visits, and form fills.
• Referral incentives can also be tracked to see how many satisfied customers are actually leaving a review, referring your business, or contributing to a case study. The software will reveal which methods and incentives for referrals are most successful, enabling you to adapt your strategies to maximise the number of brand advocates.

How Mediahawk will transform your customer journey mapping

Creating an accurate customer journey map is something your business needs to get right if you want to increase leads and sales across your channels.

Mediahawk provides the comprehensive data you need to understand the true value of every campaign and activity in your marketing. Capturing offline phone call data alongside digital interactions shows you the full picture of your marketing and how each touchpoint influences even the most complex customer journeys.

You’ll quickly spot high-intent actions and track which marketing efforts drive qualified leads and conversions. With a more accurate representation of every campaign’s ROI, you’ll have actionable insights to optimise marketing spend and emphasise the touchpoints that matter at each stage of the journey.