Before we dive into the examples and templates, a quick refresher on the whats and the whys:

What is customer journey mapping?

A customer journey map (sometimes called a user journey map or UX map) is a visualization of a customer’s experience with your brand, from awareness to purchase and beyond. 

Customer journey maps (CJMs) typically include touch points, customer sentiments, pain points, and actions, plotted in sequential order. The goal isn’t just to create a timeline—it’s to encourage empathy and help designers and stakeholders understand how their customers’ needs and feelings fluctuate over the course of their journey. With this shared understanding, teams can better identify opportunities for innovation and improvement.

Your finished map can be fairly simple, like this one:

Or, it can be complex, like the multi-channel journey map made for Rail Europe below, which is notable for its scope—a customer base of “everyone”—and the intricately detailed thought processes and behaviors.

For some audiences, you may even decide to turn your customer journey map into an infographic. 

Why you need a customer journey map

Successful, long-term customer relationships are built on empathy and a solid grasp of customers’ needs and frustrations. 

Mapping out the customer journey is a prerequisite for creating a shared understanding of what your customers think, feel, and struggle with as they interact with your brand. A customer journey map can help your teams align around solving known problems, identifying new user pain points, and removing barriers to your customer’s (and therefore your company’s) success.

Customer journey mapping helps you to: 

• Visualize the end-to-end customer experience
• Understand multiple customer pathways and complex user experiences
• Increase empathy for current and prospective customers
• Target personas and solve problems more effectively
• Uncover and prioritize new pain points and roadblocks
• Improve internal alignment and break down silos
• Tell better stories to improve stakeholder buy-in
  

Every company should do customer journey mapping, but not every company’s customer journey map will look alike or have the same level of detail. A customer journey map that is primarily used by hotel management to optimize touch points with guests, for example, is going to look very different from a map that is meant to help UX designers understand their B2B SaaS users better

Likewise, the CJM you present to design stakeholders may be quite different from the format you choose to show executives fixated on the business’s bottom line.‍

This customer journey map infographic was made for an Australian company that offers disability employment services. The final customer journey map was a large poster meant to help staff and clients visualize the different stages of the path to employment.

How to create a customer journey map

At a high level, the customer journey mapping process will be fairly similar, regardless of which type of customer journey map you decide to create. We’ll be covering each of the steps in detail in our Field Guide, so we won’t go deep on the how-tos here. 

In brief, here are the 8 steps to creating a customer journey map:

1. Bring the team together for an initial brainstorm
2. Identify potential user personas
3. Create an empathy map
4. Flesh out your ideas with user research
5. Identify all possible customer touch points
6. Choose the information you want to highlight
7. Decide on the tools you’ll use to create your CJM
8. Build your customer journey map
   

For the full step-by-step guide to creating a customer journey map, check out our Field Guide.

The full list of 144 customer journey mapping templates + examples

We searched high and low to find the customer journey map templates and examples to suit just about every use case, software, experience, and design skill level. You can see the full list below. You can also bookmark the Google Slides deck for quick reference.

Customer journey mapping examples by type

No two customer journeys are the same. You already know that, but it bears repeating. 

That fact is part of the reason there’s no single best customer journey map example or template. The best journey map for any given situation will depend not only on your customers, but also on your product or service, your team, and the goals you’re hoping to achieve by creating a customer journey map in the first place.

To help you find the right format for your customer journey map, we’ve rounded up some of the best customer journey map examples for different use cases. Keep scrolling for top-notch examples of:

• Current state customer journey maps
• Future state customer journey maps
• Day in the life customer journey maps
• Service blueprints 
• Circular customer journey maps
• Other types of UX maps

Current state customer journey maps

As their name suggests, current state customer journey maps help you visualize a user’s experience as it is today. These are fact-based journey maps—to create an accurate current state journey map, you’ll need to start by gathering data around actual, current customer interactions.  

Current state mapping is a useful approach when your goal is to identify existing pain points and create a shared understanding of the end-to-end customer experience. A current state map—or at least the research that is required to create one—is also a valuable starting point for a future state map (see below), which focuses more on the customer experience as you’d like it to be.

This is a relatively simple example of a B2B customer journey map, which focuses on the emotions and typical questions a customer experiences throughout their journey. This map also includes recommendations for interacting with the customer at each stage.

The journey map below is based on the real-life experience of a specific customer, but you could also create a similar persona-based journey map to visualize the nuances of different customer journeys. 

In the example above, each stage of the customer journey has been broken down into activities. This level of detail allowed the creators to identify specific (rather than high-level) opportunities for improvement, like merging the domains grants.gov, benefits.gov, and govloans.gov to streamline customer journey.

Future state customer journey maps

While current state maps look at the customer journey as it exists today, future state maps focus on what the customer journey can and should look like in the future. Although data (like that contained in a current state map) is certainly an important input, future state journey maps also involve a fair amount of creative speculation and interpretation. These customer journey maps also focus on customer hopes and wants (future feelings), in addition to experiences and reactions.

Future state journey mapping is a useful approach when your objective is to explore possible customer expectations and to create new experiences and value. Mapping out a future customer journey helps teams align around a common goal.

In the example below, the company has mapped out what they would like or expect their customers to feel in the future. It’s a map of a future, yet-to-be-realized customer journey, including the touchpoints, devices, and environments involved.

Here’s that same format again, used to map out the journey Carnegie Mellon University  wants students to have, along with proposed changes to optimize each step.

Day in the life customer journey maps

A day in the life map helps you visualize your customer’s entire daily routine—interactions with family, their commute, work meetings, afternoon coffee, etc—regardless of whether or not the activities are related to your company. It should be organized chronologically.

This type of customer journey map is great for providing context and giving you insights into all the thoughts, needs, and pain points a customer experiences throughout their day. You can use a day in the life map to identify moments in a customer’s day when your product or service will be most valuable. 

The example below is fairly straightforward. It highlights the actions, thoughts, and feelings of a frequent business traveler over a 12-hour period.

Here’s an interesting example that shows all the activities in a dyslexic child’s typical day. This map not only visualizes the customer’s day (the child’s day, in this case), but also the days of the people they interact with (here, the child’s parent or caregiver and their classmates).

Service blueprint customer journey maps

A service blueprint is a useful counterpart to a classic CJM. Whereas a customer journey map focuses on the thoughts, needs, and actions of the customer, a service blueprint reflects the perspective of the organization and its employees. 

From Nielsen Norman Group:

Blueprinting is an ideal approach to experiences that are omnichannel, involve multiple touchpoints, or require a cross-functional effort (that is, coordination of multiple departments).

Essentially, service blueprinting helps visualize all the things that need to happen behind the scenes in order for the customer journey to take place. (Sort of like peeking behind a clock face.) 

You may create a blueprint when making organizational or procedural changes, or when trying to pinpoint solutions to particular roadblocks in the customer journey.

The example below shows a typical service blueprint: It’s chronological and hierarchical, and is split into four layers—the customer journey, frontstage employee actions, backstage actions, and supporting processes.

Here’s another, simper example of a service blueprint map showing the behind-the-scenes actions and processes that are needed to support a successful customer journey.

Circular customer journey maps

For some businesses—for example, SaaS companies with a subscription model—it may be useful to visualize the customer journey as a circle or loop. A non-linear map can help reinforce the importance of retention and advocacy for companies that rely strongly on recurring revenue, or for products that are meant to have a strong viral element.

In the diagram below, the stages of the customer journey are shown as a loop, which is annotated with customer activities and emotions. 

This next example doesn’t include details about the customer’s activities, thoughts, or feelings, but it is notable in that it accounts for many different outcomes—including churn and reevaluation. If these are important considerations for your team, you could adapt this format to provide more insights into the customer’s state of mind at each stage in their journey.

Other types of UX maps

In addition to the five categories of customer journey maps covered above, there are two more types of UX maps worth mentioning here: empathy maps and customer experience maps.

An empathy map is a tool used to create a shared understanding around the wants, needs, thoughts, and actions of a certain type of user. While not strictly a prerequisite for creating a customer journey map, you may decide to create an empathy map as part of your journey mapping process.

A customer experience map is used to understand human behavior as it relates to a certain topic or experience, but with no specific business or product in mind. Experience maps help visualize what the average person goes through in order to achieve a certain goal. 

Like day in the life maps, customer experience maps provide contextual, anthropological insights that help you better understand your customers as people.

15 (mostly) free customer journey mapping templates

The good news: There are lots of tools available for creating customer journey maps, from popular prototyping software like Figma and Sketch, to dedicated CJM tools like UXPressia or Custellence, to good ol’ Powerpoint and Google Slides. 

The better news: There are plenty of customer journey mapping templates available, regardless of the tools you choose. 

Sure, you could create one from scratch. But why try to reinvent the wheel? You’ll save time and effort by finding a template that matches your needs and customizing it for a perfect fit. 

We’ve rounded up some of the best customer journey map templates to make your search even easier. The simplest templates are listed first, followed by more intricate designs.

1. Current state customer journey map template

Sometimes, all you need is a nice, simple grid. Download this PDF and annotate in your tool of choice, or simply create your own table. You can also print this image out and fill it out with your team.

💾 This template is free to download.

2. Simple customer journey mapping PDF template

This is another ready-made customer journey map template from Nielsen Norman Group to print out, digitally markup, or replicate with your prototyping tool of choice. We like this template because it contains all the most important elements for an effective and actionable journey map.

💾 This template is free to download.

3. Minimalist customer journey grid template 

Here is yet another simple journey mapping template that combines the fields from the two examples above in a clean grid format. This template offers a lot of flexibility—you could add visual elements, create a line graph in the feelings row, or keep it text-only, depending on the needs of your team.

💾 This template is free to download.

4. Day in the life customer journey mapping template

This template from HubSpot is another simple grid, made especially for a day in the life journey map. Instead of different journey stages, the columns represent times in the day. HubSpot also offers similar templates for current state, future state, service blueprint, and buyer’s journey mapping.

💾 This template is free to download.

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5. Customer journey map template for PowerPoint or Slides 

This is an easy-to-edit template for a more visual customer journey map. The centerpiece of this template is the emotional state line graph, but there are also sections for user needs and expectations and customer quotes. What’s great about this template is that you can edit it in PowerPoint or Slides—no design skills needed.

💾 This template is free to download.

6. Flexible customer journey map template for Figma

If Figma is your prototyping tool of choice, you can jumpstart your journey mapping with this editable template. The template is flexible, so you can keep the linear design or use the elements in conjunction with one of the simple grid templates above.

💾 This template is free to download. Figma comes with a free Starter plan, and paid plans start at $12 per editor per month.

7. FlowMapp editable customer journey map template

FlowMapp offers dedicated tools for several UX deliverables, including customer journey maps. This template, which you can preview here, has pre-built blocks for each section of the customer journey map. We like this template because of the emphasis it places on the voice of the customer, but there are several other options to choose from as well.

💾 Your first FlowMapp project is free. Pricing for a single user starts at $15/month (currently discounted to $8.25/month, billed annually). 

8. Circular customer journey map template

Depending on your business model or customers’ behavior, you may find it more useful to visualize the customer journey as a loop or flywheel. This persona-based template does a nice job of depicting both the customer’s fluctuating sentiments, as well as their cyclical journey from consideration to purchase and back again. 

💾 This template is actually just a .jpg image, so you’ll need to replicate the layout with your design tool of choice.

9. Offline retail customer journey map template for Sketch

If you’re a Sketch user, we recommend checking out this tidy customer journey mapping template. It’s part of a bundle of four different journey maps, each of which allows for plenty of detail without becoming visually cumbersome.

💾 This template is free to download. Sketch pricing starts at $99 (one-time payment) for individuals, or $9/month per contributor seat for teams.

10. Service blueprint template for Lucidchart

If you want to create a service blueprint as a complement to your customer-focused journey map, we recommend checking out this template from Lucidchart. Like the service blueprint examples in the previous section, the template is divided into four layers, which are separated by lines of interaction and visibility.

💾 This template is free to use as part of Lucidchart’s Free plan, which includes three editable documents and 100+ templates. Individual plans start at $7.95/month.

11. Customer journey layer map template for PowerPoint

This customer journey map format emphasizes the organizational layers responsible for each stage of the journey. This template is one of 36 editable PowerPoint slides included in this pack of CJM templates. There’s a ton of variety—if nothing else, we recommend checking out the slide previews for inspiration!

💾 This template is part of a 36-slide package that costs $15 to download.

12. UXPressia customer journey mapping template for multiple personas

UXPressia is a dedicated platform for creating and collaborating on customer journey maps, impact maps, and personas. They have dozens of templates in their library, organized by use case. This template will help you map out the customer journey as it’s experienced by multiple customer personas.

💾 Your first project with UXPressia is free. After that, pricing starts at $16/month per user, billed annually.

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13. SaaS support customer journey map template

This is another template from UXPressia. This CJM template is tailored to a specific use case: the customer support journey of a SaaS customer. You could adapt this template to fit a similar use case, or see if UXPressia's library has a ready-made example for your exact scenario.

💾 Again, your first project with UXPressia is free. After that, pricing starts at $16/month per user, billed annually.

14. Editable customer journey map PDF template

This template is designed to help teams align their customer journey mapping exercise with business needs. There are rows for business goals, KPIs, roles responsible, etc. We love that this template is an editable PDF—it makes it super easy to fill out. Unfortunately, the column and row headers are fixed, so you’d need to make your own version of this template if you want to mix it up.

💾 This template is free to download.

15. Customer journey mapping stencil for Omnigraph, Visio

This one’s a doozy. Available as an Omnigraph stencil, Visio stencil, EPS, or SVG, this customer journey mapping template is best suited for complex journeys with many touchpoints, or for when you need to provide a lot of visual information to your stakeholders.

💾 This template costs $12 to download from the creator on Behance.

Even more customer journey mapping templates

Didn’t find what you were looking for on this list? Here are even more templates and tools to consider: 25 Tools to Create Stunning Customer Journey Maps (Templates Included). You can also try searching Pinterest, Dribble, or Behance for creative ideas and examples.