A customer journey map is a visual representation of your customer’s lifecycle and the touch points and interactions they have with your business. This map can be created to provide a complete overview of the relationships between persons, departments, processes, channels, etc., along with the relevant metrics. The main purpose behind creating this sort of map is to help businesses understand how their clients move through their websites or mobile applications. It thus becomes very important for businesses to use best free customer journey mapping tools.
Customer Journey Mapping FAQ
Learn more about journey mapping basics below.
What is customer journey mapping?
Customer journey mapping is the process of stepping into your customers’ shoes to understand customer personas, needs, goals, attitudes, and pain points.
What is the purpose of customer journey mapping?
The goal of customer journey mapping is to improve the customer experience and guide their interaction or transaction with your service or product by delivering what they need at every stage. It’s also often known as experience mapping.
What is a customer journey map?
A customer journey map is a visual representation showing a customer’s experience with your brand from start to finish. Journey maps can be very simple, but they can quickly evolve into complex flows with different entry points, exit points, goals, touchpoints, persona types, and types of interactions they have with your brand.
Customer journey maps can go by many other names, including customer experience map, user experience map or UX map, and persona map.
Customer Journey Mapping Software Comparison Criteria
What are we looking for when we select customer mapping tools for review? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria:
- User Interface (UI): Is it clean and attractive? Do the journey maps update in real-time for collaborating users? Is customer data presented in a friendly, accessible way? Are there interfaces for users to quickly and accurately gain insight about the personas/maps?
- Usability: Is it easy to learn and master? Does the company offer good tech support, user support, tutorials, and training? Does the tool provide easy customer journey map template options to speed up the process?
- Integrations: Is it easy to connect with other tools? Any pre-built integrations? Customer journey mapping will require a lot of user feedback, so can the tool connect to popular collaboration platforms like Slack and Google Suite?
- Value for $: How appropriate is the price for the features, capabilities, and use cases? Is pricing transparent and flexible? Do pricing plans accommodate numerous customer’s journey diagrams?
Customer Journey Mapping Feature List
- Lead-nurturing path templates
- Major and minor customer touchpoints
- Onstage/offstage map points
- New customer base development
- Templates for user path shape
- Emotions and motivations
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Overviews Of The Journey Mapping Software
Here’s a brief description of each of the journey mapping that are featured on this top 10 list.
1. A Whiteboard – Best for low-tech offices who don’t use SaaS
Pros
- Low cost
- Easy installation
- Easy to use and understand
Cons
- Must manually record/save charts elsewhere
- Data is only saved temporarily.
2. PowerPoint – Best for easy adoption
Pros
- Customizable templates
- Easy to use
- Supports offline presenting
- Supports animations
Cons
- Difficult to convert file type
- No real-time collaboration
3. Microsoft Visio – Best mapping tool for simple flowchart mapping
Pros
- Interactive elements (links, actions)
- Great to write UML diagrams
- Connects to a wide range of data sources
- Drag-and-drop visuals
Cons
- Element movements can be finicky
- No MacOS support
4. InDesign – Best software for complex graphical design
Pros
- Endlessly flexible and customizable
- Plenty of professional-looking templates
- Flexible export options
- Graphically pleasing results
Cons
- High learning curve
- No real-time collaboration
5. Smaply – Best for drag-and-drop interface simplicity
Pros
- Integrates with most CRM systems
- Drag-and-drop interface
- Marketing automation add-on
Cons
- Interface could use a modern refresh
- Learning curve for advanced features
6. Canvanizer – Best free customer journey mapping tool
Pros
- Free to use
- Anyone with the link can access
- Paid plans have 40+ templates
- Mobile editing and camera use
Cons
- No attribution modeling
- PDF & PNG export only on the pain plan
7. Gliffy – Best customer journey map tool for wireframing
Pros
- Helpful prompts and menus
- Great for simple diagrams
- Free version available
- Wide variety of shapes and icons
Cons
- Slows down with larger charts
- Some limitations to connector placements
8. LucidChart – Best online customer journey mapping software (real-time collaboration)
Pros
- Numerous libraries and templates
- Web app works offline
- Easy to use
- Great sharing/collaboration features
Cons
- Pricing structure is a little complicated
- Low object limit on free version
Totango(519)4.3 out of 5Optimized for quick responseEntry Level Price:Free $0Favorite
The fastest-growing most trusted Customer Success software in the world, Totango’s state-of-the-art software platform helps businesses of all sizes optimize their customer engagement across the entire customer journey. More than 5,000 businesses, including the fastest-growing enterprises like Zoom, SAP, and Google, use Totango to get real-time access to customer health, stay alert to risks and opportunities, and engage proactively and intelligently with their customers to drive evaluation, onbo… Show MoreRead Totango ReviewsACThe price is right for a seed-stage company. The number of accounts and licenses allowed at the free level are enough to get us started and allow… Read reviewAEThe ability to try for free to see if it meets my needs. The fact that it integrates with our Sales CRM, Slack, and Google. These are all big… Read reviewCompareTry for freeZoho CRM(2,010)4.0 out of 5Optimized for quick responseEntry Level Price:$0 Forever free up to 3 usersFavorite
Zoho CRM is a cloud-based, integrated customer relationship management platform that caters to the needs of businesses and industries of all sizes and types. Over 150,000 businesses across the world use Zoho CRM to build lasting customer relationships and maximize team productivity. Our expanded omnichannel support for phone, email, live chat, social media, and in-person meetings make Zoho CRM the most tightly integrated system in the market. Zoho’s AI-powered sales assistant, Zia, provides adv… Show MoreRead Zoho CRM ReviewsUMThe interface is simple and very visual and the price is very competitive Read reviewKPZoho One and its apps are relatively easy to use if you haven’t used another CRM or similar app before. We have had a lot of frustration and… Read reviewCompareLearn moreG2 DealsBuying software just got smarter. And cheaper.
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See Exclusive OffersMoEngage(141)4.4 out of 5Optimized for quick responseEntry Level Price:Free Upto 10,000 Monthly Tracked Users (MTUs)Favorite
MoEngage is an insights-led customer engagement platform, built for customer-obsessed marketers and product owners. MoEngage enables hyper-personalization at scale across multiple channels like mobile push, email, SMS, web push, on-site messaging, Facebook Audiences, in-app messaging, app inbox cards, and connectors to other technologies. With AI-powered automation and optimization, brands can analyze audience behavior, segment the right audiences, and engage consumers with personalized communi… Show MoreRead MoEngage Reviews
Helpful and supportive customer success team Read reviewAHThe reporting and templating tools are very well designed and easy to use. It has the ability to send our campaigns to multiple platforms at the… Read reviewCompareTry for freeFlowMapp(68)4.7 out of 5Favorite
Full stack UX platform. Design exceptional UX for beautiful products, websites, and apps with the online collaborative tools (sitemap, flowchart, customer journey map, user personas).Read FlowMapp ReviewsCDI didn’t have to learn how to use FlowMapp. It just works out the box. So many software tools that are designed to help us improve our workflow are… Read review
Clearly designed by people who understand the value and application of things like personas, user flows etc. Easy to export which is an essential… Read reviewCompareLearn more
Conclusion
Overview: Customer journey mapping is an important tool for building stronger customer relationships. How do you get started with it? Here are 8 top-rated free customer journey mapping tools to help you create the best experiences possible for your customers.