What is a customer journey?
Used in a sentence: Most of our journey work has gone into onboarding, but users are stalling between their first order and a regular weekly habit.
How it works
Each journey stage is defined by an event that shows the user has moved forward. Install and first open start the journey. Onboarding ends when the user completes setup. Activation is the first moment of real value, such as a first order. Habit means the user returns on their own, and monetisation means they pay or upgrade.
Touchpoints are everything the user sees along the way: screens, push notifications, emails and in-app messages. Teams map which touchpoints appear at each stage, then look at where users stop progressing. The fix is usually a targeted message or experience at the stage where users stall, not a broadcast to everyone.
Example
A quick commerce app maps its journey and finds that many users place a first order but never a second. The team adds a widget on the home screen for users with exactly one order, showing a discount on items they browsed. Users who reach a weekly ordering habit later see a membership offer, so each stage gets a different nudge.
Customer journey vs funnel
| Customer journey | Funnel | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | The full lifecycle, install to loyal customer | One conversion path, such as checkout |
| Shape | Stages that loop and overlap | Ordered steps with drop-off |
| Used for | Planning touchpoints across the lifecycle | Fixing one flow |
A funnel is a zoomed-in view of one part of the journey.
Best practices
- Define each stage by a single measurable event, not a vague label.
- Focus on the stage with the largest drop before adding touchpoints elsewhere.
- Give each stage its own message, and remove users once they move on.
- Review the journey map whenever the product’s core flows change.
How to do this with Digia Engage
A growth team targets each stage using segments from its CEP, then builds stage-specific experiences such as onboarding walkthroughs, first-action nudges or upsell widgets in the no-code builder. Each one goes live without an app release. Examples for the early stages are on the Activation use case page, and for later stages on the Monetization use case page.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you map a mobile app customer journey?
- List the stages from install to repeat purchase, and define the event that marks entry into each, such as first order or third session in a week. Pull the share of users reaching each stage from analytics, note every touchpoint they see along the way, and mark the stages with the biggest drop.
- Which in-app formats fit each stage?
- Onboarding suits walkthroughs, coachmarks and checklists. Activation suits tooltips and bottom sheets that point to the first key action. Habit building suits streaks, rewards and reminders. Monetisation suits inline widgets, upsell banners and offers shown at moments of intent, such as reaching a free plan limit.
Related terms
Read more
Part of the In-app engagement glossary.