06/2025

Master the Modern Customer Journey for 2025

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Mastering the modern customer journey for 2025 can feel a bit like a baptism by fire if you don’t know where to start, but we’ve got you covered!

Rather than shooting in the dark, you’ll be targeting customers with total accuracy, and they’ll be feeling supported, satisfied, and ready to convert in no time.

Speaking of journeys, let’s take you on one by starting with a little story before we dive into mastering the modern customer journey.

Let me tell you a story…

I’d recently moved house and was hunting for a new gym (because apparently I didn’t already have enough on my plate… oops).

Doing what any normal person would, I decided to try before I buy. Logical, right?

Fitness First looked promising. Their website was slick, and booking a free trial day was easy peasy, especially since it didn’t require a PT induction (music to my introvert mode ears!).

I got an instant on-screen confirmation and SMS too - we love to see it.

But then…

Wrong message, wrong time

My pass was booked for 6 days later, but instead of gently nurturing me toward my trial, I was spammed with aggressive sales emails and SMS.

“JOIN NOW! Limited offer! No joining fee if you sign up TODAY!”

I hadn’t even set foot in the place. Talk about needing to slow down!

Friction point #1

When someone signs up for a free trial, that isn’t an indicator that they’re ready to buy. They don’t need a hard sell, they need reassurance! If there’s no trust built, the only thing you’re doing is spamming and annoying them.

Automated, but not helpful

On a more positive note, I got an SMS reminder on the day of my trial… 30 minutes after my scheduled time. Bit late, babes.

Instead of getting a nice, helpful email about what to expect or how to make the most of my trial, I got another sales push.

Friction point #2

There was a complete lack of personalisation. Instead of feeling like I got adequate guidance, I was bombarded with offers that were irrelevant and annoying.

No follow-up, just sales blasts

Life got in the way, and I actually missed the trial (or maybe it was the ADHD, it’s hard to tell sometimes).

Did anyone check in? Ask if I wanted to rebook? Nope.

But my inbox was BURSTING at the seams with sales emails. The same promo, message, and two even landed within the same hour.

Friction point #3

They assumed I was at the purchase stage, even though there was no data to back this assumption. Instead of nurturing me, they bombarded me (and tested my patience).

What went wrong?

Without boring you to tears with an Apple terms and conditions-sized list, the main areas where they went wrong were:

Lack of alignment to the customer journey
All of the data should’ve shown Fitness First that I wasn’t ready to purchase. I was at the consideration stage, where I’d have benefited more from guidance and reassurance than sales messaging. Every message didn’t match the touchpoint, and none of it was personalised to where I actually was!

No personal engagement or follow-up
When I didn’t show up to my trial, there should’ve been a follow-up to check in and allow me to reschedule. Instead, the messaging remained the same, rather than being adapted to suit the situation.

Over-automation, no human touch
This one goes without saying. There was no point at which I felt like I was being spoken to by a human being rather than a sales-obsessed robot - without a human touch, there’s no trust!

What should have happened?

Instead of feeling overwhelmed by sales spam, I should have been sent:

Relevant content
“What to bring to your trial” or “How to make the most of your first visit” would’ve been welcome content for me to receive before my trial. It’d give me peace of mind and make me feel as though I was being guided along with a personal touch.

SMS reminders before the time slot
Well… It’s kind of a given, isn’t it? If you’re looking at a time-based action, your response should be aligned with that time, too.

A real follow-up
“Did you miss your trial? Want to reschedule?”.

The big picture: why it matters

Well, the short version is that it’s costing businesses money, their customer base, and time:

£700M+ is lost every month in the UK due to bad customer service
1 in 5 customers spend more after a great experience
A third of UK customers would pay more for better service

The cause?

Outdated tech
Siloed teams
Assumptions (the silent killer)
Ignoring feedback
Over-automation without strategy

My entire experience with Fitness First was rife with issues created by assumptions, over-automation, and ignored feedback (I doubt I was the only one with such a poor experience!).

But how do you master the modern customer journey for 2025, rather than slip backwards into the dark ages?

The modern customer journey = the loop

The ol’ dusty marketing funnel? We don’t know her.

We’re only (kind of) joking.

The modern customer journey is a loop. People jump around, repeat steps, disappear and reappear. The marketing funnel is linear, the modern customer journey isn’t!

Think ongoing engagement, re-entry, and continuous connection — you’ve got to keep customers in the loop to stay in the loop, you know?

Businesses that win in 2025:

Map their journeys
Remove friction points
Fill experience gaps
Get under the skin of their customers
Don’t do any of what I mentioned in my earlier story

Friction points: what to look for

Friction points in your customer journey are any areas that make the journey harder, which can include:

Big or small: complex checkout vs slow-loading page
Direct or indirect: confusing CTA vs lack of trust signals
Visible or invisible: broken link vs unwelcoming tone
Emotional or functional: too many popups vs clunky UX

Think of any time you’ve gone to engage with a business or convert — which elements caused you to click off and never return?

Keep in mind that it’s not just about things being slow-loading, broken, or some other form of technical fault.

A lot of your audience will find a lack of trust signals (e.g., testimonials, reviews, accreditations) and aggressive messaging (e.g., “BUY NOW!” or opt-out messages like “I don’t want to level up my business”) to be the more significant friction points because they make them feel uneasy or uncomfortable.

Fix them with the friction formula

Find it - look at drop-off points

From Google Analytics to tools like Hotjar, you’ve got a whole host of ways to see where your customers are dropping off to locate the key problem areas.
Fix it - simplify, personalise, streamline
Test it - measure changes

Experience gaps: what’s missing?

It might not be a case of what you’re doing wrong so much as a case of what you’re not doing at all.

Here are some of the most common gaps we see that could be causing issues:

No pricing information
No clear onboarding
Missing trust signals
No personal follow-up

To figure out which areas might be lacking (or not existing at all), you need to

Ask yourself:

What do customers expect at this stage?
Where do they stall?
What’s missing that would make this easier?

Personas: the key to precision

Not all customers are the same, so your personas need to be as precise as the tip of a needle to hit the mark.

(Otherwise, the needle will stab you instead. I don’t make the rules, sorry.)

Personas are designed to help you:

Deliver the right message (at the right time)
Go beyond demographics into understanding actual behaviour
Tailor touchpoints

Do:

Use real data (what did we say about assumptions?!)
Update regularly - there’s no such thing as a ‘one and done’ persona for life!
Collaborate across teams

Don’t:

Guess or generalise
Rely on surface-level information - demographics aren’t enough to understand a persona’s behaviour, needs, and desires, so you’ll never be sending the right message
Let the personas collect dust

The takeaway

Use my story as a lesson?

Okay, not just that, but it’s a great lesson in all of the ways you can seriously miss the mark with the customer journey.

The best experiences are designed with intention, which means that if you’re not mapping your customer journeys, you’re relying on guesswork, which won’t hit the mark.

Every friction point adds to a customer’s frustration, and every gap is a missed opportunity — personalisation isn’t a ‘nice to have’, it’s an absolute must if you want to support and satisfy your customers.

TL;DR: If your customer journey doesn’t feel seamless, supportive, and satisfying… It’s time to rework it.

Action beats insight. Let’s make it better.

(Or you can drop me a message or get in touch for some peace of mind and non-stressful marketing!)

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