You will produce a one-page journey map for one customer type and mark the stage where most people are lost.
You now have the stages, the funnel and a sense of what each stage needs. On their own, those are just models. This exercise puts them on one page for one real kind of customer, so you can see where your business is losing people and decide what to fix first. Set aside about thirty minutes, open the journey map template below this lesson, and gather whatever evidence you have: WhatsApp chats, reviews, your website or shop statistics, notes from past enquiries.
Choose one type of customer, described narrowly enough that their journey is roughly the same from person to person. "Parents" is too broad. "Parents of a Primary 5 child who is struggling with maths and looking for weekly tuition" is about right. Other examples: office workers near a hawker centre looking for a quick lunch, first-time buyers of a custom cake for a child's first birthday, young couples asking a financial adviser about insurance after their wedding.
If you serve several types, pick the one that brings in the most revenue or the one you most want more of. You can repeat the exercise for the others later. Module 3 goes further into choosing a target customer. For now, a working description is enough.
Your template has a row for each of the five stages from lesson 2.1: awareness, consideration, decision, retention and advocacy. For each one, write three things.
Where they look: the places this customer goes at this stage. Search, a parents' Telegram or WhatsApp group, Google Maps, Instagram, an AI assistant, a friend.
What they ask: the question in their head, in their words. "Is it normal that she can't do fractions?" is better than "seeking information".
What you give them now: whatever your business currently offers at this stage. Be honest. If the answer is nothing, write nothing.
Guesses are a fine start, but check them against what actually happened. Scroll back through enquiry messages and note which questions come up again and again. Read your reviews for the words customers use. If you have a website, look at which pages people visit and where they leave. An online seller can look at abandoned carts, which show people who reached the decision stage and stopped.
Mark each note as evidence or guess. Where evidence contradicts a guess, trust the evidence.
Read down the page and compare the middle column with the last. At which stage is the distance between what the customer needs and what you give them largest? Circle it. That is the stage you will fix first.
Pick one. Most maps show several gaps, and trying to fix all of them at once is how owners end up doing a little of everything again.
Here is the map Priya made for her maths centre in Tampines, for parents of Primary 5 children who are struggling with maths.
Awareness. Where they look: other parents, school results slips, a quick search. What they ask: "Is she just having a bad term, or does she need help?" What Priya gives them: nothing. Her posts are all about class schedules. Consideration. Where they look: Google reviews, parents' group chats, the centre's Instagram. What they ask: "How much is it, how big are the classes, and does it work for kids who are behind?" What she gives them: twelve Google reviews, but no prices anywhere online. Her enquiry chats show that the first question in most of them is the fee. Decision. Where they look: a WhatsApp chat with Priya. What they ask: "Can she try first? What if she doesn't like it?" What she gives them: a trial class, which most enquirers book. Retention. Where they look: their child's mood and marks. What they ask: "Is this helping?" What she gives them: an invoice each month, and a chat when a parent asks. Several families left after one term without saying why. Advocacy. Where they look: the next parent who asks them. What they ask: "Would I recommend this?" What she gives them: nothing, though most of her students came by referral.
Priya had expected to circle awareness. The evidence pointed elsewhere. Families were leaving after one term, and the ones who stayed were her source of referrals. She circled retention.
A finished map fits on one page, covers all five stages for one customer type, marks evidence separately from guesses, and has exactly one stage circled. It should be plain enough that someone else in your business could read it and agree or argue with it.
Once your gap is circled, the last part of the template asks you to write down which stage you will fix first and your reason. Priya's reasoning took her two sentences. Yours shouldn't need many more, and if you can't explain the choice that briefly, go back to your evidence before you write.
Complete the journey map template for one customer type and write two sentences on the stage you will fix first and why.
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