Customer journey
The sequence of contacts a person has with a brand from first exposure to purchase and beyond, mapped across channels and moments. Useful as a map of experience and drop-off; misleading when drawn as a tidy line, because real buyers wander, stall and re-enter at will.
Where it's used
Used in CX work, CRM planning and service design. Good for finding the moments of friction that no single team owns.
Example
Booking a dentist
Illustrative scenarioA friend recommends a clinic. You look it up, read reviews, leave and return days later. The site has no online booking, so you call and nobody answers. You try again, and eventually sit in the chair. The ad worked fine. The drop-off was at the phone, which never appears on the marketing dashboard.