customer journey specialist

Customer Experience (CX) Specialist: Key Role, Skill Set And Job Description

The role of a customer experience (CX) specialist is to ensure that the marketer follows a buyer-centric approach and delivers a smooth, unfragmented and consistent customer experience across all touchpoints and at all stages of the buyer journey.

A customer experience specialist is responsible for keeping track of customer journeys, interacting with customers across channels and platforms, and coordinating with all internal stakeholders such as product design or development, sales, marketing, account management and so on, in order to keep fine-tuning the customer’s experience. Since no business can compete effectively without a great customer experience Opens a new window , the need for CX specialists too is on the rise.

If you’re someone looking to hire a customer experience specialist or a customer experience professional looking for more details, this article has all the information about the role, its skill requirements and the expectations of the job market. Let’s dive in!

Table Of Contents

• The Evolving Role Of CX Specialists In Complex, Omni-channel Markets
• Essential Skills Of A CX Specialist

Job Description: Key Responsibilities Of CX Specialists

Evolving role of customer experience (cx) specialists in complex, omni-channel markets.

The scope of this role is highly complex in the always on, always connected, multi-channel, multi-device work where most marketers – whether B2B or B2C – operate and compete now. Gone are the days when the scope of a customer experience manager was limited to tracking conversations at the customer service or support centre and ensuring that escalations were minimized. Today, customer experience specialists need to track a complex buyer journey across online and offline platforms and channels, devices and touchpoints. Each touchpoint where customers interact, transact or engage with the brand is an opportunity to build a positive predisposition towards the brand, or a minefield where the customer can be put off the brand for good.

Here, it is also important to point out that the customer experience specialist has to address the bigger picture brand experience (the overall experience of the brand across all touchpoints including even display ads or franchise outlets), as well as the buyer experience, in a specific buying journey that ends in conversion. The outcome is a smooth, seamless customer experience across various touchpoints and channels, both online and offline.

As customers increasingly choose great experience above everything else including price and even features at times, an increasing number of both B2B and B2C businesses are investing in hiring customer experience specialists whose job it is to understand unique buyer needs, expectations and journeys; and build brand and buying experience that create a real competitive advantage for the brand.

The role of a customer experience specialist is to create exceptional brand and buying experiences for a customer or a prospect, across touchpoints – both digital and physical. To be able to do so, one must demonstrate strong product knowledge along with an ability to efficiently interact with customers, understand their buying journeys, pain points; and align with other business functions or internal stakeholders such as product development or design team, sales, marketing, and customer service team, to find solutions for the same.

The customer experience specialist generally reports into the customer experience director, customer experience head or in smaller teams, to someone in the marketing leadership who owns CX within the organization.

Learn More: Director Of Customer Experience: Role, Skill Set And Job Description Opens a new window

Essential Skills Of A Customer Experience (CX) Specialist

• Empathy and listening skills: empathy is by far the most critical skill for a customer experience specialist. It is the ability to understand other people’s emotions. It requires you to go beyond simply saying that you care, rather put yourself in the customer’s shoes to feel what they feel. Only then can they proactively identify the gaps or concerns customers may come across in their journey and alleviate the chances of such occurrences. Listening skills too, are crucial to tap into the real insights behind what customers are saying, either in person, on the phone with customer service or even on social media to their peers.

Learn More: Multichannel vs. Omnichannel Marketing: Key Differences and Similarities Opens a new window

2. Collaboration and project management : identifying gaps in the customer experience is the easier part of the job! The more difficult side is actually working with various functional stakeholders to ensure those gaps are filled. For example, a delayed billing process leading to loss of customers would mean working with both- finance and IT to ensure the process is smoothed out. A poor mobile website user experience would mean working with marketers, IT, UX and other functional reps. A new social media platform that’s got your primary target audience hooked would mean working with multiple stakeholders to get an actionable strategy in place to capitalize on that platform in a timely manner.

3. Speed, flexibility and agility: Business and customer dynamics are ever-changing and demand agility, flexibility and of course, speed. It is the job of the CX specialist to ot just red-flag breaks in CX that need immediate fixing, but also opportunities to build ever stronger experiences that can deliver real competitive advantage.

4. Data management and analytics : Everything companies learn about customers journeys is documented in form of data. A customer experience specialist should be able to easily read and interpret the data to extract useful information that can be acted upon. While most organizations have a dedicated data management, analytics or customer ops team, it is critical for a customer experience specialist to be able to work with these teams to make the best CX related decisions based on the data.

Learn More: Customer Service Vs Customer Experience (CX): Key Differences And Similarities Opens a new window

Followed by an introductory note about the company’s business, the job description iterates roles and responsibilities, qualification requirements etc. for the job. Let us now look at the typical job description of a customer experience specialist. This can vary a bit as per the industry or business.

• Identifying ideal customer profiles and mapping customer journeys to identify the gaps in customer experience across all touchpoints, for all kinds of customer interactions, transactions and engagements – from purchase to product return to customer support.
• Liaise with internal teams such as marketing, sales, product development, account management, billing, finance, UX etc. to ensure that gaps in the customer experience- irrespective of where they occur in the journey – are plugged
• Regular communication with internal stakeholders such as customer service executives and other customer-facing teams to identify gaps and opportunities, if any in the brand experience
• Raising red flags wherever the business process – billing, installation or anything pre or post sales – needs correction to ensure the customer has a seamless experience with the company
• Ensuring the CX strategies are aligned to the larger marketing and business goals and outcomes
• Collect, track and analyze customer feedback and suggest improvements internally based on the insights gathered – help measure metrics such as NPS to gauge how the brand is performing on CX performance parameters
• Work with the technology teams to ensure a seamless brand and buying experience with the technology- be it the brand website or a self-service app

Learn More: What is an Omnichannel Customer Experience? Definition, Journeys and Examples Opens a new window

We hope this gives you a great idea about the nature of the role and key responsibilities of CX Specialist. What have we missed? Share with us on LinkedIn in or Twitter!

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Category Editor (Former), Ziff Davis B2B

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The practice of customer-journey management.

July 18, 2021 2021-07-18

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Journey management is the ongoing practice of researching, measuring, optimizing, and orchestrating a customer journey to improve the customer experience for users and achieve business goals.

I think of journey management as the natural progression beyond the conventional interaction-level UX work that has been widely established across organizations over the last few decades. As digital technology became a mainstay in modern business, UX practitioners have become more and more cognizant of the broader journey-level customer experience . However, although many UXers are aware of this larger scope of experience and have dabbled in related activities like journey mapping and service blueprinting , most organizations do not dedicate resources to the design and management of customer journeys.

In This Article:

Why journey management, journey management as a user-centered–design practice, what’s unique about journey management, three competencies of journey management, establishing journey-management roles and resources.

With smartphones and other technologies giving customers immediate and continued connection to brands, users are much more immersed in product and service experiences than ever before. The result is awareness of the broader experience among customers.

A study by McKinsey shows that a good customer-journey experience translates not only into increased customer satisfaction, but also into better business outcomes (on metrics such as like revenue, churn, and repeat purchases). Moreover, according to Pointillist, a majority of organizations with a good customer experience have invested in roles or teams dedicated to journey management.

Many sales and marketing groups practice what they call journey management. In these settings, journey management tends to be focused around getting new users through the sales funnel and retaining existing users through marketing and relationship management. In this context, journey-management activities usually include:

• using behavioral data to identify “the current state” of individual customers:  where they are in the sales journey and whether they are a risk for churn, and
• designing marketing materials or other types of actions tailored to these customers in order to encourage them to move to a desired state (e.g., complete the purchase or stay engaged with the company).

The practice of journey management is valuable beyond sales, however. We can use it to manage any type of customer experience, to predict individual customers’ current needs and proactively meet them, ultimately producing easy, enjoyable, and fulfilling brand experiences.

Journey management involves applying user-centered design principles to the journey-level experience. For that reason, the same tenets of UX that apply to the design of interaction-level product experiences also apply to the design of journey experiences. The goal should be the same; to meet the exact needs of the customer, without fuss or bother, with simplicity and elegance of design.

To implement journey management, we can apply the  UX learning loop: observe and understand, test, iterate, and learn . We start by understanding the current state of individual customers, where they are in the journey, and what they are trying to achieve. We experiment with various actions that we could take to move them as smoothly and quickly as possible to a desired state that meets their goal. We then learn from the results of these actions and go back to the drawing board to refine them.

Though the goals and tenets of journey management are shared with traditional UX work at the interaction level, there are certain elements that are unique to journey management. We discuss these below:

• Crossfunctional context: A customer journey is the end-to-end process that a customer goes through to complete a task over time. For example, the experience of researching a flight, booking a ticket, receiving follow-up emails, receiving customer support, checking in for the flight, traveling on the airplane, and receiving your luggage at the arrival airport are all part of a flight journey with an airline. Users interact with various channels of the organization’s ecosystem, and each interaction may be owned by different parts of the company — for example, marketing, support, various product teams, as well as the airport staff and flight crew. For this reason, journey-management work is inherently crossfunctional, requiring collaboration and alignment across normally disparate teams.
• Technical infrastructure and integration work: Again, because of the crossfunctional nature of customer journeys, journey management depends heavily on the integration of disparate data and systems from across the customer journey to create a unified source of customer data. Such a source of data allows for design control over the journey as a whole.

In our training course Customer-Journey Management, we teach three competencies of journey management: insights, design, and orchestration.

The user-centered design of the journey experience should be informed by a multipronged research practice. Combining qualitative research data and journey metrics can help researchers identify opportunities for design and orchestration. Various journey-performance metrics should be benchmarked and monitored to inform this effort. Because journeys take place across channels, early investment in the integration of systems is important, to allow for journey analytics and tracking of behavioral data across the journey for benchmarking and analysis.

High-level activities related to this competency include:

• Ethnographic research
• Creation of a journey map and service blueprint
• Integration of disparate systems and databases
• Establishing journey-analytics capabilities
• Conducting customer-listening or voice-of-customer research
• Analysis and reporting of data and insights

Utilizing the insights from research, practitioners will direct the strategic design of the journey in conjunction with leadership.

High-level design activities include:

• Prioritization of design work and road mapping
• Design thinking and ideation
• Prototyping, testing, and iteration of solutions
• Coordination of stakeholders and resources across functional groups

Orchestration

In addition to the user-centered design of the journey experience, journey management should also focus on delivering a personalized journey for every customer through journey orchestration . Orchestration is achieved by tracking behavioral data as a means to understand customers and anticipate their needs in order to deliver the right interactions on the right channel at the right time. It’s possible to do some degree of orchestration manually via existing systems; however, large organizations and mature teams utilize specialized journey-orchestration tools and real-time interaction-management platforms. These tools have various degrees of capabilities, with the most advanced ones utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning to aid in the delivery of personalized journey experiences.

High-level orchestration activities include:

• Implementation of specialized tools for orchestration
• Analysis of behavioral data and tailored delivery of those content and interactions that are most relevant and useful to the specific customer’s journey

I’ve been asked whether it’s appropriate and feasible to have existing UX or design practitioners take on journey-management activities, in addition to product-specific design work. Though these professionals may certainly be capable of carrying out the work required, good journey management requires dedicated resources. Organizations are starting to invest in this space by establishing dedicated roles and teams of individuals to manage the journey-level experience.

Journey-Manager Role

Journey management can be likened to product ownership. Just as a product team is responsible for the strategic vision and user experience of a product, journey managers own the customer journey, continuing to learn and optimize the journey that users take across channels to achieve a goal.

Though most organizations support various top user tasks, a journey manager should own just a single customer journey — for example, the journey of buying online with pickup in-store in a retail setting or the claims experience at an insurance company. It would not be feasible for a single journey manager to effectively manage multiple user journeys well. For this reason, journeys should be prioritized and selected strategically.

The responsibilities of the journey-manager role include:

• Managing the strategic vision of the customer journey
• Working closely with product teams and other functional groups to coordinate crossfunctional optimization efforts
• Continuously evaluating the quality of the customer-journey experience

Journey-Management Teams

A single journey manager might be sufficient for organizations that are small or just getting started with journey management. However, with the variety of skills required to deliver on each competency, for many organizations it makes sense to create a journey-management team including additional specialized roles. Some high-priority specialist roles include

• Data scientists, journey analytics or insights specialists, and UX researchers to deal with the Insights  aspect of journey management
• Service designers, UX designers, content specialists to address the Design and Orchestrate aspects of journey management

Where These Resources Fit in the Organization

One of the first questions that comes up when exploring the possibility of establishing a journey-management practice is: Where would these roles be situated in the organization chart and where would they report? Because organizations are structured differently, there is no single right answer to that question. It could be appropriate for these resources to be aligned with UX, design, marketing, customer experience, or customer success (if these functions already exist). A new function could be established within the organization as well. Below, we discuss some considerations for determining the best fit in your organization.

• Journey management requires a wide scope of influence . Journey managers must connect siloed teams and functional groups. They need a line of sight into all underlying product teams and functional groups. For this reason, it’s best if these roles are situated relatively high in the organizational structure, reporting to someone in leadership with influence over the underlying teams. If existing design and UX resources do not have this scope of influence, it may make sense to establish a new journey-management team or explore alignment with other teams that may already do related work, as discussed in the next bullet.
• Do any existing functions currently conduct related work ? Customer-experience, customer-success, and marketing teams may already do some journey-level research and management. There is, likely, a foundation of technology, and research capabilities that can be leveraged for a user-centered journey-management practice. If that’s the case, you could align the new roles with these groups.

Most organizational leaders now know that good customer experience is not limited to channel and touchpoint excellence, but now involves the journey-level experience. However, many organizations have yet to dedicate resources to the design and management of customer journeys  — often, because they don’t know where to start and how to evaluate return on investment .  

There are a few bits of good news for those organizations that are hesitant:

• More and more data shows strong evidence of return on investment across industries.
• Much of what journey management entails is familiar territory for organizations that already have mature UX practices .
• In the last few years, more and more practical guidance around journey management has been developed.

We recommend that organizations start small and explore this space with just a single dedicated practitioner. Focus your early efforts around what you can do now without significant technical and resource expenses. Track improvements and gains and scale your efforts with more mature solutions over time.

For more about customer-journey management, we offer a full-day training course,  Customer-Journey Management .

Pointillist. 2021. The State of Customer Journey Management and CX Measurement in 2021. Retrieved from http://myjourney.pointillist.com/content-customer-journey-cx-measure-report.html?utm_source=website&utm_medium=resources&utm_campaign=cjxm21-report .

McKinsey & Company. 2016. From Touchpoints to Journeys: Seeing the World as Customers Do. Retrieved from  https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/from-touchpoints-to-journeys-seeing-the-world-as-customers-do .

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Career guide: Customer experience specialist

Last updated

22 July 2023

Reviewed by

Jean Kaluza

More and more companies are investing in customer experience departments consisting of several CX specialists with various roles, including leaders, analysts, and strategists. Since focusing on customer experience directly impacts a company's bottom line, the demand for CX experts is on the rise.

Let's take a closer look at customer experience specialists, their responsibilities, and their contribution to an organization's success.

• What is a customer experience specialist?

A customer experience specialist is a professional who focuses on the quality of customer experience during their journey with a company. This expert communicates with other departments to improve customer experience quality, share valuable feedback, provide insight into product development , and support effective decision-making.

CX specialists take a customer-centric approach to all of their organization's operations. By studying and paying attention to users, they proactively improve customer satisfaction by helping other departments design revenue-generating strategies.

• What does a customer experience specialist do?

A customer experience specialist is responsible for ensuring a smooth customer experience by interacting with customers, gathering feedback, analyzing customer behavior , and sharing insights with other departments. They can do this by:

Interacting with customers across different channels and platforms

Gathering customer feedback by arranging surveys and questionnaires and sourcing online reviews

Analyzing customer reviews , complaints, and feedback to identify opportunities for improvement

Creating reports that identify customer complaint trends and measure satisfaction levels over time

Providing reports, statistics, and other analytical data to other departments, including product design , engineering, sales, marketing, and HR

Monitoring customer satisfaction rates

Identifying trends in customer needs , requirements, preferences, and buying habits

Providing data that helps executives make effective customer experience decisions

Managing customer issues and making sure they’re addressed promptly

Depending on the CX specialist's role in the company, they can have various responsibilities. Sometimes, the CX team can consist of just one person who wears several hats. They collaborate closely with other departments and source assistance from marketing and sales teams.

A large CX team can consist of several customer experience specialists, including:

CX leader or manager – a specialist responsible for creating a CX team vision, setting goals, designing the roadmap, organizing projects, tracking metrics, and collaborating with other departments

CX associate – a specialist responsible for executing the customer experience plan, gathering feedback, interacting with customers, tracking customer behavior, and providing relevant data to analysts

CX analyst – a specialist responsible for analyzing data gathered by the associates and turning raw numbers into valuable insight and predictions

Other members of the CX team can include customer journey managers, digital strategists, customer lifecycle managers, and many more.

Overall, CX specialists monitor each customer's experience from the beginning of their journey with the organization. They use this information to help other departments improve the experience for potential and existing customers.

• Customer experience specialist skills

Forrester's research shows that improving CX by just one point can result in more than $1B in revenue. That's why companies are constantly looking for highly qualified CX specialists with relevant skills, such as interpersonal skills, social skills, and emotional intelligence.

These professionals must interact with customers closely to feel and understand their needs. Skills that make an exceptional CX specialist include:

Strategic thinking

While gathering data about customer behavior, needs, and preferences, the CX specialist has to keep their organization's goals, capabilities, and budget in mind. This requires the ability to think strategically.

For example, if the company’s current goal is customer retention , CX specialists should focus on improving existing customer experience, sourcing their feedback, and taking steps to build their loyalty.

Knowing how to align company objectives with clients' needs and develop a CX improvement plan requires strategic thinking.

Analytical skills

CX specialists need to know how to work with data. Analytical thinking is applicable during all stages of the customer experience improvement plan. These professionals must know how to work with surveys, questionnaires, and other quantitative data collection methods .

They should also know how to collect and analyze quantitative data and process it to provide valuable insight to the rest of the team.

The ability to blend quantitative customer data with qualitative feedback and turn it into insight is what makes an excellent CX expert.

Communication skills

CX specialists collaborate with various team members across different departments. They need robust communication skills to share the knowledge they gain from analytics with the rest of the organization.

Communication is key for each customer experience role. For example, CX leaders must communicate their needs and requirements to the CX team and C-level executives. Meanwhile, associates and analysts must constantly interact with internal stakeholders and ensure they have enough information for further operations.

Listening skills

The key soft skills a CX specialist leverages are listening and empathy. The customer experience team’s goal isn't just to prevent customer issues. It’s also to solve these issues if they arise. That's where the customer experience specialist's listening and empathic skills come into play.

Customer-facing CX professionals need to feel what the customer is feeling and help them solve the problem in an empathic manner. They must put themselves in their customers’ shoes and combine what they know about their company and team to see what needs adjusting. During this interaction, CX experts gain valuable knowledge that helps improve future customer experience.

• Salaries of customer experience specialists

Customer experience specialist salaries can vary depending on several factors, including location, education, and experience. The average salary in the United States is around $ 37,000 a year . But a customer experience leader can make around $75,000 annually .

When you start out as a customer experience specialist, you could earn around $32,000 per year. As you advance in your role and gain experience, your salary could go beyond $50,000 per year. And once you become a CX manager or leader, the numbers can reach $80,000.

Customer experience specialists working for government agencies, such as US Post, can count on higher salaries.

• How to become a customer experience specialist

To become a customer experience specialist, you don't need higher education. Many customer experience professionals begin their journey with a high school diploma. However, some industries, including finance, healthcare, and the government, will probably require a bachelor's degree in marketing, communications, business management, or a related field.

If you think you have the right skills to become a CX specialist, you may want to consider taking additional courses to improve your education. CX courses are available in many online schools, including LinkedIn Learning . After finishing a course, you can receive a CX certification that will likely help you impress your chosen employer.

While you’re studying, you need to explore CX and CRM technologies, such as:

Customer feedback tools

Survey tools

Customer analytics software

Data management platforms

Customer service tools

Customer communication tools

Customer engagement instruments

Once you finish your education, you can search for a junior position that allows you to gain much-needed experience. Well-paying CX specialist jobs usually require a bachelor's degree and at least two years as a customer experience or customer support specialist.

• The outlook for customer experience specialists

Today, 95% of marketing leaders believe that CX job roles are important for business growth. That's why customer experience specialists are in high demand across multiple industries.

If you choose to become a CX specialist, you’ll probably find a well-paying job in the industry of your choice. The importance of customer experience for the company's bottom line drives business leaders to search for exceptional CX talent. If you have the right skills, knowledge, and education, you can expect a position with a competitive salary.

The future outlook for CX specialists is positive. The demand is rising, and more than 50% of B2C companies have a CX team. Some companies are already separating front-end customer service specialists and back-end CX analysts. In the future, CX teams will likely expand and include more roles.

Is a customer experience specialist a marketing job?

A customer experience specialist works with marketing, sales, HR, design, engineering, and many other departments. Their goal is to improve customer experience across the entire customer journey and through all touchpoints.

What makes a good customer experience specialist?

A good customer experience specialist has excellent soft skills, communicates well with multiple departments, analyzes quantitative and qualitative data, and thinks strategically.

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Customer Experience Specialist: What’s the Job Like?

Businesses are concerned about customers more than ever. With an urge to thrive in a competitive business world and boost revenue with each passing year, they seek new and unique ways to pique customer interest.

Gone are the days when a quality product alone was enough to appeal to the target audience. It's 2022, and thousands of businesses deploy the latest technology to design high-end products - you aren't alone.

However, customer experience is the light at the end of the tunnel. A skilled customer experience specialist has what it takes to level up any business.

Customers today seek businesses that optimize their experience and give them the value they deserve as business contributors. Gladly, a CX specialist makes that possible; here's how.

Who Is a Customer Experience Specialist?

A customer experience (CX) specialist tracks customer journeys and interacts with them across all channels.

This helps them ensure that the marketer adheres to a buyer-centric approach and delivers a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints in the buyer journey.

CX specialists coordinate with a company's decision-makers, including product design, sales and marketing, and account management teams, to fine-tune customer experience.

According to an article published on the Forbes website, 86% of customers are willing to pay higher to enjoy a quality customer experience.

Another research reveals that customer spending boosts up to 140% due to a positive customer experience.

It makes sense why any company would be willing to hire a CX specialist to optimize their customer experience and upgrade their business.

Responsibilities of a Customer Experience Specialist

Photo by note thanun on unsplash.

Initially, the role of customer experience specialist was restricted to monitoring conversations at the customer support center and minimizing related challenges.

Today, the role has expanded beyond that. CX specialists are now responsible for handling complicated customer journey stages across all platforms - online or offline.

Since all touchpoints play a role in making or breaking a brand's reputation, they oversee each to minimize limitations and maximize satisfaction.

Here's what else a CX specialist does.

Understanding Customer Experience

How can you resolve a problem without knowing what the problem is to begin with?

Improving customer experience is almost impossible without understanding it.

How do the customers feel about a particular product or service? What are their pain points? Are they satisfied with the services they get at a given price?

This and more can only be known after gaining an in-depth understanding of customer experience. CX specialists go above and beyond to understand the target audience by mapping the customer journey.

A customer journey map visually represents every customer engagement with a specific brand. This helps gain a deeper insight into customers' minds and understand how your services work from their point of view.

Were your services actually as beneficial as you assumed, or were you living in a fool's paradise? CX specialists provide a clear picture of where your business is standing and where it's headed.

Spotting Areas of Improvement

Mapping customer journey helps uncover the areas of improvement.

For instance, you may discover the sales drop you experienced a few weeks ago wasn't because of defects in the product but inadequate customer support. This helps create a business case highlighting the shortcomings.

CX specialists significantly contribute to a business by enabling them to understand their drawbacks and tweak business strategies accordingly.

Enabling Collaboration

Knowing the business flaws and outlining ideal processes doesn't make much sense if they aren't conveyed to everyone in the work environment.

Therefore, CX specialists actively collaborate with stakeholders from different departments and project management teams to share their findings.

This explains why a CX specialist is expected to have solid collaboration skills (more on this below).

Deploying Innovative Policies for a Better Experience

Finally, they recommend unique and creative ways to improve the customer experience. For instance, if a low engagement was the culprit, a CX specialist may suggest boosting online presence and offering personalization.

Besides, deploying chatbots, offering omnichannel customer support, and introducing customer loyalty programs are a few other techniques that help entice customers.

Customer Experience Specialist Job Requirements

Small and large organizations look for various qualifications when hiring a CX specialist.

Because these individuals complement some existing business practices and alter others for a positive outcome, employers may consider various factors when hiring them.

Note that the precise qualifications and job requirements vary per the firm and location. However, generally, they are expected to have the following when applying for the role.

Qualifications. Hiring managers expect CX specialists to have at least a high school diploma or anything equivalent. A few recruiters, however, may prefer a bachelor's degree in a related field - think business or communications.

Experience. Customer experience specialists typically receive on-site training since each business has unique customer service requirements. This can last somewhere between a few weeks to 2 months. However, a few employers may expect CX specialists to have 2-3 years of experience before applying.

Certifications. Any CX-related certification is always welcome. They are a positive addition to CX specialists' resumes and demonstrate the applicant's passion. Most online courses offer certifications to back the skill and knowledge of a customer experience specialist.

Customer Experience Specialist Skills

A CX specialist must have technical and non-technical skills to nail their job. Here are a few skills that make a great customer experience specialist.

Listening Skills

A CX specialist who lacks active listening skills will struggle to understand customers. This means regardless of their efficiency with technological systems; they won't be good at their job.

Understanding customers requires empathy and excellent listening skills. A CX specialist must be capable of putting themselves in customers' shoes to understand their feelings. This will help them proactively spot customer concerns.

The better these specialists listen to their customers, the better they'll be able to identify business shortcomings and offer reliable solutions.

Besides, because CX specialists communicate across various channels, from social media to phone calls, they must have strong communication skills to do so effectively.

Flexibility and Speed

Business dynamics and technology are ever-changing. This means understanding existing policies isn't enough. A CX specialist must have an adaptable personality to take on new and varying challenges and deploy the latest business practices for an impactful outcome.

So, they must also stay abreast of innovative business trends and customer demands to determine opportunities that may benefit the business.

Also, they are expected to be quick in spotting CX red flags and eliminating them before they take a toll on the business's reputation.

Collaboration and Project Management

Experts believe identifying areas of improvement in CX is relatively easy. The challenging part is communicating those gaps with the company's stakeholders and ensuring they aren't repeated.

For instance, an issue with a smartphone website requires CX specialists to work closely with UX design teams and marketers to take relevant steps. Likewise, poor website content may require them to collaborate with SEO specialists and content writers within the company. The key is to develop an actionable strategy to resolve existing problems and maximize business.

Data Analytics

All the information extracted from the customer journey is stored in the form of data. Therefore, a CX specialist must have efficient data analytics skills to read and interpret data to drive actionable insights.

Although most companies have dedicated data management teams for that purpose, many expect a CX specialist to have desired skills. This helps them work with data management teams to make helpful decisions.

Problem-Solving Skills

CX specialists must have strong problem-solving skills because they are required to tackle customer problems regularly. They must dig into the root cause of the concern and offer appropriate solutions for customer needs.

For instance, a customer encountering a hair fall issue may contact a CX specialist. At this point, they are responsible for recommending them the best product to mitigate the hair problem.

Efficient problem-solving skills can add to customer experience and enhance brand reputation through positive word of mouth. For instance, a survey shows that 64% of consumers are likely to recommend a brand due to a better CX experience.

So, when offering a seamless CX experience, a company retains its existing customers and targets new ones.

With over 333.34 million businesses globally, gaining an edge over competitors is no easy feat. So, besides offering innovative products, brands seek experienced customer experience specialists to optimize their CX experience and boost customer satisfaction.

Because business is where the customers are, any effort to improve their experience has the potential to take a company to new heights.

We rounded up the skills and responsibilities of a CX specialist and highlighted how they help keep businesses on track.

Cover Photo by Luke Paris on Unsplash

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How to hire a Customer Experience Specialist: everything you need to know

Did you know that 38% of customers expect customer service agents to know who they are and the context of their customer queries? Customers expect a more immediate and personalized service than ever, and your brand needs to figure out how to provide it.

A customer experience (CX) specialist can be an invaluable member of your customer experience team, ensuring that each aspect of your business is geared to a buyer-centric approach. 

CX experts point out sticking points for customers across your organization and help fine-tune the customer experience. Their role covers tracking customer journeys, training customer service agents, helping the IT department avoid technical issues with a software test plan , and liaising with web designers and marketers to create a smooth user journey.

Unsurprisingly, the need for these experts is on the rise. Thanks to recent changes to recruitment processes , brands often find themselves competing to take on experienced specialists without a thorough understanding of the role itself.

If you think a customer experience professional is the answer to your brand’s problems, read on. This article will explain what the role entails, and how to reach out to job-seeking CX specialists today.

What is a customer experience specialist?

First and foremost, a CX specialist is a thinker and a communicator. They take pride in their problem-solving skills. They can connect the dots between departments and create a streamlined plan, then communicate that plan back to each team in such a way that information flows freely. 

Customer experience experts are also intermediaries between your brand and its customers. Their role requires listening to and analyzing customer feedback and using this valuable information to inform customer service strategies going forward. They will need to work both on a case-by-case basis and also proactively, getting ahead of problems rather than simply solving them.

For example, a CX specialist might see a trend in customer reviews mentioning slow delivery. While agents may ask “ what is a fulfillment center ?” The CX expert sees logistics as a crucial part of the wider customer experience. They might collaborate with the fulfillment team to offer improved shipping options. They will then track customer responses and report on the improvement.

Key skills of a customer experience specialist

If you’re looking to hire a customer experience specialist, you’ll want to be sure that they’re truly specialized. Their prior experience should equip candidates with a wealth of relevant skills, but keep an eye out for these key areas of competence:

CX experts need to be able to put themselves in your customers’ shoes, exploring your brand experience as if for the first time, and understanding the emotions that might come up at different points. 

From excitement to frustration, buying online is an emotional process, and it is only when someone within your organization excels at interpersonal skills that they can create a true dialogue with buyers. Look for candidates with proven listening skills and strong empathy.

Collaboration

Your CX specialist needs to be an experienced project manager with great communication skills, able to work closely with internal stakeholders to ensure that goals are reached. 

For example, if a CX expert noticed business costs rising due to customers abandoning their carts at checkout, they would need to work with marketers, finance, and IT to find a solution that brought down marketing costs or drove up conversion rates.

Flexibility

The customer journey is not a static entity. It is liable to change at any point due to the ongoing evolution of your company, your competitors, and your customer base. A system that satisfied 90% of customers a week ago may suddenly fall short.

The CX specialist needs to work fast on their feet, identifying trends and red-flagging customer issues before customers notice them. They need to see each issue that needs fixing as an opportunity to build a positive customer experience going forward.

Data analysis

You need to be looking for someone with a firm grasp on customer data, from qualitative feedback, such as customer queries, to quantitative information, such as conversion rates and average order value.

While your company may have a dedicated team for data management, your CX specialist will be able to glean new and specific takeaways from the same information. Ensure that your candidates have experience working with data teams and delivering data-driven reports on customer behavior.

Writing a customer experience specialist job description

Talented professionals can be won or lost before you even speak to them, based on the quality of your job posting. This should outline roles and responsibilities, allowing candidates to see at a glance whether they would be a good fit.

Typical job descriptions will describe the following customer experience specialist responsibilities:

Profiling customers

The successful candidate will need to create a profile for each typical customer type, and map the entire customer journey through the sales funnel. This customer journey mapping will help to identify gaps between audience expectations and the experience they’re delivered.

Communicating issues

The customer experience associate will have to report regularly to internal stakeholders with any red flags or opportunities for improvement. They should be expected to compile and present written reports, as well as interact on an ad-hoc basis in person, via email, and via company messaging.

Collaborating across departments

The CX specialist will liaise regularly with teams including sales and marketing, product design and development, finance and billing, and account management, to ensure that goals are aligned and any issues with customer experience are dealt with. From social media debates to taxes on shipping , the specialist needs to be able to discuss issues with the relevant experts.

Tracking improvements

The successful candidate should also be prepared to collect, track and analyze customer communications via email, social media, and reviews. They will draw out trends and overriding issues, and measure key metrics to help understand whether fixes are working.

Aligning goals

The CX specialist’s top-down view will help them align CX strategies with larger business goals and outcomes. They will work with management to understand these targets, as well as with IT and marketing teams to ensure that the company’s mission is carried through to an outstanding experience.

Interviewing a customer experience specialist

Once you have reviewed your applications, you should have a shortlist of CX consultant candidates ready to interview. Remember, the interview is the part of the hiring process where you can pitch your brand and allay common new employee fears .

It pays to ask a few difficult questions to separate the CX executives from the true specialists. Useful interview questions could include the following:

• What customer experience outcomes do you think we can expect within the next year? 
• The answer will help you gauge how well the candidate understands your business goals and current positioning, as well as how driven they are to push that boundary forward.
• How have you helped companies embed CX into their cultures? 
• This question not only asks for evidence of a background in customer service but also opens a conversation about CX as a core aspect of company culture rather than simply a tool.
• What customer segments should we focus our CX resources on? 
• This sort of question gets down to the fine details, exploring a candidate’s understanding of budgeting as well as customer segmentation and KPIs. This is a chance for them to let their problem-solving skills shine in a real-world case study.
• What metrics do you find most informative when formulating a CX strategy? 
• This question tests how readily candidates can discuss the data analysis aspect of their role, and crucially how adept they are at extrapolating information from data into an actionable plan.

Finding the right CX expert for your business is a true test of skills-based hiring . You are looking for someone with the right set of skills and experiences to step into a highly complex multi-channel role that encompasses every team in your organization, yet centralizes the customers themselves.

Filling this role may be a challenge, but having the right customer experience specialist will help build a strong and lasting relationship between the business and the customers. Reset the bar for customer care with a strategy that prioritizes buyers from the ground up.

Xiao is the Global Head of Lead Generation at Brightpearl , a leading retail operations platform. She is passionate about setting up innovative strategies to grow sales pipelines using data-driven decisions. She has also written for sites such as FlippingBook and Tapfiliate .

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Blog Customer Experience

Who is a Customer Experience Specialist? The Secret to Exceptional CX

Kate williams.

30 June 2023

Table Of Contents

• Who is a Customer Experience Specialist?
• What they do
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Jobs in CX Management
• Required Skill Set
• Salary Potential
• Use Case: Apple

Have you ever wondered what sets successful businesses apart from the rest? It is their unwavering commitment to providing exceptional customer experiences. Customer satisfaction has become the sought-after benchmark for business success in today’s cutthroat marketplace. And that’s where customer experience specialists come into play.

Here, we’ll dive deep into the world of customer experience specialists and explore the pivotal role they play in shaping customer satisfaction. So, fasten your seatbelts as we embark on this journey together!

What is a Customer Experience Specialist?

At the heart of every successful business lies a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences. A customer experience specialist is a professional dedicated to ensuring just that. They are experts in orchestrating seamless interactions between a company and its customers, aiming to provide delightful experiences at every touchpoint.

These specialists possess a unique blend of skills and qualities that enable them to excel in their roles. They are empathetic listeners, adept problem solvers, and exceptional communicators. Armed with a deep understanding of customer behavior and market trends, they bridge the gap between the company and its target audience.

By leveraging their expertise, customer experience specialists drive customer satisfaction and retention, ultimately boosting the company’s bottom line. Their contributions are invaluable in building a loyal customer base and establishing a stellar reputation in the market.

What does a Customer Experience Specialist do?

The role of a customer experience specialist is multifaceted, encompassing various responsibilities that contribute to creating remarkable customer journeys . Let’s explore some key areas where these specialists make a significant impact:

1. Strategy Development:

Customer experience specialists collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop and execute comprehensive strategies that align with the organization’s goals. They analyze customer feedback, conduct market research , and identify areas for improvement, all while keeping a finger on the pulse of emerging trends in the industry.

2. Customer Journey Mapping:

By mapping the customer journey, these specialists gain insights into the touchpoints and pain points experienced by customers throughout their interaction with the brand. They identify opportunities to enhance the experience at each stage, ensuring a seamless and personalized journey.

3. Customer Support and Issue Resolution:

Customer experience specialists serve as the first line of defense when customers encounter issues or have inquiries. In addition to addressing issues and coming up with solutions that live up to client expectations, they offer timely and sympathetic support. Their goal is to turn negative experiences into positive ones, leaving customers satisfied and confident in the brand.

4. Data Analysis and Reporting:

With data as their ally, customer experience specialists analyze customer feedback, behavior patterns, and satisfaction metrics to gain actionable insights. They generate reports and present findings to key stakeholders, enabling data-driven decision-making that fuels continuous improvement.

5. Training and Development:

These specialists play a crucial role in training employees across departments on delivering exceptional customer experiences. To ensure a consistent customer-centric approach across the organization, they create training materials, run workshops, and coach team members. (Related: Want insights into some amazing training Needs Survey Questions for Employees )

The Roles and Responsibilities of a Customer Experience Specialist

Customer experience specialists fulfill a wide range of roles and responsibilities within an organization. Here are some key areas where their expertise shines:

1. Customer Engagement and Relationship Building: They foster meaningful relationships with customers, providing personalized attention and ensuring their needs are met throughout their journey with the brand. This includes proactive communication, anticipating customer needs, and delivering tailored solutions.

2. Feedback Management: Customer experience specialists are instrumental in collecting and analyzing customer feedback. They leverage feedback management tools and techniques to gather insights that inform decision-making and drive continuous improvement. Speaking of gathering feedback, SurveySparrow offers a seamless solution for collecting customer insights. If you are interested, you can even try it out for free!

3. Brand Advocacy: These specialists act as brand ambassadors, embodying the values and principles of the organization. They promote brand loyalty, generate positive word-of-mouth, and actively seek opportunities to enhance the brand’s reputation in the market.

4. CX Technology and Innovation: Customer experience specialists stay updated with the latest technologies and trends in the field. They leverage innovative tools and systems to streamline processes, enhance customer interactions, and drive efficiency in delivering exceptional experiences.

Jobs in Customer Experience Management

The growing importance of customer experience has led to an increased demand for customer experience management professionals. Organizations across industries are seeking skilled individuals who can spearhead their customer-centric initiatives. Here are some common job titles and roles related to customer experience management:

• Customer Success Manager
• Customer Service Team Lead
• User Experience Researcher
• Customer Insights Analyst

As the importance of customer experience continues to rise, so does the need for specialists who can champion this cause within organizations. These roles offer diverse opportunities to shape the customer journey and drive meaningful change that directly impacts business success.

The CX Specialist Skill Set

Becoming a customer experience specialist requires a unique set of skills and qualities. While empathy and communication skills are paramount, let’s explore some other attributes that make a CX specialist excel:

Salary Potential for Customer Experience Specialists

As customer experience gains prominence, organizations recognize the value of dedicated CX specialists. Salary potential varies based on factors such as experience, industry, and location. On average, a CX specialist can expect to earn between $55,000 and $70,000 per year, with opportunities for growth as they progress in their careers.

Real-Life Use Case: Apple’s Customer Experience Specialists

Apple’s success in delivering exceptional customer experiences is attributed to their dedicated customer experience specialists. These specialists possess deep knowledge of Apple products and provide personalized attention, guidance, and expert advice to customers. They offer post-sales support through training sessions, workshops, and troubleshooting assistance.

In this way, Apple’s customer experience specialists contribute to high customer satisfaction, repeat business, and strong loyalty. Their role is instrumental in creating remarkable customer experiences and driving the success of renowned brands.

Let’s wrap up!

You’ve gained a glimpse into the world of customer experience specialists and the invaluable role they play in driving customer satisfaction. From understanding their responsibilities to exploring various industry roles and their salary potential, you now have a solid foundation for creating exceptional customer experiences.

Don’t forget to harness the power of SurveySparrow along the way. Sign up today and unlock the ability to effortlessly collect feedback, empowering your organization to deliver exceptional customer-centric experiences. Together, let’s embark on a journey of delight!

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Q1: How does a Customer Experience Specialist differ from a Customer Service Representative?

Answer: A Customer Experience Specialist focuses on the overall customer journey and creating positive experiences, while a Customer Service Representative primarily handles individual customer inquiries and problem resolution.

Q2: How do Customer Experience Specialists measure and improve customer satisfaction?

Answer: They employ active listening, empathy, and problem-solving skills to de-escalate situations, find appropriate solutions, and turn a negative experience into a positive one.

Q3: How do Customer Experience Specialists contribute to a company’s overall success and growth?

Answer: By focusing on creating exceptional customer experiences, they foster customer loyalty, advocacy, and positive word-of-mouth, which directly impact a company’s reputation, retention rates, and revenue growth.

Q4: What are some trends or emerging areas in customer experience that Customer Experience Specialists should be aware of?

Answer: Trends include AI-powered chatbots, personalized experiences, self-service options, proactive support, and leveraging data analytics for deeper customer insights.

Q5: How do Customer Experience Specialists gather and analyze customer feedback?

Answer: They gather feedback through surveys, interviews, social media listening, and data analytics tools. The feedback is then analyzed to identify trends, pain points, and areas for improvement.

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Customer Journey Maps: How to Create Really Good Ones [Examples + Template]

Published: May 04, 2023

Did you know 70% of online shoppers abandoned their carts in 2021? Why would someone spend time adding products to their cart just to fall off the customer journey map right at the last second?

The thing is -- understanding your customer base can be extremely challenging. And even when you think you've got a good read on them, the journey from awareness to purchase for each customer will always be unpredictable, at least to some level.

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While it isn't possible to predict every experience with 100% accuracy, customer journey mapping is a very handy tool for keeping track of important milestones that every customer hits. In this post, I'll explain everything you need to know about customer journey mapping — what it is, how to create one, and best practices.

Table of Contents

What is the customer journey?

Customer journey stages.

• What is a customer journey map?

The Customer Journey Mapping Process

What's included in a customer journey map, steps for creating a customer journey map.

• Types of Customer Journey Maps
• Customer Journey Map Best Practices

Benefits of Customer Journey Mapping

• Customer Journey Map Examples

Free Customer Journey Map Templates

Free Customer Journey Template

Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free templates.

• Buyer's Journey Template
• Future State Template
• Day-in-the-Life Template

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

The customer journey is the series of interactions a customer has with a brand, product, or business as they become aware of a pain point and make a purchase decision. While the buyer's journey refers to the general process of arriving at a purchase, the customer journey refers to a buyer's purchasing experience with a specific company or service.

Customer Journey vs. Buyer Journey

Many businesses that I've worked with were confused about the differences between the customer's journey and the buyer's journey. The buyer's journey is the entire buying experience from pre-purchase to post-purchase. It covers the path from customer awareness to becoming a product or service user.

In other words, buyers don't wake up and decide to buy on a whim. They go through a process to consider, evaluate, and decide to purchase a new product or service.

The customer journey refers to your brand's place within the buyer's journey. These are the customer touchpoints where you will meet your customers as they go through the stages of the buyer's journey. When you create a customer journey map, you're taking control of every touchpoint at every stage of the journey, instead of leaving it up to chance.

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For example, at HubSpot, our customer's journey is divided into 3 stages — pre-purchase/sales, onboarding/migration, and normal use/renewal.

The stages may not be the same for you — in fact, your brand will likely come up with a set of unique stages of the customer journey. But where do you start? Let's take a look.

Generally, there are 5 phases that customers go through when interacting with a brand or a product: Awareness, Consideration, Decision, Retention, and Loyalty.

1. Awareness Stage

In the awareness stage, customers realize they have a problem. At this point, they may not know that they need a product or service, but they will begin doing research either way.

During this stage of the customer journey, brands should deliver educational content to help customers diagnose a problem and offer potential solutions. Your aim should be to help customers alleviate their pain point, not encourage a purchase.

Some educational content that I've created in the past are:

• How-to articles and guides
• General whitepapers
• General ebooks
• Free courses

Educational content may also be delivered via customer touchpoints such as:

• Social media
• Search engines

2. Consideration

In the consideration stage, customers have done enough research to realize that they need a product or service. At this point, they begin to compare brands and offerings.

During this stage, brands should deliver product marketing content to help customers compare different offerings and, eventually, choose their product or service. The aim is to help customers navigate a crowded marketplace and move them toward a purchase decision.

Product marketing content may include:

• Product listicles
• Product comparison guides and charts
• Product-focused white papers
• Customer success stories or case studies

Product marketing content may be delivered via customer touchpoints such as:

• Your website
• Conferences

3. Decision Stage

In the decision stage, customers have chosen a solution and are ready to buy.

During this stage, your brand should deliver a seamless purchase process to make buying products as easy as possible. I wouldn't recommend any more educational or product content at this stage — it's all about getting customers to make a purchase. That means you can be more direct about wanting customers to buy from you.

Decision-stage content may include:

• Free consultations
• Product sign-up pages
• Pricing pages
• Product promotions (i.e "Sign up now and save 30%")

Decision-stage content may be delivered via customer touchpoints such as:

4. Retention Stage

In the retention stage, customers have now purchased a solution and stay with the company they purchased from, as opposed to leaving for another provider.

During this stage, brands provide an excellent onboarding experience and ongoing customer service to ensure that customers don't churn.

Retention-stage strategies may include:

• Providing a dedicated customer success manager
• Making your customer service team easily accessible
• Creating a knowledge base in case customers ever run into a roadblock

Retention-stage strategies may be delivered via customer touchpoints such as:

5. Loyalty Stage

In the loyalty stage, customers not only choose to stay with a company — they actively promote it to family, friends, and colleagues. The loyalty stage can also be called the advocacy stage.

During this phase, brands should focus on providing a fantastic end-to-end customer experience. This should span from your website content to your sales reps all the way to your social media team and your product's UX.

Most importantly, customers become loyal when they've achieved success with your product — if it works, they're more likely to recommend your brand to others.

Loyalty-stage strategies may include:

• Having an easy-to-navigate website
• Investing in your product team to ensure your product exceeds customer expectations
• Making it easy to share your brand with others via a loyalty or referral program
• Providing perks to continued customers, such as discounts

Loyalty-stage strategies may be delivered via customer touchpoints such as:

• Your products

To find out whether your customers have reached the loyalty stage, try a Net Promoter Score survey , which asks one simple question: "On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend?" To deliver this survey, you can use customer feedback software like Service Hub .

Now, let's get to the good stuff. Let's talk about creating your customer journey map.

What is the customer journey map?

A customer journey map is a visual representation of the customer's experience with a company. It also provides insight into the needs of potential customers at every stage of this journey and the factors that directly or indirectly motivate or inhibit their progress.

The business can then use this information to improve the customer's experience, increase conversions, and boost customer retention.

Now, the customer journey map is not to be confused with a UX journey map. But, for clarity, let's distinguish these two below.

What is UX journey mapping?

A UX journey map represents how a customer experiences their journey toward achieving a specific goal or completing a particular action.

For example, the term "UX journey mapping" can be used interchangeably with the term "customer journey mapping" if the goal being tracked is the user's journey toward purchasing a product or service.

However, UX journey mapping can also be used to map the journey (i.e., actions taken) towards other goals, such as using a specific product feature.

Why is customer journey mapping important?

While the customer journey might seem straightforward — the company offers a product or service, and customers buy it — for most businesses, it typically isn't.

In reality, it's a complex journey that begins when the customer becomes problem-aware (which might be long before they become product-aware) and then moves through an intricate process of further awareness, consideration, and decision-making.

The customer is also exposed to multiple external factors (competitor ads, reviews, etc.) and touchpoints with the company (conversations with sales reps, interacting with content, viewing product demos, etc.).

Keep in mind that 80% of customers consider their experience with a company to be as important as its products.

By mapping this journey, your marketing, sales, and service teams can understand, visualize, and gain insight into each stage of the process.

You can then decrease any friction along the way and make the journey as helpful and delightful as possible for your leads and customers.

Customer journey mapping is the process of creating a customer journey map — the visual representation of a company's customer experience. It compiles a customer's experience as they interact with a business and combines the information into a visual map.

The goal of this process is to draw insights that help you understand how your customers experience their journeys and identify the potential bottlenecks along the way.

It's also important to note that most customer journeys aren't linear. Instead, buyers often experience a back-and-forth, cyclical, multi-channel journey.

Let's look at the stages that you should include in any customer journey.

• The Buying Process
• User Actions
• User Research

1. The Buying Process

To determine your customers' buying process, you'll want to pull data from all relevant sources (prospecting tools, CMS, behavior analytics tools, etc.) to accurately chart your customer's path from first to last contact.

However, you can keep it simple by creating broad categories using the typical buying journey process stages — awareness, consideration, and decision — and mapping them horizontally.

2. Emotions

Whether the goal is big or small, remember your customers are solving a problem. That means they're probably feeling some emotion — whether that's relief, happiness, excitement, or worry.

Adding these emotions to the journey map will help you identify and mitigate negative emotions and the pain points that cause them.

On HubSpot's journey map , we use emojis to represent potential emotions at different stages of the customer journey. 

3. User Actions

This element details what a customer does in each stage of the buying process. For example, during the problem-awareness stage, customers might download ebooks or join educational webinars.

Essentially, you're exploring how your customers move through and behave at each stage of their journey.

4. User Research

Similar to the last section, this element describes what or where the buyer researches when they are taking action.

More than likely, the buyer will turn to search engines, like Google, to research solutions during the awareness stage. However, it's important to pay attention to what they're researching so you can best address their pain points.

5. Solutions

1. Use customer journey map templates.

Why make a customer journey map from scratch when you can use a template? Save yourself some time by downloading HubSpot's free customer journey map templates .

This has templates that map out a buyer's journey, a day in the life of your customer, lead nurturing, and more.

These templates can help sales, marketing, and customer support teams learn more about your company's buyer persona. Not only will this lead to improvements to your product, but also a better customer experience.

2. Set clear objectives for the map.

Before you dive into your customer journey map, you need to ask yourself why you're creating one in the first place.

What goals are you directing this map towards? Who is it for? What experience is it based upon?

If you don't have one, I would recommend creating a buyer persona . This is a fictitious customer with all the demographics and psychographics representing your average customer. This persona reminds you to direct every aspect of your customer journey map toward the right audience.

3. Profile your personas and define their goals.

Next, you should conduct research. This is where it helps to have customer journey analytics at the ready.

Don't have them? No worries. You can check out HubSpot's Customer Journey Analytics tool to get started. 

Some great ways to get valuable customer feedback are questionnaires and user testing. The important thing is to only reach out to actual customers or prospects.

You want feedback from people interested in purchasing your products and services and who have either interacted with your company or plan to do so.

Some examples of good questions to ask are:

• How did you hear about our company?
• What first attracted you to our website?
• What are the goals you want to achieve with our company? In other words, what problems are you trying to solve?
• How long have you/do you typically spend on our website?
• Have you ever made a purchase with us? If so, what was your deciding factor?
• Have you ever interacted with our website to make a purchase but decided not to? If so, what led you to this decision?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how easily can you navigate our website?
• Did you ever require customer support? If so, how helpful was it, on a scale of 1 to 10?
• Can we further support you to make your process easier?

You can use this buyer persona tool to fill in the details you procure from customer feedback.

4. Highlight your target customer personas.

Once you've learned about the customer personas that interact with your business, I would recommend narrowing your focus to one or two.

Remember, a UX journey map tracks the experience of a customer taking a particular path with your company — so if you group too many personas into one journey, your map won't accurately reflect that experience.

When creating your first map, it's best to pick your most common customer persona and consider the route they would typically take when engaging with your business for the first time.

You can use a marketing dashboard to compare each and determine the best fit for your journey map. Don't worry about the ones you leave out, as you can always go back and create a new map specific to those customer types.

5. List out all touchpoints.

Begin by listing the touchpoints on your website.

Based on your research, you should have a list of all the touchpoints your customers are currently using and the ones you believe they should be using if there's no overlap.

This is essential in creating a UX journey map because it provides insight into your customers' actions.

For instance, if they use fewer touchpoints than expected, does this mean they're quickly getting turned away and leaving your site early? If they are using more than expected, does this mean your website is complicated and requires several steps to reach an end goal?

Whatever the case, understanding touchpoints help you understand the ease or difficulties of the customer journey.

Aside from your website, you also need to look at how your customers might find you online. These channels might include:

• Social channels
• Email marketing
• Third-party review sites or mentions

Run a quick Google search of your brand to see all the pages that mention you. Verify these by checking your Google Analytics to see where your traffic is coming from. Whittle your list down to those touchpoints that are the most common and will be most likely to see an action associated with it.

At HubSpot, we hosted workshops where employees from all over the company highlighted instances where our product, service, or brand, impacted a customer. Those moments were recorded and logged as touchpoints. This showed us multiple areas of our customer journey where our communication was inconsistent.

The proof is in the pudding -- you can see us literally mapping these touch points out with sticky notes in the image below.

HubSpot's free customer journey map template makes it easier than ever to visualize the buyer's journey. It saved me some time organizing and outlining my customer experience and it made it clear how a website could impact my user's lives. 

The customer journey map template can also help you discover areas of improvement in your product, marketing, and support processes.

Download a free, editable customer journey map template.

Types of Customer Journey Maps and Examples

There are four types of customer journey maps , each with unique benefits. Pick the one that makes the most sense for your company.

Current State

These customer journey maps are the most widely used type. They visualize the actions, thoughts, and emotions your customers currently experience while interacting with your company. They're best used for continually improving the customer journey.

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Day in the Life

These customer journey maps visualize the actions, thoughts, and emotions your customers currently experience in their daily activities, whether or not that includes your company.

This type gives a broader lens into your customers' lives and what their pain points are in real life.

Day-in-the-life maps are best used for addressing unmet customer needs before customers even know they exist. Your company may use this type of customer journey map when exploring new market development strategies .

Future State

These customer journey maps visualize what actions, thoughts, and emotions that your customers will experience in future interactions with your company. Based on their current interaction with your company, you'll have a clear picture of where your business fits in later down the road.

These maps are best for illustrating your vision and setting clear, strategic goals.

Service Blueprint

These customer journey maps begin with a simplified version of one of the above map styles. Then, they layer on the factors responsible for delivering that experience, including people, policies, technologies, and processes.

Service blueprints are best used to identify the root causes of current customer journeys or the steps needed to attain desired future customer journeys.

If you want a look at a real customer journey map that HubSpot has used recently, check out this interview we conducted with Sarah Flint, Director of System Operations at HubSpot. We asked her how her team put together their map (below) as well as what advice she would give to businesses starting from scratch. 

Customer Journey Mapping Best Practices

• Set a goal for the journey map.
• Survey customers to understand their buying journey.
• Ask customer service reps about the questions they receive most frequently.
• Consider UX journey mapping for each buyer persona.
• Review and update each journey map after every major product release.
• Make the customer journey map accessible to cross-functional teams.

1. Set a goal for the journey map.

Determine whether you aim to improve the buying experience or launch a new product. Knowing what the journey map needs to tell you can prevent scope creep on a large project like this.

2. Survey customers to understand their buying journey.

What you think you know about the customer experience and what they actually experience can be very different. Speak to your customers directly, so you have an accurate snapshot of the customer's journey.

3. Ask customer service reps about the questions they receive most frequently.

Sometimes, customers aren't aware of their specific pain points, and that's where your customer service reps come in.

They can help fill in the gaps and translate customer pain points into business terms you and your team can understand and act on.

4. Consider UX journey mapping for each buyer persona.

It's easy to assume each customer operates the same way, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

Demographics, psychographics, and even how long someone has been a customer can determine how a person interacts with your business and makes purchasing decisions.

Group overarching themes into buyer personas and create a UX journey map for each.

5. Review and update each journey map after every major product release.

Every time your product or service changes, the customer's buying process changes. Even slight tweaks, like adding an extra field to a form, can become a significant roadblock.

So, reviewing the customer journey map before and after implementing changes is essential.

6. Make the customer journey map accessible to cross-functional teams.

Customer journey maps aren't very valuable in a silo. However, creating a journey map is a convenient way for cross-functional teams to provide feedback.

Afterward, make a copy of the map accessible to each team, so they always keep the customer top of mind.

Breaking down the customer journey, phase by phase, aligning each step with a goal, and restructuring your touchpoints accordingly are essential steps for maximizing customer success .

Here are a few more benefits to gain from customer journey mapping.

1. You can refocus your company with an inbound perspective.

Rather than discovering customers through outbound marketing, you can have your customers find you with the help of inbound marketing.

Outbound marketing involves tactics targeted at generalized or uninterested audiences and seeks to interrupt the customers' daily lives. Outbound marketing is costly and inefficient. It annoys and deters customers and prospects.

Inbound marketing involves creating helpful content that customers are already looking for. You grab their attention first and focus on the sales later.

By mapping out the customer journey, you can understand what's interesting and helpful to your customers and what's turning them away.

2. You can create a new target customer base.

You need to understand the customer journey properly to understand your customers' demographics and psychographics.

It's a waste of time and money to repeatedly target too broad of an audience rather than people who are actually interested in your offering.

Researching the needs and pain points of your typical customers will give you a good picture of the kinds of people who are trying to achieve a goal with your company. Thus, you can hone your marketing to that specific audience.

3. You can implement proactive customer service.

A customer journey map is like a roadmap to the customer's experience.

It highlights moments where people experience delight and situations where they might face friction. Knowing this ahead of time allows you to plan your customer service strategy and intervene at ideal times.

Proactive customer service also makes your brand appear more reliable. For example, when I worked in customer support, we would anticipate a surge in tickets around the holidays. To be proactive, we'd send out a message to customers letting them know about our team's adjusted holiday hours. We would aalso tell them about additional support options if we were unavailable and what to do if an urgent problem needed immediate attention.

With expectations set, customers won't feel surprised if they're waiting on hold a little longer than usual. They'll even have alternative options to choose from — like a chatbot or knowledge base — if they need to find a faster solution.

4. You can improve your customer retention rate.

When you have a complete view of the customer journey, it's easier to pick out areas where you can improve it. When you do, customers experience fewer pain points, leading to fewer people leaving your brand for competitors.

After all, 33% of customers will consider switching brands after just one poor experience.

UX journey mapping can point out individuals on the path to churn. If you log the common behaviors of these customers, you can start to spot them before they leave your business.

While you might not save them all, it's worth the try. Increasing customer retention rates by just 5% can increase profits by 25%-95%.

5. You can create a customer-focused mentality throughout the company.

As your company grows, it can be tricky to coordinate all your departments to be as customer-focused as your customer service, support, and success teams are. That's because each department has varying goals, meaning they might not be prioritizing customer needs -- they might focusing on website traffic, leads, product signups, etc.

One way to overcome this data silo is to share a clear customer journey map with your entire organization. The great thing about these maps is that they map out every single step of the customer journey, from initial attraction to post-purchase support. And, yes, this concerns marketing, sales, and service. 

For more examples of customer journey maps, read on to the next section for a few templates you can use as a baseline for your company's map. 

Customer Journey Mapping Examples

To help guide your business in its direction, here are examples to draw inspiration from for building out your customer journey map.

1. HubSpot's Customer Journey Map Templates

HubSpot's free Customer Journey Map Templates provide an outline for companies to understand their customers' experiences.

The offer includes the following:

• Current State Template
• Lead Nurturing Mapping Template
• A Day in the Customer's Life Template
• Customer Churn Mapping Template
• Customer Support Blueprint Template

Each of these templates helps organizations gain new insights into their customer base and help make improvements to product, marketing, and customer support processes.

Download them today to start working on your customer journey map.

2. B2B Customer Journey Map Example

This customer journey map clearly outlines the five steps Dapper Apps believes customers go through when interacting with them.

As you can see, it goes beyond the actual purchasing phase by incorporating initial research and post-purchase needs.

This map is effective because it helps employees get into the customers' minds by understanding the typical questions they have and the emotions they're feeling.

There are incremental action steps that Dapper Apps can take in response to these questions and feelings that will help it solve all the current problems customers are having.

3. Ecommerce Customer Journey Map Example

This fictitious customer journey map is a clear example of a day-in-the-life map.

Rather than just focusing on the actions and emotions involved in the customer's interaction with the company, this map outlines all the actions and emotions the customer experiences on a typical day.

This map is helpful because it measures a customer's state of mind based on the level of freedom they get from certain stimuli.

This is helpful for a company that wants to understand what its target customers are stressed about and what problems may need solving.

4. Future B2C Customer Journey Map Example

This customer journey map, designed for Carnegie Mellon University, exemplifies the usefulness of a future state customer journey map. It outlines the thoughts, feelings, and actions the university wants its students to have.

Based on these goals, CMU chose specific proposed changes for each phase and even wrote out example scenarios for each phase.

This clear diagram can visualize the company vision and help any department understand where they will fit into building a better user experience.

5. Retail Customer Journey Map Example

This customer journey map shows an in-depth customer journey map of a customer interacting with a fictitious restaurant.

It's clear that this style of map is more comprehensive than the others. It includes the front-of-stage (direct) and back-of-stage (non-direct or invisible) interactions a customer has with the company, as well as the support processes.

This map lays out every action involved in the customer experience, including those of the customer, employees directly serving diners, and employees working behind the scenes.

By analyzing how each of these factors influences the customer journey, a company can find the root cause of mishaps and problem-solve this for the future.

To get your business from point A — deciding to focus on customer journeys — to point B — having a journey map — a critical step to the process is selecting which customer mindset your business will focus on.

This mindset will determine which of the following templates you'll use.

1. Current State Template

If you're using this template for a B2B product, the phases may reflect the search, awareness, consideration of options, purchasing decision, and post-purchase support processes.

For instance, in our Dapper Apps example, its phases were research, comparison, workshop, quote, and sign-off.

2. Day in the Life Template

Since this template reflects all the thoughts, feelings, actions, needs, and pain points a customer has in their entire daily routine — whether or not that includes your company — you'll want to map out this template in a chronological structure.

This way, you can highlight the times of day at which you can offer the best support.

Get an interactive day in the life template.

3. Future State Template

Similar to the current state template, these phases may also reflect the predicted or desired search, awareness, consideration of options, purchasing decision, and post-purchase support processes.

Since this takes place in the future, you can tailor these phases based on what you'd like the customer journey to look like rather than what it currently looks like.

Get an interactive future state template.

4. Service Blueprint Template

Since this template is more in-depth, it doesn't follow certain phases in the customer journey.

Instead, it's based on physical evidence — the tangible factors that can create impressions about the quality and prices of the service — that often come in sets of multiple people, places, or objects at a time.

For instance, with our fictitious restaurant example above, the physical evidence includes all the staff, tables, decorations, cutlery, menus, food, and anything else a customer comes into contact with.

You would then list the appropriate customer actions and employee interactions to correspond with each physical evidence.

For example, when the physical evidence is plates, cutlery, napkins, and pans, the customer gives their order, the front-of-stage employee (waiter) takes the order, the back-of-stage employee (receptionist) processes the order, and the support processes (chefs) prepare the food.

Get an interactive service blueprint template.

5. Buyer's Journey Template

You can also use the classic buyer's journey — awareness, consideration, and decision — to design your customer journey map.

Get an interactive buyer's journey template.

Charter the Path to Customer Success

Once you fully understand your customer's experience with your business, you can delight them at every stage of their buying journey. Remember, many factors can affect this journey, including customer pain points, emotions, and your company's touchpoints and processes.

A customer journey map is the most effective way to visualize this information, whether you're optimizing the customer experience or exploring a new business opportunity to serve a customer's unrecognized needs.

Use the free templates in this article to start mapping the future of customer success at your business.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August, 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

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• K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures

how to get interview date EARLIER for US embassy in MOSCOW!

By Justin and Kate July 7, 2011 in K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures

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34 posts in this topic

Recommended posts, justin and kate   2.

Hi, everyone! Basically it refers to VJ members who is going to have interview at US Embassy in MOSCOW. I really ho[e to have some advice.

We've just known our new moscow case #, the NVC oficer said it's going to be sent to moscow withoin 3 business days. I don't what to wait for till last moment...I mean don't wait for receiving packet 3 or 4. I called to Embassy and lady said to me that it take a MONTH the case to be delivered from nvc to embassy...omg is that true AND that I can't know the info about the date of interview earlier than in a month or 1.5....but I saw so timelines and ppl postings about interview date is WAY closer.....HOW they got this info about upcoming interview.

We got case # like on 07/05 ...but I want to leave Russia before 08/10 due to some reasons...is that possibility to get interview date before 08/10 so I can go ??? )))

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Justin and Kate 12 posts

baron555 4 posts

James And Oksana 4 posts

Felya and Olya 2 posts

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July 7, 2011

Never say never and please do email them. Be professional and courteous. They are USCs like us and they will do all in their power to accomodate, I do believe.

Back in 2009 during our time there, I emailed them more than a dozen times. Always received a reply within about 3 business days; most were short and sweet. Didn't remember any run-around answers or

Felya and Olya

It doesnt hurt to try =) I think you can do it. She told me that most girls were able to get faster dates for interviews..... Good luck anyway!!!!

NigeriaorBust   4,087

You will probably get better answers if this is moved to regional. I am not aware of any embassy that has interviews in that short of a time. Typical is a couple pf months worse case ( ghana) is over a year wait for an interview. Medical and police reports take some time as do background checks. You have to be patient and wiat in line like everyone else.

This will not be over quickly . You will not enjoy this.

You will probably get better answers if this is moved to regional. I am not aware of any embassy that has interviews in that short of a time. Typical is a couple pf months worse case ( ghana) is over a year wait for an interview. Medical and police reports take some time as do background checks. You have to be patient and wiat in line like everyone else. You will probably get better answers if this is moved to regional. I am not aware of any embassy that has interviews in that short of a time. Typical is a couple pf months worse case ( ghana) is over a year wait for an interview. Medical and police reports take some time as do background checks. You have to be patient and wiat in line like everyone else.

yeahhh I know...but I heard that some couples called to embassy/consulate and asks for changing dates...ofcuz it's up to officers to decide if they want to change it or not...it happens very seldom...all things like police cert. and medicals and all "long time prepared" papers ARE ready...I did it beforehand...so if I'm good to go why wait so long ...maybe I can get interview date by call to them or online somewhere...

baron555   934

Hi, everyone! Basically it refers to VJ members who is going to have interview at US Embassy in MOSCOW. I really ho[e to have some advice. We've just known our new moscow case #, the NVC oficer said it's going to be sent to moscow withoin 3 business days. I don't what to wait for till last moment...I mean don't wait for receiving packet 3 or 4. I called to Embassy and lady said to me that it take a MONTH the case to be delivered from nvc to embassy...omg is that true AND that I can't know the info about the date of interview earlier than in a month or 1.5....but I saw so timelines and ppl postings about interview date is WAY closer.....HOW they got this info about upcoming interview. We got case # like on 07/05 ...but I want to leave Russia before 08/10 due to some reasons...is that possibility to get interview date before 08/10 so I can go ??? ))) ANY advice or comment are MORE than welcome ...I just need to talk to it with somebody!

The reason the Bmbassy told you to wait about a month is that they themselves, the Embassy, conduct their own round of AP, just like NVC did and like USCIS did. Once you clear that and then are assigned an interview date, then you can email them (I emailed them quite a bit during our Embassy process). Follow our timeline but know that our first interview was in late September and we received the date very early Sept. (We had to reschedule for other reasons.)

I'd say that your goal of 8/10 is not realistic and you should just plan to not meet that.

Again, you must wait for the Embassy to finish their AP before they will even talk dates.

Phil (Lockport, near Chicago) and Alla (Lobnya, near Moscow)

As of Dec 7, 2009, now Zero miles apart (literally)!

Well,dissapointed a tbit but at least I got realistic anwer from you. Thanks for your promp reply! I think I'll contact Embassy by email or whatever is possible. I was SO hoping that I'll be in US in August (((

• Justin and Kate

Felya and Olya   3

You can certainly move up the interview date. My girl's own forum in Russia says that the US Citizen should email the embassy and explain why they would like to move up the interview date. They certainly will work with you and should give you a better date. Good luck !!!!!!!!!!

K-1 Visa Journey

03/15/2011 - I-129F sent via USPS

03/18/2011 - NOA1

06/14/2011 - NOA2

07/11/2011 - NVC In

07/11/2011 - NVC Out

07/18/2011 - Consulate Received

08/15/2011 - Interview - Visa Approved

08/31/2011 - Aeroflot - Moscow > Los Angeles

11/19/2011 - Married =)

03/01/2012 - AOS, EAD, & AP packet submitted

03/07/2012 - AOS, EAD, & AP - NOA

03/29/2012 - AOS, EAD, & AP - Biometrics

04/30/2012 - EAD & AP Approved

Sergi9   110

The problem with Moscow is it is so hit and miss and they seem to be dealing with the assumption that all cases are non-immigrant cases regardless of you providing the case number. If you want to call and talk to someone you have to "pay to play" and its expensive and frustrating as they also seem to only be familiar with general non-immigrant questions.

If you find a telephone number where you can actually speak to a helpful person please share it with the rest of us.

I am very dubious as to whether the people who answer the phone or the emails at Moscow are US Citizens, if so they are abominably challenged in grammer and spelling and they have developed strong Russian accents perhaps from living and working so closeley with the Russians in their community? The problem with Moscow is it is so hit and miss and they seem to be dealing with the assumption that all cases are non-immigrant cases regardless of you providing the case number. If you want to call and talk to someone you have to "pay to play" and its expensive and frustrating as they also seem to only be familiar with general non-immigrant questions. If you find a telephone number where you can actually speak to a helpful person please share it with the rest of us.

I was calling to US embassy official visa support phone...the lady was definately Russian, they charge me insane amount of money for 3 min talk ))) and I almost got NO useful info....but I know for sure that most of ppl who works there ARE US citizens and Russians are ONLY for administrative duties like calls and maybe mails...

Back in 2009 during our time there, I emailed them more than a dozen times. Always received a reply within about 3 business days; most were short and sweet. Didn't remember any run-around answers or grammar or spelling issues.

Email them and request your request. No need to be lovey dovey about it, just state why you would like an earlier date, if at all possible.

It doesnt hurt to try =)

I think you can do it. She told me that most girls were able to get faster dates for interviews..... Good luck anyway!!!!

James And Oksana   19

I emailed them every three or 4 days with my case number asking for an interview date and gave a reason. They did not give an interview date until the AP at the embassy was done. Once it was and they issued a interview date in the computer, a day later they emailed back and gave an option to move the interview up from August 5th to July 13th. As someone else said, have the US citizen to email and be nice about it, and they will work with you as much as possible.

Based on what I know of others dates, I would not plan on having an interview before August 10th. Keep in mind it takes typically 3 business days for the embassy to get the passport(s) to DHL and then delivery time.

Also, be careful as the embassy will tell you they have not received the packet from the NVC , when it has been delivered just not put into the computer system.

Also, have the US citizen call this number starting a week after sent from NVC and see if an interview date has been assigned. I did this daily and how I got the August 5th date given to me before the embassy came back and offered to change it.

Call (202) 663-1225. Press 1, then 0 to speak to a visa specialist

James and Oksana

Traveled to Novosibirsk, Russia (thats in Siberia) over holidays

Engaged on ----------------- New Years

Send I-129F package ---- 1/15/2011

Package Received -------- 1/18/2011 10:13 AM signed for by J BRADSHAW

NOA1---------------------------1/20/2011

E-Notification of NOA1---- 1/24/2011 1:09 AM & check cashed, sent to CSC

Hard Copy NOA1------------1/27/2011

Surprise Visit Fiancée-----4/12/2011 - 4/18/2011 (see picture as she was shocked!)

NOA2---------------------------5/11/2011

Birthday Visit------------------5/18/2011 - 5/25/2011

VISA APPROVED!!!----------7/13/2011

I emailed them every three or 4 days with my case number asking for an interview date and gave a reason. They did not give an interview date until the AP at the embassy was done. Once it was and they issued a interview date in the computer, a day later they emailed back and gave an option to move the interview up from August 5th to July 13th. As someone else said, have the US citizen to email and be nice about it, and they will work with you as much as possible. Based on what I know of others dates, I would not plan on having an interview before August 10th. Keep in mind it takes typically 3 business days for the embassy to get the passport(s) to DHL and then delivery time. Also, be careful as the embassy will tell you they have not received the packet from the NVC , when it has been delivered just not put into the computer system. Also, have the US citizen call this number starting a week after sent from NVC and see if an interview date has been assigned. I did this daily and how I got the August 5th date given to me before the embassy came back and offered to change it. Call (202) 663-1225. Press 1, then 0 to speak to a visa specialist Good Luck!

WOW, so much help! It means a lot for me! I'll everything you all advised here )))))))))))))))))))) have BIG releave now.

TJC78   2

I don't know how it is in Russia, but our K-1 was received at the Embassy in Ukraine 4 days after the NVC sent it. I called the Embassy and was told that they had received it, so I purchased the PIN code and called back 2 days ago to schedule the interview for my fiancee, which will be on August 8. So, it's about a month from the time you call to schedule the interview.

If I am reading correctly, you received your case number from the NVC , but you don't know if they have sent it to the Embassy in Moscow yet? I was told it would take 4-6 weeks, but like I said earlier, they received it in 4 days. I would call the NVC to see if they have sent it, and if they did send it more than 4 days ago, you should call the Embassy to see if they have it. If so, you'll be able to schedule the interview right away.

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In Moscow will take place the 16th international exhibition “Journey and Tourism”

From March 18 to 21 the 16th international exhibition “Journey and Tourism” organized by company ITE will take place in Expocentre on Krasnopresnenskaya.

For the first time the exhibition took place in 1994. Then 800 companies of 50 countries participated in it. Already next year “Journey and tourism” were recognized as the best professional forum of the year (portion of visitor – professionals 73%). Today this is the main tourist exhibition in Russia and the one of five largest in the world.

According to the data of organizers, this year in Expocentre will be assembled more than 3 thousand companies of 120 countries and regions of the world: Asia, Africa, Latin America, Australia, Oceania, Turkey, the countries of the Mediterranean and Europe.

According to the opinion of those who participated in the exhibition, it reflects clearly all the processes, proceeding in the branch. For this reason the majority of exponents come to the exhibition every year. So yearly the very last tendencies and developments in the sphere of tourism are demonstrated on the exhibition.

It is worthwhile to note that the geography of participants is enlarged yearly. On the 16th exhibition Columbia and Japan organize their pavilions for the first time. And Dubai will become the official partner of “Journey and Tourism”.

Organizers give special attention to the development of the programs of inbound tourism. To report the changes proceeding in this range international practical business-conference “the regions of Russia: new possibilities for the development of tourism” is organized.

For the first time the conference of this scale, dedicated to domestic tourism, took place on the 15th international exhibition. At the conference was represented the rating of the competitive ability of 46 Russian regions within the framework of international tourism, experience and prospects for the development of the tourist zones of Russia based on the example of Krasnodar edge.

Furthermore, according to the information bureau “Regnum”, the organizers of exhibition developed the program of the guest participation the Wild Card, intended for the national and regional tourist administrations, which yet did not assume participation in the exhibition. Free stand will be organized for them.

The festival of the commercials of the countries participating in the exhibition will become one additional outstanding event. The commercials of the conquerors – special judges will select them – will be transmitted on the plasma panels in the territory of exhibition.

Within the framework of the exhibition the presentation to yearly tourist reward “Star of Travel.ru” of 2008 will take place. This is Russia's first reward in the range of tourism, whose laureates are determined by the sums of Internet-voting users.

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A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow Hardcover – February 5, 1958

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Part of series Russian Library
• Print length 294 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Harvard University Press
• Publication date February 5, 1958
• Dimensions 6.14 x 0.69 x 9.21 inches
• ISBN-10 0674435184
• ISBN-13 978-0674435186
• See all details

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Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard University Press; Reprint 2014 edition (February 5, 1958)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 294 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674435184
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674435186
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.34 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 0.69 x 9.21 inches
• #16,469 in Russian History (Books)

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