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In this context, the interaction effects, in particular, provide nuanced insights into how managers can improve the overall effectiveness of B2B CJMC based on the development of individual dimensions. These complexities can confound the customer journey mapping team, resulting in maps which are either overly complex or overly simplified, failing to capture the most important B2B touchpoints from the customer perspective and the emotional response to these from the customer. As customer journey maps can be complex, it is critical to design a clear visualized map that can be understood and used across departments. B2B customer journey mapping is the process of visualizing and understanding the steps a business customer takes from initial awareness of a product or service to post-purchase engagement. With the right approach, you can transform complex, multi-stakeholder interactions into actionable insights that drive meaningful business outcomes.

The provider then deploys solutions and offers training to the workforce. An IT service company feels the need for improvements to its tech and service infrastructure. For a business, it’s therefore important to understand those journeys and stages to better meet the needs of their customers. Many businesses leverage survey and feedback platforms to collect valuable insights from customers and then make needful adjustments to their engagement strategy.

Analyzing first-party data reveals what those buyers value most, so you can deliver the content, B2B products, and offers that match their priorities. It helps businesses better understand the journey a prospect takes during the B2B buying process, including the key steps toward becoming a customer. Similar to how a product roadmap outlines a product’s development, this form of mapping guides you through every stage of the customer cycle. In B2B ecommerce, the sales funnel is typically longer and more complex—decisions are made by multiple stakeholders instead of one person making an impulsive purchase. Online ordering accounts for 34% of total B2B revenue at companies that offer ecommerce, overtaking in-person sales for the first time.

Identifying & prioritizing potential customer touchpoints

The in-depth interviews repeatedly showed that suppliers need to keep aspects such as quality, information content, cooperate identity, and interaction behavior constant across all touchpoints and along repetitive CJs to deliver lasting customer value. Thus, despite complex and dynamic B2B CJs, this capability enables every touchpoint to be conducive to the overall aim of economic customer value creation. Once a year, we conduct a customer survey, workshop, and customer observations to identify the 100 most important touchpoints and their “is of use” from a customer perspective.

• Specifically, future research could focus on external and internal forces that drive firms to focus on the investment and development of B2B CJMC.
• This is useful in the development of the journey map to specific target customer groups.
• Based on insights from over 3,000 researchers across the globe, the 2025 Qualtrics Market Research Trends Report reveals that there is a growing demand for extensive research.
• For a business, it’s therefore important to understand those journeys and stages to better meet the needs of their customers.

How to Create a B2B Customer Journey Map

Vendors typically charge the user on a subscription basis and offer the option of monthly or yearly payments. Other CRM features enable managers to track performance and productivity based on information logged within the system. Some of these functions include recording various customer interactions over email, phone, social media and other channels. Operational CRM focuses on automating and improving daily customer interactions such as through call centers, marketing and sales workflows. This information can help organizations use valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences and motivations to enable better customer segmentation and targeted marketing.

What changed in January 2026

• Wellness offerings grounded in measurable relief will displace those that trade on vague aspiration. These developments reflect a deeper consumer drive toward biological agency, the desire to understand and influence foundational aspects of well-being rather than merely treat symptoms. These developments are not fads; they reflect a deeper consumer drive toward biological agency, the desire to understand and influence foundational aspects of well-being rather than merely treat symptoms. Narrative frameworks that celebrate context over polish outperform formulaic storytelling, because they feel earned and recognisable. At the same time, companies are embedding AI deeply into beauty journeys, offering personalised diagnostics and real-time product recommendations that feel less like automation and more like digital empathy. Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights.

Creating Effective B2B Customer Journey Maps

Thus, we provide meaningful measurement instruments beyond a consumer or branding context (Kuehnl et al., 2019) and consequently respond to the need to take a broader perspective on the management of touchpoints (see Table 1). For our construct Business-to-business customer journey of customer-related coordination costs, we used five items related to the internal effort of customer interaction (i.e., coordination, communication, collaboration, decision-making, and information processing). Second, to ensure content validity, we presented the remaining items to the nine senior executives in our workshop and also submitted them to a judgment sample of 25 managers. Against this background, we argue that the influence of B2B CJMC on customer loyalty is less pronounced for suppliers with a product focus than a service focus and that the same holds true for customer-related coordination costs.

Qualitative study 1: Manager interviews

Before mapping out the customer journey, it’s important to define your unique business and customer goals. A B2B customer journey map is important for various reasons, including – It indicates all the steps, touchpoints, and interactions that a business goes through to buy products or services to meet its needs. It’s equally important to tailor the approach to the specific needs of the customer at each stage of the journey to drive sales and conversion. Throughout the B2B customer journey, your business needs to provide value-added content and offer exceptional customer support to build long-term relations. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely.