Cannabis Customer Journey Mapping: 10 Tips

Mapping the customer journey is crucial for cannabis businesses to enhance the overall experience, build customer loyalty, and drive growth. This article provides a concise 10-step guide:

Set Clear Goals: Define your objectives, such as increasing conversions, improving retention, or building loyalty.
Understand Your Customer Types: Identify and analyze different customer segments based on demographics, behaviors, and needs.
Gather Internal Data: Collect and analyze data from sources like customer service logs, sales records, marketing analytics, and product reviews.
Get Feedback Directly from Customers: Engage customers through surveys, interviews, social media, and review platforms to gather insights.
Map Out the Customer Journey: Outline the different stages, from awareness to loyalty, and identify areas for improvement.
Integrate Transparency and Trust: Clearly communicate brand values, provide detailed product information, and address customer concerns.
Use Visual Design: Employ visuals like whiteboards, software, or templates to map the customer experience effectively.
Involve Key Stakeholders: Engage customers, employees, partners, and regulators throughout the mapping process.
Implement Quick Wins: Prioritize and execute immediate improvements to build momentum and demonstrate value.
Keep Improving the Customer Journey: Continuously monitor progress, gather feedback, and make adjustments to enhance the experience.

By following these steps, cannabis businesses can create a seamless and positive experience, leading to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and growth.

1. Set Clear Goals

Before creating a customer journey map, define your goals. Ask yourself:

What do I want to achieve with this map?
What specific areas do I want to improve, like sales, customer loyalty, or support?
How do these goals align with my business objectives and customer needs?

Setting clear goals helps you design a purposeful map that avoids irrelevant details. Focus on the key performance indicators (KPIs) you want to track and the customer experiences you want to enhance.

Goal	Example
Increase Conversions	Identify and remove friction points in the purchase process
Improve Retention	Understand post-purchase experiences and address pain points
Build Loyalty	Enhance the overall customer experience to foster long-term relationships

2. Understand Your Customer Types

To create an effective customer journey map, you need to know who your customers are. This involves identifying and analyzing the different types of customers you have. A customer type is a representation of your ideal customer, based on real data and research. It includes information like age, location, goals, behaviors, and challenges.

In the cannabis industry, customer types can vary widely. For example, you may have customers who are:

Young adults looking for recreational products
Patients seeking specific strains for medical conditions
Older adults interested in CBD products for wellness
Women looking for cannabis products for menstrual relief

To develop accurate customer types, you can gather data from various sources, including:

Customer surveys and feedback forms
Social media analytics
Online reviews and ratings
Industry reports and research studies

By understanding your customer types, you can tailor your marketing strategies, product offerings, and customer experiences to meet their specific needs and preferences.

Customer Type	Description
Recreational User	21-35 years old, living in urban areas. Seeking relaxation and socialization. May have difficulty finding reliable products and dispensaries.
Medical Patient	40-60 years old, suffering from chronic pain or other conditions. Looking for relief from symptoms and improved quality of life. May face limited access to medical cannabis and lack education on strains and dosing.
Wellness Enthusiast	30-50 years old, health-conscious. Interested in holistic wellness and self-care. May be uncertain about CBD products and their benefits.

3. Gather Internal Data

To create an effective customer journey map, you need to collect and analyze data from within your cannabis business. This internal data can provide valuable insights into your customers’ needs, preferences, and experiences.

Key Data Sources

Look for information from these sources:

Customer service logs and feedback forms
Sales records and transaction data
Marketing campaign analytics and social media metrics
Product usage data and customer reviews
Customer relationship management (CRM) system data

Analyze the Data

Once you have gathered the data, analyze it to identify:

Patterns and trends in customer behavior
Feedback and sentiment about your products or services
Effectiveness of marketing campaigns and product offerings
Areas for improvement in customer service and support

Data Source	Insights
Customer Service Logs	Common issues or complaints, areas needing better support
Sales Records	Popular products, purchasing patterns, customer demographics
Marketing Analytics	Campaign performance, customer engagement, social media trends
Product Reviews	Customer satisfaction, product strengths and weaknesses
CRM Data	Customer interactions, preferences, and purchase history

4. Get Feedback Directly from Customers

Talking to your customers is key to creating an accurate customer journey map. Gather their opinions, experiences, and feedback from various touchpoints. This helps identify issues, areas for improvement, and ways to enhance their overall experience.

Why Customer Feedback Matters

Customer feedback is crucial in the cannabis industry, where preferences and needs vary greatly. As Sebastien Centner, co-founder of Hervé, notes, "Cannabis customers are often more outspoken and passionate about their feelings toward products and brands." By engaging directly with customers, you gain valuable insights into their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, which can inform product development, marketing strategies, and customer service.

How to Collect Customer Feedback

Here are some ways to collect customer feedback:

Online surveys and questionnaires
Phone and mail surveys
Social media engagement and feedback forms
In-person interviews and focus groups
Customer review and rating platforms

When designing your feedback strategy, consider your goals and the most effective channels for reaching your target audience. By gathering feedback directly from customers, you can create an accurate customer journey map that truly reflects their needs and experiences.

Feedback Method	Pros	Cons
Online Surveys	Reach a large audience, easy to analyze data	Low response rates, potential bias
Phone/Mail Surveys	Personal interaction, higher response rates	Time-consuming, costly
Social Media	Engage with active customers, real-time feedback	Limited to social media users, public visibility
In-person Interviews	In-depth insights, build rapport	Time-consuming, limited sample size
Review Platforms	Authentic customer experiences, public visibility	Potential bias, limited control

5. Map Out the Customer Journey

To create an effective customer journey map, you need to understand the different stages a customer goes through when interacting with your cannabis brand. This is known as the customer lifecycle. Mapping out these stages helps you identify areas for improvement and opportunities to enhance the customer experience.

The customer lifecycle typically includes the following stages:

Awareness: Customers first learn about your brand.
Evaluation: Customers compare your brand with others.
Purchase: Customers make a purchase from your dispensary.
Post-Purchase: Customers receive their products and interact with your brand after the purchase.
Loyalty: Customers become repeat buyers and advocates for your brand.

By understanding these stages, you can pinpoint areas where you can improve the customer experience, reduce friction, and increase loyalty. For example, during the evaluation stage, you can highlight your brand’s unique offerings, improve product information, and enhance customer support.

To map out the customer lifecycle accurately, gather insights from:

Customer feedback
Internal data (sales records, customer service logs, etc.)
Market research

This will help you create a comprehensive customer journey map that reflects the needs and experiences of your target audience.

Customer Lifecycle Stage	Potential Areas for Improvement
Awareness	Increase brand visibility, targeted marketing
Evaluation	Highlight unique value proposition, improve product information
Purchase	Streamline checkout process, enhance customer support
Post-Purchase	Provide clear product instructions, offer additional support
Loyalty	Implement loyalty programs, encourage advocacy

6. Integrate Transparency and Trust

Building trust with your cannabis customers is vital. To achieve this, focus on being open and honest about your brand’s practices and products.

Clearly Communicate Your Brand Values and Quality Standards

Let customers know what your brand stands for and how you ensure quality. This shows you have nothing to hide and builds confidence in your business.

Provide Detailed Product Information and Lab Results

Give customers all the details about your products, including lab test results. This empowers them to make informed choices and demonstrates your commitment to safety and quality.

Address Customer Concerns and Questions

Encourage open communication with customers. Listen to their concerns and questions, and address them promptly. This shows you care about their needs and builds trust.

Transparency Practice	Benefit
Share Brand Values	Builds confidence in your business
Provide Product Details	Empowers informed decisions
Address Customer Concerns	Shows you care about their needs

7. Use Visual Design

Visual design plays a key role in clearly showing complex customer experiences. By using visuals, you can:

Get a complete view of the customer experience
Find areas that need improvement
Spot opportunities to enhance the experience

Visual thinking helps you better understand customer needs and expectations. It allows you to identify ways to improve and innovate. Visual maps also help teams communicate and work together to deliver a great customer experience.

To create visual customer journey maps, start with simple tools like whiteboards and stickers or programs like Excel. You can also use customer journey mapping software or ready-made visualization tools.

Benefits of Visual Design

Benefit	Description
Holistic View	See the complete customer experience at a glance
Identify Pain Points	Pinpoint areas causing frustration or difficulty
Spot Opportunities	Find ways to enhance the customer experience
Facilitate Communication	Visuals help teams collaborate and align
Aid Understanding	Visual representations make complex information easier to grasp

Visual Design Tools

Tool	Description
Whiteboards and Stickers	Simple, low-tech option for mapping
Excel	Create basic visual maps using spreadsheets
Mapping Software	Dedicated tools for customer journey visualization
Ready-made Templates	Pre-designed templates for quick visualization

8. Involve Key Stakeholders

Getting input from key people is vital for making a useful customer journey map for your cannabis business. These key people are those who have a direct or indirect interest in your customer journey, like customers, employees, managers, partners, suppliers, or regulators. By involving them in the mapping process, you can gain valuable insights, feedback, and support for your customer relationship management (CRM) efforts.

Start by identifying who these key people are and what role they play in your customer journey. You can use a stakeholder analysis matrix to map out their level of interest, influence, and impact on your customer journey. This will help you understand their perspectives, needs, and motivations, and tailor your communication and engagement strategies accordingly.

Next, define your goals and scope for involving these key people. This will help you determine what you want to achieve from their involvement and what specific areas of the customer journey you want to focus on. Choose methods and tools that work well for these key people, such as surveys, interviews, workshops, or online collaboration platforms. Engage them throughout the mapping process, and share the results and actions with them to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Stakeholder	Role in Customer Journey	Engagement Method
Customers	Experience the journey firsthand	Surveys, interviews, focus groups
Employees	Interact with customers at various touchpoints	Workshops, feedback sessions
Managers	Oversee customer-facing operations	Meetings, collaborative mapping sessions
Partners	Provide products or services to customers	Interviews, joint mapping exercises
Suppliers	Supply products or materials	Surveys, feedback forms
Regulators	Ensure compliance with industry regulations	Consultations, regulatory reviews

9. Implement Quick Wins

Achieving small, attainable goals quickly is crucial for cannabis customer journey mapping. These "quick wins" can be accomplished within a few weeks or months. They help build momentum, gain stakeholder support, and show the value of mapping the customer experience.

To identify quick wins, review your customer journey map and look for areas where you can make immediate improvements, such as:

Streamlining a process to reduce wait times
Improving customer communication
Enhancing the experience at a specific touchpoint
Addressing a common customer issue or complaint

Prioritize potential quick wins based on their impact, feasibility, and alignment with your overall goals. Then, develop a plan to implement and measure the success of each one.

By achieving quick wins, you can build trust with stakeholders, demonstrate the value of customer journey mapping, and create momentum for further improvements to the customer experience.

Quick Win	Impact	Feasibility	Alignment
Implement a new communication channel	High	Medium	High
Streamline the checkout process	Medium	High	Medium
Enhance the in-store experience	High	Low	High

10. Keep Improving the Customer Journey

After making changes to enhance the customer experience, it’s crucial to monitor progress and keep improving. Regularly review your customer journey map and gather feedback from customers, employees, and stakeholders. Analyze the data to identify trends and areas that need further improvement.

Monitor Progress

Track key metrics like customer satisfaction, retention, and sales
Collect feedback through surveys, reviews, and customer interactions
Analyze data to spot patterns and potential issues

Identify Areas for Improvement

Look for recurring customer complaints or pain points
Note any steps in the journey that cause confusion or frustration
Pinpoint opportunities to streamline processes or enhance experiences

Make Adjustments

Update your customer journey map based on findings
Implement changes to address identified issues
Test and refine improvements before rolling them out fully

Action	Description
Monitor	Continuously track metrics and gather feedback
Identify	Pinpoint areas needing improvement
Adjust	Make changes to enhance the customer experience

Conclusion

Following these 10 tips for mapping the cannabis customer journey can greatly improve the overall experience, leading to higher sales, a stronger brand reputation, and a loyal customer base. By understanding your customers’ needs and pain points, you can create a smooth and positive experience that sets your dispensary apart. Continuously monitor and update your customer journey map to ensure it remains relevant and effective for driving business growth. Prioritizing customer experience will help build a loyal customer base that fuels long-term success for your cannabis business.

Key Takeaways

1. Enhance the Customer Experience

Identify and address pain points
Streamline processes and interactions
Provide clear product information and support

2. Build Customer Loyalty

Offer a seamless and positive experience
Encourage repeat business and advocacy
Implement loyalty programs and incentives

3. Drive Business Growth

Increase sales and customer acquisition
Strengthen brand reputation and visibility
Stay ahead of the competition

4. Continuous Improvement

Regularly review and update the customer journey map
Gather feedback from customers and stakeholders
Implement changes to address issues and opportunities

Action	Benefit
Enhance Customer Experience	Increased satisfaction and loyalty
Build Customer Loyalty	Repeat business and advocacy
Drive Business Growth	Higher sales and brand reputation
Continuous Improvement	Relevant and effective customer journey