An Engine for Enhancing Customer Journeys
From Intent to Loyalty - How your customer thinks?
Note from the Author
This document reflects my perspective on how Swym functions as a Customer Journey Management engine. It is shaped by my understanding of the product, its design philosophy, and how I see journeys being modeled and executed in practice.It is my attempt to explain the underlying ideas in a way that connects customer experience thinking with systems that operate at scale.
If you are looking for our product documentation or support features, our web portal is the best place to start or try our app on your store.
Context is King: Navigating the Fine Line Between Boosting Sales and Losing Trust
For any merchant getting started with their online store, there are too many apps out there waiting to help you take your sales through the roof and make your business boom. But why isn’t every merchant successful then? A sword is only as good as the person who wields it; the merchant decides whether it will kill or create their business.
One merchant might track specific points of their customer’s interactions on their page and send out minimal and targeted emails, which enhances both the customer’s experience with their brand and also boosts their business. Another sends out emails for every price drop and every discount on their store, and eventually end up in their customers’ spam folder or even worse, get unsubscribed.
The difference here is perception. A merchant must ensure a customer’s overall view of a brand stays positive because the loss of trust is irreversible.
A real-life instance I found while researching customer trust is a complete disconnect between how messaging without context (or in the wrong context) can end up being pretty bad. In 2017, Adidas sent an automated email to Boston Marathon participants with the subject line, “Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon.” The intent was positive, but the message ignored critical context. Just a few years earlier, the Boston Marathon had been the site of a deadly bombing. What should have been celebratory came across as insensitive, forcing Adidas to issue a public apology.
Read more here on how they recovered from that.
Tools lacking context can create moments where the brand value erodes, needing additional effort to recover.
What is a Customer Journey Map and why does it matter?
A Customer Journey Map (CJM) is a visual representation of a customer’s experience with your brand. It provides an understanding of needs and concerns that either motivate or inhibit action. While we often discuss these as four distinct phases, it is important to remember that human behavior is rarely linear. Customers often loop back to previous stages or jump ahead unexpectedly. For this discussion, we will look at these four primary phases:
Discovery Phase
The customer becomes aware of a problem or desire and first encounters your brand through ads, content, word-of-mouth, or organic discovery.
Take Alice, she uses the local train to commute to work every day. She gets tired of the crowd, discomfort, and delays while using public transport, and the idea of buying a car pops into her head as a solution to the problems of time, comfort, and convenience.
Research Phase
The customer compares options, evaluates credibility, reads reviews, and looks for signals of trust, value, and relevance before committing.
Alice compares car models, prices, fuel types, EMI options, reviews, maintenance costs, and resale value while shortlisting brands that fit their budget and lifestyle.
Decision Phase
The customer decides to purchase based on price, confidence, timing, and experience, converting intent into action.
As Alice visits multiple car showrooms, most offer similar prices and features. One dealer, however, stands out: transparent pricing, flexible financing, a smooth test-drive experience, and timely follow-ups without pressure.
At this point, Alice isn’t choosing a car anymore; she’s choosing who she trusts. That confidence tips the decision, and she makes the purchase.
Delight Phase
Post-purchase experiences reinforce trust, build loyalty, and turn customers into repeat buyers and advocates through thoughtful communication and value.
After the purchase, Alice’s experience with the brand truly begins. Smooth delivery, clear onboarding, timely service reminders, responsive support, and thoughtful follow-ups reinforce her decision. Over time, consistent positive experiences turn satisfaction into trust, and trust into loyalty and recommendations.
The Non-Linear Loop
In reality, a customer might be in the Research phase and suddenly get pulled back into Discovery by a new technology, or they might stay in a loop between Research and Decision for months.
External factors also play a massive role in providing context. For example, a car dealership might see a sudden price drop or a spike in promotions. Is it just a sale, or is it because a heavy snowstorm has stopped everyone from driving, forcing the dealer to adjust? A merchant who understands that “it’s snowing, so no one is thinking about test drives” can adjust their messaging to be more empathetic rather than just pushy.
How to Make a Customer Journey Map?
Define a Persona (a generic customer)
Create a representative customer profile that reflects your target audience’s goals, behavior, and constraints.
Define the Journey Phases
Outline the key stages of interaction with your brand (Discovery, Research, Decision, Delight).
Map the Steps in Each Phase
Identify the actions the customer takes at every stage.
Analyze Each Phase
Questions in the customer’s mind
Thoughts and emotions driving decisions
Pain points or friction
Opportunities to improve the experience
How to use a CJM with E-commerce Tools?
In each phase of the map, the tool we use differs based on its relevance and effectiveness. Simple, you can’t use a screwdriver to write poems.
In the previous step, we analyzed the customer’s mindset at each phase of the journey. Use that understanding to decide which tools genuinely help the customer move through that phase with ease.
The goal isn’t to use more tools, but to use the right tool at the right moment, and sometimes, to use none at all.
For example, an email tool might be used in one phase to run a broad, targeted marketing campaign, while in another it may simply send a single price-drop alert to a customer who has already shown clear interest in a product.
Hence, the same tool can be used multiple times across a journey, but in very different ways.
The CJM Engine
Understanding a journey is one thing, but executing it consistently at scale is another. Imagine a sous chef in a restaurant. They don’t invent the recipes; they focus on consistent execution. They wait for orders, observe the kitchen, and react when the time is right. They coordinate the stoves, ovens, and knives using only what the dish needs.
A CJM engine works the same way. It executes the journey by following intent with judgment. The merchant defines the “recipe” (the instructions of when and what to do) and the engine follows it.
The Recipe
For the engine to work, the recipe must be clear. This is your data model: a structured description of what starts a journey, what conditions matter, and when it should end.
Just like in a kitchen, vague recipes lead to inconsistent dishes.
A well-defined recipe allows the engine to execute journeys reliably, repeatedly, and at scale.
This is how intent becomes something software can understand and follow.
Example: A Shoe Brand’s Customer Journey Recipe
Persona:
A customer looking for comfortable running shoes for daily workouts.
Discovery
The customer sees a social media ad about lightweight running shoes and visits the brand’s website to browse.
Research
They read reviews, compare models, check sizing guides, and shortlist one pair. They add the shoes to their wishlist.
Decision
A few days later, the price drops slightly. The customer receives a single, well-timed notification highlighting the offer and free returns. They complete the purchase.
Delight
After delivery, the brand sends care tips, running advice, and a reminder to review the product. Over time, the customer receives loyalty rewards and early access to new launches.
This entire flow can be written as a recipe.
The CJM engine follows it, deciding when to act, when to wait, and when to stop.
Let’s now try writing it as a recipe
Discovery Phase
A customer views a pair of running shoes and adds them to their wishlist.
Which event should trigger the journey? At what point do you decide this customer is worth engaging?Research Phase
The customer repeatedly views the product, reads reviews, and selects sizes.
Which signals indicate genuine interest, and what do you define as clear intent?Decision Phase
The shoe’s price drops, or the stock starts running low. This could be the tipping point.
Which conditions should trigger communication that nudges the customer toward purchase?Delight Phase
After purchase, request a review, offer loyalty rewards, or share care tips.
What actions help bring the customer back and strengthen their experience with the brand?
Conclusion
Customer journeys are not about sending more messages. They are about making better decisions over time. A map helps you understand what your customer needs, while an engine ensures those decisions are executed with restraint.
When journeys are treated as recipes and tools as instruments, the customer experience stops feeling reactive and starts feeling intentional. The brands that survive won’t be the ones with the most automation, but the ones that know exactly when and when not to act.
Awesome narrative @saai. Very insightful and deeply intuitive!