Marketing attracts attention, sales supports purchase decisions, and customer service helps resolve questions before and after a transaction. Each team has its own responsibilities and measures of success. Customers experience their work through a continuous relationship with the brand.
A promise made in an advertisement creates expectations. Product information, the buying process and support after purchase determine whether those expectations are met. Customer journey research helps teams understand how these experiences connect and where coordinated action could make a difference.
For businesses operating across countries, it also raises an important question: do customers follow similar paths in each market, or do local conditions call for a different approach?
What does customer journey research reveal?
Customer journey research examines how people move from recognising a need to exploring options, making a purchase and using a product or service. It maps online and offline touchpoints alongside the needs, motivations and concerns that shape customer decisions.
Someone might discover a product on social media, examine it in a store, read reviews and buy it several days later through another channel. Research helps reconstruct that process, including the experiences that take place before a customer appears in a company’s sales data.
Different customer groups may also need different kinds of support. A first-time buyer may look for reassurance and detailed explanations. A returning customer may prioritise availability and a straightforward purchase. Understanding these differences helps teams avoid designing the entire experience around an average customer who represents neither group well.
Why should marketing, sales and customer service share the findings?
A barrier identified during one stage of the journey may require action from several teams. Unclear promotional terms, for example, can affect advertising, product pages, conversations with sales staff and enquiries to customer service.
A shared understanding of the customer journey helps teams locate the problem and agree on what needs to change. Marketing can address questions earlier in the decision process. Sales can provide information that matches the customer’s stage of consideration. Customer service can feed recurring concerns back into communications and offer development.
This approach is particularly useful when individual channels appear to perform well but customers struggle to move between them. The research question becomes specific: what happens when someone moves from an advertisement to the website, from online research to a store, or from purchase to support?
How does Inquiry research customer journeys?
Inquiry is a market research and consumer insights agency based in Warsaw, Poland. It provides research services and data collection, with expertise in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and experience in international projects. Its services include qualitative and quantitative research, customer journey studies and analysis of existing market information.
For customer journey research, Inquiry uses online research communities to explore experiences over several days or weeks. Participants share accounts of their decisions, photographs, screenshots and comments, giving researchers material to explore specific situations and the motivations behind them.
This qualitative stage helps explain why an offer attracted attention, what created uncertainty and how customers interpreted their interactions with a brand. Quantitative research can then assess how widespread the identified experiences are and how they differ between customer groups.
Combining these methods helps teams distinguish issues that need further investigation from those that should become immediate priorities. Findings can inform communications, purchase processes and customer support.he opportunity to interact with the brand through play, rather than through traditional product display. The child doesn’t see an advert. The child experiences the brand.
Which markets does Inquiry serve?
Inquiry specialises in research in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe and also coordinates studies internationally. Its website describes project experience across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America. Its international offer includes online quantitative surveys, qualitative research with local moderators and desk research using existing sources.
For research across international markets, Inquiry combines central project coordination with local language and cultural adaptation. This supports a consistent research approach while accounting for differences between markets.
In customer journey studies, these differences deserve attention from the outset. The channels people use, the information they seek and the role of physical stores may vary by market and category. A journey identified in one country can provide questions for another market, but those questions still need to be investigated locally.
A common research framework can help businesses compare findings across countries. Local interpretation then helps teams understand which actions can be shared and which need to be adapted.
How can customer research be combined with business data?
CRM records, e-commerce analytics, point-of-sale data and digital channel information each provide a view of customer activity. Research adds context by exploring the experiences and motivations behind that activity.
For example, transaction data may show where a purchase process ends. Customer accounts can help explain whether unclear information, uncertainty about the offer or a practical obstacle contributed to that outcome. Comparing the sources helps teams formulate better questions and identify changes worth evaluating.
Workshops bring marketing, sales and customer service into that process. Teams can agree on the customer problem, assign responsibility for the response and define how progress will be assessed. This makes the findings useful beyond the research team.
What happens after purchase belongs in the journey
Delivery, first use, access to help and complaint handling can shape expectations for the next purchase. These experiences can also reveal questions that should have been addressed earlier.
Including post-purchase experiences gives marketing and sales access to information that might otherwise remain within customer service. It can help teams improve product explanations, set clearer expectations and prepare customers to use what they have bought.
Customer journey research provides a practical basis for that cooperation. When teams understand the same customer situation, they can agree on a specific improvement and recognise how their individual actions contribute to it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Customer journey research examines how people recognise a need, explore options, make a purchase and experience a product or service afterwards. It identifies online and offline touchpoints and explores the motivations, expectations and barriers that shape decisions at each stage.
It gives teams a shared understanding of the customer experience. Findings help them identify gaps between brand communications, the purchase process and support after purchase. Teams can then agree on priorities, assign responsibility for improvements and decide how to assess their effects.
Inquiry uses qualitative methods, including moderated online research communities, to explore customer experiences over time. Participants can share comments, photographs and screenshots from their purchase journeys. Quantitative research can complement these findings by measuring how common particular experiences are and comparing customer groups.
Inquiry provides customer journey research as part of its research services in Poland and international markets, with particular expertise in Central and Eastern Europe. International projects combine central coordination with local language and cultural adaptation. The market coverage and methods are defined according to the objectives of each study.
Yes. Research findings can be analysed alongside CRM records, e-commerce analytics, point-of-sale data and digital channel information. These sources show recorded customer activity, while research helps explain the motivations and circumstances behind it. Together, they provide a basis for identifying improvements and evaluating subsequent changes.
Delivery, product use and access to support can influence whether customers return or recommend a brand. Studying these experiences also reveals questions that marketing and sales could address earlier, helping customers make informed choices and develop clearer expectations.
