If you’re gearing up to launch your first customer journey in Salesforce, here’s the good news: the tools are powerful and ready. Success comes down to how you think, plan and start.
Too many brands confuse “being busy” with making progress. They chase the perfect plan, obsess over data hygiene, or try to build the whole house when they should be laying one brick. This is how projects waste time, stall, and fail to launch.
So let’s cut to the chase. Here’s what you really need to build a customer journey that works.
Know the difference: Journey vs Program
A journey is short, focused, and measurable. A program is the full lifecycle, made up of many journeys.
Don’t try to pack it all into one mega-flow. A first-purchase welcome, an upsell push, and a loyalty nudge? That’s not one journey. That’s a three-month program.
Start with a single outcome. One goal. One KPI. That’s your journey.
Clarity beats complexity
Customer journeys go sideways when no one agrees on what success looks like — or what platform owns what data.
Salesforce has powerful tools, but they won’t save you from misalignment. Before you touch a template or rule:
- Get clear on the single KPI
- Get agreement on what defines success
- Know who owns the data and who’s executing
Planning helps. Perfection kills.
You do need a high-level view before you start. But don’t spend three months wiring up the ideal state.
The most common mistake? Waiting for perfect data, perfect messaging, or every interaction to be mapped. What happens instead? You stall, your assumptions go stale, and you learn nothing.
Get live, fast. Then learn and optimise.
Keep it simple
Your first journey should be dead simple — like a welcome email. Nothing fancy. Just prove the pipes work. Acknowledge the customer. Show up when it matters.
It’s shocking how many brands spend thousands on acquisition, only to say nothing after a customer signs up or buys. Start there.
A basic welcome series with a simple decision split (“Did they open the first email?”) is enough to start learning.
Don’t fear the “Activate” button
Yes, it’s scary. Yes, it might break. But avoiding launch means you never test in the real world. You need to see how the data flows, where people drop off, and how your team handles changes.
Make friends with version control. Use it. Iterate. Fix what breaks. Move forward.
Use a whiteboard. Seriously.
Before you build it, sketch it. Map the journey in a room with your team. Use a whiteboard or paper. You’ll surface assumptions, misaligned goals, and way too many steps before you waste time in platform.
And if someone’s mapping out a program, not a journey? Good. Spot it early. Then slice it up. One journey at a time.
Final word: Build to learn, not to impress
The best journeys are built by teams who ship fast, learn early, and cut complexity. You don’t need the perfect tech stack or a 30-step flow. You need one clear goal, a basic flow that supports it, and the courage to press “go”.
Think small. Launch fast. Improve from there.
Need help getting your first journey live? That’s what we do. Reach out to us— or let us know how your first journey went. We’d love to hear it
