As a business owner, you’ve probably experienced the high that comes with successfully onboarding new customers or members into your program. Maybe you’ve just wrapped up a big presentation, and everyone was excited, eager to join, and you’re ready to celebrate. Yet, the next day, a strange pattern begins to emerge — fewer people are showing up, engagement drops, and you’re left wondering: What happened? If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone.

​Many business owners face this challenge. Customers or members who were once excited drop off, and you're left scratching your head, trying to figure out what went wrong. The problem may not be your product, but rather the way you're guiding your customers through their journey. This is where the concept of a "Journey Pipeline" comes into play.

A Journey Pipeline is a system that tracks where your customers are in their journey with your business. Unlike a traditional sales pipeline, which focuses on moving prospects toward a sale, a journey pipeline continues after the sale, helping you monitor and nurture your customers as they progress through your program.

The Library of Congress offers a perfect metaphor for understanding this process. Picture yourself walking through an exhibit, armed with a "Passport to Knowledge." At each kiosk, you scan your passport, unlocking new insights and receiving a token to guide you further. This experience doesn't end when you leave the building. Instead, you’re invited to continue the journey online, with personalized learning paths that align with your interests.

​This example highlights how a journey pipeline can extend beyond a single interaction, keeping customers engaged and motivated long after they’ve made their initial commitment.

🟠 Clear Start and End: Every journey pipeline has a defined start and end. This could be anything from enrolling in a program to completing all its steps.

🟠Milestones: Along the way, there are intentional stops, called milestones, that customers engage with. These checkpoints help you measure progress and ensure that customers are on track.

🟠 Opportunities: Every milestone presents an opportunity for your business to engage with and support the customer further. For example, when someone reaches a milestone, it's an opportunity to provide additional resources or recognition.

🟠 Engagement Signals: These are the actions customers take that indicate they’ve reached a milestone. It could be attending a class, completing a module, or responding to an email. Tracking these signals lets you know where your customers are in their journey.

​🟠 Nurture Boosts: This is where you step in with support. Whether it's an encouraging email, a celebratory message, or a reminder, nurture boosts help maintain momentum and ensure that customers stay on track.

Consider a company that ran a successful 3-day challenge, leading to a high-ticket $30,000 program. Initially, engagement was high, with 80% of participants actively involved during the first week. However, by week three, engagement plummeted to 30%.

Using the journey pipeline, the team identified the problem: a specific question in the program was too emotionally and cognitively difficult for participants to answer. They responded by holding two workshops that focused on this challenge, providing support and nurturing their members. As a result, engagement increased to 65%.

​This shows the value of monitoring engagement signals and applying nurture boosts when necessary to re-engage customers.