Mapping the digital customer journey in mobile-based financial services: A digital marketing strategy approach

Abstract

Background: The fast expansion of digital financial services in Indonesia has intensified competition among fintech companies, making the digital customer experience a crucial strategic asset. This study seeks to map the digital customer journey of Tring!, a mobile-based pawn and gold savings application developed by Pegadaian, in order to identify key gaps and opportunities for improvement across different stages of the journey. Methods: The study uses a qualitative descriptive approach and digital customer journey mapping. Data were gathered through structured observations of Pegadaian’s digital touchpoints, such as social media, search engines, the official website, the Tring! app interface, and user reviews. The analysis is based on a five-stage customer journey framework: awareness, consideration, conversion, retention, and advocacy. Findings: The results show that awareness is effectively created through social media content that follows current trends. However, the consideration and conversion stages face challenges such as low search visibility, poor implementation of SEO and SEM strategies, and a lack of clear calls-to-action that connect owned media to app downloads. The retention stage is identified as the most significant bottleneck due to technical problems and limited service recovery options, which reduce user trust. While some organic user advocacy exists, it is not being fully utilized because there is no structured referral or advocacy program in place. Conclusion: The study finds that Tring! ’s digital customer journey functions as a fragmented and inefficient funnel. Improving omni-channel integration, search visibility, conversion pathways, technical performance, and advocacy management is necessary to boost the effectiveness of digital marketing efforts. Novelty/Originality of this article: This study adds value by offering a comprehensive digital customer journey map for a pawn-based fintech application in Indonesia, emphasizing the important connection between how digital marketing is carried out and the quality of technical support within the fintech industry.