Customer Touchpoints That Will Optimize Your Customer Journey

A touchpoint is any time people contact a specific brand. Before, during, or after they ordered goods or services. To make it work well, managers should provide understandable guides and purchase conditions. Advanced marketing and sales techniques based on the principle of a one-stop shop. All top CEOs are worried that people do not feel confused moving from the first click to ordering through the shopping cart. This can be clearly seen in the trends of 2021: 

1. Growing of digital transformation in different areas, including public administration
2. Finding a balance between humanity and automation
3. Hyper-personalized experiences with AR and VR
4. Maximizing customer lifetime value (CLV)

More than 30% of potential buyers can find your company website in 1 minute, but at the stage of purchase, they close the web page in 1 click. Identifying such nuances is the key step toward creating a buyer journey map.

Why Are Consumer Touch Points Important? 

Let’s talk in more detail about the consumer behavior model. This way we find out what principles newcomers should consider when building a marketing strategy. In a competitive environment, increasing buyer satisfaction is a top priority for any business owner. Moreover, any good marketing strategy is based on on-target advertising. It’s about so-called digital touchpoints.  Key benefits of such ongoing customer interaction:

Customer Touchpoints	Advantage
Community Involvement	Increasing interest in the project from investors, the state, and society
24/7 Customer Support	Improved buyer loyalty
Transactional Emails	Customer perception of the brand
Promotions	Brand awareness
Website	Continuous communication and interaction with consumers

Positive publicity and understanding of consumer requests are key to the effectiveness of any business. Global companies have long approved this as true to keep their customers happy. Top CEOs use social media, ratings, or review platforms. Of course, startups have different places to start, but it’s not one-size-fits-all. For each brand, creative teams will have to find a specific tool. It is based on the market competitiveness and technical capabilities of the company. 

Customer Touch Points — Examples & Categories

For some newbies, marketing and sales are still based on “intuition” rather than the actual needs of the consumer. As a result, many of the strategies suggested by creatives don’t work as expected. Hundreds of business owners have spent thousands of dollars without the desired outcome. Although such incidents can be avoided. The marketing department of any company should be engaged in analytics. This is the best way to find an ideal lead generation strategy based on data collected from web tools.

Pre-Purchase Stage

Any global business is more and more competitive every year. It becomes obvious that top brands are increasingly involved in digitization. This is the cheapest way to build pre-purchase stage touchpoints. To set long-term goals, most large company owners prefer to turn to professionals who understand how to grab the attention of consumers and interest them. This is about teams that perfectly master the following technologies:

1. SEO. Google is the first touchpoint for the majority of prospects. Interaction with this search engine is often key if you need to increase website traffic. Only with well-structured content, entrepreneurs will be able to position their business properly. Of course, the semantic core is important, but site owners should write the correct titles and descriptions. Without adding emoticons and other special characters, it is unlikely that you will be able to attract the user’s attention. But, you should not overdo it since Google algorithms contain filters.
2. Discussions on the forums. Prospects rely on other people’s opinions regarding products. That’s why you should be active, reply to questions your prospective customers might have. Start by creating a profile on a third-party testimonial site. Thanks to such “link building”, in a few months you will have continuous traffic on your online store or sales funnel.
3. Video content & Infographics. Of course, pages, articles, and other content are key to SEO and for interacting with users at the pre-purchase stage. But any promo is also critical to building brand awareness and a positive customer experience. So, commercial videos and different charts or graphs are often the backbones of touchpoints. One way or another, business owners will have to hire creatives and designers to get infographics, banners, and other materials. If such cooperation is structured correctly, sales will increase from the very first weeks.
4. Community involvement. Since people have their own preferences and each buyer can get to know a specific brand in different ways, it seems like a daunting task at first. Making the entrepreneurial journey easier is not keeping the role of the owner of the shop and in the shoes of the customer or the community. Just ask about problems that need to be solved. When company owners walk themselves through the customer’s journey step-by-step, it becomes pretty clear to find out which marketing strategy will be effective.

Nearly 90% of all consumers read reviews of both companies and a specific product when they make a purchase decision. This trend is characteristic of all areas of business, regardless of whether people buy pizza or want to order equipment for a factory. But ensuring positive dynamics at this stage is only part of the way. One way or another, your potential consumer will have direct communication with the company’s human resources or Artificial Intelligence.

Purchase Stage 

The most direct communication channel is your in-person interactions. But the brands’ owners don’t stop there. Top CEOs want a more effective impact on the customer’s purchase decision. One way or another, the owners of large companies and startups will have to use the following:

1. Brochures and guides. Visual content, especially photos and infographics, is key for the user who would like to decide whether to make a purchase. This applies to both printed and digital materials. Using brochures is a great way to showcase your benefits. High-quality photos and descriptions help shoppers get all the information they need to complete a purchase. 
2. Product catalogs. It is essential for entrepreneurs or store owners who want top-notch sales. With standard digital touchpoints, people can shortly describe the main characteristics of the product. But buyers need more visual elements. So, web tools are irreplaceable. Experienced marketers use such an interaction channel when showcasing their product line. They do their best so that customers can dispel any doubts about the advisability of visiting an online store to place an order.
3. Chatbots. Today’s consumers do not want to wait more than 2-3 minutes for a response from support staff. So, top brands have long been associated with self-service tools. We are talking about chatbots that are effective at the checkout stage.
4. Digital storefront (websites and applications) with AR. Thousands of users are accustomed to innovations. They don’t want to inquire managers about the characteristics of a specific product. People want a lot more conventional dialogue. So, AR is an indispensable technology. Leading brands such as Nike are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in this area. It’s not without a reason. With AR tools, especially meticulous consumers can try on glasses or sneakers directly through the app. It’s really impressive.
5. E-commerce. Business transparency and big data principles are very important for global companies. But, today’s marketing is not just about Google, Facebook, or Instagram tools. Having e-commerce or LinkedIn pages is a good way to close deals. If people use a shopping cart when ordering products, this allows them to buy goods or order a service 24/7. Perhaps it’s about the most effective touchpoints.

When business owners talk about POS, they are referring to a website or cloud-based systems. For entrepreneurs, this is a good way for monitoring and correcting the user experience.  With digital touchpoints, CEOs can improve sales in 2-3 clicks.  

Post-Purpose Stage 

If you want to stay connected with the customer even after sending the goods, implement digital solutions. It’s not only about online platforms or applications. With some marketing techniques, company owners keep the growth of their business at all stages. This applies to mailing and all kinds of encouragement. Here are the top 5 tools in this category:

1. Customer onboarding. If people don’t have detailed guides and don’t understand the clear benefits of a particular service, they will terminate the brand experience. Due to such incidents, the company suffers financial and image losses. So, it is essential for most brands to invest in onboarding programs. It’s a key pre-purchase touchpoint for service teams. With the right strategy, company owners avoid abandoning products after purchasing. 
2. Bonus programs & VIP customer service. An all-round relationship is essential to any startup. So, the companies’ owners are trying not to lose touch with the consumer. They offer cashback and various discounts. The best way to do this is through digitalization. With the mobile application and Artificial Intelligence, people can automate most of the processes at this stage. Global brands always use this marketing technique. Loyalty to regular customers is perceived positively by people. You can offer specific terms of service or even run a giveaway.
3. Email marketing. Of course, email automation is one of the best methods for any promo. But when it comes to sending emails blindly, it’s ineffective. All letters will be automatically moved to the trash. To prevent disruption to the customer experience, write succinctly and to the point. You should attach price lists, commercial offers, instructions, and more to letters.
4. Product feedback questionnaires. With this tool, marketers can figure out the customer experience of a particular product or service. If a buyer leaves negative feedback, it is worth contacting them to learn more about the reasons for this disappointment. Most CEOs understand the importance of a long-term marketing strategy. So, they want to get as much information as possible. The least expensive way to know about the target audience is to use online questionnaires.
5. Thank you letters with recommendations. These days, due to the great competition in almost every area, people choose items sophisticatedly. It is unlikely that consumers will dare to order clothes in a store without links to pages on social media. The same goes for providing referrals from partners. Such trends have forced online store owners to rethink their strategies. Sending recommendation letters to customers and talking about some partners can be a positive post-purchase experience.
6. Physical and digital events. Any action-orientated approach to customers always works well. You can invite buyers to the fair or encourage activity on social media pages. This is the best way to find additional brand touchpoints.

With post-purpose touchpoints, entrepreneurs can identify mistakes in their marketing strategy and will be able to correct them. The Forbes top 100 companies have long focused on branding and consumer experience. But every aspiring entrepreneur only tries to figure out the point of contact meaning. Experienced marketers claim that advanced techniques such as ‘Follow ups’ or ‘Thank you cards’ are essential for any startup.  

Key Takeaway

Today’s marketing is based on identifying and attracting potential customers. Competition between leading brands forces people to innovate. It’s not just about Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR). Top CEOs also prefer direct interaction between consumers and suppliers. So any funnel of sales and social media is indispensable. Besides, entrepreneurs use the Google My Business tool to clarify customer satisfaction in a specific region. Such an abundance of techniques can be confusing, so always keep the following in mind:

1. Is it appropriate?
2. Is it relevant?
3. Is it meaningful? 

Nowadays, consumers’ choices depend on influencers (bloggers or celebrities). That’s why top CEOs are involving opinion leaders in their marketing campaigns. Of course, such tricks work well. But this is not the only way to stay in touch with your consumers. You should always find a balance between human resources and digitalization. If people understand what is a touchpoint, their strategies are more effective.