Taking the time to consider all customer touchpoints in their journey with your brand is paramount. According to research carried out by Salesforce:
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- 80% of customers now consider their experience with a company to be as important as its products.
- 69% of consumers want to talk with a company in real-time.
The importance of customer touchpoints
Customer expectations are on the rise, and brands must meet the expectations. Brands cannot afford to let customers slip through the cracks; the customer journey touchpoints are crucial.
Customer touchpoints are how and where your customer interacts with your brand. They are essential to building customer relationships and your business image.
Customer touchpoints are points of contact such as:
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- Through an employee, an ad, an app or a website
- Where customers see your reviews and ratings
- Shopping online or at your retail store
- Contacting customer service
- Interacting with a chatbot
- Completing an online survey.
Customers’ experiences at these various touchpoints can shape the view of the company by customers and how the brand interacts with them. So, how can a brand ensure they can keep their customers happy at the various checkpoints?
Customer touchpoints audit
A touchpoint audit can involve diving deep into both the online and offline versions of the brand. An audit can include the app, website, mobile performance, customer service email templates, automated messages, phone support, and more to find gaps hindering customer satisfaction. The end goal of the audit is to ensure that every interaction at every point is smooth for the customer, such that they wish to interact, engage and buy from your brand.
Face-to-face interactions
Depending on their marketing budgets, some brands prefer a live event. Here, customers get a chance to understand the product or brand. An example is launching a new product, such as an app demonstrated live.
Getting marketing involved in enhancing touchpoints further
Brands should always work with their marketing teams or third-party marketers to find new and innovative avenues to improve the touchpoint experience. Marketing can help develop and design:
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- Contests for social media
- Engaging surveys
- Ratings and review forms
- New collateral
- Monthly newsletters
- Research industry trends
- Conduct third-party research
Adapt and change when customer feedback is received
Never cover-up. If you know a problem with the contact us page, fix it! If there are several complaints about the automated chatbot, investigate and improve on it. Feedback will allow for adjustments in other areas, such as:
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- increasing loyalty,
- providing the best service,
- and making it explicitly clear to clients that you take their feedback seriously.
It is important to offer a platform for customers to voice their opinions.
At FWD Focus, we conduct research and listen to your customers so that you can make more informed decisions to improve your customer journey experience.
Get in touch to discuss how we can ensure your customer touchpoints remain relevant and operate smoothly.
