Customer touchpoints have the potential to turn a lead into a prospect and a one-time customer into a recurring one. Every stage of the customer journey is marked by touchpoints you can use to provide value to your leads, turning them into customers and, if all goes well, into brand advocates.
This article will teach you how to identify the most important customer touchpoints and make the most of their lead-nurturing potential up to the point where customers become lifelong investments.
A customer touchpoint is any type of contact a customer engages in with your brand. Touchpoints can be direct (websites, SEO, advertising, email marketing, etc.) or indirect (social media, blogs, forums, reviews, etc.) and may happen at any point in the customer journey— before, during, or after a purchase.
Each customer touchpoint represents your brand’s opportunity to improve customer experience and increase retention. You can engage clients using targeted communications throughout their relationship with your brand, which can move them further along the sales funnel.
Every stage of the journey calls for different interactions, starting with awareness and ending with ongoing customer support and loyalty programs.
Here is how your business can profit from identifying customer touchpoints and sending targeted communications to your clients at the right time to increase conversions:
You can easily pinpoint customer touchpoints by making a list of how customers come into contact with your brand—using which platforms, during which stage of their customer journey, for how much time, etc.
Here are some examples of customer touchpoints before the potential client decides to make a purchase: social media, word of mouth, community, advertising, and marketing.
When making a purchase, customer touchpoints change and include the following categories: phone, direct point of sale, catalog, sales team, office or store, etc.
Finally, after completing the purchase, clients use the following customer touchpoints to keep in touch and solve potential problems they might have with the product: emails, online help centers, follow-ups, and support teams.
Let’s go over the main customer touchpoints and how they can help you grow your business:
The first time a potential customer comes into contact with your brand is paramount for what his/her customer journey will look like. The main stages included in your client’s path to purchase are awareness, consideration, and decision. Some touchpoints included in these three stages are:
Out of all these, your company’s website is the most important touchpoint for clients who are in the process of making a purchase. Apart from working on improving the user experience and user interface for your website, you will also need to ensure that it is up-to-date and offers accurate product information.
Here are some types of content you should integrate into your website that your clients will find useful and valuable while making their decision to purchase:
Depending on the complexity of your site, doing these things can be tricky, but they are worth the effort. A blog section that contains accurate information on a specific topic helps build brand authority and, over time, your company’s reputation.
Product reviews are often the first thing a potential customer checks during the decision-making process. They are more inclined to look at details than volume, so gathering an impressive number of reviews won’t do the trick.
The key is offering information that someone would only have after using the product. Authenticity draws customers in, so mentioning some of its flaws or drawbacks makes the product look more human.
Whenever a customer makes a purchase, every sales and marketing activity related to it and any personnel they come into contact with constitute customer touchpoints.
During the purchase, customers have very specific expectations that you need to fulfill to ensure that they purchase from your brand. Here are some touchpoints you should consider during this stage:
The main after-purchase touchpoints can be divided into two main categories. The first includes activities that boost customer retention, while the second is related to collecting customer feedback. Here are some post-purchase customer touchpoint examples:
Customer service plays a very important part in every customer’s journey along the sales funnel. Here are its main touchpoints and how they help keep clients happy with your product or services:
This is a preferred channel for business interaction. It offers immediate results, is easy to use, and is less time consuming than other channels. This communication method works so well because it immediately increases customer satisfaction and decreases bounce rates.
With 41% of customers expecting to see a live chat section on your site, the only option for keeping them happy is to provide one if you haven’t already. With Touchpoint you can configure your live chat widget in minutes and start receiving emails, texts, or phone calls from the same dashboard.
Chatbots allow companies to offer more support to their clients, meeting them at more touchpoints along their sales journey. This type of support enables companies to provide 24/7 support and resolve common client queries with zero need for human intervention.
With chatbots, you can even offer possible answers before the client has finished typing, which translates into faster support and a lower workload for your call center agents.
This is a very versatile marketing tool that you can use throughout the customer journey, starting with the awareness stage. Unlike other channels, texting offers the added benefit of being cost effective.
It is by far the easiest way to stay in touch with potential and actual clients because it is read almost instantly. It works well for both customer engagement and support and enables the sending of strategic messages to your clients anytime, anywhere.
Other customer service touchpoints include phone calls, emails, newsletters, and feedback surveys.
After you’ve correctly identified your customer touchpoints, the next step is to include them in your business strategy and fully profit from the insights they offer. Here are the most popular ways to increase customer satisfaction and spark business growth using the most popular customer touchpoints:
The major advantage of customer touchpoints is that they enable companies to be involved in every aspect of the customer journey. This way, brands can send targeted communications to their desired audience at exactly the right time, moving prospects along the sales funnel. This not only enhances customer experience but increases retention and product growth.
Raluca Mocanu is a copywriter at Touchpoint and began her content writing journey in 2016. She loves traveling, reading, on-stage drama and recently discovered a deep interest in psychology.
While many companies invest heavily in extensive employee training programs to boost their customer service skills, a cost-effective alternative is equally effective: reading books on the subject.
In a financially strained world, customer retention is becoming more important than ever for B2B companies. In this article, we will explore seven B2B customer retention strategies expected to provide the best results in 2023.
Email has been sent!
Please check your inbox, we have sent you a template.
Please populate the form below and we’ll send you the link to download the template.
Please enter a valid email address
By continuing, you’re agreeing to the Touchpoint customer Privacy policy
We use cookies on the website to collect information about the use of our website and to personalize the experience of using our website. You can find more information about cookies in Touchpoint.com Cookie Policy.