Every business wants to improve the customer experience (CX). But, unless you consider your buyers at every touchpoint, you may be falling short.
The customer experience is a direct result of several interactions across their journey. Everything counts, from initial contact with your website to the ease of buying a product to how helpful your post-purchase support is.
Here’s how to identify and improve your customer journey touchpoints and create a winning customer experience.
Customer touchpoints are your brand’s points of customer contact from start to finish. For example, customers may find your business:
Identifying your touchpoints is the first step toward creating a customer journey map and ensuring your customers feel satisfied before, during, and after they purchase something from you. And with deep knowledge of your touchpoints, you can make better business decisions for your customers and your customer-facing teams.
Touchpoint definition: A touchpoint is any time a potential customer or customer comes in contact with your brand–before, during, or after they purchase something from you.
Once you identify them, your customer touchpoints will serve as a guide for improving customer satisfaction across your entire customer journey.
The benefits of knowing your customer touchpoints include:
Understanding your customer journey touchpoints will help you frame every interaction with your business positively.
Identify your customer touchpoints by listing all the places and times your customers might come into contact with your brand. We’ve compiled a list of customer touchpoints here, which will vary depending on your business.
Before purchase | During purchase | After purchase |
Social media | Store or office | Billing |
Rating and reviews | Website | Transactional emails |
Testimonials | Catalog | Marketing emails |
Word of mouth | Promotions | Service and support teams |
Community involvement | Staff or sales team | Online help center |
Advertising | Phone system | Follow-ups |
Marketing / PR | Point of sale | Thank you cards |
Pre-purchase touchpoints are the initial avenues a customer could use to find you. These points of contact happen before a customer visits your business in person or online.
Here are the most common pre-purchase touchpoints:
You don’t need to be on every social media platform, but make sure you have a profile on channels your customers use. Keep your pages active with content that is interesting and useful. Always respond to customer comments—this engagement is why you are on social media—and start forming relationships with potential customers.
Referral programs offer incentives for both the referrer (an existing customer) and the new customer. This strategy makes both groups happy and increases the potential for future purchases and more referrals.
Ensure that your online advertising links lead to content that’s directly relevant to the ads. If your advertisement features a sale, ensure that the link leads customers to a page that describes or shows the sale items in detail. While you want customers to spend time exploring your website, this is not the time to lead them to a sign-up form or home page. Create a better customer experience with a landing page with relevant content.
Was your customers’ purchase experience everything they needed and expected? The only way to know is to examine your purchase touchpoints, when customers are either getting ready to make a purchase or enmeshed in the process.
At the point of sale (POS), a sales representative or web page should provide all the necessary information—including what needs your product will fulfill. This touchpoint is the final one before a customer completes a purchase.
Is your payment process streamlined and intuitive? Does it feel secure? Does it include all relevant payment information, like whether you accept PayPal? A great payment experience will leave the customer without any doubts.
Customers sometimes need that little extra push to hit the purchase button. When interacting with sales representatives, can your agents give your customers all the information they need?
Post-purchase touchpoints are any interactions that happen after a customer purchases your product or service. This period extends indefinitely and includes both repeat purchasers and one-time buyers.
The most common post-purchase touchpoints are:
If a customer encounters a problem, your customer support team is likely the first place they’ll go. A customer support team that effectively remedies issues and rapidly provides guidance can help increase customer satisfaction.
First impressions matter. When your package arrives at your customer’s door, you need to give them an experience that they’ll remember. Creating better packaging or interactive unboxing experiences can help generate free word-of-mouth marketing and satisfy your customers.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that a purchase is the finish line. On the contrary, your relationship with a customer has only just begun. Purchase experience feedback is invaluable for getting more information about the customer experience and whether people are enjoying your products.
And if a customer gets in touch with your customer support team about your product, it’s a great idea to use a customer service feedback survey to learn more about that interaction and how you can improve.