Understanding customer touchpoints has become increasingly important in recent years.
Today's consumer uses an average of seven digital touchpoints to complete a single purchase, compared to an average of two touchpoints 15 years ago.
Other research suggests that more complex sales can involve up to 500 touchpoints.
With more and more of the consumer journey taking place online, it's become crucial for brands to pay extra attention to their digital touchpoints and ensure that each one leads to an exceptional customer experience.
Achieving this requires a process of identifying, mapping, and optimizing digital touchpoints throughout the customer journey.
If this seems like a daunting task, never fear - this article is the ideal place to start. We'll cover:
Put simply, a touchpoint is every interaction a consumer has with your brand throughout their customer journey - from the moment they first discover your business up until they make a purchase, and beyond.
Digital touchpoints are specifically those that occur online and through digital communication channels.
For example, imagine an individual is scrolling through their Instagram feed and they see a post about one of your products for the first time - that would be their first digital touchpoint with your business.
Other examples of digital touchpoints include:
Once you identify your digital touchpoints, you can map them out and discover how customers typically experience your brand.
This will enable you to spot possible painpoints in the customer journey and any elements of your digital customer service that require improvement.
Gathering customer feedback is also an important part of this process.
You can use this information to map back to specific touchpoints which will help you understand the key moments that influence customer sentiment and behavior.
Knowing your digital touchpoints is the key to optimizing the customer journey and discovering how consumers typically experience your brand.
We live in a digital era where consumers automatically turn to the internet in order to research and connect with businesses.
Consequently, it's more important than ever before that your digital touchpoints are optimized to ensure each one leads to a seamless customer experience.
The individual digital touchpoints that consumers encounter all contribute to their overall experience with your brand.
And as 89% of businesses compete primarily on the basis of customer experience, you must ensure that every touchpoint brings value and sparks customer delight.
Remember, touchpoints are critical steps to securing conversions.
One weak link in the chain of touchpoints can mean the difference between a successful sale and a lost opportunity.
That's why it's imperative that you identify and optimize every step in the customer journey to ensure that potential customers aren't slipping away unnecessarily.
Simple errors like a broken website page or a live chat message that never gets a reply can result in you losing multiple customers forever.
The main challenge when it comes to optimizing your digital touchpoints is knowing where to begin.
Every brand has its own range of touchpoints and each customer's experience and journey with them will be unique.
That's why we've covered the five fundamental digital touchpoints to help you get started.
Google is a powerful search engine that can help you reach a vast range of consumers.
It's the most visited website worldwide and currently dominates 91.9% of the search engine market.
Think about it - what's the first thing you do when you're trying to find a solution to a problem? You google it.
Because of this, Google is often the first digital touchpoint for many customer journeys.
In fact, 46% of all product searches begin on Google and the number of online searches for local businesses has increased by over 250% since 2017.
There are a few things you can do to optimize Google as a digital touchpoint:
However you choose to optimize this digital touchpoint, doing so will ensure that you're getting the most out of Google's immense scope of reach.
Your website is one of the most significant digital touchpoints.
It tells people what your business has to offer and often gives customers the first impression of your brand.
Therefore, you should dedicate a considerable amount of time and effort to ensure that your website makes a lasting and positive impact on potential customers.
To achieve this, consider the following elements:
Ultimately, a website that is optimized and well-crafted will generate leads, drive conversions, and get consumers invested in what you have to offer.
A poorly constructed website will achieve nothing but a high bounce rate - regardless of how much traffic you obtain.
Live chat has become a must-have digital touchpoint for businesses across all industries.
In fact, 75% of consumers prefer live chat over any other support channel.
By offering live chat as a touchpoint on your website, you can connect with customers and answer their queries instantly, via real-time interactions.
You can also increase conversions and capture more leads - case in point, 79% of businesses report that implementing live chat has had a positive impact on sales, leads and revenue.
You can get the most out of live chat as a digital touchpoint with the following practices:
By offering live chat as a touchpoint on your website, you can meet customers where they are.
It gives you the opportunity to elevate the digital customer experience and can mean the difference between a successful conversion and an abandoned one.
With 80% of consumers using social media to connect with brands, these platforms are a vital digital touchpoint with a wealth of opportunities.
You can leverage the power of social media to connect with customers on a personal level.
This touchpoint can be utilized to create a digital community, improve your public image, and foster brand loyalty.
To take your social media touchpoint potential to the next level, you should aim to:
By taking advantage of these strategies, you can ensure that your social media touchpoints are working hard for you and helping you reach your business goals.
Online reviews are an important digital touchpoint because they have a huge impact on customer decisions.
Positive reviews build trust in your brand and encourage potential customers to use your services.
Negative reviews create a poor public image and can cause consumers to avoid your brand - the stakes are high with this particular touchpoint.
In addition to influencing the decisions of potential customers, online reviews can also be a valuable source of feedback for your business.
You can reap the rewards of this resource by:
By paying attention to online reviews and using them to make business decisions, you can ensure that your business is always providing the best possible experience for its customers.
The process of understanding and optimizing digital touchpoints is an essential undertaking for any business.
It has a direct impact on the customer experience and the chance of a successful conversion.
However, it's imperative that you don't hyper-focus on individual touchpoints and forget to consider how they work together.
Remember that the consumer journey is not just the sum of its touchpoints - it's about how these touchpoints combine to create an overall brand experience.
Beyond optimizing specific digital touchpoints, the next step is ensuring that they all contribute to a smooth customer journey and an exceptional experience.
A key step to achieving this is investing in the right platform for your digital channels.
All of these channels are significant touchpoints that shape the entire digital journey - so it's vital that you have the best technology to power and manage them
And that's where Talkative comes in.
Our Consultative Service Platform was specifically designed to power better experiences by connecting you with the right customers, via the right channel, at the right time.
We provide a complete suite of engagement channels that'll enable your customer advisors to connect instantly, and effortlessly, with your customers at every digital touchpoint.
As a result, you'll be empowered to engage and convert more customers than ever before.
Want to see for yourself? Book a demo with Talkative and take the next step to digital touchpoint success today.
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