There’s a saying that goes, “People will always remember how something made them feel.” That’s a true statement. It’s as true as the first date you had with … anyone. The first date always determines whether there will be a second date. The same holds true for your business. Except in business, they’re called customer touchpoints. How do you think your customers feel about the touchpoints they have with your business? Hopefully, they’re happy ones.
There are things you can do as a business to optimize how customers interact with your brand so that they’ll want to come back and then stay in their minds long after they’ve made a purchase. Let’s discuss some ways you can create happiness touchpoints for your customers.
Customer touchpoints are any time a customer, be it potential or existing, interacts with your business. The touchpoint can be representative of any person affiliated with your business or through any means (website, phone, email, social media, etc.).
There are so many ways customers can be influenced to interact with you again, and it will all come from their experiences with your business. It doesn’t matter if the experience was with you personally, or someone who represents your business like an employee or social media influencer, or through your website or an email or phone interaction they had with someone.
As a business, you want to ensure that no matter how your customer interacts with your business, their experience is so exciting and “happy” that they will want to come back again. Sometimes you only get one chance to show what you got, and here are some ways to help you do that.
Your website is important for the customer journey. For some, this will be their first real look at what you do so you want it to not only be a good user experience, but you want to be informative. Make sure they’re able to interact or get help through avenues like chat and have your contact information readily available if they need to contact you.
Blog posts are a great way for your customers to know just how experienced you are at what you do. Let them know you’re the expert by providing consistent, engaging blog posts. These blog posts should address issues that are at the top of your customers’ minds. They should respond to their pain points and let them know that you have the solutions they’re looking for.
Sometimes a potential customer is just one step away from being an active customer, but they can’t find any reviews. Not having customer reviews can be just as bad as having all negative reviews. Make sure to encourage your active customers to give you a review on sites like Google or Yelp. A few good reviews are sometimes all a person needs to become an active customer.
People follow you on social media before they ever buy from you, so how your business engages on social media is very important. Be sure to post regularly and to create posts that encourage engagement just so you can have that opportunity with your followers. Let them see that you’re a real person who cares about their needs and you want to help them solve their problems.
Sometimes it’s the people closest to you who know you best that can make a big noise about your business. And when they do, you want it to be a happy noise. Word of mouth goes a long way. When the whole town’s talking good, it’s only a matter of time before others close to them will want to check out what you offer. So, make sure even friends and family have happy touchpoints.
Even as a person is in the process of becoming an active customer, things could go left. Maybe they were trying to purchase online but the system was too slow. Maybe the product they were trying to purchase was out of stock and rather than back ordering it, they decided to abandon their cart, never to be tended to again.
Or maybe they were in line in your store when the person ringing up the order decided to say something not very nice, and the customer immediately left the register and all potential sales items on the counter.
Anything can happen to botch a fully potential sale. Make sure you have processes in place that would make sales processes as smooth as ever — from boosting bandwidth to hiring only the happiest salespeople.
It’s good to follow up with your customers to ensure they had a good buying experience and to know their product is working as expected. Not everyone takes the time to do this. So, when a customer receives this, they know you take their interactions very seriously and that you care about how they feel about them and the product. So, make sure they know they can contact you if they have any problems with the product.
Invite them to leave a review of the product and their customer experience. Whether positive or negative, it will be useful information for you. If it’s negative, take their feedback and see how you can improve upon it so that another customer won’t have that same experience. If it’s positive, you know to keep doing what you’re doing, and you can expect to see that customer again.
The customer brought from you but that shouldn’t be the end of the relationship. That’s just the beginning of it. Use email campaigns to cross-sell and upsell other products that the customer could use just as much. What’s there to lose? They’ve seen the value in something you offer. Make sure they’re aware of other offers you have.
Make sure your customer support is fully in place and available to respond to customers’ needs. A person may have bought from you, but if they don’t like how you respond to them after a sale, there’s only a slight chance they’ll buy from you again.
Touchpoints take place at every stage of the customer’s journey, before the purchase, during the purchase, and after the purchase. Never feel that you’ve done enough. Always be looking for ways to improve and make the customer experience better. It’s only when customers see you going the extra mile and delivering for them in ways that your competitor isn’t, that they continue to buy from you.
Looking to enhance your customer journey and touchpoints? At BHirst Media, we offer a range of services to help you create exceptional customer experiences that stand out from the competition. Let us assist you in delivering outstanding service at every stage of your customer’s journey.
Ready to take your customer experience to the next level? Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you achieve your goals and keep your customers coming back.
