The world’s finest businesses understand how important creating an excellent customer experience is to their overall revenue and brand reputation. According to Zendesk 2020 research, “half of the customers feel that customer experience is more essential to them now than a year ago.”
To create an effective user experience, you must have well-defined customer journey touchpoints that guide prospects through the purchasing process. These touchpoints are platforms or interactions that a prospect has during their complete customer journey.
In general, these points of contact occur at one of five stages of the client journey: awareness, engagement, assessment, purchase, and post-purchase. Each of these stages focuses on a different aspect of the client journey, and the touchpoints you develop should reflect that.
But how can you know which customer journey touchpoints to prioritize as a business? To get you started, we’ve compiled a list of six critical customer journey touchpoints to consider.
Homepage
Customer journey stage: Awareness
Your homepage is the digital heartbeat of your company. It’s the very first point of contact for many prospects on their customer journey. Almost any homepage’s major purpose is to catch your visitors’ attention and encourage them to explore your website further.
We can see the nuanced simplicity behind this customer journey touchpoint in the example above from video marketing software business Wistia. Wistia uses actionable copy on its colorful and engaging site to immediately capture the visitor’s attention. To top it all off, there’s a clearly marked CTA for customers to either sign up to sample Wistia’s product (for those who are further along in the customer journey) or watch a video about it (for those who are in the awareness stage) for more information.
The homepage of your site, as one of the initial customer journey touchpoints prospects, will encounter, should be concentrated on providing a concise introduction to your product. When someone visits your website for the first time, they should be able to grasp how your product will benefit them based only on the content and images on the homepage.
Social Media
Customer journey stage: Any stage
There’s a lot more to social media than posting beach photos on Instagram and going on angry Twitter rants. In fact, it’s one of the most effective customer journey touchpoints your company can employ.
Why? Because social media platforms have large viewership. There will be around 3.6 billion active social media users worldwide by 2020. As a result, these channels can assist your company in connecting with new clients and increasing overall brand awareness.
Within social media, there are numerous touchpoints to consider.
- Company pages are excellent for providing users with broad information about your company and what it does.
- Company posts are excellent for conveying your beliefs and displaying your group brand personality. People can also respond in the comments section to interact with your brand even more.
- Social media chatbots enable users to directly communicate with your business when it’s convenient for them.
Consider different touchpoints within the social media umbrella to successfully use social media for your company. If prospective customers who are interested in what your business has to offer often contact your company through multiple touchpoints, you’ll want to make sure you’re delivering those touchpoints to them.
Interactions with Sales Representatives
Customer journey stage: Evaluation
Now that the prospect is aware of your company and has had some interaction with it, it’s time to show them what makes your product so special. One of the most effective methods to accomplish this is to have a sales professional communicate directly with them.
Your interaction with your customer might take several distinct shapes. Sales representatives can do it the old-fashioned way with a phone call, scheduling a time to speak with a prospect to elucidate on the value of your product. Make sure you provide clients the option of when they want to speak with you. This is especially important for B2B stakeholders, whose daily schedules are sometimes hectic and whose time is often limited.
Another approach to talk to prospects and show them why your product is awesome is through live chat. The benefit of this method is that you can offer prospects visual assets through chat to demonstrate to them how fantastic your product is rather than just telling them. Prospects will be more inclined to learn about your business if you demonstrate the value of your product in real-time.
Customer journey stages for educational and product content include awareness, evaluation, and purchase.
Educational and Product Content
Customer journey stage: Awareness, Evaluation
Blog postings, for example, can be used to educate potential buyers about your product and industry in a similar manner. Consider producing an article that shows your product’s competitive edge in the industry. Fibery, a work management tool, has done something novel in this area with their “Fibery vs. X” blog series.
Blog postings that include competitive analysis are especially beneficial if you are a B2B brand. Before deciding on a product, B2B stakeholders typically consider a variety of possibilities, and this customer journey touchpoint can assist them to make that decision with greater confidence and speed.
Customer Input
Customer journey stage: Evaluation/Purchase
When you’re ready to demonstrate the worth of your product, show customers how successful it has been for their peers in the sector. The best method to accomplish this is to collect feedback and share consumer evaluations and testimonials.
These customer journey touchpoints are crucial throughout the evaluation step, particularly for B2B companies. Because B2B products are frequently large investments, it is in the best interests of businesses to learn how successful others have been with the product.
Send a follow-up email requesting a review after a customer has made a purchase to collect reviews. Sending this message within a few days of the transaction, or after their free trial period of your product has ended, allows clients ample time to digest the major advantages of your product while also not forgetting about it. Provide closed-ended questions with a rating system to make them as simple to respond as feasible. Include an optional text field for customers to elaborate if desired.
If you need thorough testimonials, try scheduling a conversation with a satisfied customer. As long as the consumer grants you permission, you can use their quotes on your website’s homepage or testimonials page.
Alternatively, if clients are willing and have the time, conduct video interviews with them. A satisfied client might be featured in the testimonial film, talking about what they enjoy about your product in further depth. Direct these testimonials lightly to get buyers to mention key qualities and problem issues that your solution can help solve.
A feedback survey is another excellent technique to gather client feedback on your product. Compile a list of precise questions to determine where your product is succeeding and where it may be falling short. This information will assist your company in more effectively addressing consumer problems.
Follow-Up Messages
Customer journey stage: Post-Purchase
The customer journey does not end when your prospect makes a purchase and becomes a customer. To entice clients to return to your business, you must provide additional support or services that will entice them to buy again at some point.
You can send a variety of follow-up messages to customers to keep and grow their interest in your company. An email newsletter or a discount on future purchases are two of the most prevalent types of follow-ups. A newsletter that informs clients about new content and product information from your company may be a suitable alternative for B2B companies that want to assist customers to stay up to date on industry knowledge and news that may be shared on a regular basis.
Follow-up communication is also effective. Request that a support representative contacts a customer by email or text to see how things are doing with the product. It will give your consumer the impression that they are being given special attention and that they have someone to contact if any problems arise.
Are you prepared to map out your customer journey touchpoints?
You now have a better understanding of some of the most important customer journey touchpoints to concentrate on as a company. Create your own customer journey map from here to keep the client lifecycle running strong. A customer journey map is made up of all of the various touchpoints that you decide to include. It improves the client experience and attracts more prospects to your company.