A customer touchpoint is any avenue that prospects and customers have to interact with your business. Providing value on every touchpoint helps turn prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers.
In this post, I‘ll explain in depth what customer touchpoints are and the role they play on marketing and customer service teams. Then, I’ll wrap up with a list of touchpoint examples and proven techniques to use in your business.
Table of Contents
- What Are Customer Touchpoints?
- Customer Touchpoint Examples
- How to Use Customer Touchpoints in Your Business
- Use Customer Touchpoints to Enhance the Customer Journey
What Are Customer Touchpoints?
Customer touchpoints are interactions between businesses and customers that occur during the customer's journey. These moments significantly influence customer experience as well as brand perception. By outlining key touchpoints on a map, businesses can capitalize on timely opportunities to optimize their customer journey.
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Customer touchpoints are typically recorded on a customer journey map and there are templates to help (thanks, HubSpot!).
The maps are put together in chronological order to demonstrate a typical customer's experience with a business. This helps marketing and customer service teams identify touchpoints that cause friction so they can remove them and enhance the customer journey.
Here's an example of what a customer touchpoint looks like on HubSpot's customer journey map.
While this is only a small section of a much larger document, it gives you a good idea of how useful touchpoints are to marketing and customer service teams.
In the original document, the green dots represent interactions that are positive, and the red ones represent points of friction. Yellow dots are moments when customers have to make decisions, which leads to either a green or red dot.
With this layout, I can see an overall view of different touchpoints occurring within various stages of the customer journey. This makes it easier to spot areas of your business that you can improve to increase customer delight.
Next, let’s dive a little deeper into those many touchpoints and see what we find.
I‘ve segmented this list to cover touchpoints that occur before, during, and after a purchase. Additionally, I’ve added a section that's specific to customer service teams.
Customer Touchpoint Examples Before a Purchase
1. Social Media
Social media fits into every section of this list. But its cost-effectiveness makes it most valuable for reaching your target audience and acquiring customers. You can use it to promote products, build relationships with clients, and enhance the overall reputation of your brand. A good example? Me 👋
Most of the clients I have gotten in my marketing career were solely because I posted and interacted on LinkedIn. Without posting and interacting, the odds are that I wouldn’t be writing for HubSpot today.
You can get the best out of any social media platform by sticking to the unspoken rule: become and remain a consistent publisher on your preferred platform.
Here’s a real-life example of how a prospect reached out to me after seeing value on their first and second touchpoints (I’ve marked them up in the email so you can see what I mean.)
2. Online Advertisement
Have you ever noticed banner ads displayed at the top or sidebar of a webpage? Those are touchpoints that take prospects back to your website. For some brands, like Best Buy below, it's an effective way to draw traffic to their sites.
To get the most of your marketing budget and banner ads, I recommend you create landing pages for these ads. This lets you re-target prospects, as opposed to sending those prospects to your landing pages.
3. Digital Marketing Content
Digital marketing content are materials your company publishes online to promote its brand. These materials could be promotional videos, infographics, or engaging blog posts. Beyond analyzing the impact of your marketing content, it’s vital to ensure the content you put out are on-brand.
Before publishing, be sure that your content is convincing and interesting. A potential customer like me wants to buy from a brand that dedicates resources to create its digital marketing content. Once I see the effort, I safely assume that the product or service will be great, too.
4. Company Events
If you're on a marketing or sales team then you may have attended a conference this year where you stood in a booth to promote your company. These events are an excellent way to introduce your brand to customers who may not be aware of it.
One example is INBOUND, where companies from around the world meet to discuss marketing, sales, customer service, and other business topics. It's a great chance for business leaders to connect with new partners and discover strategies that can help their organizations grow.
One core benefit of company events is that most attendees may be qualified leads for your business. So you would want to go in prepared, make a great first impression, and follow up on attendees who fit your ideal customer profile.
5. Peer Referral
Whether I’m buying a software, product, or a service, I often request the opinion of my peers in online forums before swiping my card. My reason is not far-fetched. A brand may lie in its adverts, but customers will rarely do the same.
As such, it’s unsurprising that, like me, 93% of customers say that their friends and family are their most trusted sources of referrals. This makes it imperative to delight your existing customers at every touchpoint.
For instance, a product may be great, but if a customer contacts the technical support team for assistance and gets a poor response, they may not refer your business. Doing the opposite on a company-wide level improves word-of-mouth marketing and causes prospects to perceive your business as trustworthy.
6. Third-Party Reviews
I’m a curious customer. So whether it’s a product or service, I always check for reviews on third-party websites because it’s hard to fake them. A couple of one-star reviews don’t bother me. However, three is too much. And I’m not alone.
According to Susie Ippolito, a former community manager for HubSpot's Trends, customer trust drops by 67% when reviews drop from just four stars to three. Conversely, trust spikes to 95% at the five-star level. The bottom line? Work hard to satisfy your customers so that they can write great reviews for your business on third-party websites.
Customer Touchpoint Examples During a Purchase
7. Conversations with Company Representatives
The most direct point of contact you have with customers is your in-person interactions. These conversations that take place in your stores have an immediate impact on the customer's purchase decision.
8. Pricing Page
It’s so exasperating when I want to buy a product, land on the pricing page, and all I see is “request a quote,” “schedule a demo,” or something similar. This is a turn-off and word on the street is that many people think the same.
If you have a pricing page for your product, be transparent and put up the pricing. If you have no intention of displaying your price, make that clear on the homepage and avoid surprising customers with the extra step of reaching out for a quote or demo.
9. Product Catalogs
Whether they're online or a hard copy, catalogs are an excellent medium for showcasing your product line. An image of the product, coupled with an enticing description, gives the customer everything they need to know before making a purchase.
You can remove friction by adding a CTA on the page that adds the product to a shopping cart, like in the example below.
10. Ecommerce
I have bought several products online thanks to ecommerce businesses. For many businesses, ecommerce is an effective way to acquire customers and close deals because websites can be accessed globally, making it possible for an SMB in one location to provide products and services to a customer on the other side of the world.
Understanding the touchpoints within ecommerce can dramatically improve the customer experience for SaaS and other online companies. Such touchpoints during a purchase include information on your product pages, live chat feature, and your shopping cart or checkout page. Optimizing each of these touchpoints is crucial for winning the sale.
11. Product Reviews
In today's digital age, product reviews are no longer just a pre-purchase touchpoint.
Now, customers have smart devices that can call up product reviews while they're shopping in your stores. Additionally, some online retailers include reviews on the listing page, allowing users to see what other customers think without navigating away from the page. You can see an example of this touchpoint in the image below.
12. Point of Sale
This is the last touchpoint your customers will reach before making a purchase. That's because this is where your sales rep makes their case for why the customer needs your product. For many businesses, this is a momentous step in the customer journey.
Free Customer Journey Template
Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free templates.
- Buyer's Journey Template
- Future State Template
- Day-in-the-Life Template
- And more!
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Customer Touchpoints Example After a Purchase
13. Thank You Letters
One effective way to build customer rapport is by following up with a thank you letter. This can be an email, or, if possible, a hand-written note that thanks customers for their business. It's a great way to show customers you care and develop a long-term relationship with them.
If you're not sure how to start sending customer thank you letters, check out our guide on writing thank you letters.
14. Product Feedback Surveys
Product feedback surveys are sent after a purchase and they evaluate the customer's experience with your product or service. If the customer leaves a negative review, the company can reach out to learn more about the issue. They then relay this information to the product development team, who makes enhancements on the next version of the product.
Beyond making customers know that you care, these feedback surveys might help you retain customers who are five times harder to get according to customer acquisition studies.
15. Upselling/Cross-selling Emails
Customer needs don't go away after a purchase is made. In fact, some customers have additional needs once they start to use your product.
This presents an opportunity for you to upsell or cross-sell customers on additional or premium items in your store. See an example of this in the image below.
16. Billing Actions
Billing is often an overlooked touchpoint on this list. That‘s because it happens after a purchase occurs and has no direct influence on the customer’s decision to buy your product. However, it‘s still a vital step in the customer’s journey because a negative experience can result in an immediate instance of churn, if not addressed properly.
Worst part is, identifying churn as a result of billing challenges may be hard. That’s where conducting regular surveys help in optimizing your billing process.
17. Subscription Renewals
If you're a subscription-based business, renewals are crucial to your revenue model. You need customers to renew their subscriptions to maintain steady growth for your business. This makes it important that you remove as much friction as possible from your renewal process. After all, it should be effortless for an existing customer to stay a customer after their contract is up.
Customer Touchpoint Examples in Customer Service
18. Customer Support Channels
Customer support channels are any platforms that service agents use to communicate with customers. This includes live chat, email, phone, social media, peer review sites, and more. Businesses need to invest in omnichannel support if they want to create a delightful experience for their customers.
19. Customer Success Programs
Customer success programs have a variety of touchpoints. When a customer success department recognizes a potential problem, they reach out to customers to notify them of the issue or offer a solution. This demonstrates a commitment to the customer's goals, which builds additional rapport over time.
20. Customer Onboarding
The battle is not won after you win a new customer. You have to onboard your customer to truly win them. Customer onboarding is a popular touchpoint for service teams because many customers abandon products shortly after buying them. That‘s because they either don’t know how to use it, or they don't have the time to learn how to use it. Both result in churn, making it essential for companies to invest in effective onboarding programs.
21. Customer Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs are another important touchpoint that service teams should be aware of. These programs strengthen your relationship with a customer and turn them into lifelong advocates. By incentivizing people with exclusive rewards and discounts, they'll be more likely to share positive reviews about your business.
22. Self-Service Resources
When customers are in a hurry or only have a quick question for your support team, they don't want to spend 20 minutes waiting on hold for a rep. Instead, you can offer self-service resources that feature troubleshooting steps customers can take on their own. That way, they're not dependent on your service team for answers and can find solutions on their own time, making your product more convenient and easier to use.
All of these touchpoints are essential for creating and analyzing your customer’s journey. But how do you use them in your business? I’ll explain that below.
How to Use Customer Touchpoints in Your Business
By using customer touchpoints, you’ll exponentially improve the customer experience. But not all touchpoints will make sense for your company. For instance, if you’re a SaaS business, you might not have an online catalog. And if you’re running the business on your own, your customer likely won’t run into a sales team.
To create a custom customer touchpoint map, I recommend the following steps.
1. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes.
First and foremost, put yourself in your customers’ shoes and envision the steps they take as they make a purchase decision. Where do they look first? How do they reach a purchase decision? And what do they do if they run into problems using the product?
Let’s take a look at an example customer journey below.
- The customer becomes aware of a problem and researches ways to solve their issue.
- After finding a solution, they search for a particular product. They look through product listings on Google, then explore offerings on retailer websites such as Amazon.
- They search for product reviews.
- After finding sufficient information, they purchase the product.
- They use the product, but run into trouble. They look for articles and resources on how to solve the issue on their own.
- They reach out to a customer service representative.
After, match each of these customer actions to a certain touchpoint. Here’s what that looks like:
- Touchpoint 1. A robust blog that covers commonly-researched issues by your customers.
- Touchpoint 2. A series of paid ads in Google’s and Amazon’s product pages.
- Touchpoint 3. A collection of unsponsored product reviews on your website.
- Touchpoint 4. A portal for customers to easily check and see their order status.
- Touchpoint 5. Self-service options such as knowledge bases and product how-tos.
- Touchpoint 6. An easy-to-find customer service portal or phone number that allows them to get in touch.
Free Customer Journey Template
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- Buyer's Journey Template
- Future State Template
- Day-in-the-Life Template
- And more!
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2. Decide what’s feasible based on your company size and budget.
Now that you have a rough idea of the resources and information your customer will need during their journey, it’s time to decide which ones are easiest to implement based on your company size and budget.
If you sell a complicated product but run a one-person business, investing in a full-scale service desk with knowledge bases and ticketing features might not be feasible. But you could start by adding free live chat.
The key here is to find an alternative that’s easy to adopt for you and your team and that’s scalable as your business grows. You don’t want to be boxed in after your customer touchpoint strategy yields positive results.
3. Establish touchpoint tasks.
Deciding on the touchpoints is one thing; translating them to actionable tasks is another. You’ve decided what’s feasible, and now it’s time to turn it into action.
Here’s what that can look like for the example referenced above.
First Touchpoint Tasks
- Create a strong cluster content strategy that solves for the customer.
- Decide on the first five posts, which will be published in four weeks.
- Outsource the content creation by hiring four freelancers to write the content.
- Use the in-house marketing team to leverage buyer personas and current customer acquisition data.
Second Touchpoint Tasks
- Create a Google Merchant Center account and Amazon seller account.
- Write unique descriptions for each product using the services of two freelancers.
- Source product photos and general information such as specifications, country of origin, sustainability score, and so on.
- Add product listings to Google and Amazon.
Third Touchpoint Tasks
- Add product reviews to the site using a WordPress review plugin or another solution.
- Invite current customers to write reviews by offering a 10% discount on a future purchase.
- Respond to reviews as they come in so prospects can see the brand is active.
You’d continue down the touchpoints list, adding tasks until you have a comprehensive checklist that everyone on your team can reference.
4. Leverage software tools to automate touchpoint tasks.
Use marketing, sales, and service software to ensure touchpoint tasks run smoothly with minor intervention.
Let’s say you’ve decided to invest in social media marketing as the first touchpoint, but you have a three-person marketing team, and you don’t know how to get started. You can consider a social media management tool such as HubSpot’s Social Inbox (included in Marketing Hub). And if your team is new to social media management, you can have everyone take a social media certification course.
If you’ve decided that one of your customers’ touchpoints is chatting with a salesperson, you’d invest in a CRM that helps your sales team keep track of all communication and automatically schedule follow-up calls.
If one of your touchpoints is a discount delivered over email, you’ll want to automatically send the message using email marketing software. No need for you to manually type each email out and send it to every customer.
And if one of your touchpoints is an easy-to-reach service desk, you’ll invest in customer service software that can take care of ticketing — and even resolve simple inquiries with a customer service bot.
These tools can help you streamline your customer touchpoint process so that it progresses with minimal intervention from your team. In that way, as you serve more and more customers, no touchpoint slips through the cracks.
Use Customer Touchpoints to Enhance the Customer Journey
After reading all this, I hope you see that by identifying, planning for, and leveraging each customer touchpoint, you can play a role at every step of the customer journey. Nothing is left up to chance. Instead, you provide targeted information at just the right time.
Whether you’re a one-person business or an enterprise-level team, I recommend using touchpoints to enhance the customer experience, empowering you to retain more customers and grow better.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in January 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
Free Customer Journey Template
Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free templates.
- Buyer's Journey Template
- Future State Template
- Day-in-the-Life Template
- And more!
Download Free
All fields are required.
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