Touchpoints are the interactions a customer has with the company during their customer journey, from becoming aware of a product to deciding to buy.
These interactions, also called points of contact, can vary from offline to online, from live chat to engagement, happening directly or indirectly.
Any misconstruction while engaging with a piece of content you have released can lead to losing a potential customer. Therefore, it is essential to be aware of all the steps your customer takes to ensure a positive experience and enhance your brand image.
In this blog post, let’s discuss the various touchpoints that happen within a B2C Company and analyze how it’s been multiplying since the social media evolution.
Table of Contents
Why Observe Touchpoints
Customer touchpoints differ according to the business model your company follows. It can be Business-to-Business, Business-to-Consumer, or Hybrid model. They have different customers, slightly varying customer journeys, and conclusively different points of contact.
Tracing the points of contact can help better strategize your sales and marketing plans by improvising the communication channels. It can be a channel where customers initiate the contact or where the business initiates.
Omnichannel Touchpoints
With the onset of many mediums to communicate, a multiple touchpoint strategy is followed by companies. It aims to deliver a consistent and sustainable experience to the customer where they grow into a well-informed buyer before indulging in the decision-making process.
It helps businesses turn prospects into leads at a higher rate, working from many directions.
Touchpoints at Different Stages
Touchpoints are optimized only after mapping the customer’s journey into these stages: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision.
The map includes customer touchpoints, tasks that customers perform during the touchpoints, the problems they face during the journey, and solutions presented to their major pain points.
Based on the customer journey, touchpoints can be discovered in B2C as follows: before purchase, during purchase, and after purchase.
By understanding how to map customer journeys, businesses can gain insights into interactions that impact decision-making. To effectively enhance B2C customer experiences, it’s crucial to visualize these stages in a structured format. You can learn more about the customer journey map to create strategic touchpoints that align with consumer needs throughout their journey.
Before Purchase
B2C companies are usually direct sellers, fee-based retailers, online intermediaries, community-based retailers, and advertising-based retailers. Most interactions happen online due to the growing influence and use of digital technology.
Prior to this, customers were exposed to analogue marketing such as television and print advertising. Social Media Platforms, Websites, and Email opened the gateway to innovation and the spread of valuable information that would otherwise be kept unknown or monetized.
Before making a purchase decision, customers become aware of the product when a need arises. They come across these points of contact.
1. Advertisements
Traditional ads have evolved into a product of social media platforms by engaging users through creative posts and videos.
According to recent statistics, an average of 44% consumers around the world prefer shopping online while an average of 30% following closely on tails prefer in-store shopping.
They come across ads on Google, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube among others, and are influenced to buy a product.
Google’s new ad campaign Performance Max simplifies managing campaigns across all of Google networks and helps drive better performance for your conversion goals.
2. Webpages
Besides social media platforms, customers’ go-to places include online retail shops and e-commerce websites. Vendors come up with products that align with consumer needs.
Webpages are divided into segments to promote products.
Ads and popupsthrow light on offers and sales posted on websites.
3. Product Pages and Category Pages
Customers land on product pages in search of the relevant products or services. A clear design that aids them in navigating easily increases the probability of their purchase. Follow AIDA and PAS frameworks to ensure solving customer’s problems and easing their journey.
Offline stores use product catalogs to provide all the information a customer would desire to know. In-store employees help them through this process.
This is why it is crucial to hire good professionals and ensure effective payroll management to maintain customer satisfaction and reduce turnover.
Use our service Content.Ai to generate product descriptions for all your products, in a simple style that is easily understandable for your target audience.
4. Social Media
Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube are the major social media platforms used to share resources, and information on products and services, either directly or indirectly through CTAs. Brands promote their products and services through posts, feeds, reels, and most popularly ads.
Social media gives complete access to even the layman and therefore, serves as a useful way to engage with customers and understand their behaviors.
Content.Ai helps generate all your social media posts in no time and increases your productivity.
During Purchase
In this phase, customers have acknowledged their needs and are halfway through their decision to purchase, requiring assistance from many sources to test the credibility of products.
Google allows customers to compare and judge the products themselves by showcasing all the available options in its ‘shopping’ listing. It is a daunting task to get your product listed on Google results, so read this Ultimate Guide to Get Google Rich Results and act on it now!
Most of the customers are buying from want rather than need and so make impulsive purchases. They come across through the following touchpoints.
1. Website
Retail websites decide whether a customer wants to proceed with the purchase or not. Complex navigation and poor user interface can lead to dropping the act of purchase altogether. Sites use live chat support features to interact with the prospects to understand what their intent is. It helps land customers where they want to.
Shopping Cart is the point where the customer has half-decided to make the purchasing decision. According to Shopify, the e-commerce site would simply be a website without e-commerce functionality without a shopping cart.
2. Product Packaging
Research has shown that customers form their impression of the brand within 7 seconds. Product packaging is significant for your brand and sends a positive message to your customers. It is directed towards influencing the emotions of the customers by making them feel special.
Custom box packaging can further enhance this experience, adding a personalized touch that reinforces your brand’s identity.
3. Transaction and Invoice
Payment as a touchpoint is crucial as it ensures the successful purchase of a product. A transaction that deters the payment process can lead to a disappointed customer who has faced a significant loss on their side.
By using cutting-edge technology, you can provide an effective and positive transactional experience, proof of which is the invoice. Remember, a professional-looking invoice enhances trust in your company.
After Purchase
1. Emails
Purchase confirmation emails, and thank-you emails are commonly used to acknowledge the transaction and make the customers purchase more with a meaningful intention. It advocates brand loyalty, provided the customer has had a great experience with the seller.
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2. Reviews and Feedback
E-commerce websites enable customer support as well as customer reviews in order to gather valuable insights from their experience. Any inconvenience throughout their journey can be recorded through comments and surveys.
3. Exchange and Returns
Touchpoints occurring during an exchange or return are also important as it will require for the customers to wait for a couple of days until it is accomplished. It is necessary to think of a customer’s easy experience even after purchase.
4. Customer Services
Maintaining communication ensures building a relationship with the customer, so as to create a good brand image supporting kindness and caring. Customers when well-taken care of are bound to return for more purchases.
Gaining their feedback and working on improving their experience can expand the scope of marketing as well as increase your customer base.
Automating B2C Customer Touchpoints with GoZen
As the number of touchpoints keeps increasing, it is becoming complicated for companies to keep track of them.
With GoZen, most of the touchpoints beginning from distributing information in the form of content and collecting feedback through surveys can be automated to effectively maintain the progress of your customer experience campaigns. Try our free and premium plans now!
Conclusion
Companies that follow multiple touchpoint engagements see growth in revenue. B2C customers purchase based on their wants and demands. Once they lose interest, they easily move on to other products, therefore making it difficult to retain them. This is one of the biggest differences between B2B and B2C Customer Journey.
Modern consumers are information seekers and are smart enough to know that they are looking for the best quality product. In order to appease them, customer engagement strategies have to be optimized according to touchpoints, which is opening portals from all sides to engage with the brands.
