From your website to the checkout counter, every aspect of your business is a touchpoint. Simply put, a touchpoint is any message that reaches your customers. This can be physically, through face-to-face interactions, or virtually, through the internet and your customer’s smartphone. Regardless of the type, each interaction you have with your customers has to resonate with them, especially when they are considering their purchases. Why? Because they directly affect sales.
Touchpoint Management
Unfortunately, in 2021, touchpoint management is more challenging than ever. Social distancing and building capacity restrictions have placed an irremovable physical barrier between you and your customers. Using traditional marketing methods, this limited in-person contact makes it nearly impossible for customers to establish an emotional connection with your business.
According to a study published in the Harvard Business Review, emotionally connected customers are more than twice as valuable as highly satisfied customers.
A New Solution
Before March of 2020, face-to-face interactions were the easiest way to develop relationships with your customers. But since the early part of this year, those type of encounters are almost non-existent. Engaging with someone when they are at least six feet away or wearing a mask is almost impossible. And the desire of both parties to make the interaction as brief as possible makes things even more difficult.
Thankfully, text messaging tools and social media have picked up the slack and created new and innovative ways to reach customers quickly and easily. And because both mediums are more personal and casual than an email or phone call, they are extremely effective at creating the emotional connections that are so valuable.
The following six touchpoints thrive at developing emotional connections and should receive your attention first:
1. Thank You!
Every transaction deserves a “Thank You!” note, especially if it was a return. A handwritten note delivered through snail mail is extra personal and means a lot to the customer. But in most cases, that’s not a practical option. Sending a quick text message is a much better way to reach your customers. It takes less time to compose, delivery is faster, and they’re almost guaranteed to read it. You can take it a step further and use automated texts to reach customers whose activity has dropped or fallen off. Make sure to include a special gift to encourage them to visit your business, either online or in-person.
2. Birthdays and Anniversaries
It’s their birthday or wedding anniversary. Time to celebrate it! Send them a text on their special day and include a valuable offer like a free item or service. This lets customers know that you care about their personal milestones in life. Another anniversary you could include is the opening day of your business. Advertise it as a big event on your social media pages and offer a digital coupon to the first 25 or 50 people who ‘Like’ the post. It’s a fun way to let them know that your business is planning to be around for many years to come. Longevity and loyalty go hand-in-hand.
3. We Miss You.
This is another great way to reach out by text and let them know you care. Customization is important here. The message can be sent automatically, but it has to be personalized and sound authentic. Any allusion to it being a computer generated will snap the emotional connection.
Reach your customers through text message.
4. Points Balance.
If you have a rewards program in place, send them a text message with their current points balance. They will appreciate hearing about how close or far away they are from receiving a reward. Earning discounts or free items was probably why they first joined your loyalty program. It’s the most enticing thing to them and may give them some added motivation to engage with your business.
5. Holidays
Every holiday has an emotional connection. On those special days throughout the year, post about it on your social media pages. These positive messages have a long shelf life and can be recycled from year-to-year. As always, include some sort of irresistible offer so that customers will take action. You can also include holiday messages in your automated text campaigns. It will only take a few minutes to schedule holiday messages for the whole year.
6. VIP Offers.
Customers want to feel appreciated and special. But how will they know if you don’t tell them? Special VIP offers accomplish this. It’s the exclusivity, the “you’re more special than the others” type of message that builds an emotional connection. And it’s easy to communicate via text message. Simply create a group that contains all of your VIP customers, and send the same message to each of them. They key is making sure they understand that the offer is only for them.
Purpose and Intent
For customers, every interaction matters and they expect value and authenticity during each one. This may seem like a tall order, but you can achieve it through creativity, customization, and technology. Creativity is how and when you present the message. The most successful companies use customer touchpoint management in conjunction with SMS marketing and social media to present special offers and rewards in eye-catching ways. When you customize your messaging, it will always sound authentic, and that’s what your audience wants.
Capitalizing on Touchpoints
Effective touchpoint management gives you purpose and intent for reaching out to your customers. In 2021, this looks a little different than it did before. Less in-person contact means you must reach customers digitally and do so in an engaging way that provides real value. It takes a little more effort, but they will appreciate not getting bombarded with useless messaging. Don’t sit back passively and hope that you are still engaged with your customers. Reach out and let them know you care.