Touchpoints - top strategy for online stores

To optimize touchpoints in online stores, it is advisable to recreate a typical "customer journey" through the store.FROM MARCO DI MICHELI*In the book "Touchpoints" (which is well worth reading, by the way), the author Ms. Anne Schüller writes: "Touchpoints arise wherever a (potential) customer comes into contact with the products, brands, employees, and services of a provider (i.e., also of an online store, note author). Indirect touchpoints such as opinion portals, user forums, test reports, blog posts, and tweets are playing an increasingly important role. These are referred to as "earned touchpoints" because the providers cannot buy them, but "earn" them through their actions and their appearance. If you as a store operator manage to develop as many such "earned touchpoints" as possible, this is the best advertising for your store, because it comes from customers without any external influence and from their conviction and experience, which is therefore highly credible and authentic and does not even incur any costs!Locate the touchpoints of your storeIn the book "Touchpoints", Anne Schüller writes about touchpoints, i.e. all those sensitive touchpoints that shape the impression of companies and products and trigger actions or not - both negative and positive. These can be the reception, the product receipt, a customer service conversation and more. But your store also has such touchpoints: The navigation, the search function, the product images, the conditions and, as already mentioned several times, the order processing. With questions like the ones above, you will find the strengths and weaknesses of your touchpoints.Systematic optimization of touchpointsAnalyze these touchpoints with a strengths/weaknesses and opportunities/risks analysis, but do this from the customer's point of view or also together with acquaintances who have unbiased impressions. In doing so, try to design a "customer journey", i.e. to recreate a typical "customer journey" through your store with the above points. By the way, this also includes e-mail inquiries, telephone contact or - very important - what information visitors see about your store in Google search hits.Optimize and strengthen touchpointsThis may include removing unimportant touchpoints, adding new ones, or improving, simplifying, or expanding highly regarded ones. This can result in can-do and must-do touchpoints, which help to set priorities. Very important is the importance and value of the touchpoints for your customers on the one hand and the willingness to buy, follow-up purchase and recommendation on the other hand. This can be represented very well in a matrix. The goal is to deliver top performance that not only satisfies your customers but inspires them and makes them recommend it to others with commitment. You have to be aware that online customers store emotionally and that any detail such as an unclear term, an image that evokes unpleasant emotions, or confusing price information can lead to a customer abandoning the purchase and leaving the store.Case study of a touchpoint approachWith customers, testers and visitors you have found out that technical specifications only unsettle and go unnoticed and remove them. But more and better product images are expected and in the purchase process you lose buyers because of the registration requirement. You hear from two customers: "When I then had to fill in so many fields, it was too tedious for me and I also became suspicious. That's when I almost dropped out". The services are rarely read, but the fast e-mail response times and deliveries are big plus points. As a result, you still optimize the good things, expand them and communicate them as well (Our fast delivery times are what our customers appreciate the most). Negative things that are important to customers are improved and unimportant things are removed.A quote from the above-mentioned book, because it so aptly describes the new rules of the game of online marketing: "In the past, companies scattered their advertising monologues in the market, the customers listened obediently and then bought. Today it's the other way around. Customers buy, tell others about it, and thus get third parties to act with recommendations. Now it is the providers who should listen in order to successfully master their touchpoints... "*.Marco De Micheli is publishing director and owner of PRAXIUM, a specialist publisher for human resources. His latest book is called "Onlinemarketing-Praxis für Webshops".Onlinemarketing-Praxis für WebshopsSize: 245 pagesPRAXIUM-Verlag, ZürichISBN: 978-3-906092-26-3With CD-ROM all working aids, tools and also as e-bookMore about the book:http://praxium.ch/webshop.htmThe book on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/onlineshopmarketingReference:http://www.hrmbooks.ch/onlinemarketing,i11.htm