Customer Touch
points.....Critical aspect for Brand Building
Ms. Sheela is after her Hubby to buy a new car, she likes Maruti Ertiga.
She has 3 brands of
Maruti Dealers in Goa to choose from, " Chowgule Inds. Ltd, Sai Service
and Aryaman Sai.
She has seen
Hoardings of Chowgule inds. by roadside, She also has come across Sai Service's
Demo cars on the road, regular ads from all the players are very common on the
newspapers, lot of Maruti cars on the roads have dealership stickers on their
number plates and rear glasses. All these touch points shall help her choosing
the dealership she will buy the car from.
Your customers can
connect with your brand in many ways: Product Performance, Display /Shelf
space, Advertising & marketing, Experience through interaction with
your sales personnel, etc.
Each of these
connects or touch points influence the customer's impression of the brand. Some
of these touch points are obvious, like product performance, and personal
customer interactions.
Other touch points,
such as the product manual, monthly statements or post-sales support, Servicing
reminders, Brand visibility through various media etc, goes a long way in
strengthening your brand.
Brand
owners should realize importance of these touch points and ensure serious
attention to them. The following points may be useful to this topic.
- Identify
your customer touch points:
In
Each and every step of your business process there are number of touch points
when the customer comes in contact with your brand. Do a study of these
steps and ensure you identify these touch point and reinforce your brand
in various ways at each of these points. Ask few questions like How do
you generate customer demand?, How your products are sold to the customers?,
What is the process for providing after sales service for your clients? What
are the different ways by which a customer contacts my company?
Example:
When
you Call any Caculo Group employees, you will find a Caculo Mall jingle
ringing. With every incoming call they are re-enforcing their brand.
- Categorise your Touch points: Once
you identify the various touch points it is critical to categories them.
There can be broadly 4 categories of these touch points.
1. Company
Initiated Touch points: These are touch points
created and driven by the company itself, these are very advantages as
they are well controlled and planned initiatives.
2. Interactive
Touch Points: Customers interaction with you while buying and selling of your
brand is one of the most crucial touch point, these are very powerful ones as
these are direct and personal, the brand experience is felt/analyzed
immediately, The brands which are able to deliver good experiences at
these touch points, are the ones which are powerful in their respective industry.
3. Un
-Certain Touch Points: These touch points
are those which are unexpected by the company, there is no direct control
over them and can be both good and bad for the brand. References about the
brand as news/article in various media, could be a example for such touch
points.
4. Customer
Initiated Touch points: Today's customers are well
informed, they many a times are proactive in contacting various brands to
make their buying decision a more researched one. Lot of companies today
operate " Customer Care cell", they encourage web based inquiry,
they are open to hear customer complaints. All these interactions are
customer initiated and should be planned for.
To
conclude I would say that every brand manager should give due focus on customer
touch points as they can be major contributor in enhancing your sales volume
and can certainly support in building a reputation and respect for your brand.
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