8 Steps to Turn Touchpoints into Opportunity
Identifying and optimizing touchpoints, bringing customers closer to success
As we all know, Customer Success is providing the value our clients expect from us. But before we can do so, we must first prove that we are worthy of their time, that we are the ones perfect for helping with their needs. In each interaction with a potential client, we have the chance to convert them to our customers and drive them towards loyalty.
Touchpoints are the interaction between the company and the customer throughout the customer journey. A good customer interaction leads to a 10-15% revenue increase while lowering the cost by 15-20%. It isn’t surprising that 88% of companies prioritize Customer Experience*.
You may be thinking, do I need to know this? What help would it be to me- a Customer Success Manager, to understand the customer journey? Our goal is to make revenue for the company by helping customers achieve outcomes. Therefore, we must know when we have that opportunity to make them happy. By understanding when we can utilize Customer Success strategies, we would be able to make the most out of these interactions.
*source: Best of both worlds: Customer experience for more revenues and lower costs | McKinsey
Why should CSMs understand the Customer Journey?
When managing touchpoints, you should always look at the customer journey’s bigger picture.
A customer’s end-to-end journey is often overlooked but is something you mustn’t miss. Only when you look into the customer’s entire journey will you be able to understand and formulate strategies to improve them. When done well, it brings about higher customer satisfaction, improves sales and retention, and reduces costs. However, a poorly managed customer interaction can bring negative consequences such as higher call volumes, lost sales, and even customer defection.
It’s important to remember that your action affects the journey as a whole and not just that one interaction you’ve intervened in. Ensure that clients remain “happy” by offering consistent service and experience on all channels- which is impossible unless you manage the entire Customer Journey, not just the individual touchpoints.
How do I identify Customer Touchpoints?
A perfect strategy to visualize the customer’s journey is through touchpoint mapping. Using your company’s CRM or Customer Success software, you can track the lifecycle and journey of your customers. Along with it, you can identify the friction and churn-producing interactions.
There are 5 Stages leading to Customer Loyalty wherein the company can optimize to bring customers closer to Customer Success.
1. Awareness Stage
The customer becomes aware of your product or service and what you can offer them. Touchpoints opportunities in this stage include SEO, ads, blog content, word of mouth, and press which can influence whether the client perceives the company positively or not.
2. Consideration Stage
Now that customers are aware of your product or service. In this stage, they evaluate if your company is fit to help them fulfill their needs. The interaction with the customers happens through website visits, organic social media, product demonstrations, and case studies.
3. Decision Stage
The client has decided that they are ready to make a purchase. Before that, expect the client to evaluate reviews, branded content, and user experience. Then, there would finally be a sales team interaction successfully turning them into customers.
4. Retention Stage
It’s not yet the end. As long as they are your customers, their journey is progressing. To ensure that the customers perceive your company’s value, it is essential to connect with them through testimonials, customer surveys, product feedback surveys, and email campaigns.
5. Loyalty Stage
The customers are happy and are getting the value they’re expecting. They keep returning to your product and are willing to be the ambassadors, referring your company to their acquaintances. Organic social media, customer surveys, and customer loyalty programs must bring an even better experience.
How do I Optimize Customer Touchpoints?
There are multiple touchpoints within the stages of the Customer Journey. Let’s talk about how you can improve their experience. It’s important to know that you, as a Customer Success Manager, understand that optimizing these touchpoints is not your sole responsibility. Collaborate and communicate with multiple teams in your company.
1. Optimize Product Pages
Customers will directly look into the product your company is offering them. Including all the details of your product, what problems it will solve, and how it will do so is essential to help customers realize your company’s value.
2. Optimize Pricing Pages
Be transparent with the total costs. Ensure that customers quickly identify what they are paying for, the features offered, and what they can expect from you. Let them see their options with different pricing plans and their limitations and features.
3. Optimize Onboarding Process
Set the customers up for success by adopting a better user onboarding process. Always make yourself available through every possible channel, offering them guidance, resources, and support. Make your customers successful quickly by helping them understand how they can use your product or service to achieve their intended outcomes.
4. Optimize Referral or Loyalty Program
Encourage the sharing of positive experiences of a customer with their friends and family. Take advantage of the powerful word-of-mouth marketing by providing incentives to the referrer and the new customers.
5. Optimize Social Media Profiles
Provide quick access to your company’s social media profiles on your website and drive Customer Success by showcasing the right content online.
6. Optimize Email Campaigns
Email campaigns are versatile. It can be utilized in customer prospecting, providing information and continuous value, and be the platform for customer and product surveys. Consider email automation and improve every part of the Customer Success process, from onboarding to upselling.
7. Optimize the Customer Success process
With excellent customer service, more than 90& of customers are more likely to make a repeated purchase. Setting up a Customer Success automation that triggers whenever a touchpoint becomes a potential reason for churn is a powerful tool. It allows you to intervene before the customers leave and formulate strategies to prevent it from reoccurring.
8. Optimize Renewal Process
An improved renewal process is a significant factor that keeps the customers from leaving. Make them aware that you’ll deduct a payment from their account, send emails that remind them of subscription plans, optimize billing options, and make it easy to update their information independently. Learn more techniques on improving the renewal process here: 10 SaaS Renewal Best Practices to Drive Subscriber Loyalty – Custify.
To Sum It All Up…
Customer Journey is made up of all customer touchpoints. Customers aren’t linear and can take different journeys. Understanding each customer journey is key to improving each. You must map the customer journey and identify how the customers research your product, buy and use it, seek support, express satisfaction and dissatisfaction, recommend your product, and more.
Gather data that helps you understand what contributes to the customer’s overall experience with your product or service and optimize them to ensure customer retention.
