How to Improve Customer Touchpoints

Customer touchpoints are the various contact points your customers have with your brand. They can be physical or digital and can happen before, during, or after a purchase.

Brands need to provide a seamless experience for customers across all touchpoints. If this fails, it is called a point of failure. This can disrupt the customer journey and cause customers to lose trust in your brand.

In this blog post, our 3D rendering company will give you an overview of customer touchpoints and walk you through each step of improving them for an e-commerce furniture brand. We’ll also discuss strategies to help you define and manage customer touchpoints marketing channels within your furniture e-commerce business.

Let’s get started!

#1. Learn More About Customer Touchpoints and What They Mean for Your Business

Customer touchpoints, also known as customer interaction points, are the many ways and interactions customers have with your business — especially during the purchase process.

A customer touchpoint is any time a customer interacts with a company. These interactions can happen at different stages of the buying process, from being introduced to a product to post-purchase follow-up and requests for returns or refunds.

There are two main types of customer touchpoints:

• Physical touchpoints include in-store displays, packaging, salespeople, and so on. 
• Digital touchpoints include websites, emails, social media accounts, and more.

Take some time to understand your customer touchpoints so that you can be sure that your audience is receiving a positive experience every step of the way in their journey with your brand. 

#2. Map Customer Touchpoints by Phases in the Furniture E-commerce Buying Process 

Understanding interaction touchpoints are the first step to improving your customer experience strategy. You’ll want to identify the purpose of each touchpoint so you can improve it or create it if necessary. The customer experience associated with each of these touchpoints is diverse, depending on the nature of the interaction. This means you can focus on improving user experience and creating a memorable brand experience that will keep customers returning.

We’re going to look at how you can improve the customer touchpoints in your furniture e-commerce business by mapping them according to the phases in the buying process. By understanding your audience across all stages of buying, you can streamline your message and provide a seamless brand experience for customers no matter what stage they are in.

Pre-Purchase Touchpoints — Customer Research Phase

Pre-purchase touchpoints are a customer’s first contact with your brand. These include everything from the site that they visit to learn about you to the emails and social media platforms you use to connect with them before they buy.

Pre-purchase touchpoints are where you can make a first impression on a customer, and this must be done well if you want them to return for more business in the future. Customers today expect exceptional service at every stage of their journey, so it’s essential that each interaction feels like an extension of what they’ve seen previously (e.g., good service when buying on Amazon).

Pre-purchase touchpoints also allow businesses to build trust with potential customers by helping them solve problems or answering questions before they’re ready to commit money or time to make purchases from companies like yours.

The research phase begins when a customer is looking to buy new furniture and ends when they have decided what they want to purchase. During this phase, the e-commerce business must provide customers with information about the products they sell. This includes product descriptions, images of the products, videos, and other media that help buyers understand what the product looks like and how it works.

This phase aims to get your customers to decide which product they want to purchase, so you should focus on providing as much information as possible to help them make an informed choice.

Mid-Purchase Touchpoints — Product Information Search, Evaluation, and Selection Phase

Mid-purchase touchpoints happen when the customer is actively shopping for your product. This can be when they’re searching for a new sofa or chair, looking at reviews, comparing prices and styles, and so on.

Sometimes, it may also include the stage in which the customers already decided to buy from you but want to check out other options before making the final purchase.

This is when you want to ensure that your customers feel confident in their purchases. Your job is to make sure that they are well informed about the product and its features, as well as any additional information that might be helpful to make a decision.

Post-Purchase Touchpoints — Purchase and Delivery Phase

Post-purchase touchpoints are all about turning someone into a loyal repeat buyer. You want them to feel good about their purchase and confident in the company that sold it to them so you can get their business again.

The purchase and delivery phase is where you can make a difference. You want to ensure that your customers are happy with the product they purchased, but in addition, you also want to provide them with value through customer service. This includes offering free or expedited shipping if available (but at an additional cost). Depending on their order history, you could offer discounts or coupons for future purchases.

#3. Define and Manage Customers Touchpoints on Different Marketing Channels

Identify customer touchpoints, including when customers start looking for your product or services. The more you know about your customers and their interactions, the more you can optimize those situations. 

Defining these touchpoints can be overwhelming at first, but it’s essential. Laying out your potential customer interaction points before starting any marketing campaign will help create a comprehensive strategy that connects with consumers in the right places (at the correct times). You can find new opportunities by managing customer touchpoints at every customer journey stage.  

There are five stages of the contemporary customer journey: the discovery stage, the comparison stage, the purchase stage, the expectation stage, and finally, the loyalty stage.

The Discovery Stage — Digital Marketing, Product Launches, and WebSite

The discovery stage of the customer’s journey with your brand is the first opportunity to reach them and get them excited about your products. This includes any digital marketing activity you may do, such as posting on social media and retargeting ads. It also incorporates the product launches you may have and the website that your customers are visiting. The goal is to get them to your furniture e-store, where they’ll learn more about your brand and products.

The Comparison and The Purchase Stages — Catalogues, Brochures, Samples, Product Reviews, and Other Display Materials

In these stages, customers compare products from different manufacturers, ensuring they get exactly what they want. In those two steps alone, customers can find hundreds of pieces of information about each product — this is why it’s so important to have a clear strategy for your sales materials.

Catalogs, brochures, and other displays provide valuable opportunities for your brand to stand out. Having a consistent and easy-to-follow style guide for every piece of content and imagery you create will make it easier for your customers to get through their purchasing process without feeling overwhelmed or confused by the information they encounter.

Making sure your website’s layout is consistent with your other materials will help your brand stay recognizable and create a positive experience for new visitors looking at your site for the first time.

The Expectation and Loyalty Stage — Shopping Cart Features, Order Confirmation Emails and Other Order Processing Steps, Product Delivery 

The expectation and loyalty stage is where customers are at their most vulnerable, as they still expect that everything will be taken care of by the company.

The shopping cart is an obvious example of this touchpoint. Still, it’s also important to remember that once customers have entered all their shipping and billing information, they expect to receive order confirmations and updates through email. 

We’ve seen many companies lose sales because they neglect these simple steps – customers who haven’t heard anything will assume that their order hasn’t been placed or that no one cares whether they buy from them. 

And then there is the product itself, which needs to be delivered in good condition if you want your customers to come back again (and again).

#4. Incorporate Different Strategies to Improve the Customer Touchpoints of Furniture E-commerce 

Improving touchpoints will help you improve customer satisfaction, which has a knock-on effect on revenue growth, market share, and profitability.

There are a few things you can do to improve your customer touchpoints:

• Analyze customer touchpoints closely so that they are more effective at increasing conversions and revenue in general. It would be best if you also looked into how existing customers interact with these touchpoints when making purchasing decisions because this will give insight into what works well and what doesn’t (and why).
• Change your customer touchpoints. If you’re not happy with the current state of your furniture e-commerce business, it’s time for a change. You need to adjust and start thinking about what would make it better for customers and more profitable for you. Try something new!
• Use consistent messaging across all digital touchpoints. The best way to do it is to create content that speaks directly to your audience once you know what they want. This can include blog posts, social media posts, videos, and more!
• Elevate your product presentation with 3D merchandising in your online store. This will make it easier for customers to get a better idea of what they’re buying before they make any purchases.
• Offer incentives for early purchases: Want more people buying now? Offer a discount if they purchase early! This could be as simple as offering free shipping or returns if they buy before a specific date/time. Alternatively, it could be more elaborate, like an exclusive discount code or coupon only available during a limited time frame. 

We hope this article has helped you understand the importance of customer touchpoints and some strategies for improving your furniture e-commerce business. It’s important to remember that customer touchpoints can affect every aspect of your business, from customer loyalty to sales revenue. By investing in better customer experiences through better website design, product promo, presentation, and improved marketing channels communication, you’ll be able to create happier customers who will come back again and again!

We are providing top-notch 3D modeling services for furniture e-commerce stores and their marketing materials. If you want to increase your conversion rate by improving customer experience, contact us today!

Paul J. Parker

Sr. Digital Marketing Specialist at CGIFurniture

More than anything, Paul loves when the ad campaign shows higher ROI than anticipated. His other passions include playing basketball with friends, street-art, and cooking delicious vegan desserts and sweets.