Touchpoints in a nutshell: your app as a digital customer magnet

Apps give your existing and new customers ongoing added value and act as digital touchpoints. That way, even businesses in analogue industries can really score.

Users want to communicate quickly, easily and on the go

Our digital world keeps opening up new ways to communicate, interact and create experiences. “Good old email” and company websites still play important roles in this game. But many other channels have joined them and shape the overall picture. Because whether customer, company or employee: the boundaries are getting softer, dealings more direct, the exchange more two-way. And mobile.

Today’s users want to be in touch on an equal footing and get information quickly, easily and directly – on a coffee break, while shopping, on the train or on the sofa. The most important device for this is the smartphone: always with them, always at hand, always online. And always ready for apps.

Accordingly, more and more people talk to each other through all kinds of apps in different communities: WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the like are ideal companions for exchanging views, recommending something, complaining or passing on new ideas.

If a business wants to make use of these developments, make things even more convenient for its customers, build trust and improve the ways its target groups can reach it, an app of its own offers ideal opportunities: information tailored to the target group, content that is always up to date, easy shopping, fast service – all with one click. No laborious searching, no ten browser windows, no unnecessary advertising.

Cleverly combining digital and analogue with apps

With their own app, businesses can win more attention, keep existing customers, reach new ones and be found faster. And for good – because what matters is that users are not contacted just once but keep coming back of their own accord.

This applies not only to online services but also to the butcher’s shop next door: every product, however analogue it may seem at first glance, can make a name for itself in the digital world – and it should. Because these “conservative” offers have their place in times of rapidly advancing digitalisation too, and they can be combined with digital added value. Your customers will thank you for offering them familiar concepts in new, improved – in short, digital – forms.

Touchpoints provide information – and stir emotions

The familiar concepts revolve around touchpoints: the points of contact between customers and a business. There have always been plenty of them, and there still are: traditionally, a personal conversation in the shop, a phone call with a customer adviser, later an email or a flyer. Today websites, blogs, Facebook posts and so on are also important touchpoints that a business can actively shape. And so is an app.

What matters is that customers keep receiving information at these touchpoints throughout a product’s life cycle and are touched emotionally at the same time. This creates a valuable bond between target group and business that pays off for both sides.

To lead customers to these touchpoints in the digital world, you need a clear, short path that follows users’ habits and takes little effort on their part. Opening an email, a Google search or clicking through to a website can already be one click too many these days.

With apps, customer convenience comes first

With an app, you create the ideal touchpoint for your customers and accompany them in a way that is as authentic as it is unobtrusive. Not just the young and the young at heart but almost every group of customers now has a smartphone within reach, a companion in every everyday situation: we use it, sometimes deliberately, sometimes on impulse, whenever we have an idea, a question or a wish, or want to talk to someone.

Traditional touchpoints no longer fit this behaviour very well – but an app offers everything modern users need: there instantly and without a download, it offers simple, focused interaction on the go that invites people to stay connected. Little effort, lots of content, lots of performance, lots of service. When customers want it, where they want it. No waiting times, no opening hours – just a relaxed experience.

Once it is on the smartphone’s home screen, an app can provide exactly the information users are actively looking for – or send out notes, news and tips on its own initiative, in well-measured doses and at well-timed intervals.

Delivering great service straight to the smartphone

Let’s come back to the butcher, very specifically. His app is the ideal touchpoint for his customers:

1. The app gives customers all sorts of information about the range of sausages, the individual varieties, how to prepare them and selected combinations. Content marketing at its finest in pre-sales – because the old touchpoint was usually a brochure that was only up to date for a short while.
2. Customers can make their choice whenever and wherever they like: the products are presented in a clear and inviting way and can be ordered directly. Sales: tick. Traditionally, customers would stand at the counter and, once it was their turn, have to order more or less on the spot, under pressure from the people queuing behind them.
3. After delivery or collection, the app sends a follow-up message to make sure the customer is happy. This touchpoint rarely existed in post-sales. At most, the butcher could ask regular customers how last Sunday’s roast had turned out.
4. If something did not go quite right, the app lets the customer file a complaint quickly. Support can then act as fast as possible and put things right.

Other exciting things an app can offer are public feedback, additional information sent automatically based on what someone has bought, and exchanges with other community members. These and other touchpoint features create immense added value for your fans and at the same time keep things as simple as possible for everyone: no phone call, no email, no masses of touchpoints or of staff needed to handle them.

Your app has the potential to bring all touchpoints together in one place, reach a wide audience, standardise processes – and give even the butcher a digital touch.

Have we given you some new ideas? Some further inspiration? We’re glad – and we’d be just as glad of a “like” or a recommendation!