Touch points are the moments and situations in which a customer comes into contact with a brand. Many are obvious—the company website, email communications, advertising and social media to name just four. Yet few brands take advantage of every possible touch point in the customer journey. Here are five often-overlooked and under-optimized opportunities.

1. Music

There’s some amazing original music available to brands on Soundcloud and other apps. So why do so many brands use clichéd, unforgettable mid tempo electronic dance tracks for their corporate videos and social media content? Sure this may work if their values are safety and reliability or if they’re afraid to alienate customers. But for many brands this isn’t the case. Brands need to take the time to research music opportunities much more deeply and ensure they completely represent their tone. For example, a brave brand could benefit from a bold music bed—and a cutting-edge brand from music that breaks the mold.

2. On-Hold Messages

On-hold messages and phone trees are overlooked brand touch points. You have the customer’s attention. They’re reaching out to you. They need you. They’re not going anywhere. They want to connect. Whether it’s “we apologize for the wait time”, “please take our survey” or the horrific “did you know you can visit our website to resolve your problem” (as if we didn’t know!) they can all actively kill relationships and ruin perceptions. Companies need to be more mindful of this and think about how they can empathize with the customer during an on-hold experience. The customer already has a problem to be answered, so why create another one by treating them like cattle? Entertain, put a smile on their face and show you care about their challenges. Get the tone of voice right. Use a voiceover actor or actress who matches the customer profile. Consider their accent. Carefully write scripts incorporating brand messages, while still being authentic and consistent.

3. Billing

For most of us, receiving an invoice is a miserable experience. I’m not just talking about the dollar figure—it’s much more than that. Most website billing pages and snail mail payment requests are a million miles away from other touch points and far from being on brand. They represent a great opportunity to reflect values such as customer care, commitment and gratefulness for a person’s business. Like phone messages, billing touch points are opportunities to empathize with the customer. Why not make a paper invoice attractive and colorful, employ a tone of voice that’s consistent with other channels and even bring imagery or video into the process? That’s not to say the approach must be complex or contrived. It just needs to be on brand, genuine, caring and above all, human.

4. Distribution Channels

A common issue with touch point consistency is when there’s a communications disconnect between different partners in a distribution chain. For example, a car manufacturer may spend a long time and significant budget crafting its brand personality, values, tone of voice and look and feel. But it often doesn’t carry through to the dealership’s customer touch points. Their budgets may be a lot less but it doesn’t matter as their communications are still part of the same customer journey. A car is an expensive item and the customer needs to have complete confidence in the brand at any point in the path to purchase. The values, personality and message of the brand need to be there from start to finish—from the first interaction to handing over the keys.

5. Recruitment

Even recruitment should be considered when it comes to taking advantage of touch points. A sales person may have a perfect past record of accomplishments but if his or her behaviors or techniques disrupt touch point consistency, he or she may not be the right person for the brand. Think about customer service agent phone communications too. It’s vital that agent interactions reflect the nature of a brand’s touch points. They often don’t and this can easily damage brand perceptions. This is especially true of technical support. Phone companies are often guilty of not bearing this in mind. In short, don’t just recruit sales and service staff based on their skills. Consider how well prospective employees can reflect a brand’s makeup and become part of a consistent touch point strategy.

Takeaways

• Step back and review every single touch point in a customer journey

• Ensure there’s brand consistency from start to finish

• Find ways to immerse all staff in what a brand stands for – sending out a style guide or PowerPoint isn’t enough

• Experiment and get customer feedback. It can be surprising how willing customers can be when it comes to commenting on music choices, tone of voice and other emotional interactions

• Treat customers the way you would want to be treated