Demystifying Interactive Touch Points:

What is Interactive Touch Point? This is the mother question for this discussion. This is also the cover story. So let me explain what each word means to customers, brands and business. I have also provided some links for further reading.

Touch Point by definition is: Point of Contact. In the CRM (Customer Relation Management) world, Touch Point could be a store, branch office, Call center, Service center, e-commerce web site, Kiosk etc. Except Kiosk and web site, all other points are ‘directly managed’ by staff. Generally, customer experiences a variety of service levels through the ‘manned’ touch points and hence the customer satisfaction levels are varied.

Compared to the above, an Interactive Touch Point is a media based Customer Touch Point and the experience; comprising of both influence and engagement is created by the content. The content type could be a static display (an image), variable display (like Video) or dynamic content ( aspx/java/php page) that are delivered through desktop/laptop, kiosk, web site, Blog, mobile device, IPTV, signage, Videowall and billboard. In the interactive touch point domain, the same or synchronized ‘content’ is delivered through multiple channels. Like petroleum jelly is the base for a pain balm; which ensures smoother and uniform flow of dosage application. And hence customer carries a consistent experience level across Interactive Touch Points. So by using consistent and synchronized content, you can engineer a consistent level of customer experience and hence the customer satisfaction.

The biggest benefit of Interactive Touch Points is that, it can be used not only to ‘Influence’ customers but also to engage them meaningfully. Brands can develop content for pre-purchase, post purchase and during purchase by innovatively using structured content; often referred as ‘Content for the Moment of Relevance’ (CMR). If the content is relevant and suits the moment of touch point interactions, then the decisions to transact are faster, resulting in higher levels of conversions. Further, if the content is useful to customers, they may even choose to preserve them. Like if the content explains how to use a product, then the customer may not like to discard them; which in turn would increase the life of content.

Which touch points are relevant for success?

Popular brands and bigger companies have a lot of touch points compared to smaller brands and companies. For popular brands, this scenario brings one critical question into focus: Which are the touch points that are critical for brand’s success ? Whether a brand or a business can deliver consistent level of customer satisfaction through all these critical touch points ?

Its hard to ensure consistent customer satisfaction levels through ‘manned’ touch points. Whereas Interactive Touch Points can deliver just that and hence can create, promote and build customer loyalty. The Interactive Touch Points not only drives consistent customer satisfaction on its own, but also compliments the customer experience generated by other ‘manned’ touch points. In an article, a senior partner of Prophet ; a San Francisco, USA based leading brand innovation consulting company, wrote:

“With a high degree of customer satisfaction, brands will tend to experience superior loyalty, greater word of mouth, higher price points, high degree of customer forgiveness, (“ Oh! that slip-up was just a one time event”) and, most importantly higher levels of profitability”. –Scott Davis & Tina Longoria in an article “Harmonizing Your TouchPoints”.

So, for higher customer loyalty, brands should deploy higher number of Interactive Touch Points adequately supported by optimized ‘manned’ touch points. The strategy can deliver twin business advantages of increasing profitability and cutting down operational costs.

Interactive Media:

Abstract: In the times of burgeoning inflation rate and market sluggishness, marketing investments needs to be made with a clear ROI and a strong value proposition to customers. The choice of one or more media options such as TV, Web, Print, Mobile, Billboard, and Signage to reach target customers is purely based on the extent of influence it can make and the engagement it can facilitate with the customers. While more and more people with purchase power stay away from home, the Web, OOH, Billboard, Digital Signage, Desktop and Mobile handsets have become more relevant media options than ever before. There are many questions and concerns around the new age interactive media. Some of them are listed below for your review.

Influence & Engagement – the Two Metrics:

How do the new age interactive media deliver ROI with a compelling value proposition to customers? Is ‘interactivity’ apart from ‘influence’ critical for compelling ROI proposition? How do customers benefit from interactive media? How do brands gain out of interactive media? How do these media influence customers to remain loyal to the brand? What would attract brands to go in for new age interactive media? How brands can achieve ‘cross media lift’? What approaches a brand can adopt to save on marketing investments cost and yet achieve its revenue objectives? How do brand managers ensure that the customer’s concerns and requirements are addressed with least latency?

Content is the King:

Will there be a paradigm shift in the way advertisers reach out to customers? Will there be space for ‘useful content’ rather than mere ‘adv messages’? How will the domain of advertising messages change to useful content? Will ‘Content’ become the ‘King’? How will the brands get free access to ideas pool? How will creative professionals get seamless access to brand’s campaign needs? How brands and its pool of creative professionals can work seamlessly? What role the Content Guru and Creative professionals will play in the new age media?

Role of Technology:

What role the technology will play? How will SaaS ( Software as a Service) and PaaS ( Platform as a Service) based new age media networks evolve and sustain? Will there be standardization in video formats? Which are the technology leaders to watch during this transition? How will the media assets companies evolve into service centric players rather than asset centric players?

Social Cause:

How can brands reach out to the underprivileged people and play its role as responsible corporate citizens? How can people willing to work for a social cause, reach out to people in far and remote villages ? How will brands create ‘trust’ with people from all walks of life? Can entertainment and education become the effective medium to reach out to people eco-system ? Are there better ways to reach out to the entire people eco-system covering the poor, middle level and the rich? Are there ways to work for ‘digitally deprived’ people across the globe? How will ‘inclusive’ solutions work? How can one unleash the joy of service?

Collaborative Efforts:

How do brand managers, media assets companies, creative and content professionals, dealers, franchisees, marketing and sales professionals, back office agents collectively and collaboratively work as ‘teams’ to service customers and to continuously realize higher ROI for marketing investments and most importantly acquire new customers and enrich customer loyalty for brands.

The Interactive Media Worldwide is a global forum to find answers and solutions to all these questions and challenges ahead. The forum also explores ‘meaningful opportunities’ for all the concerned. This is a service oriented forum and this forum should not to be used for promoting any product or service.

About Interactive Media Worldwide:

This is a professional networking forum for brand owners, media professionals, Creative & Advertising professionals, Marketing & Communication professionals, Chief Marketing Officers, Content Writers, Journalists, Sales professionals, Business Development professionals, Social Development professionals, Entrepreneurs and Executives working in the Retail, FMCG, Telecom, Real Estate, Hospitality, Travel, Automobile, Fashion, Lifestyle, Sports, Healthcare, Entertainment, Education, Finance & Investments, Banking, Manufacturing, Institutions, Public Service and Social Service domains across the globe. We aim to enroll 25,000 members in the first year and grow further @ 20% year on year.

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